Things you never knew about baseball scouts...

I usually write about football on my blog but having worked for the University of Miami baseball team this past spring and preparing to intern at SNY this summer (which is the NY Mets network), I wanted to get some baseball on my blog.

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.”