had a quick question.
what is some advice for the player -in these meetings with scouts- other than "just being yourself" ?
Son is pitcher junior elig/ senior in school..
any advice would be helpful
thank you
had a quick question.
what is some advice for the player -in these meetings with scouts- other than "just being yourself" ?
Son is pitcher junior elig/ senior in school..
any advice would be helpful
thank you
Replies sorted oldest to newest
I would not suggest sitting down with a scout unless your son is prepared for to answer their questions. They are there essentially on a fact finding mission
Perhaps @iowabbmom or
@PTWood can help or anyone else whose son has recently been drafted or signed as FA.
Send a pm if you have any questions.
I’d be happy to share our experience but @TPM is 100% right that they are on a fact finding mission. One is to get to know his make up and his character (hopefully the east part and also the part where being yourself matters) but they will also be fishing for information about signability, injuries, etc and that’s were you have to somewhat savvy. I’m overseas right now but would be happy to share more via FaceTime or Zoom if you’d like.
Fishnsail,
is your a HS junior or College junior? Did he play in the West Coast College Summer League. Did he play in the Area Code games? Objective is “ signability “, Do you have an agent?
Bob
@PTWood posted:I’d be happy to share our experience but @TPM is 100% right that they are on a fact finding mission. One is to get to know his make up and his character (hopefully the east part and also the part where being yourself matters) but they will also be fishing for information about signability, injuries, etc and that’s were you have to somewhat savvy. I’m overseas right now but would be happy to share more via FaceTime or Zoom if you’d like.
Thank you PT.
@Consultant posted:Fishnsail,
is your a HS junior or College junior? Did he play in the West Coast College Summer League. Did he play in the Area Code games? Objective is “ signability “, Do you have an agent?
Bob
He is a College junior in eligibility . mid major.
he did play in WCL . he did not go to area code games(was good in HS but is somewhat of a consistant "steady-late " bloomer)
no agent.. don't think we are close to that point
Fishnsail:
As TPM and PT have related, the Pro Scouts are gathering info.
They are trained in "non-verbal" communication. You should learn if the Scout is a Area Scout or a Supervisor. Always retain their card.
Bob
@fishnsail posted:He is a College junior in eligibility . mid major.
he did play in WCL . he did not go to area code games(was good in HS but is somewhat of a consistant "steady-late " bloomer)
no agent.. don't think we are close to that point
If you are having home visits, you’re probably to that point.
My son is going through this right now. Taking home visits from scouts. I would say just be yourself. They are trying to get a feel for the player's character and see if there are any red flags. One observation after the first one was they are not there to just lob softball questions to hit out of the park. They actually asked some business interview type questions "Can you recall a time where you felt stressed out on the field. What was the situation? What techniques did you use to try to calm the stress? What was the outcome of the situation?". Kind of threw my son for a loop. After the first one we discussed those type of questions. He now gets what they are after. If anything, good to experience what real world interviews can be like.
Like mentioned above, they are trying to figure out signability. How determined are you with going to college? My son was advised to talk up college a lot during the visits.
ARCEKU21, that last statement is a slippery slope. We have a kid who didn't get drafted and when asked why teams told him that during the interviews he and his mom made it clear he was determined to finish college so they did not look much closer. Son has had a few so far and my advice was the answer is I can come back but my heart is to give MLB a shot if the price is right. But he is not talking what the right price is right now.
Ohhh. We also took notes. I agree that knowing who is in the room is important. Super helpful. There is a huge difference in a meeting with thee area scout and a meeting where you have national cross checkers or members of the GMs team involved. With a HSer we were on the calls (during COVID so ours was all Zoom) but we stayed as quiet as possible unless a question was addressed to us. We have a whole notebook of questions but I don’t have the notebook with me.
Set time limits if you can otherwise you give up a crazy amount of time doing this. Ironically the team that was the most obnoxious was the team that drafted him.
It’s a pretty intrusive process, but my perspective is from 2015 - 2017. Please tell me that they no longer do paper surveys? The Kid thought the first couple were fun, but after that he pushed that job to his administrative assistant…
My favorite question “Has anyone in your immediate or extended family died before the age of 50, and if so how?” I thought, hell if I croak now that I’m past 50, it’s no big deal…
My only counsel is that as a parent you give as much advice as the ball player wants, the last thing you want is to be responsible for a choice that doesn’t end well. It’s a huge life choice, and it needs to be 100% the decision of the person that it’s going to impact.
On that note, my kid chose different than my counsel on the draft twice - and I’m so glad he followed his heart.