By: David List – June 16, 2011 It’s that time of year again, when we sit down here at DP and compile another ranking list for the graduates in the 2012-2014 class and select a roster for Palmetto Games. As many people already know, it’s not a science. The purpose in this article is to make sure that people understand the process as best as possible and hopefully can appreciate it for what it is. I will now try to tell you what scouting is and what it is not. In a general sense of scouting, there are three pieces to the puzzle. They are Skill, Athleticism and Projectability. The combination of the amount of these three things is different for every player on the planet. No one piece of this puzzle will make you a college or pro player, but the culmination of the three will make you what you are going to be. There are many sub-sets in these three general pieces such as tools, size, weight, make-up etc. Each position on the field requires a different combination of the sub-sets for a player to be successful at a certain level. For example, "Player A" has been an all-star for his Dixie youth program and has always played shortstop, until his try-out for his high school team in the seventh grade. He is fortunate enough to make the "C-team" but is moved to third base. The parents don’t understand why, but the high school coach has deemed his tools as a better fit for the program or his future at third base. Is that wrong? Nope. He has probably done the young man a favor because he will get the reps he needs in a position that fits his tools better. College scouts and Pro scouts will figure out the player’s best fit position also, regardless of whether he plays that position or not in high school or during the summer.  We at DP spend a lot of time on the road in the spring, watching high school contests, analyzing players that we know well and those that we have yet to identify. Contrary to whether you may know me or not, or speak to me at a game, your son will be ranked according to what he shows on the field, his tools, etc. We don’t rank every player that we see because at the time of the viewing we may not have deemed that the player projects to the next level. Please understand that all evaluators do this and the only way that you keep being a respected evaluator is by being objective.  Now let’s look at what scouting is not. This may help you more than what I wrote above.  •·  Scouting is Objective, not subjective. I am a parent of baseball players and there is no way that I can be totally subjective with my own kids. Keep that in mind given I don’t know a scout that is not about their own offspring! •·   Scouting is not Political! Most of you reading this have status one way or another in your community or in baseball programs. Your status is a result of who you are, what you have done, or what you do for the community/baseball program. In those cases your son may benefit more because of those things, but DP/College/Pro scouts will not succumb to political lobbying. In fact, it can red flag a player, doing more harm than good.  •·  Scouting is not about Stats! It’s about tools. Every high school player sees different levels of competition during the spring. Every bookkeeper keeps stats differently. It’s about tools! There is the old adage that "numbers don’t lie" but those numbers were not against SEC or ACC pitching. I tend to believe that the reason the general population gets stuck on numbers is because they don’t really know what else to go by. There is nothing wrong with that and it’s the easiest way to make some judgments about a player. It is one of the last things an evaluator may look at though. Example: I was a first team all-state player as a designated hitter, with a .560 average during my sophomore year of high school. That honor was only evaluated by numbers because I would have had no chance of hitting above .200 in college. I ended up being a 13-0 starting pitcher by my sophomore year at a junior college and was offered a free agent contract at the end of the season. Hopefully that example helps get my point across.  I could go on and on and get much more in-depth about what scouting is and is not. I don’t have all the answers myself and I learn new things every day. Every pro/college scout is in the same boat with the previous sentence and if we had it all figured out, everyone that went to the pro or college system would be highly successful. There would be no college players cut and no guys stuck in double A farm systems. Although we don’t have it all figured out all the time, sending us an email about your son will not help us figure it out either. If we have seen him play, we have a pretty good idea of what we saw. If we haven’t seen him play, the only thing you have to offer us is stats. Enough said.  Take what all of the above for what it’s worth, respect the decisions made by the scouts and if that does not sit well with you, then go out and work hard enough to get where you want to go in the game. Use immediate failure or disagreement as motivation. Almost every single scout is comfortable with being proven wrong and will tip the cap toward the player whose resolve will not be denied. For further information on scouting and DP, please visit our FAQ page by clicking here.

  By: Austin Alexander, June 7-9, 2011 In a year that professional scouts will admit there was more prep talent in South Carolina than recent years, 12 young men managed to have their names called over the three-day event. The longer you follow the draft, the more you think you understand it. Just the opposite is true, however! Any baseball sage will tell you it is really a crapshoot! Many variables come into play when you sit back and look at the picks, the rounds they fell in and the names that get passed over. One term people must understand is “signability”. Especially near the top of the draft. In many cases, most of the players selected in the first 4-7 Rounds are similar in ability. Maybe in the Top 15 Rounds? Conventional wisdom tells you that the first pick in the draft must be the best player and that the last pick is the 1,530th best player in the country. Not so. A player’s signability can vault him near the top of the board; low signability can force that player to fall through the draft entirely. Scouts often spend more time researching a player’s signability than they do evaluating their talent. We’ve all heard of clubs that take a kid in the top two rounds and cannot come to terms with him. Sometimes it is because the area scout has not done his due research or he would have known better than to select that player that high in the draft. But it has also happened before that a player and his family or advisor was not truthful as to their dollar figure. Sometimes a player’s "advisor" or his known desire to attend school will force his draft stock to fall, though he may be a first rounder ability-wise. A couple of examples: In 2006, Florida University first baseman Matt LaPorta fell to the 15th round and 433rd pick of the draft. It was believed LaPorta was a sure-fire first-rounder but in the days before the draft he hired agent Scott Boras to represent him. Boras’ reputation with big-leaguers is well-earned as he has some of the top clients in the game. But, some big league organizations had begun a trend, however, of steering away from his players in recent drafts to avert expensive, drawn-out negotiations. As high school seniors, South Carolina products Justin Smoak and Reese Havens were projected to go high in the draft. In the moments leading up to early picks for the Boston Red Sox, both were contacted once more in an attempt to agree to terms before they were selected. Both declined lucrative deals citing that their intention was to play college baseball. As a result, Smoak fell to the 16th round, Havens to the 29th. Both were later selected in 1st Round as college juniors out of USC.  In each case, though for opposite reasons, these players had a “low signability” tag, thus falling to lower rounds. Clubs have until midnight of August 15th to agree to terms with a draft pick. Some of the early rounders will forego the drama and sign quickly so they can begin their journey to the big leagues. Others will drag it out until the deadline in an attempt to drain every penny out of a club. Many players chosen will continue to be under the watchful eye of the organization that selected them in case they make a significant jump during the summer, in which the club may, then, offer a contract or "up the ante" in an attempt to sign the player. Draft picks are made largely on a players present “tools” and how he “projects” down the road. Many selections will turn the heads of baseball people. More selections will blow the mind of casual fans because the layman only sees black or white, ie. base hit versus out, win versus loss. Understand, just because a pitcher strikes out Tanner English does not automatically vault that arm to prospect status. If a good high school pitcher beats Stratford High School with Taylor Guerrieri on the mound, it does not mean he will see his name on a draft board. When a "punching judy" flairs one into the outfield off of Andrew Faulkner, that does not guarentee that he will even play past high school. If a fast runner steals two bases off of Grayson Greiner, it does not necessarily mean he has a future in professional baseball! See where I am going with this? Scouting is not a science. Players do get over-scouted and some do get over-looked. By in large, however, these guys who scout for a living are good at what they do. VERY good, in fact! They run up tens of thousands of miles riding the countryside away from their families looking for the next David Price and Josh Hamilton. Sure, they’ll miss on guys from time to time but they are still smarter than most of us and their eyes keener than you can imagine. Did they find the next MLB All-Star in our state in 2011? Only time will tell. Below we have broken down the 2011 Draft: *Note: Players accounted for either played high school or college baseball in South Carolina this spring. Selected Day 1 (1st Rd) Day 2 (2-30 Rds)  Day 3 (31-50 Rds)  Total SC Players 2  28  19  49 College players 1  23   13  37 HS players 1  5   6  12 Pitchers 1  14   10  25 Catchers 0 2   3  5 Infielders 0  8   2  10 Outfielders 1  4   4  9 Division I 1  20   12  33 Division II 0  1   0  1 Junior College 0  1   0  1  HS 4A 1 4  4   9  HS 3A 0 1  0   1  HS 2A 0 0 2  2 Rd 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 * 10  11  9  7  12  By College: 11-South Carolina, 8-Clemson, 5-Coastal Carolina, 4-College of Charleston, 2-Winthrop, six others with one apiece.  -2010 MLB Draft in Review- Selected Day 1 (1-3 rds) Day 2 (4-30 rds)  Day 3 (31-50)  Total SC Players 2 29  16  47 College players 2  24   12  38 HS players 0  5   6  11 Pitchers 1  16   12  29 …

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