This past fall Taylor Guerrieri landed at Spring Valley High School and a scouting frenzy followed. When a prospect of this caliber is on campus and is in uniform, quite a bit of pressure can befall teammates but especially the coaching staff. Charlie Wentzky is now the AD at AC Flora, but in the spring of 2011, he was in charge of managing the circus that became "Guerrieri-palooza". Wentzky took time for DP for a Q&A to take us into their implemented program and his job of juggling this new responsibility. This article will serve as a blueprint for future coaches of high-rounder’s, for the rest of us it is simply a very interesting read. Q. Did you know how good he was when he transferred, or when did you realize what you had? A: Did I know? Yes. Did I completely grasp how good he was? No. I knew he was a highly projectable pitcher and had been in the mid-90’s at the Palmetto Games. I had heard that he was in the mid to high-90’s over the summer in a game, so I knew that he was pretty good. I didn’t understand how good he was as a position player and/or athlete until our first day of fall practice. For me, the realization of how good he really was as a pitcher came in late December when he threw his first bullpen for us. That’s when I saw how much movement he had and was able to see how easy his mechanics were. Our first scrimmage was when it all came full circle for me when he was 94-97 MPH for two innings. That night I knew that everything around him could get real crazy this year. Q. Were there any worries on your end about him coming? A: Absolutely. I had two main concerns and was put at ease with both of them fairly quickly. I never had the concern if he would help us. I knew that we had just gotten better on the mound and knew that we added a quality player to our team. My first worry would be how well he would fit in with our guys and how they would receive him. That was put at ease when on his first day to conditioning (first day enrolled in the school). I was walking to the field and saw him talking to a few guys that he had played with previously. Next thing I know, there were 10 kids in the circle and they were all laughing and talking like they had known each other for years. The next day he walked into conditioning with three kids that he had just met the day before and they were carrying on like they had been friends for years. My second concern was how he was going to be from an ego standpoint. You hear a lot about high school kids who are projected high in the draft being all about themselves, so I was concerned that he would be that way and use us to enhance himself. However, I couldn’t have dreamed of him handling the situation any better. He embraced our program, the goals of team, and emotionally put as much into it as our kids that had been there for 5 or 6 years. He never made the season about him or the draft. He just wanted to win like everyone else did. He fit in well and I am not sure that I could have scripted the situation any better. Q. At what point did professional scouts start contacting you about Taylor? A: Late November once word was out that he had transferred to Spring Valley. Q: How frequent was that contact then and during the year? A: Before the season started it was an occasional contact and mostly from guys that I have known for a few years. Once the season started, it became a weekly thing and it varied from team to team. Some scouts would call weekly to check in, some would come over and say hey at games, and others did neither. Q: How did you get your info out to the professional scouts? A: Gary Randall, who is the area scout for the Major League Scouting Bureau, set up an email distribution list and sent it out every Sunday. This included me and every professional scout who covered the area. I replied to this email so that everyone who covered our area would get it all at once. I had to relay when he would start, how long he would throw and how he was feeling after the last start. What I tried to do was map out three weeks for them, so that they could plan ahead as well. I knew that if I did it week to week, that I would get 25 plus individual calls or emails wanting to know when his next start was and I didn’t want to deal with that. I still reminded them every Sunday of the upcoming week just so they could feel at ease that the schedule hadn’t changed. Q: Along the same lines, did you learn anything about a scout’s job that you didn’t know before? A: Without hesitation, yes. A lot of people think a professional scout just goes and watches players and reports back to their team what they saw. They do that but, they are also assisting their supervisors, scouting department, cross checkers, and even general managers with getting info to watch certain guys play. So in doing this, they have to be 100% sure that a pitcher is going to throw on a certain night. I would imagine that it is easier with a position player because they will play unless it rains. Once I understood this, I was able to understand why they wanted to know so much in advance, and why they would often call the day before just to double check my info. You are talking about guys flying …
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