Another night drinking with scouts at the Barley Moe

      Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by, George Dickell,Jose Cuervo and Johnny Walker

Elijah: Tonight fellas I thought we would review this report I got from my private special assignment scout...

Johnny: Is that the guy they call Specs?

Elijah: Yes that's him.

Jose: Why do they call him Specs?

Johnny: Jose, he's called Specs because he is legally blind. And often he shows up to games without his glasses.

George: So he rates hitters by the sound the ball makes when the batter hits it.

Johnny: Something like that.

George: Are pitchers ranked by the sound the catchers glove makes?

Johnny: I believe so but this guy is so weird, he says he can judge a player by their aura. He says he has a sixth sense about baseball players.

Jose: Elijah, you use this guy; really.

Elijah: He is amusing and amazing at the same time. Sure I use him.

Jose: Before we get to his scouting report, Johnny tell me more about him.

Johnny: Eccentric underestimates this guy. When I was a young scout he was emphatic that he had this sixth sense. Wanted to teach people the ways of Aura. Wanted us all to put down the stop watches and statistics and feel the greatnesses or mediocrity of the players.

Jose: More than a little out there.

Johnny: That's not the half of it. He convinced his wife to name their first daughter Aura. She's about 15 now, goes by the name Noelle.

Jose: How did he get Noelle out of Aura.

Johnny: When he told friends her name was Aura, they thought he said Laura. He kept having to tell people her name had no L in the name. Soon enough she was Noelle.

Elijah: Elijah could we get back to baseball. Specs has ranked the top ten catchers in the league.

George: You know if we do this we are going to catch hell from the owners.

Jose: Scouting is not what it used to be in HBD. They added an element of chance about ten years ago making the scouting vague.

Johnny: I remember when they did that. I thought it gave me an excuse for some of my mistakes.

Elijah: All the owners know we are just sitting here at bar drinking; if they take an offense at what we say here; I will take them to the first AA meeting I ever attend.

Johnny: Well what are Specs ratings.

Elijah: He's ranked the top two catchers in the league as Steve Washington of Chicago and Santa Fe's Royce Howell.

Johnny: Washington, other than his rookie year has always hit above .270. Seems like he hits between 25 and 35 homers a year with 100 rbi. Even Specs get it right every now and then.

George: Howell of the Raiders isn't as consistent but has a higher batting average for his career. He's hit over .300 three times and has a little more power than Washington.

Jose: Washington's defense is a little better . I wouldn't want to have to say who is one and who is two. The other catchers Spec ranked who are they?

Elijah: He has a group of five: Monterrey's Erick Standridge, Terry Randall of Las Vegas, Willie Mejia and Frank Yarnall from the Canadien clubs; rounding out the group of five is  Colorado's Josh Farrell .

George: Amazing, all those guys are  making less than 1.5 million a year. We have a whole bunch of good young catching.

Elijah: Spec's last group is Deven Perez, Fernando Doubront, Irving Astacio, Paulie Hill

Johnny: The only veteran is Cincinnati's Fernando Doubront. He's making $3.635 mil. The others are making 2nd and 3rd year money.

Jose: Kind of amazing for the aura man; he got 3 of the 4 All Star catchers from last year and one of the two Silver Sluggers.

George: Obviously Spec doesn't value defense, since neither of the gold glove catchers made the list.

Jose : Specs can't count either. His top ten has eleven on the list.

Elijah: We did say he's a little out there; didn't we. Time to go fellas