Turn Off Ads?
Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: So, you wanna be a scout?

  1. #1
    Member Eric_Davis's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Portland, Or
    Posts
    5,041

    So, you wanna be a scout?

    MLB.com's Christine Destefano attended the Major League Scouting Bureau's first "scout school" in the Dominican Republic for a week and a half. She wrote daily reports on her experiences as she attended the school as a student, learning how to properly scout and evaluate international baseball talent.

    Yesterday, I included my e-mail address for you to send questions in regarding Scout School. The first several responses I received all asked the same question, so let's get it out of the way first: How do I become a scout?

    The first thing you need to learn about scouting is that it's tough to get into. You have to be 100 percent sure this is what you want to do. It's not just sitting around watching games all day. The second thing you have to learn is that if you want a job in scouting you're not going to pick up the classifieds one Sunday morning and see the job posted. You have to pursue the path on your own.

    The best, and perhaps only way to start is, "finding a scout and getting to know a scout," says Rick Arnold, a scout with the Major League Scouting Bureau, who has also worked in the scouting departments of Major League clubs. Former players and managers have the biggest advantage in this area since they already know an organization's personnel. Clubs remember players who have played for them, and can be helpful in getting a career started in this direction. For example, they could send you to one of these Scout Schools that the MLSB puts on every year.

    If you didn't play ball or manage or coach, the road is tougher, but not impossible -- if it's what you really want to do. So do some research and meet a scout.

    After you get to know a scout, you can advance to what they call an associate scout, which is an unpaid position with a club helping an area scout. If a scout has a region of let's say, California and Nevada, you could be an associate scout in your hometown of Reno.

    "You would have to know the high school coaches in the area and serve as an information source to your scout, while getting knowledgeable in player evaluations and reporting," says MLSB scout Jim Walton, a 40-plus year baseball veteran.

    From that, some part-time opportunities may arise and you may have some contact with a club's scouting director. "But there's no set procedure on becoming a scout," says Walton, who began his scouting career alongside current Mariners GM Pat Gillick.

    If you're lucky enough to land a gig as an associate scout, the next level is area scout, which means you are responsible for covering a geographic area the club specifies, such as Southern Florida or Virginia, West Virginia and Washington D.C. A step above that is area supervisor, who oversees the area scouts in a region. So the area supervisor for the West may oversee all of the area scouts in California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada. A scout may then be promoted to national cross-checker, who mostly takes the scouting reports of the top players in an organization and evaluates those players in person to make sure ratings are consistent.

    So how did most scouts start? "Most come from having a connection with the game," says Walton.

    And he means a deep-rooted, passionate connection. Scouting isn't something you just all of a sudden choose to do because it sounds like fun.

    "Since you were a kid, you had this affliction ... and it grows," Walton says. "You may have to sit in a low chair for awhile, but if you want to do it bad enough, it can happen. You have to pursue it until you make it happen. It's non-definitive, there's so much gray."

    Back when Walton started scouting with the Houston Colt 45's/Astros after his playing days were over, there weren't any guidelines, or any scout schools like this one to teach him the ropes.

    "I was handed a stopwatch and a notebook and told to 'go get a player,'" he said.

    Now, because of scout schools like this one, there are some more detailed guidelines.

    Taken from my scouting handbook:
    Scouting is: Discipline, organization, judgement, making decisions, writing, building relationships, liking people, sitting on hard chairs, long hours on the road, long days and nights, noisy motels, being on the phone, digging out information, being a good listener, planning ahead, talking to people, being aggressive and hard work.

    Scouting is not: Sitting around enjoying a game, enjoying time off during the offseason, being home every evening, someone else making a decision, going to games near your home, having players come to you, being influenced by other scouts, offering advice and sitting in the sun putting numbers in little squares.

    A scout's purpose is to find players, evaluate them and sign them. Scouts tell the scouting directors who the players are that will make it to the Major Leagues, and report on the player's level of competence, explaining what that player will do for the Major League club. So you must know the game, and know how to properly evaluate the talent. You have to remain strong in your convictions, as it's your responsibility to convey your evaluations, and then stick by them.

    But aside from the baseball side of things, there's the other side that gets overlooked -- the administrative work. A scout must have good organizational skills not only to cover a territory, but also remain aware of school, league and regional events that may include some prospects. A good scout maximizes time efficiently so paperwork, writing reports, phone calls and driving don't take away from time spent actually scouting.

    Good scouts also have the right mentality. It's a tough, competitive field, but you always must be a positive thinker and remain professional. Remember, with young prospects, scouts are often the first representative of a club that a player (and a player's family) meets. Since scouts are setting an example for their entire organization, they should pay attention to little things, like dressing professionally (no shorts and T-shirts) and not speaking of a player's weaknesses in public (you never know who you might be sitting next to, such as a player's friends and family).

    Scouting has developed as the game has, and there are scouts in all areas of the world, instead of all areas of the country, especially Latin America and more recently the Pacific Rim. So the opportunities are out there, but if you love baseball and want to work in the sport, your first step is realizing this is something you really want to do. Then it's up to you to make it happen.

    "It's a long, arduous road to stay in the game," says Walton.

    There's 10 other chapters to this, but I stopped with the intro. Here are the Headings for the other chapters:

    Day 1: Intro to Scout School
    Day 2: So you wanna be a scout
    Day 3: Evaluating arm action
    Day 4: A closer look at pitching
    Day 5: Really liking a player
    Day 6: A game of adjustments
    Day 7: Refining our reports
    Day 8: Reviewing the report
    Day 9: One more trip
    Day 10: Graduation Day
    Scout school recap
    Rob Neyer: "Any writer who says he'd be a better manager than the worst manager is either 1) lying (i.e. 'using poetic license') or 2) patently delusional. Which isn't to say managers don't do stupid things that you or I wouldn't."


  2. Turn Off Ads?
  3. #2
    Member Eric_Davis's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    Portland, Or
    Posts
    5,041

    Re: So, you wanna be a scout?

    Here's an article on a 60-year journey of a Major League Scout:

    Mining for gold among corn fields - baseball scout Ellsworth Brown

    Sporting News, The, August 6, 2001 by Dave Kindred

    Ellsworth Brown is a baseball scout, among the last of his kind.

    Raising dust across the Midwest, he figures he has worn out 30 cars since 1946. The latest is a Dodge Intrepid that he says handles well in traffic.

    Not that there's much traffic where Brownie goes. He mostly drives through towns hidden between corn fields. "My address? Beason, Illinois, Poverty Row." As to what he's doing: "Got off the road at midnight last night, been out to Iowa, going to Peoria tonight for a Midwest League game."

    Such has been the sweet music of a baseball life lived by a man who played with Grover Cleveland Alexander, discovered Bill Madlock, signed Kirby Puckett, and now, 87 years old, beats the bushes for the Twins.

    "When I started as a player, you couldn't make any money. Class D ball might promise you $150 a month. But it was 1931 and sometimes they'd pay you and sometimes they'd say, `Get you next month.'

    "I was a 5-foot-11, 181-pound first baseman. Good fielder, not much of a hitter. Thing was, I was 17 1/2 years old, and when they told me to report to the Kansas City Triple-A team the next spring, I just went home. I was homesick. Probably a mistake. Should've stayed with it.

    "I found some work. Made some money playing summer ball, too. And a few years later, that's how I came to play for Grover Cleveland Alexander's barnstorming team. Somebody said, `Pete Alexander wants you to join his club for the summer.'

    "I loved that old man. Everybody said he was a drinker, which he probably was, but some of it was his epilepsy. He was good to me. I played one inning with him pitching. He was 52 years old then, 1939--and he'd gone into the Hall of Fame the year before. Such control he had. Every pitch was right where he wanted it. Four pitches, and I got all three putouts at first base."

    Some people get lucky and make a living doing what they love.

    Sportswriters do it, bless 'em all. And in 1946 Ellsworth Brown became a baseball scout. Asked to describe his work, he says, "Have fun." Watching games from March to October, driving two-lane roads, floorboards covered with notebooks, Brownie did the job the way it was done by scouts building the major leagues.

    Kevin Kerrane's book Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting quotes the late catcher/manager/scout Birdie Tebbetts on pre-World War II scouts: "They drove all over hell to find ballplayers, and they made final decisions on their own about how valuable the players were, and they competed to sign them. They weren't just leg men; they built ball clubs.... I've been in every seat in baseball, and I'd have to say that the old-time scouts were the most important people I ever came in contact with."

    Just last year, Ellsworth Brown signed a player he'd watched from high school through college, Josh Rabe, an 11th-round draft pick now hitting .285 for the Twins' Class A Quad City team. Says Rabe: "Brownie would sit and talk with my parents at all my games. He's such an all-around nice guy."

    It was 20 years ago when the scout, old even then, stopped by an Illinois community college to take a look at a short-coupled kid named Kirby Puckett.

    "A guy in the Twins' office had seen Puck the year before and liked him but couldn't sign him," Brown says. "When I saw him, Puck was playing third base. To be honest, I thought his arm was going to need work." But he liked the young man's strength and quickness at bat. The Twins chose Puckett third in the first round of the 1982 winter draft.

    As to how Brown signed Puckett, the old scout laughs. "Might have been the little extra cash. About $20,000 I gave him."

    And on Sunday, Kirby Puckett goes into the Hall of Fame.

    "I haven't talked to Puck in years," Brown says. "I'd love to be at Cooperstown for the ceremony. But I don't suppose I could afford it. Too long a drive, anyway, the way I'm feeling. Fell on ice last winter and busted up ribs. Got some Legion tournaments the same time, too, with two, three kids to look at."

    Puckett is a scout's good story. Bill Madlock is a better one. In 15 major league seasons, Madlock hit .305 and won four batting championships; only nine hitters have won more. Listen to Ellsworth Brown's song ...

    "I'd been down in Southern Illinois, and I was driving home to Beason. Usually I go to Lincoln and back down the highway. This time I took a back road from Decatur through Chestnut, and I saw a ballgame going on right there in Beason.

    "Lincoln's Legion club was there against Decatur. It was the last inning. I saw this kid by the name of Bill Madlock swing one time, and I said, `Boy, he's got that quick bat' I went to Lincoln's coach, John West, and said, `How'd that kid do the last time up?' West said, `He reached that fence out there'

    "So I got on Madlock from the start. Signed him for the Senators in 1970."

    Fifty-five years on the road, wearing out cars, and our hero finds a batting champion five blocks from his house in the middle of corn fields.

    Such sweet music.
    Rob Neyer: "Any writer who says he'd be a better manager than the worst manager is either 1) lying (i.e. 'using poetic license') or 2) patently delusional. Which isn't to say managers don't do stupid things that you or I wouldn't."

  4. #3
    Back from my hiatus Mario-Rijo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Springfield, Ohio
    Posts
    9,070

    Re: So, you wanna be a scout?

    Good stuff!
    "You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."

    --Woody Hayes


Turn Off Ads?

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

Board Moderators may, at their discretion and judgment, delete and/or edit any messages that violate any of the following guidelines: 1. Explicit references to alleged illegal or unlawful acts. 2. Graphic sexual descriptions. 3. Racial or ethnic slurs. 4. Use of edgy language (including masked profanity). 5. Direct personal attacks, flames, fights, trolling, baiting, name-calling, general nuisance, excessive player criticism or anything along those lines. 6. Posting spam. 7. Each person may have only one user account. It is fine to be critical here - that's what this board is for. But let's not beat a subject or a player to death, please.

Thank you, and most importantly, enjoy yourselves!


RedsZone.com is a privately owned website and is not affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds or Major League Baseball


Contact us: Boss | Gallen5862 | Plus Plus | Powel Crosley | RedlegJake | The Operator