Senior VP of the Yankees told me in a private discussion that Scouts have 2 difficulties.
1. Scouting the bat! 2. Scouting the 6th Tool.
We were at the NY Yankees Spring Training offices and we both pointed to a player on the 40 man roster.
Derek JETER. was our example of a player with the two tools.
Bob
Being asked for AC tryouts is a tremendous accomplishment. Even if not selected to the team it will open the door for opportunities which normally are not experienced. That being said, if never asked to tryout it isn't the end of your baseball dream and recruitment. My son was never asked to try out, a couple of his high school teammates were. Just made son work harder and set his goals higher. High school produced many accolades, D1 ball produced more, and he is doing well in the minors (Top 50). Point is that with hard work, on field success and the right breaks (luck) you can accomplish your goals. Your reputation and any "tags" associated with you are difficult to obtain and equally difficult to get rid of, both good and bad. Trust in the process.....
Consultant posted:Senior VP of the Yankees told me in a private discussion that Scouts have 2 difficulties.
1. Scouting the bat! 2. Scouting the 6th Tool.
We were at the NY Yankees Spring Training offices and we both pointed to a player on the 40 man roster.
Derek JETER. was our example of a player with the two tools.
Bob
I love contemplating and discussing the value/ effectiveness of scouting in baseball today. The game is changing so much right now that the team(s) that first develop a new approach to scouting will have such an advantage. Some thoughts:
* Redistribute scouting resources from geography based to skill based - pitching specialists - hitting specialists - athletic assessments - performance assessments- character evaluation
* Stop following the players my wife can identify as 1st rounders around all spring. Your organizations success will be found in the depth of the draft not the top end. As the game continues to become more athletic the useful span of a players career will get shorter. The game will be played at a higher performance level but the names of the players playing it will become less recognizable.
*Pitching is becoming a commodity. The high velo\command\ 3 pitch 4-5 inning pitchers will be the 9 figure guys. Beyond that it will be an onslaught of nameless/faceless high velo, 2pitch guys with some control not command 1 time through the order. These guys will be lined up from the major league team all the way through A ball. The most important person on the pitching staff will be the guy that writes the algorithm that allows for the maximum number of roster moves and lands the freshest arms on the MLB squad at playoff time. These arms are becoming easier to find so less emphasis should be placed on scouting in this area. Velo check-breaking ball spin rate check- write a check
*The hard part is still the hard part- hitting and 6th tool- this is where performance assessments come in- trust the trend line -not the eyes- an example- a player that has shown consistent improvement in average and power across 3 college seasons against representative pitching will continue to improve- a player who started at a higher level of average and power in college but whose results across 3 years plateau.. likely will not improve even if he is more athletically gifted. The 6th tool is present in player 1.. not so much in player 2...willingness to work/adjust/ change..
Todays associate scout / area scout / cross checker needs to be re-aligned.
