David Jennings wasn’t a greenhorn when he joined the Orioles as a southeast area scout, but it was only after diving into the job that he learned the scope of his new assignment.
He had been scouting for nearly a decade when the Orioles plucked him from the Cincinnati Reds and offered him the opportunity to move back home to Alabama and scout the surrounding states, and his coverage area for his first season in 2001 included a dozen first-day picks.
“Is it going to be like this every year?” he asked himself, and even though it hasn’t been, he’s scouted everyone worth seeing in one of the most talent-rich areas in the country for the Orioles for 20 drafts since.