To every professional baseball scout, HS head coach and college recruiter:
The following is both a challenge and an encouragement.
The pursuit of excellence in our profession often comes with a hidden cost.
We spend countless hours on the road, at ballparks, on airplanes, in hotels, and in conversations evaluating other people’s children.
The work matters. The opportunities we help create matter. But let’s never forget what matters most.
My friend, Washington Nationals scout Tommy Jackson once made a profound statement: @TJScout44
“I only saw 5 games of my son’s senior year in high school, watching other people’s children play (of which I got zero in the draft). Point is — don’t miss out!”
Those words should stop every scout, coach, and college recruiter in our tracks.
LOVE is spelled TIME
The people who matter most don’t measure our love by our intentions; they experience it through our presence.
Don’t miss a decade of your child’s life chasing only position, power, and prosperity. At the end of the day, it’s not worth it.
The next promotion, assignment, title, or contract can always be replaced.
If you die tomorrow. You’ll be replaced in a week or two.
The moments with your children cannot.
Their games, conversations, milestones, struggles, victories, and everyday memories are opportunities that expire forever once they’re gone.
Yes! Work hard. Be excellent at what you do. Honor your commitments.
But maintain a healthy balance between your career and your family, especially your children.
Invest in your children as intentionally as you invest in your profession.
Be present.
Be engaged.
Be available.
Let them know they are not competing with your career for your attention.
Most importantly, let them see that your relationship with God is more important than your relationship with work.
Let them watch you live out your faith through your priorities, your character, and your daily decisions.
As my friend Brian Dodd says so well: @BrianKDodd
“God’s Sovereignty—Is My Sanity.”
Because when it comes to your children never forget…
“A lot more is caught than taught.”
Your children may not remember every lesson you tried to teach them, but they will remember what you valued, where you spent your time, and who you became.
Players will come and go.
Reports will be filed.
Seasons will pass.
Drafts will conclude.
But your family is your first team.
Don’t miss out.
@ButchBaseball29 Aka Willits Ball. Thats how he learned under Mike Scioscia and the Angels when he came up in a system that home grew there players. from 1999-2013 no MLB did it better. Reggie Willits was a product of that development.
Everything you have wanted to say or hear about the state of Major League Baseball, its organizations, development, gurus and analytics idiots running the league into the ground, all in one short video.
Bravo. 👏👏👏
Former @MLB player John Vander Wal nailed it on his @facebook post!
#shegone
The game is in an awful state.
I scouted professionally for two organizations over a ten-year period, and a lot of what we’re seeing today is being misunderstood or flat-out misrepresented.
First, velocity. Pitchers are not throwing significantly harder across the board. The perceived jump in velocity is primarily the result of technology and measurement changes — specifically where the device picks the baseball up out of the hand. As radar and tracking systems moved closer and closer to release, the readings increased. The arm didn’t change — the measurement did.
Now hitting.
We’ve reached a point where “gurus” who never played the game at a high level are applying golf swing principles to baseball, largely because golf embraced analytics to identify the most efficient swing paths. The problem is that a baseball bat is not a golf club.
In golf, you dump the club to get it on plane.
In baseball, you cannot lose the barrel on the back side and still stay on plane consistently.
Yet the tech community began preaching backside barrel dump as the answer. Front offices filled with non-baseball “propeller head” GMs bought into the presentations, and this philosophy was pushed aggressively through the minor leagues. I saw this coming as early as 2014.
The result?
Hitters now dump the barrel in an attempt to get on plane, but they:
• Struggle to stay inside the baseball
• Lose adjustability
• Operate with slower effective bat speed
On the pitching side, it’s no better.
Pitchers are taught max effort on every pitch. Starters rarely exceed 90 pitches or five innings, work almost exclusively to either arm side or glove side, and live in deep counts. Relievers are almost universally max effort, arm-side only.
The consequence is obvious:
• Poor command
• Inconsistent control
• Little ability to sequence or adjust
Despite all the technology, pitching command and overall feel are as bad as I’ve ever seen at the big-league level.
More data didn’t make the game smarter.
It just made it louder — and in many cases, worse.
https://t.co/4Ozi83ayLJ
@notgaetti@BobFile@twuench@billdubs@iamrags@SliderDominate@slider_sinker@CRAIG_LAPINER@hittingguru7@BLocsports@TheRealJHair@WillClark22@DMEASrecruiting@GDBJr5@mikepiazza31@JLucroy20
Good for you Grant. @Luckyswing5 is ready to sub in for Grant. @PGATOUR the next great cross marketable young talent is knocking on the door. Don’t believe me ask @StephenCurry30, let em know👇🏽💪
Unfortunately I will not be playing in a PGA Tour event. The rules and regulations around PGA Tour tournament play will not allow us to film. The only reason I was in the position to receive an invitation like this is because of YouTube and you all watching the videos, so if I’m going to play, we want film it. I am hopeful that this won’t always be the case. I would be honored to play in a PGA Tour event and bring you all along in the future.
Huge thank you to the Barracuda for the invite and belief in YouTube golf.
The Nats are getting their most media attention since the Soto trade in 2022. They don't report on the good, but they are now giving air time on the radio and page space in their blogs because the Nats are terrible right now and they can pile on.
We have new readers because of this. We write on the Nationals all 365 days a year and I've never taken a day off, ever, even from a hospital bed after waking up from anesthesia which shows how crazy I am. Passion and energy drive me -- not negativity and clickbait garbage. Where have all these people been?
It is so easy to find the positives with James Wood, MacKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, and others who have some ups and downs because baseball is about who fails the least and wins the most games.
The blame game sucks. But back it up with facts, and we have something we can talk about.
I listened to Coach McDonnell’s in game interview yesterday and immediately was like YES he gets it. Something drew me to him and now I know. Such a fun team to watch. So humble, Thanks be to God!
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