Ray Montgomery Earns Scouting Director Nod

Bruce Seid left a gaping hole in the Brewers organization his in untimely passing on September 2, but the Brewers took their first step forward on Monday morning by announcing that Ray Montgomery had earned the job.

This is Montgomery’s second stint with the Brewers. He started with Milwaukee as an area scout for Louisiana and southern Texas in 2002. He was an area scout for four years before moving into a crosschecker role for three years from 2007 to 2010 before becoming the assistant director of amateur scouting for 2009 and 2010.

A crosschecker is sort of a second level scout. After an area scout determines they have a player worth looking at the crosschecker comes in to verify those findings and determine if the player is one the team will follow.

Montgomery left the Brewers organization in 2010 and spent the last four years as the director of scouting for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

As others have noted, Ray Montgomery was responsible for finding and drafting Rickie Weeks with the second overall pick in the 2003 draft. Weeks was one of five position players taken in the first round in 2003 that has accumulated 10 or more career wins above replacement.

The others are Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Aaron Hill, and Carlos Quentin. Montgomery also oversaw the selection of Jake Lamb, Braden Shipley, Archie Bradley and Trevor Bauer for the Diamondbacks.

Seid was a very popular figure in the Brewers front office, and his untimely passing may make things difficult for Montgomery as he transitions into the role, but he has of wealth of success and experience behind him.

Montgomery was drafted in 1990 by the Houston Astros in the 13^th round. He played in 47 career major league games across three seasons from 1996-1998. After nine seasons in the Astros organization he spent two with the Pirates and one with the Mets before retiring after the 2001 season.