Why Didn't Scales Make The Show Earlier?

Bobby Scales was in the Padres system from his signing in 1999 to 2005, when he left the organization in 2006 to sign with Scranton/Wilkes Barre, a Phillies AAA affilliate. Scales joined the I-Cubs in 2008.

… had to be better than Damien Jackson and Manny Alexander.

What’s unbelievable is this: the Padres had 12 bazillion people play for them in spring training games in 2004, but gave Scales only three spring training AB.

In 2005: one spring AB. In 2006 with the Phillies: 0-for-11.

So teams never even gave him a spring training chance to make a club as a backup.

Who really knows why he didn’t make it before? Maybe he’s just the ultimate late bloomer. He did seem to hit the wall his first years in AAA and that can never help anyone’s chances.

Lets just squeeze all the usefulness we can get out of him. He’s brought some energy to the team but who knows how long he can keep it going.

It’s tough to make it to the big leagues, sometimes timing and circumstance can over shadow the player’s potential contribution.

Sometimes like a fine wine, you must keep it in a dark cold location for many years before it reachs it full potential. Let’s hope since we pop the cork that it doesn’t turn into vingear.

How long till a Documentary is done on him you think?

Scales will not keep this up. Everyone knows he won’t hit .400 the rest of the way, but I predict he’ll have a hard time staying above the Mendoza line. 1 BB:5Ks in 19 PAs is not a good sign. Eventually the league will catch up to him, too, and he’ll start to slip. Here’s hoping he proves me wrong, though.

that have made their way through MLB. In, and out. We’ll hope the ‘out’ is sooner than later, for him — but it seems inevitable he’ll have to go back down.

However, he may have displayed he’s a tradable commodity.

earlier that I had been watching Scales play in Portland. I actually remember him, though I don’t recall being blown away by him.

Anyway, I don’t have anything intelligent to add here. I’m just shocked that I never made the connection that the Scales I was watching in Oregon is THE Bobby Scales…

:)

I have wondered this, and haven’t seen any articles on it.

though is why they didn’t call him up in 2003 when the Padres were losing 98 games and had Lou Merloni, David Hansen and Keith Lockhart as backup infielders. Now sure, I guess you could say you didn’t want to rush a player from a strong AA season to the majors, but then why overreact to a poor 2004? (Probably because they didn’t think he was a prospect.) They could have at least called him up in September of ’03.

I understand your reasoning and what the Padres might have been thinking, but in 2005 the Padres are giving over 300 at bats to 31 year old Damian Jackson who was dreadful. In 2004, they gave over a hundred plate appearances to Ramon Vasquez, who couldn’t get his OBP over .300. If he was good in 2003 and 2005, couldn’t he have outperformed those guys?

Overall, I think it was a failure of the imagination of the Padres organization. I’m sure their scouts and farm director looked at his size and his skills set and said “No prospect: organizational player only.” They focused on what he wasn’t instead of what he was. Whenever Scales did well, they dismissed it as a fluke and whenever he struggled, they used it as proof of their own preconceived ideas. By the time he left the Padres, he was simply too old for anyone to consider him a prospect anymore.

That’s my theory at least.

I’m not sure if Grady Fuson was their farm system director at that time, as he is now. You can see ALL the failed position players, (over the past four years) one after another which made their way to MLB and quickly failed or were busts (Matt Bush) from the beginning . ( Not that the Cubs have done that much better at developing position players, of course.)

The jury’s out on Headley (who’s playing the OF, out of position) and /Hundley. The Padres may be ready to rush Kyle Banks along, who is not at all ready. After seeing him a few times — three games (yes, a small sample) it’s somewhat obvious he needs more time. In fact, the Portland Radio/TV pbp guy essentially, made the same comment to the Union-Tribune, suggesting Will Venable, and not Banks — should make the leap from AAA. This makes more sense, as the Padres could put Venable in LF, and Headley goes to 3B, pushing the mendoza-line Kevin Kouzmanoff out. (I think I am talking much too much about a team I do not care about.)

Not that the Cubs have done that much better at developing position players, of course.

I think Damien Jackson won out due to the fact that you already had youth at 3B and SS.
Then, along comes Josh Barfield to take over second base. (Possibly, due to those pre-conceived ideas SD had regarding the future of Bobby Scales.)

So that “Rich Hill Pooped On” falls off the Rec list.

The purpose of this post was to speculate why this guy was passed over many times. The essay never said he’s the next Ryne Sandberg. Lighten up — but I know that’s nearly impossible for you. (Unless, an insult is attached to the comment.)

Sounds like you are happy about the guy possibly failing. All he has done is what he’s been asked to do — nothing more, nothing less.