Scout Teams

To ward off those rascally YMCA Adventure Guides (the program formerly known as Indian Guides).

I thought the Yankees were trying to get rid of the Indians?

...now back to iheartbb's question. Anyone?

Who are these guys gonna ward off Woody?

I can tell you that the kid in the first row on the right certainly warded off hunger!

...now back to iheartbb's question. Anyone?

iheart-
They're teams usually put together and coached by scouts (real ones) so they can better evaluate potential prospects. Usually seen in showcase tourneys. I may be missing something vital here, but that's my take and I'm sticking with it.

Thank you Spizzle. I know it seems kind of obvious that they are trying to evaluate the guys on the team. I truly just wondered what are all of the other "scouts" that have been asked to be there, what are they writing down on their notepads, and do they share the information, do they give the information to the scout that is running the team, or do they keep it for themselves, or both? There seem to be college scouts and pro scouts present.
For pitching what are they able to tell when the guys only pitch one inning?

When my son was younger there were very few "scout teams" around here. My son played for an associate scout but you wouldn't know, by the name of the team, which team he scouted for. Strange as it is, he was a scout for STL.
Playing for a scout team doesn't necessarily mean that the manager or coach is the best around or has the best talent in the area. There are many many good coaches that have no affiliation with MLB organizations.
Scout teams have the same goal as other teams, win games. They are not intended, to produce pro players but better at identifying future prospects for everyone to see. Most of the time, the scout is not directly an employee of that organization but an associate scout who is not on a MLB team payroll. MLB fulltime scouts are employees on salary just like everyone else who has a job and most do not have time to manage a team.

All scouts will come where ever there is a game to look for prospects, no matter what affiliation the scout team has. It is their job to make notes on future prospect. That information goes back to their particular team (their boss), not the scout running the team.

I am not sure what anyone can tell from watching one inning, but maybe there is something in particular they are looking for or maybe after one inning they have no interest to watch any further.

I may be off a bit but that should answer your questions.

Good questions iheart. Unfortunately to get a good answer for some of them you'll have to ask a scout, or go to the main site and do some reading. That's actually a good idea come to think of it.
The guys who form scout teams are usually lower level guys who are trying to find players. Normally scouts will share info within their own organization and send info on players up through the ranks. Often college scouts and pro scouts from different orgs are competing for the same players, so I wouldn't expect much collaboration from them. What gets written in those little note pads is anyone's guess. Maybe it's just Sudoku or crossword that those guys are doing.
Hope this helps a little.
And sorry folks for the size of that picture. The kid that Woodrow pointed out on the right took up way too many pixels (and maybe a few too many pixie sticks). I just hate having to use the horizontal scroll button to get to the point.

My son had experience with a scout team this summer. There were about 10 guys drafted this year. They invited some 09's not drafted and some 08's, like my son. It appeared to be guys drafted in round 21 or 22 and higher. I believe they were evaluating the drafted guys to decide on signing money.

The benefit I see is getting to play in front of at least one scouting director, hanging with several scouts and listening to the interaction between the ones drafted and the scouts. Overall very enlighting experience for my son!

There are scout teams that are organized and run by full time scouts. These teams almost always play during the off-season (Fall). There are also lots of teams that call themselves scout teams that really aren’t organized or run by scouts. And there are teams run by scouts who don’t call themselves scout teams.

In Southern California (Scout Team) baseball is big, but it goes on all over the country. Some of the top scouts in an organization are running those teams. It kind of turns into a “scout” league with many of the top players competing against one another.

Anytime a scout can spend time in the dugout and on the field with a prospect… it is time well spent. All the scouts can figure out the talent part, but there is so much more they find out about the player when they’re setting next to him.

It’s easy to find out if a scout team is legit… Find out who is in charge and check him out. There are a lot of good full time MLB scouts coaching teams, especially in the fall. We plan to see some of them in Jupiter later this month.

Thanks PG I did not know that so many full time scouts run scout teams.

And I guess you are correct, find out if the scout team is legit.

TPM,

You'd be surprised how serious the "recruiting" gets at times. Lots of these scouts are very competitive, as one might imagine.

There is a full time scout in the mid atlantic that has both a summer and fall team. They are very good and I think he pretty much sees most every top player either on his team or playing against his team in his territory.

There's also one or two in the northeast. There's a couple in Florida, some in Texas, the northwest, the midwest and several in Calif., actually they're all over the place. I do think some clubs like this idea better than others.

That said there are also a lot of scout teams that are not really affiliated with scouts. That doesn't mean they're not all worthwhile. Some are very good and they call themselves scout teams because their intent is to get the players in front of as many scouts as possible.

So these scout teams don't have anything to do with routing the Adventure Guides...drats!

The kind I was refering to is run by a MLB scout on the payroll of MLB team.
A player is invited to play on the team and they play against JR college teams or other scout teams.
They either play double headers or 12 or 14 inning games. The pitchers only pitch 1 inning each the position players play 1/2 the game and the rest do the same. There are usually 3 or 4 catchers who share time. They do this for about 5 or 6 weeks playing one weekend day (sat or sun).

So, the purpose is for evaluation, and to try to get to know players a little more personally?

Yes, and I would recommend doing that in the situation you described above. It's not just about pro ball, these scouts work closely with the top colleges.

There seem to be as many or more college scouts in attendance, almost all stay for the complete game.

My son played on a scout team the fall of his Jr and Sr year. The team was put together by the the area scout and coached by assoc. scout. The team played against other scout teams in front of college coaches and other pro scouts.
It was to show case talent.
I might add baseball is a very small world. That area scout is now my son's Director of minor league operations. and his infield roving instructor remenbers scouting my sons fall team
Coaches are very well connected with pro and college scouts.