I recently wrote a paper about baseball scouts. I interviewed several scouts to find out the inside story on what it's like to be a baseball scout and how to become one. Each scout I interviewed had a different story, and I was very surprised to learn things I never knew about the world of baseball and of a baseball scout. So to educate everyone on the world of baseball scouts, and hopefully answer some questions, here is the article:
They make their own schedule, travel often, have
connections with many important people, and they always carry a gun. These men are not part of the mafia; they are
baseball scouts. If you have ever been to a high school or college baseball
game, you more than likely have seen them, standing in a group, holding their
guns and writing notes. Some baseball scouts are former players, coaches or
managers; some have a family history of baseball scouts and follow in their
father and grandfather’s footsteps; and some are just huge fans of the game that
always dreamt of becoming a baseball scout.
Scouting first began in 1869, when the
Cincinnati Red Stockings became a professional team and owners Harry and George
Wright started looking for the best available talent, according to a
Livestrong.com article by Mitchell Clark called The Scouting History of Baseball.
When the National League formed in 1875 followed
by the American League in 1901, scouts worked part-time and paid their own way across
the country in hopes of finding “the next star.” After World War I, scouts started
looking for raw talented players for the teams' “farm leagues,” which later
became the minor league teams. After World War II, “bonus bidding wars” started
among scouts. Then the Major League Baseball draft began in 1965, bringing the
scouting world to where it is today.
Baseball relies more
heavily on its scouts than any other professional sport. But it is not an easy
career to get into. There are 180 rosters of minor league teams and 30 rosters
of major league teams to fill. With all these teams to scout, and all the
players to research, baseball scouting takes hard work, knowing the right
people, and having a passion for the sport.
For Chicago Cubs scout, John Koronka, it is his love of
the game that drove him to become a scout four months ago. “I played baseball
for 14 years, and I decided to retire in 2010,” Koronka says. “I decided to
stay in baseball because I put so much time in and I didn’t want to get out of
the game. I just love being outside and going to the park.”
The Cincinnati Reds drafted Koronka at age 17. The
left-handed pitcher was eventually traded to the Chicago Cubs major league team
in 2003. He played for five other major league teams and played oversees,
before retiring with the Dodgers. Koronka’s baseball career helped him to break
into the world of scouting.
Another place for hopeful baseball scouts to jump-start
their careers is at the Major League Baseball Scouting School in Phoenix,
Arizona. They offer a two-week course annually that teaches potential scouts
what the different pitches look like, the terminology, how to take what you see
and put it on paper, how to write up reports, and how to grade players on a
scale.
Unfortunately, not just anyone can attend the scouting
school. A major league team must sponsor a potential scout in order for him to attend.
It costs $2,000 dollars, which is split 50/50 between the potential scout and the
team that sends him. At the end of the two-week course, the same team that
sends the potential scouts evaluates them. The team has a couple of days to
offer him a job, but if they do not, the evaluation is released to all 30
teams.
“I got a call from the Toronto Blue Jays area scout in
Texas. He got my number from the scout school,” says the Texas Ranger’s video
scout, Ryan Lakey. “ He asked me if I could help him out. Every time this one
pitcher would pitch, he asked me to go to games and chart all of his pitches.
And just report to him on what he saw.”
Lakey became a “bird-dog,” also known as an associate
scout. This is another way to start a scouting career. A bird-dog will work for
an area scout for free, breaking down players, taking note of what they can do
and what they cannot do, and eventually, the bird-dog will work his way up.
For Lakey, scouting is in his blood. His dad, Gordon
Lakey, is the major league scouting director for the Philadelphia Phillies and has
been a baseball scout for 43 years. “I grew up travelling with him and going to
major league games my whole life,” Ryan says. “My uncle is also the national
cross checker for the Mets. That definitely helped me break into scouting.”
There are
different levels of baseball scouts. There are associate scouts, or Bird Dogs,
who are apprentices to the next level of scouts: area scouts. Area scouts are
amateur scouts who cover high school and college teams in a certain geographic
region, like South Florida. Video scouts travel continuously and cover the most
cities. Right
now, the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays are the only teams who have
video scouts. Next is the area supervisor,
who oversees all of the area scouts in a region. Above the area supervisor is
the national cross-checker; they evaluate the scouting reports of the top players. There
are also professional scouts, like Lakey’s dad, and international scouts.
Alex
Mesa, an area scout for the Kansas City Royals, also got his start as a scout
through bird-dogging. “I was teaching at the time and I was able to get out of
school and go to see games,” Mesa says. “Little by little, you gain experience
and you meet people and network your way in. I got in with the Red Sox from
2004-2007 and in 2008 the Kansas City Royals called me for a job.”
Mesa, Lakey and Koronka all agree that networking is the
best way to get your foot in the door. “Be conversational. Speak up. Don’t be
afraid to introduce yourself to people,” Koronka says. “Network as much as
possible because you never know who you are going to run into in the future and
what job opportunities they may have for you. In baseball, it’s such a tight
knit group of people, it’s like a fraternity. Be approachable, don’t be afraid
to talk to people.”
Once a scout makes it into this “fraternity,” it becomes
all about the players. “It’s really getting to know the players. Seeing them as
people before breaking them down as a player. The way I was taught is that
before you draft a player, you’re drafting a person. It’s just as important
that you get to know the player off the field as it is on the field,” Mesa
says.
Lakey agrees, “If you have a good relationship with the
player, they don’t want to let you down. If you don’t know him and you try to
draft him, but another team is trying to draft him and he knows that scout, he
might pick that team over yours because he doesn’t know you. Ultimately it’s
the kid’s decision.”
February 1 through June 1 is the busiest time of year for
a scout and the major league draft occurs annually the first week of June. As
an amateur scout, it is important to have good organizational skills and know
what is going on in your area. There is a lot of computer work and phones calls
to make to find out when players will be playing. A typical day starts around
noon, watching batting practice, and talking to the coach and the player. Then they
watch the game to see how that player prepares, and look for his strengths and
weaknesses. After that game, a scout probably goes to another game, and does
the same thing. By the time he gets home it will be around midnight, and he
still has to write a report about what he saw that day. He will start all over
again the next day, in order to see as many players as possible.
“When you put it all together, you have a pretty good
idea of what they can do. And that’s how kids get drafted,” Mesa says. “They
get drafted for the things they can do.”
The “things” a player can do is to excel in hitting,
power, fielding, arm strength and speed. These are the five tools every scout
uses to rate a player’s skill level. Scouts use a 20-to-80 scale to grade each
tool. 50 is considered major league average with 20 at the lowest and 80 at the
highest. Around 90 percent of players will sign professional contracts, but
only about ten percent of players will be drafted to the major leagues.
The life of a baseball scout can be a lonely one. Some
scouts are on the road more than 250 days out of the year. But if you love the
game, what could be better than going to the field every day and watching
America’s favorite pastime? “I get paid to watch baseball games. You can’t beat
that as far as I’m concerned,” Lakey says. “I don’t like being in an office or
a routine job. With scouting, it’s a new adventure every day. You’re going to
new places a lot. You don’t know what you’re going to see on or off the field.
You get to meet new people in different parts of the country. It’s something
different every day.”
