Are you asking yourself the right questions?

  When players self-analyze, they often limit themselves to a few basic questions like … How many batters did I strikeout? What is my batting average? How many HR’s/RBI’s do I have? What’s my Win-Loss record? Unfortunately, most players do not mentally travel past those questions. For a player to more accurately gauge how well […]

Draftability

This time of year (Fall and into Winter) scouts begin to check in with many of the 2015 top prospects and their families.  What they are trying to gauge is a player’s “draftability.”  Draftability includes a number of things but the basic concept is that the organizations are trying to figure out how much time […]

Staying home for college

Quick … tell me what all of the following players have in common. Matt Adams Todd Frazier Craig Biggio Mo Vaughn Ryan Vogelsong Tommy Herr Dave Winfield Bobby Higginson Charles Nagy George Springer Jamie Moyer Doug Glanville Mark DeRosa Joe Nathan Jeff Bagwell John Franco Answer:  They all were players who stayed up North to attend […]

The showcase dance

My name is Coach McCreary and I enjoy watching Dancing With the Stars.  There.  I said it.  Criticize me if you must.  It probably stems from ballroom dance lessons my wife and I took about 10 years ago prior to our wedding.  I reluctantly agreed but actually had a lot of fun doing it.  I […]

Great draft story

The start of this year’s draft reminded me of a great draft / scout story I heard this year.  This past winter I spoke at a coaches clinic and the guest speaker to kick off the event was Howie Bedell, a former major league player who spent time with the Milwaukee Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies.  […]

Playoff baseball: Part 1 – To scout or not to scout

Playoffs start today for the district in my part of the Philadelphia area.  Thus begins part 2 of the baseball season.  Many questions come up this time of year when preparing for playoffs.  This is Part 1 of 3 posts dedicated to playoff baseball.  In this part I’ll deal with my thoughts on scouting opponents. […]

Would you do that in Yankee stadium?

If you wouldn’t do it here … When I watch guys practice and/or play games, I am constantly amazed at how many players appear to be going through the motions.  If you ask many of those players if they want to play in college and beyond, most would immediately say “Absolutely!”  The obvious comeback is […]

Don’t leave scouts guessing about your arm strength

When I was in college, I was fortunate to play in front of a lot of professional scouts.  In my senior year we had four future major leaguers on our team roster so it was common to have many scouts there.  With my father’s baseball background, he knew a few of those scouts.  After one […]

Most players …

It’s the end of June and most players have been working out, practicing, and/or playing since the fall.  The “dog days of summer” are approaching.  Some thoughts about this time of year: Most players are starting to feel the physical drain of a long season. Most players are starting to feel the mental drain of […]

Good or bad?

I saw in the paper the other day that Blue Jays pitcher JoJo Reyes finally won a game.  He almost broke the record of consecutive starts without a win.  It ended at 28 with his win against the Cleveland Indians.  29 games without a win is one of those records that no pitcher wants to have. Here […]

Swing and Miss stuff

Pitchers who can get batters to do this more often are seen as more valuable, especially come playoff time. This time of year involves two important things:  high school/college playoffs and the amateur draft.  In both, the importance of good pitching is key.  The teams that tend to do the best come playoff time generally have […]

Separating yourself vs Standing out

We all have words we live by.  I’ve turned a few into posts. “Show up, Suit up, Shut up, and Play hard“ is one of them.  Another one for me is …  It is better to separate yourself from the crowd then to stand out from one. A clown stands out in a crowd.  Your eyes […]

How do coaches judge potential?

I received a great question from a reader related to a post a few days ago called Tryouts: Current ability vs Potential.  The question was “How does a coach assess potential in a one-week tryout?”   If you were to ask a professional scout that question, he probably would say something that on the surface would […]

Professional baseball scouting – an interview

In many of my previous posts I mention scouts or scouting with regards to what they look for or how they think.  I thought it would be appropriate to hear things straight from the mouth of a real professional baseball scout.     Rex DeLaNuez is currently a full-time scout for the Cincinnati Reds organization.   Prior to […]

What is meant by a player’s "make up?"

 Ask any scout and they will tell you that a player’s “make-up” is extremely important.  So what is it and why do they care about it so much? How a scout answers the following questions will go a long way in determining a player’s “make-up.” 1.    How does he handle adversity like striking out, making […]