The Milwaukee Brewers have long had one of the most talented and diverse scouting staffs in all of Major League Baseball, never afraid to bring in people from different facets of the game in order to try to make their organization as a whole better.
Dan Nellum embodies a lot of that spirit, a well-respected and talented scout who would work his way all the way up to a position as Milwaukee’s East Coast crosschecker after a long and successful career as a college coach.
After injury derailed a promising playing career at Seminole State College of Florida, he began his stint in coaching with his alma mater, ultimately going on to earn a bachelor’s degree at the University of Central Florida in 1993. The Maryland native then worked as an assistant coach at Georgetown University for four seasons, Old Dominion University for three and then the Naval Academy from 2000-07 before the Brewers came calling.
He’s now entering his 15th season with Milwaukee, who have made six playoff appearances and won three division titles since his hire. After nine seasons at the Brewers Mid-Atlantic region supervisor, where he was in charge of scouting players in Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia, the Mid-Atlantic Scouts Association Scout of the Year in 2014 was eventually promoted to his new role, and is set to begin his sixth season in it.
Milwaukee does have experience drafting Future Stars Series alums as well; 2020 National Combine and International Week standout Roc Riggio went in the 11th round to the Brewers with the 327th overall pick just last year, but ultimately chose to honor his commitment to attend Oklahoma State University.
Jeremy Booth, the Future Stars Series president and CEO, was a member of the Brewers scouting staff as an area scout from 2008-11 — helping with the latter three drafts of that tenure before leaving to join the Seattle Mariners as their Midwest Supervisor — and knows firsthand how valuable Nellum is to the Milwaukee organization.
“Dan has been involved and excelled in all areas of roster construction,” Booth said. “He’s heavily vested in amateur and pro scouting along with the player development process and arrivals of impact players in the big leagues. He understands the need to build organically through the draft with impact and how that translates to ceilings and floors, and the future for him is extremely bright. The Brewers are extremely lucky to have him and he’s been one of their best guys for a long time.”
Nellum is widely regarded in the industry as having unimpeachable character and is passionate about the same in others. His standard for simply doing things the right way — as evidenced by his passionate efforts to push for the hiring of more minorities and women in impact roles within the Brewers organization — is one many have followed since.
Nellum, like Booth, is also a member of the prestigious Buck O’Neil Professional Baseball Scouts & Coaches Association, whose mission is to provide a forum for scouts and coaches to constructively share their passion for the game, in addition to providing a place for networking, mentoring, and professional development.
