Award is scout's honor

Rockies' Daugherty earns recognition as best in Midwest

Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 7, 2005 at midnight

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DALLAS - Pat Daugherty was the Montreal Expos' minor-league field coordinator, and while running the organization's instructional league in fall 1985, the call came from Montreal's then-general manager Murray Cook.

"He said he wanted me go to into scouting," Daugherty said. "He told me he could shake a minor-league coordinator out of a tree, but finding a good scout was difficult."

And Cook believed Daugherty, a longtime coach at Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College who initially joined the Expos as a short-season rookie league manager, then became the minor-league coordinator, had the personality and judgment to be a good scout.

Cook knew what he was talking about.

Daugherty, the first scouting director of the Colorado Rockies and a special assignment scout at the professional level since the arrival of general manager Dan O'Dowd in September 1999, will be honored tonight as the Midwest Scout of the Year in a vote of professional scouts.

Daugherty is the first member of the Rockies to be honored.

"This is not just because of the players he signed, but the difference Pat Daugherty has made in the life of the people he has been around," O'Dowd said.

While the Rockies will attend the function, O'Dowd and his staff are continuing to address roster needs during the winter meetings that continue through Thursday.

Manager Clint Hurdle also finds himself faced with a possible change in his coaching staff. Bench coach Jamie Quirk and former major-league pitcher Tommy John are finalists to partner with Ed Farmer on Chicago White Sox radio broadcasts.

The Rockies have turned their attention to switch-hitting Johnny Estrada of the Atlanta Braves in their search for catching help.

O'Dowd met Tuesday with the agent for reliever Brian Fuentes and will meet today with the agent for starter Aaron Cook in an effort to work out multiyear contracts with the pitchers, who are arbitration eligible for the first time.

O'Dowd is in the process of working out final details of a deal with free-agent reliever Jose Mesa, although it likely will not be finalized until Thursday so the Rockies can avoid losing a draft choice to the Pittsburgh Pirates as compensation.

The Rockies continue to solicit offers for outfielder Larry Bigbie, who has drawn some minor interest, but have hit a standstill in efforts to trade second baseman Aaron Miles. Kansas City was mentioned as having possible interest, but Royals general manager Allard Baird said that was not true.

Today, though, will belong to Daugherty.

"What makes this so special is (being selected by fellow scouts)," said Daugherty, 71. "When it is all cut and dried, it is not what you made or who you signed, but it is the camaraderie and people you meet over the years. It's the reason I am still working. I still get excited every day."

Daugherty has had a major-league impact since his early days in baseball, turning out future major-league second baseman Duane Kuiper and pitchers Eric Rasmussen and Shane Rawley at Indian Hills.

He helped develop the Montreal players who made the Expos competitive despite a limited payroll in the 1980s, then helped scout and sign the Rockies' foundation, signing current players Todd Helton, Cook and Jason Jennings, and a long list of former Rockies who still are in the majors.

Daugherty had only a brief glimpse of major-league life. Late in the 1987 season, Cook called and told him to join the major-league team for the final weeks. Bobby Winkles planned to retire at the end of the season and Expos manager Buck Rodgers wanted Daugherty to replace him.

But after a game in Philadelphia, Expos owner Charles Bronfman and his wife, Andrea, hosted a gathering for the Expos staff.

"I heard Andrea tell Bobby, 'You're not leaving. I start every morning off with a cup of coffee and your radio show,' " Daugherty said. "The next day, Winks and I are going to the ballpark, and he tells me he's coming back. He said they were offering him more money than he had ever made in his life. I called (scouting director) Gary Hughes and told him, 'I hope you haven't filled my scouting job.'

"But it's worked out. I don't have complaints about anything."

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