2080 Staff

2080baseball-logo                                         

About 2080 Baseball

Founded in 2015, 2080 Baseball offers insights into the world of minor league, international, and amateur scouting and player development by delivering feature articles, prospect videos, reports, podcasts, and rankings that cover the most talked about talent in the game. 2080 is guided by a leadership team with extensive major league scouting and front office experience with a vision of cultivating the next generation of scouts, and providing resources, tools, and exposure for experienced scouts to continue practicing their craft.


Executive Leadership

Dave DeFreitas – Partner & Director, Pro Evaluation

flat_twitter@davedefer

DeFreitas joins 2080 Baseball after spending the last nine years scouting for the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees. From 2007-12, Dave lived in Tokyo and covered the Pacific Rim for the Indians. He served as Pacific Rim supervisor from 2009-12 before joining the New York Yankees, where he continued as a pro and international scout for the next two-plus years. Dave will be contributing his extensive knowledge of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) leagues during the season, as well as filing reports as he views prospects around the Los Angeles area.

Nick J. Faleris – Co-Founder & Director, Amateur Evaluation

flat_twitter@nickjfaleris

Faleris is a practicing attorney in Foley & Lardner LLP’s finance group and is a member of the firm’s sports industry team. He has provided legal advice and operational support to various professional sports organizations, including franchise sales on both buyer and seller sides, asset-backed structured financings, and arbitration prep. Nick served as an associate scout for a National League organization for three MLB draft periods (2011-13) and has previously written for Baseball Prospectus, including serving as a primary author on the 2015 Baseball Prospectus Future’s Guide. He serves as the primary MLB Draft analyst for 2080, and as a special assignment pro-side evaluator.

Burke Granger – Partner & Assistant Director, Amateur Evaluation 

flat_twitter

@burkegranger

Located in Columbus, Ohio, Granger travels the Midwest to evaluate amateur talent in preparation for the MLB Draft, while also covering the Triple-A International and Class A Midwest Leagues.  In 2010, he launched ProspectJunkies.com, a site devoted to scouting, analyzing, and evaluating the top prospects in baseball.  Granger also works as a scout, consultant, and advisor for Premier Scouting Service, LLC, where he connects college coaches with student athletes seeking athletic scholarships.  Burke played baseball at Sinclair Community College, and holds a Juris Doctor from Capital University Law School.

 

Mark Shreve – Co-Founder, Editor & Pro Evaluator

flat_twitter@mshrevebb

Shreve brings more than 25 years of senior leadership to the organization, most recently as CEO of the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis from 2001-09, and since then, as a consultant to several non-profits and biotech companies providing business development, communications, and operations expertise. Among the five nonprofits he has helped found was PBBC Under the Radar in 2008, working with fellow Board Members Joe Maddon and Kevin Long to provide scholarships for baseball players in need of financial assistance. Mark survived the New York Yankees from 1992-93 as a post-graduate intern in their media relations and baseball operations departments, and also served as a researcher statistical editor of Ted Williams: A Portrait in Words and Pictures (1991), and as a researcher/photo editor for DiMaggio: An Illustrated Life (1993). 2018 will be his sixth season working for MLB Advanced Media as a statistician, handling live scoring and on-field data collection for 60+ MLB games per year. You can also find Mark spending plenty of time at the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate in Trenton, evaluating Eastern League prospects, as well as various International League ballparks in the Northeast.


Contributors

Will Bryant

flat_twitter@WillDBryant

A senior at the UNC-Chapel Hill, Bryant evaluates high school and college talent in the Raleigh-Durham area. In 2016, Bryant interned with Baseball America, traveling throughout the Southeast scouting the best high school prospects in the country. Bryant played baseball throughout his school career, and learned a great deal from playing against, and alongside, future top prospects including Brent Honeywell, Cornelius Randolph, and others. He is currently finishing up degrees in Exercise Science and Psychology, examining the aspects of mental strength in some of his player evaluations. He’ll be collecting video and evaluating this year’s top amateur talent as they pass through his home field, Boshamer Stadium in Chapel Hill.

Spencer Hansen

flat_twitter

@CoachHans4

Spencer calls Bremerton, WA home (a suburb of Seattle). He played baseball throughout high school and went on to play community college baseball at Olympic College. After hanging up the cleats, he graduated from Central Washington University in 2015 with a Bachelors degree in broadcasting. Spencer is also a graduate of the Reality Fantasy Baseball scout school. He has a passion for the game and loves talking about and evaluating players, as well as the x’s and o’s side of baseball.  He’ll be helping to cover the Triple-A Pacific Coast League and Short-Season A Northwest League for 2080.

Dean Steinman

flat_twitter

@DeanHSteinman

Based in Japan, Steinman will be offering his insights into the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB), as well as following the top amateur talent throughout the Pacific Rim. He is the co-founder and CEO of Spraycharts, a baseball analytics company giving teams and players access to custom scouting reports through mobile applications, and has also spent the last four years as a writer and editor for The Spectator.

Ryan Sullivan

flat_twitter

@TheNatsGM

Ryan has spent the past eight years serving as Editor-in-Chief of NatsGM.com, a website dedicated to covering the Washington Nationals.  In addition, he is the host of the Podcasts THE NatsGM Show and THE Joshua Kusnick Experience.  You may also have seen his work at Banished to the Pen and Yahoo.  Before pursuing a career in baseball, Ryan spent 9 years working as a Financial Advisor in Washington D.C.  In 2018 he will focus on scouting and video procurement in the Carolina and South Atlantic League, along with a continuing focus on the Washington Nationals farm system.  Ryan lives in Lewes, Delaware with his wife and two beagles, Nemo and Dory.

Meredith Wills

flat_twitter

@Bbl_astrophyscs

Meredith brings technology experience and analytics expertise to 2080 Baseball’s pro scouting group. Her responsibilities encompass video development, database construction/maintenance, social media, and intern training. Some of Wills’ most recent baseball endeavors include research showing the connection between baseball construction and the Home Run Surge, analytics contributions to Keith Law’s Smart Baseball, and the position of Official Scorer for the Northwoods League Fond du Lac Dock Spiders. A graduate of Harvard University, she has a M.S. and a Ph.D. in Physics from Montana State University—Bozeman. Wills currently resides in Glendale, AZ.

Jared Wyllys

flat_twitter

@jwyllys

Jared has spent the last two years writing almost exclusively about the Cubs, but he is looking forward to building on his experiences in interviewing and writing about prospects, and expanding that reach with minor league coverage at 2080 Baseball, primarily covering Midwest League prospects. Along with his work here, you can find his work at Baseball Prospectus Wrigleyville and at Cubs Den, working with 2080’s John Arguello. When he’s not watching or writing about baseball, he teaches and reads baseball history. Jared lives in suburban Chicago with his wife and four young children who he shares his love of baseball with.

 

Strategic Advisory Board

Dan Evans – Director, Pacific Rim Operations, Toronto Blue Jays & Former General Manager, L.A. Dodgers

Joe Hamrahi – Co-Founder, 2080 Baseball; Fmr. President, Baseball Prospectus; Associate Scout, Kansas City Royals (2009); Member of BBWAA; Host, SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio (2012-16).  COO/CFO, MBooth (New York, NY)

 

2080 Alumni in the Major Leagues

We’re particularly proud to have worked with several evaluators who are currently working with major league organizations:

Tucker Blair – Houston Astros (2016-17), Arizona Diamondbacks
Alexander Botts – Cleveland Indians
John Eshleman – Miami Marlins
Max Kraust – San Diego Padres
Ted Lekas  Toronto Blue Jays (1988-2005; 2013-2017), Baltimore Orioles (2005-2013), Atlanta Braves
Adam McInturff – Toronto Blue Jays
Mauricio Rubio
 – St. Louis Cardinals