Paul Gibson (baseball)

Paul Marshall Gibson, Jr. (born January 4, 1960 in Southampton, New York) is a former major league baseball pitcher. The Cincinnati Reds drafted Gibson in the third round in 1978, but released him in 1981. The Detroit Tigers signed him in May 1981. In December 1982 the Minnesota Twins took Gibson in the Rule 5 draft, but granted him free agency in 1984, whereupon the Tigers reacquired him.

Gibson made his major league debut on April 8, 1988, in a game against the Kansas City Royals. In January 1992, the Tigers traded Gibson and minor leaguer Randy Marshall to the New York Mets for Mark Carreon and Tony Castillo. The Mets released Gibson in mid-1993, and he was signed by the New York Yankees. In 1994, the Yankees sent Gibson to the Milwaukee Brewers, who granted him free agency at the end of the season. The Toronto Blue Jays signed Gibson in April 1995, but released him in June. In July, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed Gibson but granted him free agency in October. The Yankees signed him again in December of that year but released him for the last time in May 1996.

Paul currently owns Paul Gibson's Baseball Academy in Long Island, New York.

Scouting career

Gibson is regarded as a projector scout which will envisions what a player will be able to do in a two or three years term. Despite the fact that Gibson had a successful pitching career, he has been able to analyze the players’ ability regardless his position. Gibson style of scouting looks also for some particular traits in the players’ personality and character to ensure that they could handle the pressure and be team leaders.

Experiences as a Scout

Beginning in 2006 and for three years, Gibson served as an area scout supervisor for the Atlanta Braves.^[1] During his tenure with the Braves he was in charge of all scouting aspects of amateur players in the Northeast.

In 2008, the Seattle Mariners’ Director of Amateur Scouting Mr. Tom McNamara, named Mr. Gibson as the Eastern Cross-checker Scout for the organization.^[2] Gibson was part of a bigger plan in which he was expected to work closely with the Mariners baseball operations department and scouting staff in evaluating talent for the amateur draft. Concurrently, Seattle's scouting department underwent a transformation, Carmen Fusco (Director of Pro Scouting) and Mike Cadahia (National Crosschecker) joining the organization.

In 2010, Gibson joined the Kansas City Royals scouting office as the National Scouting Supervisor.

Prospects Signed

Under Gibson’s supervision, the Royals have signed Bubba Starling, Kyle Zimmer, Cameron Gallagher and Alfredo Escalera–Maldonado, at 17, the youngest player ever drafted by any MLB organization since the insertion of the First-Year Player Draft.

Baseball Instructor Career

In 1995, Gibson opened baseball training facility in Bellport, New York with the intention to provide proper baseball instruction to young kids in the community he grew in. A year after, Gibson inaugurated a 10,000 square feet indoor facility that housed batting cages and small lesson areas for local instructors during the winter.

Notable Alumni

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet