To Scouts, Wood Bat Tournaments Are True Test for Prospects
By RAY GLIER
Published: July 18, 2005
MARIETTA, Ga., July 16 - As Justin Smoak stood in the on-deck circle, it was easy to see why he could be in a major league uniform in a few years. Smoak, an 18-year-old from Goose Creek, S.C., is a muscular 6 feet 4 inches and 195 pounds, and with a few practice swings, there was evidence of sound mechanics and potential.
Wood bat tournaments for high schoolers, like the one last week in Marietta, Ga., attract major league scouts.
But a professional scout standing in the crowd shook his head in dismay as Smoak went to the plate for an at-bat with the South Carolina Diamond Devils.
"When I worked him out with a wood bat, he was O.K., nothing great," said the scout, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to talk publicly about specific players. "He abuses the ball with a metal bat, but with wood, there was a difference in how he hit it. Maybe he just had a bad day for me."
A few moments later, Smoak hit a fly ball to short right field for an out.
"See?" the scout said. "He's got a sweet swing, and he's what a major league ballplayer should look like, but he is not always able to center the ball with the wood bat."
Some players who thrive at the plate with an aluminum bat cannot produce the same pop with a wood bat. That is why scouts flock to wood bat tournaments like the World Wood Bat Association 18-and-under tournament, which concluded here Sunday.
Smoak was drafted in the 16th round by the Oakland Athletics last month, but he said he could have gone as high as the third round if he had not demanded a $1 million signing bonus. He worked out with a wood bat for major league teams after the high school season, which ended just a few weeks before the draft.
"It's a tough business," Smoak said with a smile when told about the scout's evaluation. "Most of those workouts were just a week after I finished the high school season with an aluminum bat."
The W.W.B.A. is holding national wood bat tournaments for 15-, 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds throughout the summer and fall, giving major league teams opportunities to see players use a wood bat before their senior year of high school. The tournaments often attract the top prospects in the country because they are eager to play in front of pro scouts.
"We draft a lot of high school players, so the more times we see them against the best competition, the better decisions we're going to make," said Roy Clark, the scouting director for the Atlanta Braves. "I'm seeing guys 20 to 30 times against good pitching with a wood bat, and to me, that's priceless.
"In this tournament they pitch to good hitters, while in high school, coaches know the good hitters on the other team, and they don't pitch to them with that aluminum bat. I haven't seen one intentional walk in two weeks."
Several players in the 114-team 18-and-under tournament here have already been drafted or have signed with college teams, but the tournament is also open to 17-year-olds who will be eligible for the 2006 draft.
"With the 17-and-under tournament last week and this tournament, I can get my entire follow list for next year's draft," said Chris Jefts, a scout who covers Georgia, northern Florida and South Carolina for the Cleveland Indians.
"A lot of times, you will see a kid who can hit with aluminum, but they can't do the same thing with wood, which has a much smaller sweet spot. Aluminum bats fool you, especially with raw power. If they can drive the ball to the opposite-field gap with a wood bat, then you have an idea of their power."
Most scouts are easy to pick out in the crowd here. The black string dangling from their pants pockets is attached to a stop watch, used to time runners going from the batter's box to first base. Scouts for major league teams customarily wear long pants; the college coaches wear shorts.
Some college coaches attend the tournaments, even though aluminum bats are used in college baseball. Randy Tomlin, the coach at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1990's, said the wood bat tournaments were valuable to him because they gave him an accurate display of what a player could do at the plate.
"You can judge bat speed better, you can see if they have a swing that is too long, and you can judge their balance," Tomlin said.
He added that the wood bat tournaments were a valuable forum for evaluating pitchers, too, because they are facing many of the top high school hitters in the country.
In the 18-and-under tournament here, there seemed to be few bats breaking, probably because young players with major league aspirations put away their aluminum bats after the high school season, knowing they must learn to hit with wood bats.
"Five years ago, there would have been broken bats all over the place in this tournament," said Alex Slattery, a scout who covers Georgia for the Chicago White Sox. "But the high school players are taking batting practice with a wood bat during their season and they are playing in a lot of these wood bat tournaments, so they know how to handle a wood bat."
Matt Cerione, a top prospect who will be a senior at Chattahoochee High School near Atlanta, said he knew that he had to get out in front of an inside pitch with a wood bat to avoid being jammed and breaking his bat. He also knew not to try to pull outside pitches, as he would with an aluminum bat.
Jason Place of Easley, S.C., who is projected to be selected high in the 2006 draft, said: "The wood bat tournament definitely weeds out the bad hitters from the good hitters. The scouts don't care what you can do with a metal bat."
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