Tipping the Scales.

May 11, 2013

Ex-Knight Bobby Scales Taking on New Challenge with Angels

Ex-Knight Bobby Scales (pictured playing infield with University of Michigan) was featured in the May 14-28 issue of Baseball America in a story titled Tipping the Scales which we have re-posted below.

Bobby is one of the club's all-time favorite Knights. He played for the team in the summer of 1997 following his sophomore season at University of Michigan.

The switch-hitting infielder led the then Aloha Knights in hitting with a .379 batting average.

Bobby's baseball travels have taken him all over North American and Japan. His long playing career included stops in Portland, Ore., where he was the Beavers 2005 Community Player of the Year, and he also played AAA in Scranton-Wilkes Barre for the Phillies, Pawtucket for the Red Sox, Des Moines for the Cubs and Buffalo with the Mets.

Bobby made his MLB debut on May 5, 2009 with the Chicago Cubs and spent most of that season with the Cubbies where he hit .242 with 8 doubles, 2 triples and 3 home runs.

After a late call-up to Chicago in 2010 (.308, 13 at bats), Bobby signed a contract with Nippon of the Japan Baseball League. Scales would spend two seasons playing in Japan for Nippon and later the Orix Buffaloes before retiring.

He is now a shining star for the Los Angels Angels as Bobby is the team's director of player development. We wish our good friend the very best and are confident he'll enjoy a successful front office career in baseball.

Scales taking on a new challenge with the Angels
by Mike DiGiovanna, - Baseball America

LOS ANGELES - Bobby Scales didn't have big shoes to fill when he was named farm director last November.

He didn;t have any shoes to fill, as the team went the entire 2012 season without a farm director before general manager Jerry Dipoto tabbed Scales for the job.

But now that Scales, who played 14 professional seasons, has arrived, Dipoto expects the former utility player to have an immediate impact on a system Baseball America rated the worst in baseball at the start of the season.

"His personality is tremendous, and his work ethic is off the charts," Dipoto said. "Bobby is incredibly bright, well versed in the game and how we're trying to teach it. I think he's going to be a star."

He never was one on the field. Scales, 35, spent almost eight years at Triple-A and played in 61 big league games - for the Cubs from 2009-10 - with a .248/.342/.401 average. He played 2011 and 2012 in Japan before making the rare but not unprecedented jump from player to farm director.

"He probably moved further up the food chain in his first job than most guys, but it's something I saw A.J. Hinch do extraordinarily well at Arizona," Dipoto said. "You leave the playing field, and you're doing something that's very different than what you did before."

Scales got a crash course in the Angels system this spring. His work with the team's seven affiliates will focus on teaching what Dipoto calls a "team-first mentality."

"It's an aggressive style of baseball-which the Angels have been known for going first to third and running the bases aggressively, the special teams, as Bobby calls it," Dipoto said. "It's taking a team-first approach at the plate."

Assistant GM Scott Servais helped implement that philosophy with the Rangers, who had one of baseball's best farm systems before Servais joined Dipoto in Anaheim in late 2011.

"We call it the quality team plate appearance, the idea of going up there and doing what you need to do, whether it's bunting, moving the runner, taking your walk, running a deep count to drive a pitch count up," Dipoto said. "What can you do to help the team win, regardless of whether you get a hit?

"That's the way Bobby played, what he believes in, and what he's trying to teach, that it's about the team, not you."