Cubs Hire Eljaua

[Tim]

Again, from the press release wire direct from the Cubs...

 

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CUBS NAME LOUIE ELJAUA SPECIAL ASSISTANT

TO THE GENERAL MANAGER

 

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

 

CHICAGO – The Chicago Cubs today named Louie Eljaua as a special assistant to general manager Jim Hendry. Eljaua will assist the Cubs in all areas of international, pro and amateur scouting.

 

“Louie is a difference-maker who will help us tremendously in all of our baseball operations efforts,” said Hendry. “He has done a terrific job scouting the Latin American and Far East markets, building player academies along the way, and he will also be a strong asset in our professional and additional amateur scouting efforts.”

 

Eljaua (pronounced el-HOW-ah) joins the Cubs organization with 17 years of major league scouting experience, both domestically and internationally. He spent the last five seasons as a special assistant to the general manager in Pittsburgh, where he helped oversee the construction of the Pirates new Latin American headquarters and baseball training academy in the municipality of La Jina in the Dominican Republic.

 

Before joining the Pirates, Eljaua worked for two seasons (2002-03) with the Boston Red Sox as their Director of International Scouting, where, much like he would do in Pittsburgh, he oversaw the construction of the Red Sox Academy in the Dominican Republic, a three million dollar complex that serves as a year-round training facility in El Toro. Eljaua also led the organization’s international scouting efforts while with the Red Sox.

 

Eljaua, 39, began his career in professional baseball with the Marlins in 1992 as a part-time scout. He was promoted to area scout and assistant director of Latin American operations in 1994. After one year with the Tigers as a special assignment scout in 1998, Eljaua returned to the Marlins as their Director of Latin American Scouting in 1999 before joining the Red Sox in a similar capacity in 2002.

[craig]

...

Eljaua, 39, began his career in professional baseball with the Marlins in 1992 as a part-time scout. He was promoted to area scout and assistant director of Latin American operations in 1994. After one year with the Tigers as a special assignment scout in 1998, Eljaua returned to the Marlins as their Director of Latin American Scouting in 1999 before joining the Red Sox in a similar capacity in 2002. ... He spent the last five seasons as a special assistant to the general manager in Pittsburgh, where he helped oversee the construction of the Pirates new Latin American headquarters and baseball training academy in the municipality of La Jina in the Dominican Republic.

 

That's a pretty interesting resume. If he's 39 now, then he was only 23 when he started scouting in 92. Assistant director of Latin American operations at age 25 (in 94). Director of Latin American scouting by age 30 (1999). Director of Latin scouting for the powerful Red Sox at age 32.

 

These are some very high-responsibility assignments at very young ages, in very good organizations. This guy must have some qualities that draw attention. It's interesting that he's moved around so much. Since 97, he's left four organizations (Florida, Detroit, Boston, Pittsburgh.) Perhaps that reflects a very talented, ambitious guy who has his target on becoming a GM someday. His first years with Marlins overlap when Hendry was a Marlins scout, that's probably where Hendry met him.

 

Hopefully he'll add something to the organization. My guess is that he's done his Latin directing, and wants more experience as "special assistant" so that he can compete for a full GM job. But my hope is that he becomes active in overseeing our Latin and international operations.

 

During the late 90's, the Cubs were effective in Latin America, when they had Fleita as Latin director. Once Hendry went up into special assistant, Fleita came over to farm director, and we haven't really had a Latin director since. Serra and Ortega have been the guys, with nobody checking or pushing them or crosschecking their guys. It's interesting to wonder whether a guy who have been the director for three programs that have had success in Latin America might not have some ideas for making us more effective down there. Who knows, maybe he even has some connections so that he could hire some additional good scouts to supplement or perhaps replace Serra or Ortega. Anyway, hopefully down the road we'll see this guy as having made a difference for our International operations.

[BigbadB]

Is it now time to start requesting birth certificates for scouting directors? :D