The Scouting Classroom #40
WHY SCOUTS LOVE BAD GAMES
Most people assume scouts enjoy watching great performances. Truthfully, some of the most valuable evaluations happen when things go wrong.
Anybody can evaluate success. The challenge has always been evaluating the response to failure.
Over twenty years in professional baseball, I learned that bad games often reveal more than good ones. A player can fool you on a night when everything is working. A couple of barrels, a home run, or seven shutout innings can send everybody home excited.
But baseball isn’t played on the best days.
Professional baseball is built on how players handle the other days. The days when the timing disappears. The days when velocity beats them. The days when they don’t have their best stuff. The days when confidence begins to leak.
That’s when the evaluation becomes interesting.
WHEN THE MASK COMES OFF
Failure has a way of exposing things success can hide. That’s when scouts begin paying attention to details that may not matter to the average fan, but can matter greatly over the course of a career.
• Body language.
• Competitiveness.
• Response to coaching.
• Emotional maturity.
• Ability to make adjustments.
• Accountability.
• Toughness.
• Leadership.
• Resilience.
Anybody can smile after going 4-for-4.
What happens after 0-for-4?
How does he carry himself after striking out with runners in scoring position? Does he point fingers or accept responsibility? Does he continue competing, or does he mentally leave the game?
Professional baseball guarantees failure. The best players in the world make outs seven times out of ten. Great pitchers get hit. All-Stars get booed. Future Hall of Famers experience slumps.
Nobody escapes it.
THE SECOND LOOK MATTERS
Some of the best reports I ever wrote came after bad performances. Not because the player played poorly, but because of how he responded.
A scout may leave disappointed after the first look and then come back weeks later to see if the player adjusted.
• Did he learn?
• Did he compete?
• Did he improve?
Those questions often separate prospects with similar tools, because tools may get two players to the same level, but character often determines which one keeps climbing.
SCOUTING THE PERSON
This is where experience matters.
Scouts aren’t simply evaluating swings, arms, and running times. They’re evaluating people. And people reveal themselves over time.
Sometimes the greatest compliment a scout can give isn’t, “He had a great game.”
Sometimes it’s: 👇
• Nothing bothered him
• He stayed present
• He never stopped competing
• He made adjustments
• The game sped up, but he didn’t
∙ Anybody can evaluate talent by itself…👇
The hard part has always been evaluating how talent responds when things stop going according to plan.
That’s why scouts don’t fear bad games.
Sometimes, they love them.
Because failure has a way of revealing things success never will.
And there is a difference!
#BehindTheRadarGun 🔎
OU finished 11th in the SEC (14-16), went 0-1 in Hoover, and trailed No. 2 Ga Tech 8-2 on the brink of elimination. Since:
⚾ Outscored GT 21-7, winning twice
⚾ Swept Big 12 champ KU 21-3
⚾ Beat only top-8 seeds in Omaha
⚾ Won 10 of final 11
A truly remarkable title run! 👏
Major cheat code for hitting: Before you step into the box, tell yourself you're going to win. Not maybe. Not hopefully. Tell yourself. Out loud. "I'm going to crush this baseball." Say it with conviction. Because when you hear yourself say it, something changes. Your focus changes. Your body language changes. Your intent changes.
Because theres one thing I've learned as a player who played 25 years:
The moment you tell yourself you're going to win, you start acting like someone who does.
Up 1-0 in best of three @CWSOmaha Skip Johnson (@CoachJohnsonOU) delivers an uncommon message for @OU_Baseball and for every leader striving to build an uncommon culture:
🙌 Selflessness is one of the rarest competitive advantages in any organization because it becomes increasingly uncommon at every level. The higher the stakes, the more people protect their status, spotlight, and self-interest. Teams that consistently choose "we" over "me" create separation that talent alone can't overcome.
❓ One of the most powerful questions a team can ask is: "What could we accomplish if nobody cared who got the credit?" Ego divides energy. Shared ownership multiplies it. When recognition becomes secondary to the mission, trust grows, silos disappear, and extraordinary results become possible.
✈️ Your trajectory is often determined by the energy you tolerate. Negative people drain focus, magnify problems, and create friction that slows progress. Protect your environment relentlessly. Removing toxic energy creates the space for growth, momentum, and your best work to emerge in sports and in life.
Selflessness is the ultimate force multiplier: when everyone invests in the mission instead of their own spotlight, ordinary groups become uncommon teams. 🔦 #MCWS #RoadToOmaha
“We knew what he did tonight he was capable of doing all year,” Georgia Coach Wes Johnson said when asked about Dylan Vigue
“Sometimes players need belief and confidence, and they need to know that you believe in them no matter what and when they can feel that it frees them up.”
Troy Head Coach Skylar Meade on the College World Series:
“It's the most unique place in the world. It's the best college sporting event bar-none. No offense to the others. Rose bowl is awesome. It ain’t this.”
TAG PLAY FROM LAST NIGHTS TEXAS & GEORGIA CWS GAME.
1) Texas catcher initial set up is inside the 3B line & in fair territory.
2) When he reads the SS’s throw from
down the LF line, he takes a big drop step to get a more favorable hop. Unfortunately the drop step takes him behind HP which allows the runner to score before being tagged.
3) In today’s game with replay review as part of the process, it is best to make the tag before the runner gets to HP. Most successful tag outs are made up the 3B line on the slider’s midline before he gets to HP.
4) In this situation the catcher was probably not far enough up the line & took too big a drop step. ( Most likely a combination of the two) IMO the ideal initial set up on throws from
LF/CF is 17” up the line & 17” inside the line. From that position a good throw legally takes you into the line & keeps you from getting behind the plate. It also allows the catcher to work back towards the plate on a wide throw on the 1st base side.
5) Ideally on a close play like this one you are making a quick one handed sweep tag while pivoting through the runner while sliding & pivoting on both knees.
High School Pitchers -
When you pitch in college, almost every hitter you face will have been one of the best hitters on his high school team. The bottom of the order hitters in most college lineups are as good as the best hitters you're facing in high school. You need to keep developing your craft, even if you're dominating high school ball.
The pitcher got you once.
That’s baseball.
But you carry that at-bat into the next one, and now you’re handing him another one for free.
So he’s got you twice. The second one’s on you.
The at-bat doesn’t follow you around. You’re carrying it up there, dragging you down.
It’s a new at-bat with a fresh start, treat it like that.
Short memory is a skill. You build it like everything else
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