Why the Roy Clark hire as nat'l crosschecker is a big deal for the Dodgers

Normally, bringing in a national crosschecker doesn't qualify as big news. But when the Dodgers brought in Roy Clark this week, it was big news.

Clark was hired away from the Nationals where he was the assistant general manager and vice president of player personnel. Technically, he's taking a lesser position with the Dodgers than he had with the Nationals.

As the national crosschecker, he'll evaluate amateur players and current Dodger minor-leaguers. Clark will report to Vice President of Amateur Scouting Logan White and work with Vice President of Player Development DeJon Watson. Basically, Clark will scout the players the Dodgers scouts have scouted.

Don't be confused, Clark is making good money -- likely better than most national crosscheckers in MLB. Otherwise, it's hard to imagine Clark leaving an executive position with Washington for a non-executive position with Los Angeles.

Clark has a history with Stan Kasten, whom he worked with in Atlanta and Washington. In Atlanta, Clark was the Braves' scouting director. In his 11 years with the Braves, he drafted players like Adam Wainwright (1st round, 2000), Adam LaRoche (29th, 2000), Brian McCann (2nd, 2002), Matt Harrison (3rd, 2003), Tommy Hanson (22nd, 2005), Kris Medlen (10th, 2006), Jason Heyward (1st, 2007), Freddie Freeman (2nd, 2007), Craig Kimbrel (3rd, 2008) and Mike Minor (1st, 2009).

The fact the Dodgers were able to get Clark to take a lesser position (title-wise) in LA speaks volumes of not only Clark's willingness to help build a franchise from the inside, but also the Dodgers aren't just going to throw the most money at free agents every year. They got an executive with a damn good team to come back and do some of the "grunt" work that he did many years ago.

Logan White, from the official press release:

"'Roy is an excellent talent evaluator and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Dodgers. 'He’s a terrific addition and I’m looking forward to teaming him with Paul Fryer and John Green as National Crosscheckers.'"

With the Dodgers' seemingly new approach to the draft (seriously, read this great story from J.P. Hoornstra of the L.A. Daily News), Clark will help determine the players the Dodgers should draft (along with White, Watson and Ned Colletti -- to a certain extent).

An organization can never have too many talent evaluators. Clark is one of the best in the business and should help the Dodgers build one of baseball's best farm systems going forward.

Podcast: 'Dugout Blues' episode 49 - Logan White interview, Kemp, Quakes

On this episode of "Dugout Blues," Jared Massey (Dodger Diamond) talk about the juggernaut known as your Los Angeles Dodgers. They've gone 22-5 in their last 27 games and in literally a month's time, have gone from last place to first place. Bravo.

Stop me if you've heard this before: Matt Kemp is hurt again. He sprained his ankle "sliding" into home on Sunday. Predictably, the Dodgers at first said it was a "minor" injury. Now, he's almost assuredly going on the disabled list. In his last 11 games -- a time that spans from June 25 until now -- he's hitting .324/.390/.622 with three home runs, 10 RBI and eight runs scored. That's the Matt Kemp we all know and love. If only he could stay healthy...

Carlos Marmol debuted on Tuesday. It was predictably horrible.

Matt Garza and Francisco Rodriguez were traded this week. Both players were linked to the Dodgers. I'm glad the team got neither of them, especially considering the price.

I talk about some of the good and bad I saw from the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. The names Noel Cuevas, Scott Schebler and Blake Smith are mentioned -- among others.

I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Dodgers' Vice President of Amateur Scouting Logan White on Friday night. It was awesome. Have a listen to the audio (apologies for the background noise).

The Dodgers haven't yet signed Alexander Guerrero, but it looks like more of a foregone conclusion at this point. The team did sign Moises Perez, which we talk about.

As usual, we close with listener questions.

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Look for new episodes of "Dugout Blues" every Wednesday. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and review us on iTunes. We want to make this the best podcast we can so we're always looking for suggestions and ways to improve.

If you have questions you'd like us to answer or certain topics/players you want to hear more about, feel free to email us (ladugout@gmail.com or feelinkindablue@gmail.com) or send us messages on Twitter (@Dodger_Diamond or @FeelinKindaBlue). You can also "Like" the podcast on Facebook. We always welcome audience participation.

Image credit: Joe Martin