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Thursday, April 10, 2014
Scouting Children: Why MLB Has Teams Competing For 14-Year-Olds
BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic—It’s an early January morning at the Yankees academy in the Dominican Republic. In a couple of hours, hundreds of scouts will be here to watch some of the top Dominican prospects in the 2014 signing class.
For now, on one field, the Yankees are holding a private workout with a pack of team personnel there to evaluate the players. On an adjacent field, with only a few people watching, a pair of infielders are out early taking grounders.
They both look young—too young to be July 2 players for this year. One wears a Nationals shirt and carries a Phillies equipment bag. He looks like he belongs in Little League. He has the mechanics of a child and the arm strength to match.
“He looks like he could be a guy,” said an agent, using the industry nomenclature for a legitimate prospect.
The player is 13 years old, international class of 2016. It’s a school day, but instead he’s here, taking infield on a professional diamond. If the agent doesn’t get him now, someone else will. By paying a family and his youth league coach a few thousand dollars today, a trainer can secure in the neighborhood of 20-40 percent of a player’s future signing bonus.
In Latin America, this sight is not unusual. The system now in place with Major League Baseball drives teams to aggressively scout 14-year-old boys, with trainers and agents looking for the next great 12-year-old. Want to sign one of the top 16-year-old players for this year? You’re probably too late. The aggressive nature of international scouting, combined with MLB’s bonus pool system, gives players incentive to reach agreements with teams earlier than ever. The 2014-15 international signing period begins on July 2, but for some teams, it’s already over, and has been for several months. The race is on to sign the top players for 2015.
“The market really has gone sideways for me,” an American League executive said. “It’s really against my scouting instincts to go get out there on 14- and 15-year-olds. Holy smokes. Who knows? Sometimes you have to do what the rest of the industry does.”
Very interesting article (not behind the usual BA paywall) on the evolving state of the international draft.
The John Wetland Memorial Death (CoB)
Posted: April 10, 2014 at 11:01 PM | 29 comment(s)
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1. Rants Mulliniks Posted: April 11, 2014 at 09:10 AM (#4684316)The scouts don't need to go to the games... for the kids that matter, the media hype is so great that the scouts here about them without even needing to travel to see them.
There was a guy in our Bronco and Pony league that just towered over us and he threw hard. He just intimidated the heck out of most folks in the league and was dominant.
Then we got to high school. He stopped growing while a bunch of us didn't. He had to start throwing at 60'6". Other guys were throwing just as hard or harder and suddenly, he wasn't quite so dominant.
It's funny - he was recruited by a local Catholic high school (as were a couple of other guys) when he was dominant 13 or 14 year old and he was never that great in high school. He was good, don't get me wrong but not like I think the high school school coach dreamed of.
This was me. At age 11, I started the regional all-star game and struck out all 9 batters I faced. I was 6 inches taller than the next biggest player on the team, nearly as tall as our manager. I looked like I probably drove myself to the game.
I didn't even end up playing in high school. The others caught up pretty quick when we were 12-13 (I never got so much as an inch taller than I was at 11), and then I got sidetracked with other stuff that I found I'd rather be doing.
I agree and I wonder why. Do they actually get better players or could you train a really good athlete at 15 and have him just as good as the kids who have done it forever by the time he turns 16?
Also, is it a good idea to have kids spending so much of their time on something they will probably never do later in life? I saw a recent scholarly article about changes in mood for college senior athletes when they realize they can't play at a high level of competition any longer. I try to keep my kids fairly balanced but it seems like that is not an option with many activities. You're either all-in or there is no program available.
They're doing that already. You know how much basketball a stud 13 or 14 year old basketball player plays? Jabari Parker's scholarship offers started rolling in when he was 14. He went to a Top 100 NBA camp before high school. Maybe things shouldn't be this way, but they already are.
There's at least some evidence that the professionalized academy concept that's proliferated in soccer has actually helped bring a little more balance to the players' lives since the academies can at least now do some things to ensure it's not always about soccer all the time 24/7.
The difficulty with baseball of course comes down to pitching as there's a balance between developing skills and wear and tear on arms. But hitters would definitely benefit from academy type setups in terms of their hitting and fielding skills. The problem is one of just compensation for players that young, but of course that's already the problem now, too.
I would think that the academies that are run by teams might be a bit more protective of the kids. I posted about this yesterday, but a stud 14 year old here in CA could theoretically play tournament ball during the winter months (dec - feb), youth league and travel ball during the spring (feb - jun), summer tournaments, winter ball (aug - nov). There are travel ball tournaments of some sort to be found for every holiday weekend or extended holiday (there are tournaments starting the Friday after thanksgiving) and tournaments between Christmas and New Years.
The biggest problem with this is of course the no down time thing. But a smaller problem is that the same kid probably has 3 or 4 different coaches for the teams he plays on and quite a few parents don't advocate enough for their kids. They see it is a badge of pride that little Billy plays 100+ games a year.
At least with an academy type setting (especially if a team is footing the bill) the players are at least viewed as an investment. I could be wrong of course since I know absolutely nothing about the Dominican academies.
* As a side note, my boys are only 6 and 4. We play soccer during the fall and baseball during the spring. We'll see how that goes in the future, but my current thought is that sports are a good way to stay active, have some fun, etc.
In soccer the general thought seems to be certainly skills are easier to pickup at different ages. Ball skills, especially related to ball control and touch seem best learned at a very young age. Mental skills and power skills seem to things guys pick up as they are older. Some people believe this is why American players while often being fit or physical often lack the technique of players from somewhere like Spain.
A completely different activity but not long ago I was reading a story about chess player Judit Polgar and her sisters. Her father basically believed that genius was made and gave his three daughters specialized chess training and home schooling from a young age. All three daughters ended up elite chess players; Judit is considered the best female player ever, her sister Susan was the first woman to become a men's Grandmaster and was woman's world champion and the third sister was "only" a woman's GM and men's IM.
For baseball it would be interesting to see if certain skills were developed better young than others. To me something like pitch recognition of very fast pitches seems like something you would want to train early and often, because it's incredibly difficult at the highest levels.
Almost everything I did as a kid was something I didn't directly do in my later life. Doesn't mean I didn't get a lot out of it.
Algebra, psh! Its for suckers!
I didn't even end up playing in high school. The others caught up pretty quick when we were 12-13 (I never got so much as an inch taller than I was at 11), and then I got sidetracked with other stuff that I found I'd rather be doing.
Sounds to me like you were 3 years older than you claimed. Probably playing under your cousin's name, hoping to pull a Pujols.
Teams foot the bill, but with the exception of players there for short periods for tryouts, the "academies" are full of players already under MLB contract. Teams aren't bringing young amateur kids in and teaching them baseball. ("Academy" is little more than a synonym for "foreign (spring) training complex.")
I'd show you my long-form birth certificate, but I have to request it from the Kenyan embassy.
No, I knew that part. It's sort of like the soccer "academies" in Europe.
For example, my wife coaches Cross Country which is a fall sport. Coaches of other sports discourage their kids from participating (like basketball) because they can practice during that same time period. It boggles my mind that a high school coach (especially basketball or soccer) would actively discourage their players from participating in something like cross country. If done right, the cross country coach would get all of your endurance training out of the way (aside from sprints and all) so you could just focus on basketball or soccer skills.
Aside from that, it's asinine that a high school coach would prohibit a student from participating in as many sports as possible. In reality, the chance of a kid being elite in one sport is minute. It detracts from the high school experience to discourage kids from participating in other sports.
In Brazil things are stranger. There a player that is among the top prospects is likely owned by a consortium of investors that places him in a suitable club for showcasing his talents.
Fear of injury. No coach wants to lose their star player because s/he got hurt running around on a golf course in their pajamas.
I believe that what makes most great players is playing the game over and over. By playing so much they get a sense for the game, what other players will likely do, how the ball reacts, how to shoot the ball or puck from a certain point. You can't teach these things. You can help them along, but there can be no replacement.
This is undeniable; and yet, not so long ago, quite a few outstanding baseball players grew up playing whatever sport was in season, and starring at most of them. Jackie Robinson, Jackie Jensen, Dick Groat, Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Kirk Gibson, Kenny Lofton – I'm just naming people offhand at the highest end of baseball talent. And it's hardly ancient history; Joe Mauer played high-school basketball, Grady Sizemore played high-school football: these are guys who have pretty good baseball instincts. Carl Crawford played several sports well in high school, though I know Red Sox fans will say baseball was his worst :) Clearly, even in an age of specialization, there's no bar to an athletic kid developing as a baseball player if he excels in several sports. The cross-training probably helps; and as for injury, you can get hurt playing any sport at any time; it's just that psychologically it seems more a "waste" if a baseball player gets hurt running the 200m as opposed to getting hurt running the bases. It's really more a cultural thing than anything else. For an athlete these days to generate the most buzz and get scouted and recruited, he (or she) is probably well-advised to cultivate their "brand" as a single-sport player, and network within a given sport's "community."
Injury in another sport = bad
Overuse injury from overtraining in one sport = good?
Injury while training for one's own sport = unavoidable.
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