A scout from the MLB Scouting Bureau was at our Valley League Board meeting last night and was very informative, but when asked what advice he would give the college players/aspiring pro players going into their summer ball season, he said this:
"We know it's a long hot summer, with lots of travel, lots of games, and can be just a real grind-in fact, it somewhat mimics Milb ball and will be the closest thing to minor league ball the players will experience, BUT absolutely go HARD every time, every play...if a kid dogs it and runs a 4.6 to first base, he may well not even get another look and may have just blown his shot. When I scout a game, I file a report on every single player that plays. Many players won't even know we're watching. Go hard, just go hard."
He also mentioned that with the number of summer leagues, the talent is distributed more widely, so with fewer scouts, it may seem we see them less often than the old days where they were almost a nightly occurrence but their impression of the league talent level remains very high and they're watching, just not every night.
He also expressed thanks for some teams digging up talent from D II and D III schools, especially pitchers, as he says they simply can't get to every school and it's great when they can see these kids in the summer. He mentioned specifically a couple D III pitchers in the league last summer that were 93-94 and my impression was they could have been missed but for playing in a good summer league.
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