Jim Bowden, The Examiner
2007-05-31 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Last Monday, the Washington Nationals scouting staff reported to RFK Stadium for final preparations for the draft, held June 7-9.

Tuesday morning the scouting supervisors began to present their territorial preferential list to the cross-checkers and upper management, with two-hour private meetings. The first meeting was with Alex Smith to go over the midwestern states at 8 a.m. followed by Mike Alberts at 10, who covers the northeast, Eric Robinson at 1 p.m. ranked the players from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, Tony Arango at 3 rated the players in Florida and finally Bob Hamelin at 5 went over his list from the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Despite several interruptions due to trade discussions, we finished around the third inning of our game (8:05). After the game we had further discussions until our normal 15-hour day ended around 11 p.m.

Working on a deal, I stayed up until 3:30 am, got a few hours sleep and was back in the office by 7:30 a.m., Starbucks in hand.

Bob Laurie was a scout lead-off hitter at 8 a.m. Wednesday, covering northern Texas and Oklahoma, followed by Tyler Wilt at 10, our southern Texas and Louisiana region. At 1 p.m., Steve Arneiri went over his priority list of Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin; two hours later Ryan Fox went over the entire northwest of the United States. Denis Boucher reviewed Canada at 5 and Delvy Santiago did Puerto Rico at 6. Following a summary meeting and a Nats victory, we completed high-level meetings in time for a few hours sleep.

Today we start with southern California scouts Craig Kornfeld and Tim Kelly concluding with northern California supervisor, Mitch Sokol.

Now we have 16 rankings of players by our supervisors lined up in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Our three cross-checkers, Jeff Zona in the East, Jimmy Gonzales in the central and Kris Kline in the West, now give us the rankings of all the players they have cross-checked in their region.

Next week, we will show you how we took these 19 lists and made them into one draft list as we prepared for the 2007 draft.

An executive session will begin Thursday night with Vice President of Baseball Operations Mike Rizzo, Scouting Director Dana Brown, special assistant and national cross-checker Chuck LaMar, vice president Bob Boone and myself. We’ll meet for hours of discussions on our first several picks, including a private workout Saturday.

Next week, I’ll share what really happens in the draft war-room and what to expect on draft day. Also, we’ll look at our meetings with cross-checkers, directors and vice presidents as we get set for the most important draft in Washington Nationals history.

As told to The Examiner’s John Keim.

Nationals General Manager Jim Bowden provides an exclusive column to The Examiner each week, ranging on topics from the Nats to the state of Major League Baseball.