Former coach returns as scout

ANCHORAGE — Matt Dorey was in familiar territory Friday afternoon.

The former Mat-Su head coach was back at Mulcahy Stadium, the Anchorage baseball park in which he guided the Miners through about half a dozen games during the 2006 season.

But on Friday, Dorey was seeing the action from a different perspective.

Rather than manning a spot in the visitor’s dugout, Dorey was in the stands searching for the next top prospect as a scout for the Boston Red Sox.

“This certainly brings back memories,” Dorey said, with rosters and notebook in hand as he watched the Miners score a 5-3 victory over the Peninsula Oilers. “Coming back here I definitely got a little sentimental.”

Dorey served as Mat-Su’s field manager for the summer of 2006, in between stints as a college baseball coach. An assistant in the Washington State University program before arriving in the Valley, Dorey was set to continue his coaching career at Mt. Hood Community College in Oregon.

But that was before the Red Sox came calling.

“I kind of fell into it,” Dorey said of his position with the Sox.

Last year, the Red Sox had an opening in their scouting department and a colleague threw Dorey’s name in for consideration. Before Dorey knew it, the organization flew Dorey to Boston to meet with representatives from the Red Sox front office. And to make things even more exciting, all of this was happening while the Red Sox were en route to winning the 2007 World Series.

Dorey said he certainly had to carefully consider the prospect of jumping from the coaching ranks into the world of scouting. But in the end, Dorey couldn’t say no to one of the most historically significant franchises Major League Baseball has to offer.

“It’s tough to turn down this opportunity,” Dorey said.

Now, rather than coaching the top prospects, Dorey is working to find the next stars of the game and help the Red Sox lure top talent to Fenway Park as an area scout for the Boston organization.

Dorey is one of about 15 area scouts for the franchise. Area scouts for MLB teams are given a region of North America to cover, and are responsible for keeping tabs on the region’s talent from the high school to the Major League level.

Dorey, who played college baseball at Washington State and Portland State, is in charge of scouting the Pacific Northwest region for the Red Sox. But Dorey’s duties are not restricted to just Washington, Oregon and Idaho. He’ll also track players from as far north as Western Canada and as far south as Wyoming.

“It’s a lot of territory to cover,” Dorey said. “I don’t even know how many miles I put on my car.”

Amateur scouting has evolved into a 12-month business, and Dorey will keep track of talent throughout the year.

He’ll follow the players from the Division I programs in his area — teams such as Oregon State, Washington and Washington State. He’ll keep tabs on the Division II, NAIA and junior college programs, all without losing sight of the top prep players in his area.

Dorey is also responsible for watching players on the Seattle Mariners in the summer, as well as teams from multiple collegiate developmental baseball leagues.

He does have a couple of “bird dogs” — part time amateur scouts — to help him cover his ground, but for the most part, Dorey is the man responsible for keeping the Red Sox informed of what’s going on in the ballparks of the Pacific Northwest.

This weekend marked Dorey’s first baseball-related trip to Alaska since his summer with the Miners, and was one of more than a dozen scouts at Mulcahy to catch the annual ABL/MLB Showcase.

While in town, Dorey has the chance to see nine games at Mulcahy during his three-day stay.

When Dorey hits a game, or an event such as the Showcase, he said he’ll already have an idea of who’s on each team, and what the players have been doing.

“I know Jason Erickson, Ty Rasmussen and Troy Scott,” Dorey said, referring to a trio of Miners who all came to the Valley from the University of Washington program.

But while he knows of these players, Dorey said it’s the responsibility of the Major League scout to become more familiar with the athletes who may end up on a Red Sox draft board.

“The idea is to see these guys progress physically and mentally,” Dorey said.

Dorey said it’s integral to get multiple looks at the top prospects. Scouts want to see that the players have the physical tools, he said, but they also want to see that the athletes have the maturity to be a professional athlete.

“The makeup,” Dorey said. “We want to see how they are off the field. That’s a huge part of the process.”

Scouts want to see a proven track record. Dorey said it’s all about limiting the risk for the Major League team.

“We want the franchise to feel comfortable when it has to invest money,” Dorey said.

In his summer with the Miners, Dorey led the Miners to a third-place finish in the ABL and coached eight players who would eventually be drafted by Major League teams.

One of those players he coached, infielder John Hee, was drafted by the Red Sox in the MLB first-year player draft in early June.

Dorey said he feels coaching the Miners in the ABL actually played a big role in his ability to move up the baseball ladder and into a scouting position.

Right now, Dorey said he isn’t sure whether his baseball career will take him back to coaching.

“In the past, I always wanted to be on the field,” Dorey said. “But this is a dream come true.”

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.