On the love of baseball and eating alone.
The Astros fired Rusty Pendergrass this morning. They told him he’d missed on too many players. He’s the scout who signed Hunter Pence, Ben Zobrist and would have signed Drew Stubbs if Drayton McLane hadn’t reneged on the offer. He’s maybe the hardest-working man I’ve known and loved the Astros more than 90 percent of the current employees at Minute Maid Park. […]
Scouts are the lifeblood of a good baseball organization. Yet scouting is where some franchises — the dumb franchises — cut corners. At the end of each season, many scouts have no idea if they’ll be rehired. When attendance dips or big league salaries rise, owners whack the scouting budgets. They think nothing of throwing $2 million at a mediocre pitcher, then cutting a scout making $50,000.
