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New Scouting Director Greg Smith

By Charlie Wilmoth

New scouting director Greg Smith was the scouting director for the Detroit Tigers from 1997-2004. So how'd he do? Here are the players in those drafts who reached the major leagues:

  1. 1. Matt Anderson, 2. Shane Loux, 6. Christian Parker, 9. Bud Smith
  2. 1. Jeff Weaver, 1. Nate Cornejo, 2. Brandon Inge, 2. Adam Pettyjohn, 4. Andres Torres
  3. 1. Eric Munson, 4. Cody Ross, 32. Eric Eckenstahler, 33. Jason Frasor
  4. 3. Nook Logan, 4. Mark Woodyard
  5. 3. Jack Hannahan, 4. Mark Rabelo, 5. Ryan Raburn
  6. 1. Scott Moore, 2. Brent Clevlen, 3. Curtis Granderson, 11. Joel Zumaya, 13. Anthony Reyes
  7. 3. Tony Giarratano, 11. Brian Rogers, 16. Jordan Tata
  8. 1. Justin Verlander
There isn't much left in the Tigers farm system that's going to make that list look much better, so that list is what it is. I'm not impressed. I'm willing to give Smith the benefit of the doubt for first-round flops like Anderson, Munson, Kyle Sleeth and Matt Wheatland - often, GMs and even owners are involved with first-round picks, and Randy Smith, who ran the Tigers until 2002, was one of the worst GMs of all time.

No, what's unfortunate about these drafts is the lack of talent acquired after the first round. Granderson and Zumaya were coups, but after that there's almost nothing. Even in cases where the Tigers managed to draft guys who later showed promise, they couldn't get anything out of them - Reyes and Bud Smith didn't sign, and Frasor turned into a good relief prospect immediately after being traded to the Dodgers and moved to the 'pen. (And that happened while Smith was the farm director, too, so he can't even blame the Tigers' failure to see Frasor's potential on someone else.)

The Tigers eventually demoted Smith. I don't know why Greg Smith was both the farm director and scouting director in Detroit from 2000 to 2002, and that may have something to do with his mediocre performance in those first two years. And Randy Smith was a terrible GM who may have caused other problems that we don't know about. But so far, I see little to like about this pick.

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