![]() ![]() So Lehmann re-enrolled at Rice University, hoping to finish his degree while entertaining a few offers to return to play affiliated baseball. At 29 with a wife and two kids, his career and his life had reached a critical juncture. 266 with a decent walk rate but zero home runs. He spent a year in independent ball with the Sugar Land Skeeters in 2014, batting. Lehmann topped out at Triple-A in the Twins’ organization in 2010, then repeated the level the next three seasons. Coincidentally, the team’s shortstop, a freshman from Florida State named Buster Posey, would take over behind the plate the following year when Lehmann was drafted by the Minnesota Twins. With Lehmann at catcher, the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox won the championship that summer. ![]() Scott Pickler was Lehmann’s head coach in the Cape Cod League in 2006. I was shocked that he never played in the big leagues.” I said ‘I got your guy.’ Because I had to see if he was still playing. “And I said, ‘Eh.’ ‘Eh.’ This is the Dodgers. “He gave me three names and I knew two of them,” Scott recalled. When his son called asking for a recommendation, Scott didn’t need long. He began coaching high school teams in Orange County in 1979, then embarked on a legendary career at Cypress College from 1985-2016. Scott Pickler has seen a few baseball players in his day. It was an entry-level job, the kind of work a player takes on when he is ready to hang up his uniform but not ready to leave baseball altogether. The job was fairly straightforward: to review video of the team’s upcoming opponents, focusing on who would be in the lineup and how to get them out. ![]() The Dodgers needed an advance video scout. ![]() This was the occasion that led Jeff Pickler, the Dodgers’ newly appointed special assistant of professional scouting and player development, to call his father, Scott. The team’s new president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman, was furiously filling out a front office and player development staff, and creating several new behind-the-scenes support positions. The Dodgers were embarking on a major transition in the winter of 2014-15. ![]()
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