By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Blue Jays scout Tim Wilken chose Darren Hall in the 28th round of the 1986 draft from the Dallas Baptist Patriots.

Hall pitched at rookie-class Medicine Hat, class-A Myrtle Beach, class-A Dunedin (parts of two seasons), double-A Knoxville (four summers) and at triple-A Syracuse (three seasons). In 1988, he said he got the call to Toronto, but could not go, due to injury. He was finally promoted to the Jays in 1994.

His big league debut came in an 11-9 loss in Minneapolis on April 30, 1994. He retired Scott Leius, Pedro Munoz and Derek Parks in a 1-2-3 eighth.

With Duane Ward injured and manager Cito Gatson moving away from Mike Timlin -- after a blown save against the Texas Rangers then converting his next two opportunities -- Hall was next man up.

The rookie went 17-for-20 in save situations in the shortened 1994 season prompting scouting director Bob Engle to jokingly say to Wilken: “I believe in scouts having the ability to project and seeing down-the-road, but this is ridiculous.”

No matter ... Wilken had added another major leaguer to his long list which includes LHP Jimmy Key, 2B Orlando Hudson, RP Billy Koch, OF Vernon Wells, INF Michael Young, OF Jay Gibbons, OF Craig Wilson, INF Casey Blake, INF Felipe Lopez, OF Alex Rios, C Josh Phelps, OF Miguel Negron and RHP Wade Townsend. As a national cross checker, Wilken had input evaluating the likes of future Cy Young award winners RHPs Roy Halladay and Chris Carpenter, OF Shawn Green, OF Shannon Stewart, RHP Steve Karsay and INF Ryan Freel.

Which is a long, long, round about way of saying that former Atlanta Braves boss John Schuerholz, whose plaque hangs in Cooperstown, could call Lonnie Goldberg and say, “I believe in scouts having the ability to project and down-the-road projections, but this is ridiculous.”

Goldberg was scouting for the Braves and living in Guelph, Ont. when he made Jamie Romak the top Canadian high schooler selected in 2003 choosing the London Badger in the fourth round,

Romak had 39 plate appearances with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2014-15. None with the Braves. Yet, in 2020, Romak hit 32 homers with a .946 OPS for SK Wyverns in the 10-team Korean League. Romak earned the annual Tip O’Neill Award from the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont.

All of which makes Goldberg the 2020 winner of the Jim Ridley award as the Canadian Baseball Network’s Scout of the Year. This is the 27th annual Scout of the Year award, renamed after the late Ridley, a two-time winner of the award and a Canadian Hall of Famer, in 2009.

“What an honor,” Goldberg said after his general manager sent out an email to all Royals scouts of Goldberg winning the Ridley award. “An incredible award named after a gentleman who helped me a ton.”

Atlanta Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos recalls Ridley’s help breaking in when Anthopoulos scouted Canada for the Montreal Expos in 2002. “I was like the new guy the first day of school. Jim Ridley would have been like the guy who sees the new kid at the door of the cafeteria … the kid who doesn’t know where to sit. And Jim calls over ‘Hey come and sit with us.’”

* * *

Goldberg earns the honour ahead of San Diego Padres Chris Kemlo (Oshawa, Ont.) the rookie scout who drafted FieldHouse Pirates Owen Caissie (Burlington, Ont.) in the second round. Caissie, given a $1,200,004 bonus, was part of the package the Padres sent to the Chicago Cubs for RHP Yu Darvish.

“My first year scouting in Canada I didn’t know a soul,” Goldberg told me in 2013 during a rainout at Kauffman Stadium. “Jim Ridley (then scouting for the Twins), Greg Hamilton (National Junior Team coach) and Walt Burrows (Major League Scouting Bureau) couldn’t have been nicer. I couldn’t be more proud of Jamie -- the first player I ever signed.

“He’s an incredible young man from an incredible family.”

Goldberg wed Guelph’s Blythe Colley in 2002 and lived in the Royal City from 2003 to 2007.

* * *

With the Royals, Goldberg has scouted, evaluated and signed the likes of

_ INF Whit Merrifield, a ninth round selection from the University of South Carolina in the 2010 draft who was given a $100,000 bonus. Merrifield led the AL in total hits in 2018-19 and has played in 606 games since breaking in May 18, 2016.

_ RHP Jakob Junis, 29th rounder, Rock Falls, Ill. high in 2011, $675,000. He has 27 wins pitching in 89 games (83 starts) since he broke in April 12, 2017.

_ INF Nicky Lopez, fifth rounder, 2016, Creighton Blue Jays, $243,300. In two seasons since his debut -- May 14, 2019 -- Lopez has played 159 games with a .228 average and a .586 OPS.

_ 3B Hunter Dozier, first rounder (eighth over all) in 2013, Stephen F. Austin University, $2.2 Million bonus. In parts of four seasons Dozier played in 293 games hitting .253 with a .778 OPS sine his debut Sept. 12, 2016.

_ Sean Manaea, first round (34th over-all) in 2013, Indiana State, $3.55 million. During his second season in the minors he was dealt to Oakland for Ben Zobrist in 2015. In five years in the majors he has made 96 starts, going 39-31 with 447 strikeouts in 547 2/3 innings.

_ Josh Staumont, second round, 2015, Azusa Pacific University, $964,600 bonus. He has pitched 42 innings on relief in the past two seasons.

_ Brandon Finnegan, first round (17th), 2014, TCU. He pitched in the College World Series that spring as well as the Wild Card game -- as the Royals rallied from a 7-3 deficit to beat the A’s 9-8 in 12, Division Series against the Angels, the ALCS facing the Orioles and World Series against the San Francisco Giants. After 21 regular season appearances with the Royals he was traded in 2015 to Cincy for Johnny Cueto. In five seasons he has 16 wins, a 4.11 ERA and 230 strikeouts in 260 2/3 innings in 67 games (44 starts).

_ INF Bobby Witt, Jr., first round (second) 2019, Colleyville, Tex. high, $7,787,400 bonus. In 2019, he played 37 games with the Royals rookie-class Arizona league team.

_ RHP Brady Singer, first round (18th) 2018, University of Florida, $4,247,500 bonus. He made 12 starts for KC in 2020 going 4-5, with a 4.06 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 64 1/3 innings.

_ LHP Kris Bubic, a first rounder (40th) 2018, Stanford, $1,597,500 bonus. He was 1-6 with a 4.32 ERA whiffing 49 in 50 innings.

_ LHP Asa Lacy, first rounder (fourth) 2020, Texas A@M, $6.67 million. He’s been invited to big league camp this spring.

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Romak, selected four picks after the San Francisco Giants took RHP Brooks McNiven (Vernon, BC) from the University of British Columbia, made it three times in a four-year time span that the Braves chose one of the top two Canadians. Dayton Moore, then the Braves international scout, and area scout Jim Kane (Brampton, Ont.) chose Team Ontario INF Scott Thorman (Cambridge, Ont.) in the first round (30th overall) in 2000.

And in 2001, the Braves picked OF Adam Stern (London, Ont.) from the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 2001 as the first Canuck.

Now, Moore and Goldberg are together again as KC general manager and scouting director, respectively. And Thorman, a manager of the year in the past, is set to manage double-A Northwest Arkansas Naturals.

Besides Thorman, RHP Brandon Marklund is the only Canadian in the Royals system. After spending 2019 at class-A Lexington, there wasn’t any game action for Marklund and other minor leaguers. He spent last summer working out, returning to his school, Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn., where he was able to throw and train.

At Lexington Marklund (North Vancouver, BC) was 4-0 with six saves and an 0.46 ERA (two earned runs in 39 1/3 innings). The undrafted free agent struck out 44.

When the former North Shore Twin finished with school, he pitched for the Morehead City Marlins in the Coastal Plain League, a college summer league and then headed to New Zealand to pitch for the Auckland Tuatara, the country’s first pro team an expansion team in the Australian League in 2018. He had signed to pitch for the independent Winnipeg Goldeyes when Royals scouts spotted him at showcase and signed him.

Goldberg is in his 14th season with the Royals and second in his role as the assistant GM of amateur scouting. He had served as scouting director for eight years and was the director of baseball operations for three seasons.

Goldberg worked for Atlanta for six seasons as an area scout and a national scouting supervisor. A native of Fairfax, Va., he was a 27th-rounder by the Texas Rangers in 1993 from the George Mason Patriots, where Moore served as an assistant coach. In fact, when Goldberg made his recruiting visit he was greeted by Moore, a player at the time.

While working Canada, Goldberg also signed LHP Scott Diamond (Guelph, Ont.) coming off an impressive summer season in Martinsville, Va. Diamond was supposed to return to the State University of New York at Binghamton the next day, had he not signed.

He drafted RHP Clayton Caulfield (Toronto, Ont.) from the Toronto Blue Jays and signed Mississauga Majors RHP Jamie Richmond (Mississauga, Ont.).

Romak bought Goldberg’s son, Jamie, his first Little League glove and his first hockey stick.

And now Romak has activated Goldberg’s incentive bonus clause -- which all clubs have -- for winning the Canadian Baseball Network scout of the year.

Canadian Baseball Network Scout Of The Year

Re-Named Jim Ridley Award In 2009

Year Winner Hometown Club

1994 Bill Scherrer, Buffalo, NY, Florida Marlins

1995 Bill MacKenzie, Ottawa, Ont., Colorado Rockies

1996 Tim Harkness, Hampton, Ont., San Diego Padres

1997 Ed Heather, Cambridge, Ont., Toronto Blue Jays

1998 Wayne Norton, Port Moody, BC, Baltimore Orioles

1999 Walt Jefferies, Paris, Ont., Toronto Blue Jays

2000 Claude Pelletier, Ste-Lezare, Que., New York Mets

2001 Jim Kane, Brampton, Ont., Atlanta Braves

2002 Ken Lenihan, Bedford, N.S., MLB Scouting Bureau

2003 Dick (The Legend) Groch, St. Clair, Mich. Milwaukee Brewers

2004 Jim Ridley, Burlington, Ont., Minnesota Twins

2005 Walt Burrows, Brentwood Bay, BC, MLB Scouting Bureau

2006 Alex Agostino, Montreal, Que., Philadelphia Phillies

2007 Howie Norsetter, Sydney, Australia, Minnesota Twins

2008 Greg Hamilton, Ottawa, Ont., Baseball Canada

2009 Jim Ridley, Burlington, Ont., Minnesota Twins

2010 Jay Lapp, London, Ont., Milwaukee Brewers

2011 Doug Mathieson, Langley, BC, Arizona Diamondbacks

2012 Andrew Tinnish, Burlington, Ont., Blue Jays

2013 Murray Zuk, Souris, Man., San Diego Padres

2014 Wayne Norton, Port Moody, BC, Seattle Mariners

2015 Jim Stevenson, Tulsa, Oak., Houston Astros

2016 Doug Mathieson, Langley, BC, Arizona Diamondbacks

2017 Chris Reitsma, Calgary, Alta., Baltimore Orioles

2018 Bill Byckowski, Georgetown, Ont., Cincinnati Reds

2019 Matt Higginson, Grimsby, Ont, Oakland A’s.

2020 Lonnie Goldberg, Overland Park, Kan., Kansas City Royals.