Charting the Course : Baseball Scouts Always on the Lookout for Talent

It was just another Sunset League baseball game. Not even an important one.

Then Jon Ward, Huntington Beach pitcher and this day’s phenom, stepped out of the dugout. A group of men, who until then had been huddled behind the backstop jawing and spitting, were suddenly interested.

Ward took no more than two steps when this odd-looking collection of onlookers reached for their hardware. Out came speed guns of all shapes and sizes.

By the time Ward reached the mound, the gadgets were heated up and aimed. One pitch later, a voice shouted, “I got 87, anyone top that?”

“You’re off, it was 84.”

And so it went. Every pitch thrown by Ward cut through an array of radar beams, then was charted in little notebooks. It’s a process that’s almost as old as the game itself.

For the truly talented or even the potentially possible, baseball scouts are always on the lookout.

They will show up wherever there’s a player of reputed promise. Sometimes they see two or three games a day. Some weekends, it’s a 12-hour shift.

They watch, scribble and evaluate. The players see them and the scouts know they are seen.

It’s a process that has changed little over the years.

Sure, some toys have been added--stop watches, speed guns, computers and fax machines, but the bottom line has remained: Can The Kid Play?

“Anyone can scout,” said Don Lindeberg, who has done the job 46 years. “It all comes down to whether the kid can run, throw and hit. The tricky part is looking at a high school kid and projecting what type of player he’s going to be in five years.”

Every major league team has its private army of scouts. Some have more than 40 scouring the countryside for players.

There are also scouting bureaus, including one run by the commissioner’s office, which makes its information available to all teams.

All of which is needed to help baseball executives conduct the free-agent draft in June. Teams will select up to 60 players to fill their minor league system, and it’s the scouts’ job to find them.

Oh, but it doesn’t end there. Only when a player has signed on the dotted line is a scout’s work done.

The entire process can be overwhelming for everyone involved.

“It was like nothing I could have prepared for,” said Dee Newfield, whose son Marc was a first-round pick of the Seattle Mariners in 1990.

“I didn’t know there would be home visits or that they would want Marc to take physicals, eye exams and aptitude tests. It’s something you wish you could go through once just to practice, then do it for real.”

But for the lucky high school players and their parents, there is only one shot.

The rewards can be a signing bonus--sometimes a hefty one--then a trip to Peoria, Pensacola or some other minor league outpost.

And it all starts with a scout.

“The first time I saw those radar guns, I was a little nervous,” Ward said. “I felt extra pressure to perform. Now it doesn’t bother me. I just concentrate on my job and don’t worry what’s going to happen in June.”

It’s Lindeberg’s job to worry about June.

As a cross-checker for the New York Yankees, his territory is everything west of Mississippi. Lindeberg goes from game-to-game to take a second look at players already recommended by other scouts. It keeps him on the move, as he sometimes goes through three states in as many days.

“I’ve signed hundreds of kids and I bet not one of them remembered my name 10 years later,” he said.

Lindeberg began scouting with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946, after getting out of the Navy. Like many scouts, he is a former player who never made it beyond the minor leagues.

It’s a job he’s seen change since the “old” days, the ones before the first free-agent draft in 1965 when a player could sign with any team he wished.

“This one time, this other scout and I decided we’d go see a kid together,” Lindeberg said. “We drove out to the family’s farm and talked with the kid for about an hour. Then we asked to speak with his father. The kid said we couldn’t because he was out in the field plowing with Mr. Johnson. Sylvester Johnson, a Yankee scout, had been there for a week helping the old man with chores. The Yankees got the kid.

“It was dog-eat-dog back then.”

But all that ended with the draft. It changed the job to more or less a process of elimination.

Teams draw up a draft list of players they hope will be available, which is based on the scouts’ observations. Then, it’s usually left up to the scout to get the player to sign, as cheaply as possible.

“There’s a lot of speculation involved,” said Al Kubski, a scout for the Kansas City Royals. “Your hope is that every player you recommend spends 10 years in the major leagues. It makes you look good.”

Finding the players is easy. Heck, if a scout can spot Mickey Mantle playing sandlot ball while driving through the Midwest--as legend has it--one can certainly locate a player these days, with improved technology and better organized high school, college and amateur teams.

In California, where the weather permits year-round play, scouts can get a good look. High school and college players are even invited to compete on scouting teams during the winter.

“In last year’s draft, about 25% of the players were from California,” said Ken Compton, who covers all the ground south of Fresno for the Seattle Mariners. “It just makes sense. You’re more comfortable recommending a kid you’ve seen play more often. It’s less of a risk. This is the most over-scouted state and rightfully so.”

There are 578 high schools and 88 colleges within Compton’s area. He will sometimes see up to five games on a Saturday, going from 10 a.m. until well after dark.

What he’s searching for is what all scouts covet--a kid who has that look.

“With a pitcher, it’s all velocity,” said Art Schuerman, who works for the Milwaukee Brewers. “If he’s got a fastball, they can teach him a curveball and changeup. The bottom line is around 82 to 83 m.p.h. If he can’t make that, you probably won’t take him.

“For a position player, you look at his throwing ability, hitting and speed. It’s a little more difficult.”

The techniques of rating players has changed, with radar guns and stop watches now almost being a must. The commissioner’s office’s scouting bureau even uses a video camera that displays a pitcher’s velocity on the tape after each pitch.

But there are some who still refrain from getting too wrapped up in technology.

“I can tell if a pitcher has good velocity just by watching,” said Chuck Menzhuber, who works for the St. Louis Cardinals. “If a kid is throwing hard, there will be a lot of foul balls, usually straight back.”

Menzhuber does use a computer and fax machine to write and file his reports. He also clocks players with a stop watch, checking how fast they can make it to first base.

But there are some things that can’t be measured or timed. Scouts also look for the intangibles, such as work ethic.

“Dedication and determination,” said Jim Doyle, who works for the Philadelphia Phillies. “Most kids look at pro baseball as a three-hour-a-day job. It’s not like that. You’re putting in up to 10 hours a day in the minor leagues, playing against other guys who are doing anything they can to make it. It’s a tough road, so a kid has got to want it.”

Said Schuerman: “I can watch how a kid runs on and off the field and tell if he has good work habits.”

Most scouts said they have little contact with the players at first, other than to say hello once in a while.

But some scouts are much more visible in their approach.

“They are always calling the house asking when I’m going to pitch,” Ward said. “Some guys from the (New York) Mets have come over to the house to talk to my parents. The other day a Toronto scout came over and asked if I would take an aptitude test.”

All of which can increase the pressure on a player.

“I remember as a sophomore seeing those scouts at our games,” El Dorado senior Tyson DowDell said. “It was a little intimidating. When you’re younger, you want to show them what you have.”

Said Kubski: “Yeah, I guess seeing all of us out at a game could put pressure on a kid. But one of the things you look at is how a kid handles pressure. You hope some day he’ll be in a pressure situation for your team.”

As the draft gets closer, scouts will have more contact with a player and start checking into a player’s background.

“You want to know what kind of citizen he is,” Lindeberg said. “We’ll even check police records.”

The most important thing a scout will look into is “sign-ability.” Nothing, short of playing ability, it is more important when a team is drafting a high school player.

A player has the option of signing out of high school or going to college. If he goes to college, a team loses rights to him.

“You need to know if he’s really interested in signing or is going to diddle around asking for a million,” Lindeberg said.

Kubski has had plenty of experience in these matters. In 1982, he was called in to help with the Royals’ negotiations with Bret Saberhagen, who is currently with the Mets.

According to Kubski, the Saberhagen family indicated that he would sign for around $4,000. However, before the draft, he threw a no-hitter at Dodger Stadium in the City championship game. The price jumped to $60,000.

“Basically you go in and try to work a deal,” Kubski said. “If you’re offering $100,000 and the family is asking $200,000, that sets the parameters. You go from there and hope everyone is reasonable.”

And, like every good salesman, you remain persistent.

“A few years ago we drafted Will Clark out of high school and had this young scout go talk to him,” Kubski said. “He offered $25,000, but the family wanted $30,000. He told them he’d try to get the extra $5,000 and would call tomorrow. Big mistake. The next day, the family told them that Will was set on going to Mississippi State.

“If you’re only $5,000 apart, pick up the phone and call the club. Never leave the house without a deal when you’re that close.”

And, in the world of scouting, the deal’s the deal.

“It comes down to finding the player, recommending him, drafting him and, above all else, signing him,” Lindeberg said.