For Some, Diamonds Are Forever

It’s a Sunday in November, yet the optimism of spring rings across the Cal State Northridge baseball diamond.

The field is crawling with top high school players. A game is in progress, there is a waiting line at the batting cage, and both bullpens resound with the crack of balls hitting catcher’s gloves.

Coaches yell instructions, major league scouts point radar guns and college recruiters scribble in notepads.

On a day most people’s minds are on Thanksgiving, those consumed by baseball are talking turkey while watching top prospects knock the stuffing out of the ball.

“I’ve learned so much out here I can’t tell you,” said Sean Douglass, a 6-foot-5 pitcher from Antelope Valley High. “The people I’ve met, the improvement I’ve made, this is the only place to be.”

Welcome to scout team baseball, a loosely organized but tightly run fall forum for the best high school players to develop skills and gain exposure.

“I’m like a kid in a candy store out here watching these guys,” said David Rhoades, an assistant at Pepperdine, which signed Douglass to a scholarship.

There are three scout teams in the area, each with a roster of 45 to 90 players. The teams play against scout teams from Orange County and against teams of junior college players.

Won-loss records are meaningless. The environment is at once instructional and a showcase. These are motivated, talented players, and by putting them on the same field they form friendships while scouts and recruiters form opinions.

“You can’t be the best unless you know what the best is,” said Chuck Dragicevich, whose son Scott is a Westlake High infielder and a member of two scout teams. “You have to go out and find it. So much of baseball is not obvious.”

The teams’ ties to major league franchises are minimal. Craig Wallenbrock, a full-time scout for the Cleveland Indians until being fired in an organization-wide re-shuffle last summer, runs a team sponsored by the Baltimore Orioles.

Andy Levinson, a part-time scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates and a full-time certified public accountant, runs a team sponsored by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Nez Balelo, a part-time scout for the Colorado Rockies and full-time operator of West Coast Baseball School, runs a team that plays primarily intrasquad games at Pepperdine.

The Orioles and Pirates provide balls, bats and the team’s logo on stationary. That’s about it.

“I lucked into about 20 Pirates spring training uniforms,” said Levinson, 35, who began his team last year. “The rewards for the major league team are goodwill in the community and providing a developmental program.”

Several years ago, six major league teams sponsored scout teams in the area. The number has dwindled because many scouts believe they are only helping competitors by showcasing top players. That kind of thinking is short-sighted, Wallenbrock said.

“Baseball needs to do something to promote the game and foster development,” he said. “Ambassadorship of the game is my No. 1 goal.”

Beyond goodwill, there are advantages to running the team.

“Other scouts are going to see these players anyway, there are few secrets out there,” Wallenbrock said. “But I’m going to get to know the kid. I’m going to learn things that I could never learn sitting in the stands.

“There are certain personality types that you know will be vulnerable to the peripheral obstacles that keep talented players from reaching their potential. I have a kid on this team who everybody is in love with. But I can already see in him that he will be sidetracked because of his makeup.”

Other players raise their stock by performing well throughout the fall season, which runs from September through mid-December.

Matt Pesso, a Royal High second baseman, gained a scholarship from Northridge after Matador coaches watched him play on the Orioles’ team.

“I saw him play four times, and it became clear he will be a Division I infielder,” said Tim Montez, the Matadors’ recruiting coordinator. “He’s only 160 pounds and you don’t notice him right away. He’s exactly the kind of kid who benefits from playing on a scout team.”

Others end up launching professional careers. Eighteen players from Wallenbrock’s 1995 scout team were taken in the amateur draft last June. Robert Stratton, an outfielder from San Marcos High who played on Wallenbrock’s team, was a first-round pick of the New York Mets.

“Not too many [scouts] knew much about Stratton until he starting coming to Craig’s games,” said Al Schoenberger, a recruiter for agent Arn Tellem and a former scout. “The same with [Monroe High pitcher] Wayne Nix the previous year. The work he put in plus the exposure changed him from a late-round to a fourth-round pick.”

Not all scout team players are on the cusp of college or pro careers. Many are underclassmen cutting their teeth against top competition and undergoing scrutiny from scouts for the first time.

All of Wallenbrock’s players are juniors or seniors, but Levinson has 10 sophomores.

Doug Duetsch, a scout for the Houston Astros who runs one of eight Orange County and Inland Empire-based scout teams, has three freshmen, including Matt Cunningham, a catcher from Notre Dame High who played on the Northridge Little League national championship team in 1994.

“This is great for my confidence because I’m facing guys throwing 90 mph and hitting them,” said David Perry, a Thousand Oaks High junior on Wallenbrock’s team. “If I didn’t have the chance to face them, I’d still be wondering whether I could do it.”

A day with a scout team is more than a ballgame. Balelo’s players arrive at Pepperdine before 9 a.m. and aren’t done until 3 or 4 p.m.

Several West Coast Baseball School coaches, including former major league pitcher Dave Schmidt, offer individual instruction.

Wallenbrock has a full-time pitching coach, Brian York, and frequently brings in guest instructors such as former and current major leaguers Jimmy Anderson, Jerry Ruess and Mike Gallego.

Levinson uses pitching coach Alan Jaeger of the Jaeger Sports Academy and several veteran coaches every week.

The exposure to various instructors is an obvious plus, although there are high school coaches who believe otherwise and discourage their players from participating on scout teams.

“Some high school coaches are insecure,” said York, who has worked with Wallenbrock for about 15 years. “They coach through intimidation. We are about cooperation and education.”

Other high school coaches have witnessed first-hand the benefits of scout teams.

Camarillo High players dot the rosters of all three area teams, and Scorpion Coach Scott Cline couldn’t be happier.

“It’s only a positive for my kids to get input from other coaches,” he said. “There is no right or wrong way. If a coach is too hard-headed to see other points of view, he’s hurting his players.”

Three Camarillo players on scout teams--Joe Borchard, Jeff Bannon and Andy Kroneberger--already are recognized as college prospects. However, Cline points out that unheralded junior infielder Jeff Caligiuri has benefited greatly from playing on Levinson’s team.

“In the last two months, I’ve seen him gain confidence and improve drastically,” Cline said. “He will be an impact player this year.”

Although only in its second year, Levinson’s team has made great strides toward competing with Wallenbrock’s more established group.

Both admit they must compete fiercely for players, but Wallenbrock wishes Levinson well.

“They are copying us, and I think it is a good thing,” Wallenbrock said. “He has made his team a solid training situation. There are enough kids to go around.”

Levinson held several tryout camps to recruit players and he added several respected assistant coaches this year. He believes his team will continue to gain in stature.

“Craig and I have the only teams in a great area,” he said. “That’s a real benefit.”

Wallenbrock and Levinson don’t consider Balelo’s operation a scout team because it’s primary link is to West Coast Baseball School.

Yet from the standpoint of the players, there isn’t much difference. Top prospects are mingling, competing and gaining quality instruction. College and pro scouts dot the stands at all three locations.

“You get to be seen and it raises your level of play,” Pesso said. “It makes you better. That’s why I’m here.”