With baseball on hiatus, The Arizona Republic is looking at Diamondbacks players through the eyes of the scouts who signed them. They will tell us what they liked about the player, why they pushed for their club to draft and/or sign him and what, if anything, has surprised them about the way the player has developed.

These amateur scouts are the anonymous infantry of baseball organizations. They spend countless hours traversing the country to find the game’s stars of the future. Many of them have good stories to tell. Our series of occasional interviews will give them a chance to share them. 

Remarks have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Previously: Madison Bumgarner | Robbie Ray | Ketel Marte

Player: Kole Calhoun

Position: Outfielder

Draft position: Eighth round, 2010, Los Angeles Angels

Backstory: Calhoun played locally at Buckeye High, Yavapai College in Prescott and at Arizona State, where he hit .321 with a team-leading 17 home runs as a senior in 2010. He spent parts of eight seasons with the Angels before signing with the Diamondbacks this offseason. He owns a .249 career average and 140 home runs and won a Gold Glove award in 2015.

Signing scout: John Gracio 

Gracio’s words: “Kole Calhoun came to my scout program as a freshman. A little, stocky redheaded guy. He wasn’t the most talented guy in the world, but he would have been a good guy in my boat crew going through SEAL training. He played with heart. He had heart, he had desire, he had ambition, everything. And he was an overachiever at that time because he was only about 5-6 or 5-7 and he just hit the snot out of the ball and played like hell.

“I followed him all the way through high school, followed him at junior college and when he graduated at ASU. When he was coming out of high school, at that time, I didn’t think he was ready (for pro ball). He had to play. At Yavapai, I felt the same way: Go to college.

“For me, he was the perfect senior to sign (in 2010). We were in the draft meetings and every round that came up I used to tell (then-scouting director) Eddie Bane, ‘Don’t forget about Calhoun. Don’t forget about Calhoun.’ Finally, he told me in the eighth round, ‘Will you shut up and sit down? We’re going to take him in the eighth round and give him (a $36,000 signing bonus). Are you happy?’ I said, I’m happy as a pig in s–t.’ That’s how we got him. I just kept bugging Eddie and bugging Eddie. (Calhoun) hasn’t let me down.

“Everybody had questions about his size. He was a stocky kid. He was built like Brian Giles, 5-foot-9, 5-9 1/2. I went back and looked at my grades on him. My present grades (on the 20-to-80 scouting scale) were all 45s (average) on him. My future grades on him were all 50s and 60s.

“I was the only one in the Angels organization who had that much confidence in him. Baner wanted to take him in the top 10 (rounds). We knew he had talent, but it’s a crapshoot. It’s mainly a gut feeling what you think about a guy’s individual character. I knew he had the talent and I just thought this guy is going to be a winner. He’s one of the guys I knew would get to the big leagues because of desire and work ethic. He played the game hard and he played with desire. You could see he had character and ambition and that nothing was going to hold him back.

“I thought he would an average major-league hitter, hit 18 to 20 home runs, but I thought he’d hit for a higher average because of the way he sprayed the ball around and made a lot of contact. But as he’s gotten stronger, he sits on that ball middle-in and he’s a dead pull hitter now. He’ll like that yard the Diamondbacks play in, that ball carries out of that yard. Those warning-track outs might be up against the wall and over.

“He’s got to get back to hitting the ball to all fields. When I heard he got picked up by the Diamondbacks, I sent him a text. I said, ‘How about going back to your old ways? The way you used to be in high school, Yavapai and ASU. You used to hit the ball all over the yard.’

“I think the Diamondbacks got a prize right fielder that could play three years for them until they bring their young kids up.”

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.