While nobody has asked him about his coaching philosophy or where he stands on the use of 21st century metrics, I think most baseball wonks would consider Madison Mallards manager, Donnie Scott, a caveman given his creds.

Of the sixteen coaching staffs in the Northwoods League (and I checked them all), Scott is the only guy that played ML ball. In fact, he’s the only guy with legit minor league playing credentials. Only one other manager had any experience, coaching, managing or scouting in affiliated ball. While he’s not some mythical creature that inspires 8-year-old girls, he’s something of an outlier in the Northwoods League.

Collegiate summer leagues aren’t so different from ML organizations in their willingness to flood the operations with experts that never played the game beyond high school. Unlike one dinosaur I interviewed a couple of years ago. Scott doesn’t have an axe to grind. In our brief pregame discussion, the topic of metrics never came up. Conversely, the other coach went out of his way to embrace the current way of approaching the game, even as he bristled against the idea that a marriage of multiple approaches is possible.

My only previous experience with Scott the manager was almost twenty years ago when he was the East Division manager in the 2007 MWL ASG (in Kane County). We were among a group of 6-8 awaiting the arrival of players from both teams. I was aware of his brief ML playing career and his managing/coaching status with the Reds. After a successful run managing, coaching and directing Reds lower-level players he was dismissed by the Reds. Since 2011 he has had a very successful and enjoyable career in the Northwoods League first with Battle Creek and then Madison. He’s truly found his niche as he loves developing young players unencumbered by the constraints of organized ball. When MLB unilaterally eliminated over 40 minor league teams and decimated the traditional means of development, he was able to fill a void without having to report to the wonks in MLB.

All of the NWL managers and coaches are doing their best to help their players achieve their dreams, but Scott is uniquely equipped to share his experiences in what it takes to get drafted and move up the organizational ladder. Being untethered to a ML team, he’s allowed to manage games and rosters that no affiliated ball manager is allowed.