Part IV – Evaluating Players During Batting Practices and Bullpen Sessions

It’s been a while since I last updated the Scout School series so if you need a refresher, please click on the links to the first three parts below.

When you’re scouting a baseball game, you quickly realize that there are literally hundreds of little events within the main event, or game itself. Each pitch is an event, each batted ball is an event, each base running opportunity is an event, and even each bullpen session is an event. Understanding where and when to look is crucial. Blink and you miss a pitch…a pitch that may have been the only one today’s starter managed to get above 90 mph. Look down at your lineup card, and you might miss the jump the runner gets off first base on his attempted steal of second.

There are so many little details to be aware of during a game. The more looks you get, the more information you gather. The more information you gather, the better assessments you can make. And that brings us to batting practice and bullpen sessions.

If you want to get a true picture of a player, it’s not enough to just show up for a few innings of a game. If you’re evaluating a pitcher, get to the game early to see him throw in the bullpen. Watch him warm up, check his delivery, and see what pitches he throws. Sometimes, especially during instructional league games, pitchers will only to get to throw an inning or two in a game. They don’t always have a chance to show their full arsenal of pitches. You may see a kid throw a slider in the bullpen that you might not see in a game, and if you miss his bullpen session, you may never see the pitch again.

The same type of due diligence is necessary if you’re scouting a hitter. Get to the park early and watch batting practice. You can tell an awful lot by seeing a guy hit in the cage. Does the batter take BP seriously? Is he following the coach’s instruction? Does he get frustrated if he doesn’t make good contact?

On one afternoon during our week in Arizona, we took in batting practice in Surprise before making the trip out to Goodyear to see the Royals take on the Indians. I was of course excited to see Mike Moustakas, but also hoped to get a glimpse of 2008 2nd round pick Johnny Giavotella. I was fortunate to see Moustakas play that day, but I never got to check out Johnny G. In fact, I never did get a chance to see Giavotella play in a game. But, I did spend a good deal of time watching him take batting and fielding practice and learned quite a bit from those observations. I was able to tell that Johnny had enormous forearms and drove the ball with authority the other way. He used maximum effort on every swing and grunted every time the ball hit the bat. In the field, Giavotella was a bit stiff and didn’t cover much ground, but he did turn the double play adequately. Had I relied on game action alone, I would never have had a chance to see Johnny Giavotella. But even if I had seen him at the plate or in the field, there’s a good chance I would have missed some of the details I picked up during practice.

You’ll be surprised at what you can learn about players by just observing them in different settings. We learned that, as a scout, you have to pay attention to everything, and I mean everything. Who are the players hanging out with? What are they doing while they’re not in the game? Are they paying attention to the details of the game? Are they showboating or are they complaining?

On that same afternoon in Goodyear, I scouted a good portion of the game from behind home plate. It turned out that pitchers Chase Hentges and Derrick Saito were behind the backstop with me as well. Hentges and Saito took turns updating the score book and clocking pitches. It had to be about 105 degrees in the desert on that afternoon. Yet, despite the extreme heat, neither player complained even once. In fact, it was quite interesting listening to the two converse. I was particularly impressed by Hentges. He watched and analyzed every pitch. He made points about the importance of pitching inside and even seemed to get frustrated that some of his teammates were being intimidated by the noticeably more seasoned Indians squad. Would I have found out how competitive Chase Hentges was by just watching him throw? Maybe, but I doubt I’d ever find out how much he loves and studies the game. It’s the little things like this that separate champion players from the rest of the pack, and it’s noticing things like competitiveness, behavior, and demeanor that separate great scouts from good scouts.

The moral of the story? Pay attention to everything…from batting practice to bullpen sessions. Talk to people, observe their habits, and even watch what they eat. You never know what that little extra bit of information might tell you.

_________________________________________________________________

If you missed Parts I, II, and III click the links below…
Building a Professional Baseball Organization: Scout School with the Kansas City Royals – Part I – The Beginning
Building a Professional Baseball Organization: Scout School with the Kansas City Royals – Part II – Grading the Players
Building a Professional Baseball Organization: Scout School with the Kansas City Royals – Part III – An Athlete’s Body and Hitting the Field

We continue our series today on Scout School with the Kansas City Royals…

Part III – An Athlete’s Body and Hitting the Field

On Monday afternoon we got our first taste of action on the field acting as scouts. The Texas Rangers instructional team walked across the Surprise practice field to take on our own Royals squad.

Baseball is great in any shape or form, and I was really excited to check out some prospects, but boy it was hot! I’m sure I’ll repeat the theme throughout the week, but the heat in Arizona borders on unbearable. It was 105 degrees this Monday afternoon. I swore that if I saw a pitcher with a jacket on, I was going to rip it off!

Anyway, let me set the stage for those of you unfamiliar with instructional league games. Each team has 30 or so 18-20 years olds who participate in the game. There are coaches, front office staff, and plenty of other players, who aren’t playing, that are watching. The games employ 3 umpires like most minor league baseball games. But what these games don’t have are hoards of fans, expensive tickets, or elaborate stadiums. In fact, an afternoon at an instructional league game resembles a high school contest more than a professional ball game.

Since this was our first game to analyze, I decided to take in as much as possible and write down whatever I saw, inconsequential or not. I have to say that zeroing in on a game like that really makes you pay attention to even the smallest of details. When you watch the game as a fan, you pick up the obvious achievements and mistakes, but a lot of the minutia sneaks by.

You suddenly notice where everyone on the field is positioned on just about every play. You check the on deck hitter’s attention, you watch the bullpen, you clear your stop watch, and then you watch the radar gun. You watch the batter’s hands, analyze the pitcher’s delivery, and time a throw from third to first. Sound a little hectic? Well it is. You really need to glance around the field quickly in order not to miss anything. The amount of information you garner in just a few minutes of observation can really make a difference in determining whether a player is a prospect or not.

As we watched the two teams on the field, it was easy to recognize that these were professional athletes. From the outset of scout school, our instructors emphasized the body. The Kansas City Royals like big athletic bodies. I suppose most teams probably have a similar preference. The Texas Rangers certainly do (see Justin Smoak!). Big athletic bodies play well, are stronger, have more power, and generally hold up better under the day to day grind of a long baseball season. Will scouts disregard all players who aren’t 6’4” and weigh 220 pounds? No, of course not. But for an athlete who has a less than ideal body type to make it at the professional level, he must really have some pretty special tools and “play up” to someone who does have a more desirable frame.

The majority of the Kansas City pitchers taking part in the instructional league ranged from 6’2”, 180 lbs. to 6’5”, 220 lbs. For example, Sam Runion is 6’4”, 220 lbs. Tim Melville is 6’5”, 205 lbs. And Chase Hentges is 6’5”, 185 lbs. On the other hand, Derrick Saito is only 5’9” and weighs just 155 lbs. But Saito had been clocked at 92-93 mph in college and has a great curveball. In other words, his skills “play up” for his size.

Big strong bodies are not just reserved for the pitching staff either. In fact, only one position player on the entire instructional league roster was under 5’10”. Johnny Giavotella was that player (5’8”), and if you saw the way he was built, you’d understand why he was there and why the Royals chose him in the second round this past June. Johnny has the largest forearms I have ever seen, and he uses his strength to drive the ball to all fields with power. As my grandfather used to say, he’s built like a bull! But again, Giavotella “plays up” for his size. He compensates for not having an ideal body type by possessing tremendous strength and demonstrating terrific bat speed.

By now you get the point about bodies. Bigger equals better 99% of the time in professional sports. It’s no different in baseball, especially when you’re projecting prospects.

    
Up Next…Part IV – Evaluating Players During Batting Practice and Bullpen Sessions

If you missed Parts I and II, click the links below…
Building a Professional Baseball Organization: Scout School with the Kansas City Royals – Part I - The Beginning
Building a Professional Baseball Organization: Scout School with the Kansas City Royals – Part II - Grading the Players

Part II – Grading the Players

Scouts are in the business of measurement. They are tasked with measuring the skills, or tools, of athletes and most often baseball players. I say “most often” baseball players because scouts must always be looking for athletes they feel can play the game, even those that have had little experience with baseball.

Scouts may not calculate OPS or VORP, but they are no strangers to numbers. As we learned that first day at scout school, scouts use a 20-80 measurement scale to grade players. You probably knew that already though. But did you know that a right-handed hitter that goes from home to first in 4.20 seconds is considered a 60, or a “good” runner? Or that a catcher that launches a bullet from home to second in 2.0 seconds is merely “average?”

There are some tools that can be quantified…running speed, pitch speed, a catcher’s throwing arm…but there are plenty that need subjective analysis…like raw power, bat speed, command, ability to throw secondary pitches, etc. As we learned on Monday morning, scouts not only have to understand the grading scale, but they must then assess a player and figure out where that player fits in the organization. As Stevie Williams said over and over again, the only way you can learn how to grade a player is by going to games, watching players, and going to more games. The more players you watch, the better you get at determining a player’s skill level on the grading scale.

So how do you determine what grade to give a player? It’s not easy. Everyone has a different value of a player. What one person deems a 50 (average), others may call a 55 (strong average). The key is to remain consistent in your analysis so that others using the information can visualize the type of player you’re evaluating. And it’s important to see enough players so that you can mistake a 30 player for a 70.

Establishing your base line for grading can be tricky. Junior Vizcaino likes to find the average player and then use that player to compare the others. Junior’s baseline player, therefore, is the 50 or average player. Others like Steve Williams like to establish high and low rated players and grade the others in comparison. For example, when you evaluate power, someone like Rey Ordonez would be considered a 20 while Adam Dunn would be an 80. Everyone else then falls into the spectrum based upon the high of Dunn and the low of Ordonez. Neither method is right or wrong. Whatever path you choose to get to your result or grade is up to you. But again, the only way you can determine player value is by watching games and players…over and over and over again.

When we’re scouting players, particularly young kids, we must determine the future value of that player. How a player performs now is important, but how we feel a player will perform at the major league level is paramount. It takes a lot of guts to project that an eighteen year-old hitter will display very good power at the major league level. That’s why you don’t see many 18 year-olds with 70 rated future power. Those grades are reserved for the likes of Justin Upton, and a young Ken Griffey Jr. or Alex Rodriguez…guys who you feel will eventually club 35-44 home runs per season. Of the players I saw in Instructional League action, only Mike Moustakas (60), Eric Hosmer (60), and Beau Mills (70) received grades from me of 60 or above. That means I expect that Moustakas and Hosmer will be able to hit 25-34 home runs per season as future major leaguers while I believe Mills could smash 35-44 in a big league campaign.

On the first day of scout school, we spent a good deal of time on the grading scale and justifiably so. Grading standards are the foundation for player evaluation. To a scout, everything that moves gets graded. You might say that scouts talk a different language. If they eat a good meal, it might be graded a 60. An entertaining novel might be a 55, or strong average. And a movie like Jaws 3 would rate a 30, or well below average. However, if Angelina Jolie walks by, she’ll get tabbed with an 80, or excellent! Just remember that if you grade your significant other, be sure to let him or her know that the scale only goes up to 80! Otherwise you run the risk of being slapped. Remember, in baseball, an 80=the best. As the week went on, I found myself immersed in the grading process. All I could think of was 20 to 80. I even found myself grading the landing of the 737 Southwest jet that brought me home…a 55 (or strong average) by the way.

In addition to mastering the rating scale, scouts must understand how important physical tools are to specific positions. For example, for first basemen, third basemen, left fielders and right fielders, power production is the most desirable tool. That’s not necessarily true for second baseman or catchers. So it’s important to determine how a player fits into the organization. A high school third baseman may have tremendous bat speed and spray line drives all over the field, but without power, he may be better suited to play second base than third at the major league level.

To this point, we’ve talked little about pitchers. And that’s not by accident. From the beginning of the week, we all disagreed at one time or another about a pitcher we saw. Eighteen and nineteen year-old pitchers are difficult to evaluate. Very few stand out, but those that do certainly come to the forefront. We were taught early on in class that the most important aspect of a pitcher is arm strength. As pitching instructor Bill Fischer discussed with us, pitchers can be taught breaking balls and changeups. Mechanical flaws can be fixed. But either you have arm strength or you don’t. Some kids can increase velocity by putting on weight and adjusting their mechanics, but in the end, a strong arm is a strong arm.

And if a player shows you a tool even just once, he owns it!

Up Next…Part III – An Athlete’s Body and Hitting the Field

Archive
Building a Professional Baseball Organization: Scout School with the Kansas City Royals – Part I