Attention all baseball players:
Do you know what the consensus No. 1 question is for Major League Baseball and college scouts when they call a prospect's high school coach?
GRADES
They want to know what your grades are in school, and they are keenly interested in your ACT or SAT test scores from your college entrance exams. Why? There are several reasons, scouts tell me, including one or two that might surprise you. I've enjoyed the honor of working with more than 20 pro and college scouts this week at the Connie Mack World Series.
Being a volunteer helping them means that most of the conversations I have at the stadium are off the record and with my civic citizen hat on, not my editor's cap. But I'm also an assistant coach for the varsity baseball team at Piedra Vista High School, and I have close ties and go to church with kids I much admire from the Farmington High program. Throw in a bit of summer league coaching with players from both schools and others in our area, and I was extremely interested in how to share with these kids what the scouts say about school. Several agreed to talk at will about that particular subject. Here's some of what they said ...
*** First and foremost, they are curious about a player's character. Hearing about your grades can tell them something about that. "If he's making a steady 3.0 now but he was a 2.4 kind of student, that means he's overachieving," the scout from Louisiana State University told me. "But if he is making a 2.4, and he was a 3.0 or better, that means he's underachieving."
LSU, by the way, is among the more prominent Division I baseball programs in the country. Being an Auburn alum from the same athletic conference as LSU, I know first hand from watching their program for many years that they have a pretty good selection of players interested in them to choose from. The head coach at LSU came from Notre Dame, which is another school that considers grades of special importance before they sign a player to a baseball scholarship.
Before moving back to Farmington in 2006, I spent much time with Division I Coach Jim Case at Jacksonville State University and formerly of Mississippi State. Prior to him, Hall of Famer Rudy Abbott, a 1,000-game winner and twice a World Series winner on the collegiate Division II level before moving to D-I, invited me to help coach high school, college and youth players in a round of coaching clinics held in the South. From them, I learned to put it this way to the players I counsel: If a college coach narrows his list to 12 equally talented players for only two scholarship spots, then simply put, it comes down to who has the best work ethic. Grades and a record of extracurricular activities can provide a lot of insight.
Most colleges and universities, at least the good ones, do not want to waste a partial scholarship on someone they suspect might quit or fail to academically qualify. Bottom line: Work hard, stay active and make good grades. A pattern of that tells a scout you're a hard worker, and they like that.
*** The pro scouts tend to believe all the aforementioned things about grades in school, too, but they have a much bigger reason to pay attention.
The Connie Mack World Series organizers, such as those at most other prominent baseball tournaments that provide fertile recruiting grounds for scouts, provide a so-called "scouting roster" to the scouts that includes statistics and personal data on every player participating in the tournament. Right at the top and on the far left side among the first category topics is the player's ACT/SAT score. If a hot-shot player coming out of high school has a solid ACT or SAT score, then that means big-name college programs are going to be interested, if he is talented enough on the field. If that player is talented enough on the field for a good college program to be interested in him, then chances are good that the professional scouts are, too.
Therefore, a good player may get two very interesting offers. One, from a pro team that decides to draft him from among hundreds drafted in pro baseball each year, or two, from a college scholarship offer that will help pay for an education and certainly a fun college experience highly valued by many kids. So what does having two options mean to the pros and the players? Money.
A hot prospect with bad grades has less of an option. A college may not think he's got the grades to cut it. If so, and the player's choice is fairly simple to go pro, then that means the player has much less bargaining power when that first contract is signed. Sometimes, that can mean the difference between a few thousand dollars and a few million. However, a hot prospect with good grades can use it when negotiating with pro teams. Doesn't like the contract offer? Fine. He can take the scholarship, have fun at school and work on bringing up his skill level for what he hopes will be a higher draft spot the next time he enters the draft. The risk is injury or poor performance in college, but the gains include a chance for a degree and the fun of college. If the pro team really likes him, they up the offer. If the kid has bad grades and no scholarship offers, then he has less of a choice. Thus, good grades more than often means better money, even in professional baseball when high school is an afterthought.
*** Farmington is fortunate to be so high on the list of so many scouts interested in coming here, and that is a decades-old success story for the Connie Mack World Series.
The scouts come from all the best in big-name baseball organizations, such as the Braves, the Cardinals, the Yankees, the Twins, the Red Sox and on and on in Major League Baseball. We welcome them and appreciate their interest in what we enjoy as simply great baseball.
Four Corners fans are well aware by now that some of the talent they watch in this world series will no doubt join many others playing here before them in making it to the pros.
Many volunteers investing hundreds of hours in hospitality and hard work make the series happen. And, interestingly enough, it seems that many good teachers behind the scenes have just as big a role in who goes pro and when. So, the next time you pick a favorite player to watch climb the ranks, consider adding to the stats checklist you're keeping. Home runs, hits, RBIs and, yes, grades. The hottest prospects will have them all.
Troy Turner is the editor of The Daily Times and works as a community volunteer at various events. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 450, Farmington, N.M. 87499; or at tturner @daily-times.com.
