Welcome to the Blue, Gabe Kapler & Billy Gasparino!

The Dodger front office is starting to round out quite nicely.  Following up on yesterdays official announcement regarding the hiring of both Farhan Zaidi and Josh Byrnes, the Dodgers let us know today that they have hired Gabe Kapler and Billy Gasparino to fill holes within their farm system.

Per a Dodgers press release:

The Los Angeles Dodgers today announced the front office additions of Gabe Kapler as Director, Player Development and Billy Gasparino as Director, Amateur Scouting. Dodger President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman made the announcement.

BTW, Gabe Kapler is on twitter, so you can follow him here: @gabekapler.  Instead of rehashing what has already been written about him, I will list several reports that I found.  Check them out below:

• Via Eric Stephen at True Blue LA, "Gabe Kapler reportedly will be Dodgers farm director."

This would be his first job in a major league front office, presumably working under Byrnes, who will oversee scouting and player development.

• Via Mike Petriello at Dodgers Digest, "Is Gabe Kapler Coming To The Dodgers? (Yes, Please!)"
• Here's a piece Gabe just wrote for FoxSports titled, "A farewell note from Gabe Kapler."

Here's a fun interview from last year by Eddie Mata with Gabe Kapler.  Check it out below.

Video Link:

As for Gasparino, he isn't on twitter (as far as I know), but he is experienced in the scouting department.  Check out some stories below about him.

• Via Eric Stephen at True Blue LA, "Billy Gasparino latest rumored to join Dodgers front office."

In celebration of Kapler and Gasparino's arrival to the Dodgers I made the above fantasy cards for them.  For the Kapler card I used a photograph grabbed from a photo from nowhavefun.com and the 1971 Topps Baseball card design.  For the Gasparino card I used a photograph grabbed from a photo from the Padres Friarwire and the 1971 Topps Baseball card design.

The Dodgers press release:

A 12-year Major League veteran, Kapler joins the Dodgers after most recently working as a baseball analyst for Fox Sports 1. Prior to his television career, Kapler was a big league outfielder for the Tigers (1998-99), Rangers (2000-02), Rockies (2002-03), Red Sox (2003-06), Brewers (2008) and Rays (2009-10), winning a World Series with Boston in 2004. He briefly retired following the 2006 season and managed Boston's Single-A affiliate, the Greenville Drive, in 2007 before resuming his playing career in 2008 and playing three more big league seasons. A Los Angeles native, Kapler appeared in a Dodger uniform as a non-roster invitee during 2011 Spring Training, but never played in a regular-season game with the club.

Kapler attended Taft High School in Woodland Hills before earning a scholarship to Cal State-Fullerton, where he played one season before transferring to Moorpark College.

Gasparino joins the Dodgers after four seasons with the Padres as the club's Director of Scouting (2012-14) and National Crosschecker (2010-12). Previously, he worked for the Blue Jays, originally joining Toronto as an area scout covering Southern California from 2004-06 before being promoted to national crosschecker in 2007. He got his start in baseball as an intern with the Cleveland Indians in 2003

An infielder during his playing career, Gasparino was selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 17th round of the 1999 First-Year Player Draft out of Oklahoma State University and spent one season in their minor league system with Single-A Portland.

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