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Hope this information helps others as well.. a little about my son.. he is a 21 year old Junior this year playing at Lamar University in Texas. He is a RHP 6'6" 214 lbs. He has a low to mid 90's FB sits usually 90-93 but cant touch 95-96. Really good changeup, very good Slurve  ball.. He played High School ball in Magnolia Texas, was a starting pitcher, finished the season 7-3 record .70 ERA 67K in 47 innings.. also broke school record with 18K in 7 inning game. He then went to Navarro Junior College for 2 seasons.. Starting Pitcher again, had a 15-4 record 143K 138 innings pitched.. also went to JUCO world series 2019 and pitched a complete game against Cowley Junior College and earned the win. Now at Lamar University, he has been told he is one of the 3 starters there.. Now last year Austin had 9 pro teams talking to him all the way to the 3rd day of the draft and he was Not selected.. one of the scouts told him the reason for not being selected was his inconsistency with his FB.. he sat 90-93 most of the season then during the JUCO world series game he only topped out at 90. Now this year he is busting his butt and really working hard.. he has been clocked at 96 peak so far but typically sits 90-93 most of the time. 

So.. my question for the scouts is.... what does he need to do to get more exposure? The Navarro coach didn't really promote any of his players.. now at Lamar University his pitching coach is telling him not to worry, it will happen this year.. We as parents are trying to help get him promoted and are putting videos of him on YouTube and other social media sites.. Every coach that sees him pitch says he's got it... but yet.. he still has not been selected.. fingers crossed and prayers every day that this is his year!!!!

I've attached a small 23 sec clip from him pitching a week ago.. 

 

 

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Austin Faith RHP lamar University
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Pro-ball scouting will find every single player with a projectable MLB tool and draft that player (or offer him a FA contract). There is no promoting him via utube, emails, or any other way.

Texas is covered by every single MLB team - most, if not all, with multiple area scouts because the state is huge AND a hotbed of talent. 

I know the wait is difficult for you'll and him. And yes, not sitting 90 after sitting above that all year long was probably a factor. (What did he state as his bonus amount last year? I assume because he had discussions with multiple clubs, he threw out a number.)

By your description, he took the result of last year's draft and used it as fuel to up his game - a very good use of his disappointment.

I would go out on a limb and say that every pitcher in the country sitting 90-3 for an entire season will eventually get drafted (assuming repeatable mechanics, decent control, and at least two pitches PLUS and an in-the-ball-park bonus demand). (No injury.)

He's doing all he can working his tail off. Scouts will be plentiful at Lamar home games - they are well known.

Also, have a bonus number that is realistic and don't let that knock him out of consideration.

PS, the coach at Lamar is correct. Also, be aware, that I have seen more than a few players regress as draft pressure mounts. It's best (and virtually impossible) to ignore the draft and focus on his job  - winning and getting guys out.

Last edited by Goosegg

Assuming he is getting good results this Spring with his pitches he seems like he has many of the desired traits.  Size being very unteachable  Fastball is certainly in the very desirable range.  

My son had a team mate that threw an easy 93 mph fastball.  It was effortless in watching him.  Unfortunately, he had absolutely no movement and it was regularly squared up and led to a very high ERA.  He was still drafted as a Senior and had a good first season in short season A ball.  If the fastball has little movement that can be a detractor.  

Generally, the interested scouts will talk to the player to begin getting a read on him.  

If he has similar success at DI as he did his JUCO I would suspect he will get drafted.  Logically, I would have thought someone would have taken him based on size and fastball.

If not drafted then certainly try to get in a high level Summer League if possible.  If he only is on a Temp contract in the Cape there are a lot of eyes on him during the time he is there.

I am curious, why  did you use your sons name?

Your son wasn't drafted because he wasn't ready to play professional ball out of Navarro. Obviously. Often teams like to see how JUCO players do in D1.  And sometimes it doesn't happen until their senior year.

Nothing you can do at this point, it is up to him and his coach to figure it out.  Hopefully he can help them to win more games!

Enjoy the moments!

 

Thanks for the comments and direct opinion... as for using his name, I obviously made a mistake by posting that as the display name, not sure how to change or edit that.. 
On Monday, February 3, 2020, 06:07:41 PM CST, HS Baseball Web <alerts@crowdstack.com> wrote:


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I am curious, why  did you use your sons name?

Your son wasn't drafted because he wasn't ready to play professional ball out of Navarro. Obviously. Often teams like to see how JUCO players do in D1.  And sometimes it doesn't happen until their senior year.

Nothing you can do at this point, it is up to him and his coach to figure it out.  Hopefully he can help them to win more games!

Enjoy the moments!

 
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Thanks for not beating around the bush and telling me what we need to hear.... definitely will take it and go with it.. 
On Monday, February 3, 2020, 05:58:40 PM CST, HS Baseball Web <alerts@crowdstack.com> wrote:


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| Subject: Help getting son drafted this year... Reply By: adbono In: GENERAL HSBBWEB FORUMS / Ask the Scout | A |


The pitching coach at Lamar is a solid guy. You can take him at his word. All the things you are doing will not accomplish anything. Let your son play ball and support him as a parent instead of trying to be his agent. 
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Mr. Faith,

Listen to ADBONO's advice.

Now for answering a post, I see that you need help with that.

Do not answer the post directly from your email. Come back to the site, find the person that you wish to answer, click on the "take action" in left hand corner and then hit reply.

As far as changing your name, you can notify a moderator, I do believe they can make the change for you. 

Hope that this helps.

Last edited by TPM

"Curious how much actual feedback you get from scouts, or is it just like college recruitment."

The answer to this: it depends. (Ha)

What the scouts do in the stands isn't a secret; they cluster in groups behind the plate and occasionally move (mostly in small herds) down the lines - all the while doing "scout things."

The key to mining their info is being friendly and timing.

Scouts are at the games to work, so first and foremost they must be given space and time to do that. The overwhelming amount of work (at the game) is done during the innings; between innings is social time with scouts swapping stories/lies/exaggerations with their neighbors.

So, how to get info?

First, remember that the first key scout who evaluates your son is the area scout (ignore most Associate scouts as they are mere placeholders and most lack the experience of the Area scout). The area scout (AS) has a defined area and only scouts within this area; as such, unless an opposing school is in his area, the AS only does home games. (The AS is the one who writes reports and sends video back to his club. He is the one who can judge your son's mechanics.)

Second, over time a parent who attends a fair amount of home games soon learns the names of the scouts and their organizations. (Don't know the name? Before the game, go down and introduce yourself and ask your questions.) [Its a somewhat cloistered job and scouts are naturally gregarious and will carry a conversation when they're not working.]

Now, leverage that "relationship" to your advantage.

How? Say your son is the SP. Before the game, say hello to your new scout friend, and in passing mention that your son is the SP. Between innings, when the scout is not working, ask how your son is doing. Typically the scout will tell you his various velos; then you can ask how his delivery looks. Most scouts will tell you the good and the bad. It's really that simple - but you need to have built that initial relationship. (Home visits offer the same opportunity; but for college kids, most scouts meet with them [maybe to pass out the questionnaire] without parents present.)

Over time, as your relationship with the AS lengthens, you can take more liberty. For example, if there's a seat next to or directly behind the scout, sit there; most scouts cant help themselves and will soon be including you in what they are seeing.

(Remember, scouts aren't scouting EVERY player, they concentrate on the draft eligible and loosely pay attention to the rest. Most games - of the 70ish players in uniform - only a relative handful are being scouted.]

PS. Some AS are better than others so take the feedback with that in mind. You'll need to judge who knows what.

(Over the 15 years I actively attended college games [70+ per year], I was able to pump lots of info out of lots of scouts, cross-checkers, reporters, and the like. Now it's five years later and my interest in the workings of the system has waned but when I go to games, I'm still friends  with a bunch of the guys.  People love to talk about baseball!)

 

 

Goosegg posted:

"Curious how much actual feedback you get from scouts, or is it just like college recruitment."

The answer to this: it depends. (Ha)

What the scouts do in the stands isn't a secret; they cluster in groups behind the plate and occasionally move (mostly in small herds) down the lines - all the while doing "scout things."

The key to mining their info is being friendly and timing.

Scouts are at the games to work, so first and foremost they must be given space and time to do that. The overwhelming amount of work (at the game) is done during the innings; between innings is social time with scouts swapping stories/lies/exaggerations with their neighbors.

So, how to get info?

First, remember that the first key scout who evaluates your son is the area scout (ignore most Associate scouts as they are mere placeholders and most lack the experience of the Area scout). The area scout (AS) has a defined area and only scouts within this area; as such, unless an opposing school is in his area, the AS only does home games. (The AS is the one who writes reports and sends video back to his club. He is the one who can judge your son's mechanics.)

Second, over time a parent who attends a fair amount of home games soon learns the names of the scouts and their organizations. (Don't know the name? Before the game, go down and introduce yourself and ask your questions.) [Its a somewhat cloistered job and scouts are naturally gregarious and will carry a conversation when they're not working.]

Now, leverage that "relationship" to your advantage.

How? Say your son is the SP. Before the game, say hello to your new scout friend, and in passing mention that your son is the SP. Between innings, when the scout is not working, ask how your son is doing. Typically the scout will tell you his various velos; then you can ask how his delivery looks. Most scouts will tell you the good and the bad. It's really that simple - but you need to have built that initial relationship. (Home visits offer the same opportunity; but for college kids, most scouts meet with them [maybe to pass out the questionnaire] without parents present.)

Over time, as your relationship with the AS lengthens, you can take more liberty. For example, if there's a seat next to or directly behind the scout, sit there; most scouts cant help themselves and will soon be including you in what they are seeing.

(Remember, scouts aren't scouting EVERY player, they concentrate on the draft eligible and loosely pay attention to the rest. Most games - of the 70ish players in uniform - only a relative handful are being scouted.]

PS. Some AS are better than others so take the feedback with that in mind. You'll need to judge who knows what.

(Over the 15 years I actively attended college games [70+ per year], I was able to pump lots of info out of lots of scouts, cross-checkers, reporters, and the like. Now it's five years later and my interest in the workings of the system has waned but when I go to games, I'm still friends  with a bunch of the guys.  People love to talk about baseball!)

 

 

This is one of the better (and most accurate) posts I have ever read on this site. 

TPM posted:

Mr. Faith,

Listen to ADBONO's advice.

Now for answering a post, I see that you need help with that.

Do not answer the post directly from your email. Come back to the site, find the person that you wish to answer, click on the "take action" in left hand corner and then hit reply.

As far as changing your name, you can notify a moderator, I do believe they can make the change for you. 

Hope that this helps.

thanks so much for the help... and the for the advice... still trying to learn how to navigate this site.. 

CTbballDad posted:

"Inconsistency with the FB" is that velocity or command, or both?  Curious how much actual feedback you get from scouts, or is it just like college recruitment.

Well.. very good question... and i'll give my best answer.. I would say its inconsistency with both.. the scout that called my son back after the draft was over last year told him it was his lack of velo at the JUCO word series, due to it being in Grand Junction Colorado.. he should have been throwing harder there and only topped 90 thru 5 innings pitched.. we watched other kids from other teams topping 93 to 95 while there.. he just wasn't feeling it.. now during the season my son has had issues with ball control.. he tends to walk more batters that he should.. so I take that as another reason scouts may have looked the other way.. but its very hard to understand because I attended most of his games last year.. I watched these scouts and listened to them.. I spoke with many of them.. all seemed to love what my son had to offer.. size, velo, movement, good off speed.. several of the scouts told me flat out yes.. "he will definitely get picked up this year".. he even had a scout call him the day before the draft and asked him if we choose you this round for this much money would you accept.. my son said yes sir, absolutely... and still nada!! he was crushed after the draft.. the feedback, I as the father was always very good.. I had several scouts approach me at the games and say hello Mr Faith... I would see the same scouts at multiple games.. home games and some away games.. always very friendly and seemed to be very honest with opinions.. was also approached by several college coaches as well once they realized I was his father.. most were D2, NAIA, and some smaller D1.. he had a ton of interest from big D1 SEC schools but his Grades GPA were horrible.. he was struggling to just pass his classes at the JUCO level.. he was so sure he was getting drafted he relaxed on his grades and it effected his ability to go play at the next level of college ball.. 

I can't tell you how the scouts are looking at your son, or if he will get drafted. That said I've sat through 4 years of my son playing fall ball and hitting over the winter for a scout that has now worked his way to Director of Scouting for an MLB team. It was eye-opening and I'll give you this advice. They (he) sees the game in a very different way than anybody I had ran into before, and a lot of people who think they know how the game should be played, don't know. So be careful who you seek advice from.

I will say this. Reading your post it seems you are having a lot of interaction with these scouts. At the level it sounds like your son would be drafted at the MiLB is a grind. It can be a merisable dog eat dog life. Choose your words and what you share carefully least you leave the impression your son would never make it.

Last edited by SomeBaseballDad

A scout used to watch my son from the parking lot, sometimes with binoculars.  Not only was he interested in son's performance, but also how he got along with teammates in the dugout, with opposition team, his effort, attitude when he struck out or made an error, etc.  Son was being evaluated as to what type of teammate he will be at the next level.  Can he handle the long grueling minor league days, being away from familiar settings, making his teammates better or only in it for himself, hustle and effort, and maturity.  Control the things you are able to and not worry about things beyond your reach.  Before the draft based on publications, son was projected to be a lower 1st round  pick.  He flew out to 8 or 9 MLB workouts in about a 2 week period, the highest one had a top 5 pick.  They loved him and gave the "impression" if he was available they would pick him.  Turned out they didn't but son was picked soon after, a complete surprise by a team who showed little interest beforehand.  Take home lesson is you never know who is watching so do everything you can on and off the field to leave a lasting impression.  Best of luck with this journey.  Good or bad there are very few athletes who will experience what you and your son are given the opportunity to sample.

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