Rob Neyer's Great Examination of "The List"

A scout's telling take on Gagne
posted: Thursday, December 13, 2007
By Rob Neyer, ESPN

Upon my first skim-through of the Mitchell report, my favorite passage is the one about Eric Gagne. Shortly after the 2006 season, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein e-mailed scout Mark Delpiano, "Have you done any digging on Gagne? I know the Dodgers" -- not to mention everybody else in the world -- "think he was a steroid guy. Maybe so. What do you hear on his medical?"

Delpiano's response:

"Some digging on Gagne and steroids IS the issue. Has had a checkered medical past throughout career including minor leagues. Lacks the poise and commitment to stay healthy, maintain body and re invent self. What made him a tenacious closer was the max effort plus stuff ... Mentality without the plus weapons and without steroid help probably creates a large risk in bounce back durability and ability to throw average while allowing the change-up to play as it once did ... Personally, durability (or lack of) will follow Gagne ..."

Nine months later, the Red Sox traded three young players -- two of them pretty good prospects -- for Gagne. And four months after, the Brewers gave Gagne $10 million. Gives you a little bit more respect for scouts, huh?

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A good comment:

kheldur (5 hours ago)
I think this is an excellent example of why the sabrmetric folks need to take what the scouts say into consideration. We can look at the numbers and tell very precisely what a player has done. What we can't see is the personality, the makeup, or any number of details that you have to see a guy to understand. Sabrmetrics and traditional scouting ought to be considered complementary disciplines.