The Chicago Cubs’ front office and scouting group just picked up some #want. Yesterday was Jorge Soler Day, and today is Jason Parks Day.
Jason Parks just announced at Baseball Prospectus that he is departing the site in favor of a scouting position with the Cubs. Parks, who has headed up BP’s scouting and player development group for a while now, was among the brightest prospecting minds in the industry not currently employed by a big league team.
I expect that he’s still among the brightest prospecting minds in the industry, but the latter part of that sentence no longer applies.
This is excellent news for the Cubs, who continue to expand their front office and scouting group’s impressive brain stores, as well as, presumably, for Parks. I can’t help but imagine that teams have made overtures toward him before, but this was the one that stuck. Great news for all involved, and I’d say that Parks is getting in at a helluva good time.
I’ll add that I am very pleased by the front office’s willingness to step outside the normal trajectory slightly to bring in the best talent possible (not unlike their overall on-field strategy). Last year, the Cubs brought on noted sabermetrician Tom Tango as a consultant, and now they’re dipping into online prospecting world for a talented mind in Parks. Having followed Parks’ work for years, I can say that he always struck me as having a keen and almost intuitive – but reasonably grounded – sense of what was what in the Cubs’ system. I don’t know that I could say that about all of the third party people/services that evaluate the organization, as it can be very difficult to have a micro view on every single org when you’re trying to cover 30 of them. Parks did it exceedingly well.
It can’t hurt to have as many smart, thoughtful folks working together toward the goal of sustained success, and I think Parks fits right into that. The only twinge of sadness I feel is that we’ll lose Parks’ writing on Baseball Prospectus, and his personality – his truly awesome and unique personality – on Twitter.
Of course, were he going to a team other than the Cubs, that’s mostly what I’d feel (mixed with a healthy dose of, “Damn it, why didn’t the Cubs grab him?”). Since he’s going to the Cubs, I only barely feel that thing. Because I’m mostly just excited.
No word yet on whether Parks will be bringing along his hashtags to the front office and scouting group, which already had quite a bit of #rig.