Major League Scouting Bureau Restructuring

They also are expanding searchs in Puerto Rico.This year 160 players will try out in front of scouts at a showcase for ther  third year. Teams  are hoping to find another Carlos Correa. The philosophy is to find the best talent in the world. That coming from Latin American countries now expanding to Puerto Rico.

When our area scout came to us, he told me that he had been watching son since he entered HS. They also hold showcases for prospects. All of his medical info was available through the bureau as film, so not sure what has changed?

Identifying sooner?

This is good. MLBSB's reports are universally ignored for the most part, minus verifiable velocities and other stuff. By focusing them on a "combine" type system and just focusing on shooting a ton of video, they will provide a huge benefit for the teams.

Does this change any opinions on recruiting/scouting of some of the more knowledgeable people on the board? 

I have read several times on here that until a player plays a varsity game in High School there is no point in even thinking about recruiting/scouting.  Now the scouting bureau is confirming they are evaluating 9th graders.

Thoughts?

PG, and to some extent other 3rd party organizations, hold domestic platforms for player identification, and have a stranglehold on that market service. And it's one of the starting points for MLB player identification, leading to East Coast Pro, Area Code Games, as well as more regional events. Once players are ID'd, the clubs then start their own eval process: medical history, testing (eye, intelligence, etc.), practice observation, and so on.

I've failed to see how MLBSB has played a unique role in this process. If anything, it's redundant to the individual club LOE. In effect, the MLBSB has been complete marginalized. 

So far, I've found that the service provided by MLBSB is one of communication, i.e., a central point of communication for the clubs regarding Player X. However, given the many channels of digital communication beyond phone, this too is redundant: communication has been direct between Player X and club.

Bavasi's action is a recognition of the obvious, and I'd bet that he had marching orders from the get-go. EMEA and APAC are uncovered markets.

This is the ML SCOUTING Bureau.   Each area has a bureau scout assigned. All areas operate differently.  Nothing you have to be concerned about at this time.  The bureau gathers information and does eye tests for potential prospects.  Then they submit info to ML. I suppose now they may start identifying kids earlier.

See Lyles post

The other thing they are doing is discontinuing open tryouts in the United States.  This will make it just a little bit harder for the longshot kid trying to be discovered.

I can only assume the duties of a scout are changing?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/...amp;utm_campaign=mlb

My dad was an avid baseball fan, as in he wouldn't move to Georgia until I could assure him that someone here had the YES station so he could watch all the Yankee games with the announcers that HE liked.  He always made scouting sound like a mystical psychic ability that couldn't be accomplished by just looking at numbers on a paper.

Now it appears that the scouting industry is relying on reading numbers rather than talking to players?  I don't get it.

I think just the MLB scouting bureau is changing focus.  Each club has it's own scouting organization, so there was a bit of redundancy with the bureau. 

Not to promote the book, but Moneyball does a good job explaining how a team with a whole lot less money has to go out and find value players, not just the best players.  Not sure of the exact dates, but maybe 25+ years ago, it was a pretty inexpensive proposition.  These days top guys get $20 million+ each year for 5+ years.  The poor teams need to go out and find the player making a mere $1 million that can still contribute - or maybe get some guy still making minimum, build him up and then use him for trade currency.  Data can still help with the top shelf guys, but is by far more useful when fishing in the bottom half by necessity.   

I am a big fan of TrackMan and I think statistics around well struck balls - versus weaker hits that just happen to drop in - is one area that can pay dividends.  Why pay a few extra million to some guy that may have had a lucky season.  

Also, the comment above about the availability of information is key - no longer any real need to centralize this type of information when each team probably has it at its fingertips.  

And yes, analytical analysis has taken over the industry. The whole industry has changed, even with advisors/agents. Son has a friend in a pretty big agency who has to learn analytics in baseball.

That combined with scouting services and other sources is shutting out the need for the Bureau scouts.

I think that we're seeing the bureau catch up (by restructuring) to reflect the "new" information age.  It is so easy to share information now and there is so much more available to the extent that much of what the bureau was gathering was old news by the time it got to the teams.  There are rarely any guys that are playing in a cornfield that no one knows about.  Also, the data that recruiting showcases (PG, et al) now have available is far more meaningful than a player Bio.  I remember when it was big news that this kid from Texas, Todd Van Poppel, was a big time prospect.  Now there are 20 big time prospects in every graduating class that even the most docile baseball fan knows about.

Of course now teams can also view and analyze other team's prospect databases (insert St. Louis, Houston joke here)  . . . .

Bill Bavasi met with us when he took over for the MLBSB.  It was obvious that changes were coming soon.  We talked about various partnership ideas. He told us that MLB office wanted to work something out with PG. So far nothing has happened other than continuing to communicate.

Now we have several MLB clubs inquiring about purchasing access to our database.  Some may not know it, but we have the largest database of amateur players in existence.  And it is no surprise that MLB, the clubs, and the bureau are taking more interest in younger players.

Several years ago we decided to start doing events for younger underclassmen.  Originally this was met with a lot of sceptism from MLB scouting organizations.  Our goal was to gather as much information as possible on younger players, so that we had a history on them as they developed and became draft eligible or recruited by colleges.  In fact, this turned into something that is greatly responsible for all the early commitments these days.

I got a call one day from Dan Jennings who at that time was the Scouting Director for the Rays. Actually the Devil Rays at that time.  He was calling for information on a draft eligible player, and I mentioned that we were going to start doing events for younger kids.  He said WHY, we don't care about younger players, we don't have time to follow them.  I said, I know you don't care, but you should!  Once again he said why, so I used a simple example.  

Let's say you have two pitchers you and your staff are undecided on.  All you have to go by is what your scouts reported over the past year.  Now what if you had a 4 or 5 year history on those two? What if you knew one pitcher consistently gained velocity each year while the other was throwing the same velocity as he did three years ago.  Who would you predict will be better next year? And that is just one example and a simple one where history can actually help in projecting players, be they pitchers or position players. In a way it even speaks to other important issues including makeup and work ethic.

I will never forget Dan's reply... "Jerry, I think you're really on to something here.  

Now we have well over 100,000 players with some history in our database. That includes information way beyond what anyone can read on our scouting service.  Plus the capability of that database provides so many search functions that it is easy to find most anything. Not to mention we have the most video of amateur players also. This database has information that no one ever sees.  Here Is something to think about... There are even notes about wacko parents in there. By this season even the basic statistics from tournaments and showcases will be dumped in.

We believe that within two years every MLB club's analytical and scouting departments will be using the database.  It's really simple, that database has the most information anywhere on amateur players.  MLB organizations know that.  So a combination of what the Bureau will be concentrating on and our database will be a big improvement.

All that said,  I completely disagree with the thought of eliminating scouts.  I believe that will backfire for those organizations doing it.  You simply can't replace those eye balls out there watching.  Players cost so much these days, it makes no sense to try and save money be eliminating scouts.

Good scouting departments build winning teams.  You don't have to go far to see the evidence.  How about the current World Champion Royals.  Look what has happened with teams like Toronto and Houston.  All a result of strong scouting!  Why on earth would anyone want to replace something that has worked so well? And is working right now,

The combination of analytics and trained eyes can't be beat.  Just one without the other is a short cut that won't work as well, leaves a lot to be desired.

The other thing to consider is this... Every year there are scouts that lose their job for various reasons.  There really isn't a lot of security involved in MLB scouting.  The turnover is something unavoidable.  One thing I have noticed over the past decade or so is a big increase in hiring younger scouts.  Perfect Game has about a dozen former scouts, some that started with us as interns, that have been hired by MLB clubs.  These are all young guys.  To my knowledge all of those guys are still employed.  Some have moved up the ladder and are now crosscheckers. Still we manage to keep most of our best scouts by paying them more than the MLB clubs offer.  Plus there is more job security.

Having spent so much time in scouting and recruiting I understand what it takes to get the job done.  Anyone that has been there can't help but respect and admire those that are good at it.  And like most everything else, the harder you work, the more you see, the better you are.

PGStaff posted:

 

Here Is something to think about... There are even notes about wacko parents in there. 

I believe this is where the term "big data" came from.

PGStaff posted:

Now we have several MLB clubs inquiring about purchasing access to our database.  Some may not know it, but we have the largest database of amateur players in existence.  And it is no surprise that MLB, the clubs, and the bureau are taking more interest in younger players. 

It is the most valuable asset owned by PG. Once they add future performance to the DB, and a predictive engine, then conduct hundreds of thousands of simulations to identify key performance variables, then the data's value increases exponentially while opening up potential buyers to not only MLB clubs, but D1 schools, advisors, gear manufacturers, etc.

Will PG sell the database as a whole, or will they sell Data-as-a-Service?

For those who do not believe in the viability of this notion, just sit back and wait to see if the simulations are successful. You may be right. I doubt it, but you may be right.

The database will be a service.  It is true that the database is our most valuable asset even though it hasn't directly produced much revenue. We need to have full control of the data, while allowing others to utilize it. Information is entered almost every day.

Probably just as important as all the information is the ability find what you're looking for.  While this would be very beneficial to scouting departments, we are actually getting just as much interest from the anilytical departments of ML organizations.  They all have their own database and want to dump our data into theirs.

Back to the importance of scouts.  Some think all this technology will replace scouting jobs.  Think about this... It's already to the point that not many players get overlooked.  All 30 organizations know who the best prospects are. The more information the better, but at some point decisions have to be made.  The technology can help in making decisions, but in the end everything depends on what those in the scouting department see and believe.  IMO  Those that try saving money by eliminating scouts are going to find things out the hard way.  Talented, hard working scouts, will always be the life blood of a ML organization. Same thing goes for college recruiters and success at that level.

As a former software engineer who has deep roots in technology, I am happy to see that technology is paving the way for some great scouting. Great job PG! I hope that one day my son will reap the benefits of this technological advance in MLB Scouting.

The Bureau did not adjust to the International arena. Sabermetrics does not play a role in 33 per cent of the Minor League players not subject to the draft.

Bob

founder of the Area Code team with International players 1995-2004