In a Major League organization scouting departments are split up
between amateur and pro scouting responsibilities. Amateur scouts are
responsible for all players not currently under a professional contract
and who will be eligible for the next June amateur baseball draft.
In
most cases scouts have had players on their radar screens much earlier,
sometimes 3 to 4 years in advance of when a player is draft eligible.
Once the June draft is completed, amateur scouts will hit their minor
league territories and begin their pro coverage.
Pro scouting deals only with players already in the system. They are primarily concerned with scouting players in other organizations who might be part of a trade and evaluating their own organizations for the same reasons. Needless to say, you can’t improve your organization if you can’t properly evaluate baseball talent in the Minor Leagues.
Advance scouting also falls under the responsibility of the pro scout. As the name implies, and advance scout will sit on the Major League team who’s up next on the schedule. If the Yankees are playing the Red Sox in a 4-game series next week, the Yankees will send their advance scout to watch them play for at least 3 or 4 games (usually one time through their rotation) prior to that series.
Advance scouting can be very useful when you haven’t played a team for an extended period of time. A manager wants to know who’s hot, who’s not and where to position his defense. Up to date, accurate information can give your club a big advantage where the difference between 2 or 3 games might mean making the playoffs.
Scouts have a thankless job but one that is critical to the sustained success
of any franchise. It takes a large measure of passion, patience,
skill….and coffee to sift through the lumps of coal just to find that
one diamond. Underpaid, overworked, overtraveled ... but always
passionate about finding or re-discovering new baseball players.
Scouting is an inexact science at best and the ability to project what
a high school baseball player will look like 5-6 years down the road is
quite often a crap shoot. There have always been plenty of No. 1, can’t
miss, draft picks that did….miss. And there have been many notable
non-drafted or low round picks become stars. Mike Piazza in the 60th
round is one of the more famous examples of this.
One comment I hear a lot is, “My player was real good but he played at a small school and no scouts came out to see him play”. This is a myth. If a young man can play baseball, a scout will find him – guaranteed. One season I had players on my club from 8 different countries: two from Australia, two from the Dutch Netherland Antilles and one from some Canadian hinterland that just got phone service 10 years ago.
Trust me, scouts live for finding that one player who no one else knows about. So keep playing, if you’re good enough, a scout will always show up when you least expect it. Learn the fundamentals of baseball, have fun and if you show some natural baseball skills - a scout will find you
At one time or another, many of you have heard the expression, “This guy is a 5-tool player” (I had about half a tool…and it was on lay-away!). Tools refer to a player’s skill set. Here are the 5 tools for position players: hit for average, hit for power, run, field, throw.
Different
organizations place different emphasis on the priority of these
baseball tools – so, some organizations might feel that running speed
isn’t as important as say, fielding ability or arm strength.
One of the things that makes scouting so hard is that while it’s great
to have tools – you need to have a toolbox. It takes a lot of games to
find out whether a kid has a head for the game, an intuitive sense for
how to play the game. You gotta’ use your head for more than a hat rack!
All players are graded out against a Major League scale. If that player was playing in the big leagues – today – where would he rate? At the top of the scale you have Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez. For pitchers it would be Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson.
At the bottom of the scale you have the NP – no prospect. For this reason all players are graded with a present value and a future value. For example, young Johnny High School wouldn’t be, at present, a Major League caliber baseball player.
But a scout might determine that he displays many of the same skills that a current Major League ballplayer did when he was at the same stage of development. In this case he might be graded as a present NP but a future 5/50 (an everyday player in the big leagues). Scouts have to have some reason to believe that a baseball player has a chance to develop into the kind of player that can help his organization.
Even among scouts and coaches, nothing generates as much divergence of opinion as pitching. And, the single biggest flashpoint is velocity. You will hear many parents, amateur coaches…and pitchers, complain that all the scouts want to see is how hard a pitcher throws. Can they light up the ‘gun’.
There is some truth to this and here’s why. It is accepted baseball wisdom that many of the skills that a pitcher needs to succeed; location (command), movement, changing speeds, can all be developed in the minor leagues and then polished in the big leagues. The one thing nobody can teach is velocity, it’s a God given ability.
There a few Major League organizations who have turned this idea on its head. Refusing to believe conventional wisdom, these organizations feel that command and a knack for winning are equally important. They feel that as a pitcher matures he will get stronger and add, possibly, 5-10 mph. Two differing philosophies but the first camp still rules the roost as the prevailing sentiment.
Having a 95 mph fastball doesn’t guarantee that a pitcher will be able to get anyone out, but it does mean that a pitcher will have a chance to get away with a few more mistakes. If you’re a high school pitcher and don’t throw in the upper 80’s or low 90’s yet, don’t get discouraged. Most pitchers in the big leagues didn’t develop until or even after college.
In fact, it
is in most cases, better for a baseball player’s development, to go to
school first. College baseball allows pitchers to learn the importance
of command and changing speeds before getting thrown into the fire.
Very few players are ready for the challenge of professional baseball
right out of high school. Trust me, everyone needs pitching and if you
show scouts that you can get people out in college, some organization
will take a chance.
As I said
earlier, baseball scouts have a difficult job and they rarely get the
recognition they deserve. But, it is their job to go out and find
players every year and they never stop looking for talent.
One
thing that all baseball scouts want to see is a player who is
passionate about playing the game. You must have some natural physical
ability but, heart is what it takes to win championships and be the
best player you can be. So, bust your butt and have some fun, and who
knows, you might just find that a Major League organization wants to
give you the opportunity of a lifetime.
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