Crack of the Bat
by Blaine Clemmens
Scouting 201
"Keeping your eyes on the prize"
No matter what level of baseball they are scouting for or for whom they are scouting, it is EXTREMELY important for each scout to know what he is looking for. That statement is not referring to simply "good players" or "prospects." That is a given. The "prize" is in finding players that are prospects for a specific level of the game. The "prize" is different for different levels of baseball.
When a scout goes to a game, workout, or showcase they are looking for players that can compete at a certain level. The D1 college coach is looking for players that can compete at the D1 level, the MLB amateur scout (scouts high school and college players) is looking for professional prospects, the MLB professional scout (scouts MLB and minor league players) is looking for players for the Big League club to potentially acquire (via trade, free-agency, Rule V draft, etc.), the Perfect Game scout is evaluating players' as it pertains to both college and professional baseball. This likely does not come as a great shock to anyone reading this.
Each scout or organization has their own grading scale for players. Major League Baseball uses a 20-80 scale. Some college programs and coaches also use that scale while others have their own, maybe with letter grades A-D or numbers 2-5. No matter the scale, each one has a grade that equates to "average" ability. For the 20-80 scale that number is 50, for the A-D scale average may be a C, for the numbers 2-5 it may be a 3.
In any case, the term "average" ability is one of the most commonly misunderstood terms, particularly among parents and high school players. What needs to be understood is that a player that is considered to have "below average" arm strength by a MLB scout may be considered to have "average" arm strength by a D1 college coach, and in relation to all high school players, he likely would be considered to have "above average" arm strength. So a parent reads or sometimes hears that their son has an average arm and they are not happy hearing that. Understanding of "average" is often what parents are lacking, which is understandable.
Perfect Game is relied upon by both pro and college baseball for our evaluations of players, as they relate to the appropriate level, pro or college. We may speak to a coach from XYZ University about a player that has an "average" fastball, but when speaking to a MLB scout about the same player he now has a "below average" fastball. We have to be able to evaluate a player's ability relevant to all levels of baseball and then communicate to the public how we feel that player projects to each level.
Now we are getting closer to the point of this article. The thing that throws off parents, high school coaches, summer coaches, the players themselves, as well as some scouts at all levels of the game is perspective. They do not see enough baseball at the higher levels to accurately evaluate a high school player's ability level relevant to those higher levels. There is a simple way to gain the proper perspective, go to more D1 and professional baseball games.
College coaches regularly see and evaluate their own players in practice and games. They also spend a lot of time scouting and evaluating players from other college programs for scouting reports. When a college coach scouts high school players he is evaluating their ability in comparison to current players in his program and players in other college programs. For him an average arm is an arm that at the high school level is above average.
MLB amateur scouts see both high school and college players. They are evaluating the abilities of those players in relation to professional baseball. Most, if not all MLB amateur scouts get the opportunity to do what is called "pro coverage" after the draft each June. That means their organization sends them to scout minor league games and in some cases Major League games. For the MLB amateur scout an average arm is one that at the high school level is a plus, at the least well above average.
At Perfect Game we see many, if not most of the elite high school players in the country each year. We also see many average and below average high school players. The opportunity to see the top high school players each year allows us the perspective to evaluate other high school players as having elite, average, or below average ability, relevant to all high school players in their draft class.
However, we do not have events specifically for college players. There are some college players on rosters at the 18U WWBA and BCS tournaments, but mostly we see high school players at our events. Because we see so many of the elite high school players on a year to year basis and eventually know what round they are drafted in or what schools recruited/signed them and most importantly what type of success they go on to have in pro or college baseball, we have a unique perspective to be able to evaluate, grade, and rank high school players.
Speaking only for myself, that alone is not enough to keep my "eyes on the prize." The way I am able to keep sharp, or "keep my eyes on the prize" is to not only see a wide range of high school players, but to also spend a lot of time at the ballpark watching college baseball games. There are nine D1 programs within a two hour drive from where I live. Six of those programs are within an hour of my house and one (U of San Francisco) is only a five minutes away. The rest of this report is simply me telling how I try to gain perspective about the abilities of players.
In the last five days I have seen four D1 games: Sacramento State at U of San Francisco (Feb. 11 & 12), San Diego State at Santa Clara (Feb. 12), and San Jose State at USF (Feb. 14). Rest assured they are not the only D1 games I will see. My assumption is that I am not the only Perfect Game scout that watches a lot of college baseball, but I can only speak for myself and tell you part of what I do to continually develop as a scout.
The D1 programs in the Bay Area are from the Pac-10, WCC, Big West, and WAC conferences so each season I have a chance to see many of the top programs in the nation when they play at Cal, Stanford, USF, Santa Clara, St. Mary's, Santa Clara, San Jose State, Sacramento State, UC Davis, and Pacific. For example, this weekend Texas will come to the Bay Area to play Stanford and later this spring U of San Diego will visit USF. If you recall, USD swept the defending national champion Longhorns a couple of weekends ago.
Additionally, Fresno State (and for that matter Nevada-Reno and Cal Poly) is only a three hour drive for me and of course Southern California is only an hour plane flight away.
By so frequently watching D1 baseball I believe that I (and every other scout that spends most of his time watching high school players) can more accurately and fairly evaluate and project high school players for D1 baseball. That also means an awful lot to the college coaches.
The more I see their teams play, the more help I am to them with identifying high school players that can play for them. If I have seen XYZ University a number of times, their coaching staff can feel comfortable discussing players with me. On the flip side, if I have not seen ABC State play I would not be as comfortable telling one of their coaches that a player could or could not play there.
As many of you are aware, I used to coach at USF. The senior class at USF was recruited by me and I scouted and began the recruitment of many of the juniors (excluding the JC players) during the summer of 2002 before I left the program that August. Each of those players is a report card of sorts for me to grade my scouting. It is so important for each scout to look back and evaluate the accuracy of his scouting.
I had an opportunity to see 18 of the USF players when they were in high school. I saw four of the Sacramento State players, six of the San Jose State players, 17 of the Santa Clara players, and nine of the San Diego State players when they were in high school. Additionally, I saw five others on those rosters when they were in junior college.
The point of all that is that I have had the opportunity to see what type of players they have all become to this point in their college careers (not to mention the players I scouted, coached, and coached against that are in pro baseball). Each time I see USF or Santa Clara or St. Mary's or Cal or San Jose State or Stanford play, I get to grade my own evaluations of dozens of players, based upon what they have become in relation to what my expectations were for each of them. I also get to see dozens of players that are new to my eyes.
It is not enough to simply look up the statistics of a player in college and judge what kind of player he has become, that is not scouting. It is also not enough to simply watch high school players and then arbitrarily put a rating on them regarding their ability as it relates to college or pro baseball. It is not simply enough to have a grading scale or to understand what the five tools are and to be able to identify or put a grade on them. It is not enough to be able to identify high school players as elite, good, average, or below average as it relates to other high school players. There is more to scouting than that.
My advice for any novice scout (and for that matter for high school players and their parents) is to go to as many college and pro baseball games as you can, it will make your evaluations of high school players much more accurate. Go to D1 games, D2 games, D3 games, JC games. Go to their practices and scrimmages. Watch college players take BP or throw bullpens. Go to minor league games, go to MLB games. Get there early and watch BP, what the pitchers play catch in the outfield. Consume as much baseball as you can. Go to a D1 college game one day and a high school game the next. Go to a pro game one night and a college game the next.
Perspective is one of the greatest assets a scout can have. It is awfully hard to know which player is a "prize" if you don't know what the "prize" looks like. Perspective isn't learned and you can't train someone to get it. You have to spend time at the ballpark to get it.
Last spring, in addition to seeing the Bay Area programs, I traveled and watched top programs from across the nation, including Miami, North Carolina, Rice, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Wichita State, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Pepperdine, Cal Poly, San Diego, USC, Cal-State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UC Irvine ,and Fresno State. I also saw the Cape Cod All-Star Game
Think of the college players I had an opportunity to see last year... Jeff Clement, Mike Pelfrey, Daniel Bard, Alex Gordon, Ricky Romero, Matt Garza, Evan Longoria, Andrew Miller, Brandon Morrow, Dallas Buck...the list goes on and on. The opportunity to see those players, in addition to the top high school players we see at PG/WWBA/BCS events has given me my current perspective. Seeing those players doesn't make me a "better" scout than anyone else, but it does give me a much different perspective that can be and is applied to my evaluations of high school players.
At Perfect Game our perspective is what makes us so valuable to all levels of baseball.
This column represents the thoughts and opinions of the author and are not necessarily those of Perfect Game.