Dogs’ manager helped groom Sox’s Pedroia

There were still 20 minutes to go before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. Major League Baseball treading deadline, but Arnie Beyeler was not working the phones.

The Portland Sea Dogs manager was in the visiting team’s dugout, getting ready for that evening’s Eastern League game against the Bowie (Md.) Baysox.

Still, the day’s significance was not lost on him. As a former scout and a big league and minor league player and coach, Beyeler couldn’t help but keep an ear tuned in to a radio or an eye trained on a nearby TV, trying to catch the latest trade day deals or rumors.

“Yeah, I guess they just got Eric Gagne from the Rangers,” the 43-year-old Utah native said, referring to parent club Boston’s acquisition of the veteran reliever in return for 17-year-old prospect Engel Beltre and former Sea Dogs David Murphy and Kason Gabbard.

Gabbard, a lefty pitcher who recently distinguished himself with a 3.73 ERA and 4-0 record in seven starts with the Red Sox, certainly made an impression with Beyeler.

He was a real skinny guy, but he’s just a very competitive guy and very hard working,” Beyeler said. “He could always pitch, but health problems held him back. He’s extremely determined and that seems to be the M.O. of all these guys who get successful. They have a way of processing info and using what works best for them.”

“These guys” include Gabbard, and Red Sox infielders Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, and Mike Lowell – all players Beyeler either coached or managed in the minors.

“There are players that bring intangibles to the table, and the biggest thing is their work ethic,” said Beyeler, now in his seventh year as a minor league manager. “It’s all out all the time. That’s all they know. It’s a tool they bring to the table that may be a tradeoff for something else they’re short in.”

When he was a minor league coach for the New York Yankees (1997-99), Beyeler first got to know Lowell.

“He had a phenomenal swing,” he said. “He had tools and a work ethic, but he was also a grinder and he made himself a better player.”

That description is almost identical to the one Beyeler gives Youkilis.

“His strike zone management was phenomenal,” Beyeler said. “He always seemed to get a good pitch to hit because he laid off the garbage. He had that ability way before any of us had seen him.”

And Pedroia, Boston’s pint-sized second baseman?

“When you talk about these guys and the [David] Ecksteins, they’ve always had to play [hard] because they were the overlooked guys,” said Beyeler. “They don’t see it that way because they always play [that way] and they always go hard.”

As impressed as he was with them, Beyeler admits even he didn’t think they were cinches to be future big leaguers.

“If anyone did, those guys wouldn’t have been 13th- and 15th- and 10th-round picks,” he said. “They’re good players, but all those guys – the Ecksteins and Pedroias and Youkilises – if people thought they’d be big leaguers, they’d all have been first-round picks.

“They’re guys who always had fun on, and off the field, but they were serious when they were on it and they had tireless work ethics. It’s funny how when only about three percent of the total guys out there makes the big leagues, those are the guys who always seem to succeed.”

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net