Elliott: The 2023 CBN Scout of the Year - John Castleberry

Scout John Castleberry of Orleans, Mass. scouted and signed Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) in 2002. He’s the Canadian Baseball Network 30th annual Scout of the Year.

September 13, 2023

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

By rights the man should have won this award in 2010.

That’s the year the player that the scout had signed led the National League in on-base percentage, slugging and OPS. And oh yes, his signee won the National League Most Valuable Player award.

He also should have won when the player, spotted at a 2001 TeamOne showcase, had the best on-base mark in the NL in 2011, 2012 and 2013. And he could have won when the player he scouted and signed ran off another string of three seasons with his on-base average in BOLD type: 2016, 2017 and 2018.

We decided a year ago -- come high water or heck -- this man would be the 2023 winner whether “his guy” had one or two hits this season.

So John Castleberry, now of the San Francisco Giants, is the winner of the 30th annual Canadian Baseball Network scout of the year. Make that the long, overdue winner.

Castleberry was working for the Cincinnati Reds in 2002 when the club selected a catcher from the Etobicoke Rangers named Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) in the second round -- 44th player selected in North America.

Years ago a boss told me, “Never ever apologize for anything you wrote ... unless you misspell someone’s name.”

Well, we’d like to apologize to Castleberry, who we last saw at the East Coast Pro Showcase in 2014 at NBT Bank Stadium in Syracuse on a rare drive from home from a Blue Jays series at Fenway Park in Boston.

East Coast Pro 2023 Hall of Fame inductees,Danny Montgomery, left and John Castleberry.

Castleberry should have been a multiple winner.

Canada’s first Hall of Famer RHP Fergie Jenkins (Chatham, Ont.) was scouted and signed by legendary Philadelphia Phillies Tony Lucadello, who also found Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt and Gene Dziadura in 1962.

The next Canadian elected to Cooperstown was RF Larry Walker (Maple Ridge, BC). He was scouted by Jim Fanning and signed by Bob Rogers, who came north from Washington state for a father-and-son meeting at an airport hotel near Vancouver International. Walker signed for $1,500 US.

And in 2002 Castleberry signed Votto -- the next Canadian headed to Cooperstown.

* * *

Castleberry spotted Votto at a TeamOne Showcase in Fort Myers near the end of 2001 and was on him again, along with Reds scouting director Casey McKeon, at the Perfect Game World Wood Bat Association championship in Jupiter, Fla. Votto was a grade 13 student at the time. He was a catcher, who played third base the year before and was not drafted in 2001.

However, under coach Bobby Smyth’s tutelage and his own hit-til-your-hands-get-blisters-on-your-blisters work ethic Votto “popped” as the scouts like to say when a player blossoms into full bloom.

Castleberry was not the only veteran scout, who loved Votto’s left-handed swing. Dick (The Legend) Groch, the New York Yankees scout who signed Derek Jeter as a Kalamazoo high schooler, phoned me about two hours after Votto received a call from the Reds in drama class and accepted the Reds’ signing bonus of $550,000 US.

It was obvious Groch was driving from the background noise. I asked where he was headed. “Back to Michigan,” he said. “Wasted trip.” It was obvious he was in a grumpy mood. He then told me that the Yankees were set to take Votto with their second round pick (71st overall). The Yankees, who thought Votto’s swing would be perfect for the right field porch in the Bronx, were without their first round pick (24th overall) for signing free agent Jason Giambi from the Oakland A’s.

Instead, they selected Oklahoma high schooler Brandon Weeden, who never threw a pitch above class-A in five years with the Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and Kansas City Royals systems. He turned to football and later played in the NFL.

* * *

Castleberry was an assistant coach at the University of Washington in 1983-1984 and managed the Orleans Cardinals from 1982-1990 on Cape Cod, earning manager of the year in 1986. He now lives on the Cape in Orleans, Mass.

He ran the George Washington University Colonials program from 1985-1991, going 185-158-3 and going to the NCAA Tournament in 1989, the year he won Atlantic-10 Conference coach of the year. Castleberry coached 17 GW players who advanced to pro ball, 18 All-Atlantic 10 Conference players, 15 Academic All-Conference players, four All-ECAC selections and a pair of All-America players.

He coached John Flaherty at GWU. Flaherty has had the longest big-legue career of any GW alumnus and he was inducted into the GW Hall of Fame in 2001.

Castleberry scouted for the Florida Marlins, Reds, Texas Rangers, Philadelphia Phillies and the Giants. Besides Votto, he signed Georgia Tech’s Mike Nickeas (Vancouver, BC) as the top Canuck drafted in 2004 with the Rangers and Aussie Alan Schoenberger, who pitched eight seasons in the Phillies’ minor-league system. With the Marlins he signed the likes of OF Bill McMillion, LHP Brian Ward, RHP Rob Stanifer and 1B Ryan Jackson, plus OF Brandon Boggs with the Rangers.

* * *

Castleberry came to Toronto for a pre-draft looksee, but the game was rained out. So, Votto and a few scouts adjourned to Smyth’s indoor facility.

“I’m kind of in the back and he’s hitting in the far cage,” Castleberry told MLB.com. “I’m watching him hit and literally put my hand over my mouth and went, ‘Oh my God.’ There was so much anger and violence in the swing -- in a good way, not a bad way. He was ripping the net, literally, off the wires. I was in awe and shock of how good the swing was and how hard it was and how the ball came off the bat.”

But Castleberry wanted another look, closer to the draft. Scouting director McKeon, son of the legendary (Trader) Jack McKeon, was at the Mid-American Conference tournament in Bowling Green, Ohio with Reds scouts Johnny Almaraz, Jeff Barton and Bill Scherrer.

After watching first rounder Bryan Bullington pitch, McKeon told his scouts that they were going to Detroit and catching a fight to Toronto. Castleberry picked up the rest of the Reds entourage at Pearson airport.

Castleberry had a rental van and drove to Votto’s game. They did not enter the park all at once. The only scout there worked for the Blue Jays and phoned his boss Bill Byckowski, who was on the road, in a panic: “half the Cincinnati Reds staff is in the park to see Votto.” Byckowski (Erin, Ont.) now works as a cross checker for the Reds.

The shy, retiring Scherrer, who as the late Dave Yoakum always used to say: “Only talks until he thinks of something to say,” and Barton had some fun attempting to deceive the Jays scout.

They hauled out a radar gun to check on a reliever warming up ... and lighting up the gun at 77 MPH. Barton and Castleberry began to laugh.

Smyth walked over to Scherrer and said, “You think they’re going to buy that you’re watching THAT kid pitch?”

We remember the day Votto was drafted and leaving a message for Votto sometime in the afternoon. He phoned back around 8 o’clock that night. Too late for a picture. But still in time to make first edition for a story.

Votto said one of his former coaches told him he had made a mistake agreeing to sign for $550,000. It was much lower than the slot value. I told him, “Ah, you can probably talk to them ... you probably won’t hear from them for a couple of weeks.”

Said Votto: “Ah ... Mr. Castleberry just phoned from Pearson ... he just landed.”

Oh.

And so they talked into the night. Those included in the conversation were Joey’s parents and Greg O’Halloran, a Smyth protegee, and Castleberry. Hours later, the Reds agreed to give him a $600,000 signing bonus.

* * *

Votto was sidelined with injuries to his left biceps and a torn rotator cuff and had surgery on Aug. 19, 2022. He missed the World Baseball Classic, missed the final 46 games of last season and the first 72 games of this season.

In his first 39 games in his return to the Reds this year, he had 13 homers and 31 RBIs. And in his next 12 before going on the injury list on Aug. 24, he hit .189 with two RBIs. He returned on Sunday to homer on his 40th birthday.

We told Votto at Goodyear, Ariz. this spring we were finally going to honour his scout. We think he said something like “about time.”

* * *

Some of Votto’s memorable games:

_ On April 30, 2021 at Great American Ball Park: Votto hit his 300th homer, a two-run third inning shot to deep right field off Jake Arrieta in an 8-6 win over the Chicago Cubs.

_ On June 30, 2021, at Great American: Votto hit a solo homer off San Diego Padres RHP Joe Musgrove for his 1,000th RBI in a 7-5 Reds loss.

_ On Aug. 16, 2021 at Great American: Votto hit a curve ball from reliever Michael Rucker to centre in a 14-5 win over for his 2,000th career hit. He became the second Canadian with 200 hits, joining Walker.

_ On June 30, 2023 at Great American: He played in his 2,000th game in the majors -- a 7-5 loss to the San Diego Padres -- to become the first Canadian to play that many.

_ On July 7, 2023 at American Family Field: Votto doubled and homered in a 7-3 loss to the Brewers. With his six total bases in that contest, he moved past Hall of Famer Johnny Bench into second place in Reds’ franchise history with 3,645 total bases. He now trails only Pete Rose (4,644)

- On July 18, 2023 at Great American Ball Park: He hit his 350th homer, a two-run shot in the eighth off San Francisco Giants’ right-hander Jakob Junis in an 11-10 loss. Votto became the second Canadian with 350 home runs, joining Walker who hit 383. The Reds’ Twitter account pointed out Votto became the 16th player in major league history to have at least 350 home runs, 2,000 hits and a .400 on-base percentage.

* * *

Reds career leaders ...

(Heading into games of Sept. 13)

On-Base average _ 1. Joe Morgan .415, 2. Votto .410, 3. Johnny Bates .401, 4. Billy Hoy .392, 5. Frank Robinson .389, 6. Jesse Winker .385, 7. Elmer Smith .382, 8. Adam Dunn .380, 9. Rube Bressler and Pete Rose .379.

Slugging percentage _ 1. Robinson .554, 2. Dunn .520, 3. George Foster and Ken Griffey Jr. .514, 5. Ted Kluszewski .and Votto 512, 7. Eric Davis .510, 8. Winker .504, 9. Wally Post .498, 10. Jerry Lynch .493.

On-Base Plus Slugging _ 1. Robinson .943, 2. Votto .922, 3. Dunn .900, 4. Winker .888, 5. Morgan .885, 6. Davis .877, 7. Griffey Jr. .876, 8. Foster .870, 9. Kluszewski .869, 10. Dmitri Young .842.

Games Played _ 1. Rose 2,722. 2. Dave Concepcion 2,488, 3. Barry Larkin 2,180, 4. Johnny Bench 2,158, 5. Bid McPhee 2,138, 6. Votto 2,044, 7. Tony Perez 1,948, 8. Brandon Phillips 1,614, 9. Vada Pinson 1,565, 10. Robinson 1,502.

Runs _ 1. Rose 1,741, 2. McPhee 1,684, 3. Larkin 1,329, 4. Votto 1,167, 5. Bench 1,091, 6. Robinson 1,043, 7. Concepcion 993, 8. Pinson 978, 9. Perez 936, 10. Phillips and John Reilly 877.

Hits _ 1. Rose 3,358, 2. Larkin 2,340, 3. Concepcion 2,326, 4. McPhee 2,258, 5. Votto 2,129, 6. Bench 2,048, 7. Perez 1,934, 8. Pinson 1,881, 9. Edd Roush 1,784, 10. Phillips 1,774.

Total bases _ 1. Rose 4,645, 2. Votto 3,699, 3. Bench 3,644, 4. Larkin 3,527, 5. Perez 3,246, 6. Concepcion 3,114, 7. McPhee 3,098, 8. Robinson 3,063, 9. Pinson 2,973, 10. Phillips 2,722.

Doubles _ 1. Rose 601, 2. Votto 458, 3. Larkin 441, 4. Concepcion 389, 5. Bench 381, 6. Pinson 342, 7. Perez 339, 8. Robinson 318, 9. Phillips 311, 10. McPhee 303.

Home runs _ 1. Bench 389, 2. Votto 356, 3. Robinson 324, 4. Perez 287, 5. Dunn 270, 6. Kluszewski 251, 7. Foster 244, 8. Jay Bruce 233, 9. Griffey Jr. 210, 10. Davis 203.

RBIs _ 1. Bench 1,376, 2. Perez 1,192, 3. Votto 1,141, 4. McPhee 1,072, 5. Rose 1,036, 6. Robinson 1,009, 7. Larkin 960, 8. Concepcion 950, 9. Kluszewski 886, 10. Foster 861.

Bases on Balls _ 1. Votto 1,359, 2. Rose 1,210, 3. McPhee 982, 4. Larkin 939, 5. Bench 891, 6. Morgan 881, 7. Dunn 755, 8. Concepcion 736, 9. Robinson 698, 10. Dan Driessen 678.

(BOLD denotes Cooperstown Hall of Famer)

* * *

It should have been start of a beautiful relationship for McKeon and Castleberry with general manager Jim Bowden. Legend has it that the Reds were concerned about internal leaks (to other teams) so the scouting department didn’t tell Bowden about Votto until Votto showed for a pre-draft workout at Cinergy Field.

McKeon was re-assigned, or promoted, to a pro scout and left a month later after the June draft, while Castleberry was fired in July.

Maybe Castleberry should have been our Scout of the Decade. He’d be in the running with Bobby Prentice (Toronto, Ont.), who signed John Hiller; Lucadello, Dziadura (Chatham, Ont.), Fanning (Dorchester, Ont.) and Rogers.

But we didn’t start this until 30 seasons ago when Buffalo’s Billy Scherrer, then of the Florida Marlins, was our first winner.

To pharaphrase Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in The Godfather “Today I settled family business …”

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.

2021 Takeshi ‘T-Money’ Sakurayama, Hartford, Conn., Texas Rangers.

2022 Chris Kemlo, Oshawa, Ont., San Diego Padres.

2023 John Castleberry, Orleans, Mass., San Francisco Giants/Cincinnati Reds.

(BOLD deneotes Canadian Hall of Fame in St. Marys)