IFD,
That was a great post and CD thanks for posting that article.

quote:

What gets you to the cages early and what gets you there to take extra infield is a burning desire, combined with the need to get better than you were yesterday, combined with coaches who create an environment for that to happen, because they are there with you, or there before you and stay when you leave.

“He’s a hard worker: he shows up early and leaves late. His baseball IQ has gone up a whole lot.”

Do they measure that at showcases ?

Thanks for the kind words everyone...and for a great post infielddad. You really clarified what I was trying to say.

I pray that God will take good care of all of our guys this season.

Talent separates drafted players from non drafted players.

and Makeup

and Projectable ceilings

and good experienced college players

and instincts

and game awareness

and tools

and bat speed

and arm speed

and foot speed

and being athletic

and believe it or not Looking like a ball player in your uni!

..and heart.

Glad you mentioned "heart"

The toughest thing to evaluate in a player.


HEART

Thats why you better tell someone what your heart WANTS! and not what someone else's heart wants!!

Problem is parents hearts and players hearts don't match. Some hearts want the bonus and don't really want to play. Other hearts want the attention but lack the desire.....

We could get deep into that one word. So let me stop there!

Hello;

The separation begins very early in a baseball player's life. Please read this article which appeared in our local newspaper.

Jonny Gomes was in our Area Code games and played at the local Santa Rosa JC. "Preserving" and practice is this message for young players.

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID...2090329/1055/SPORT10

Bob Williams

"Golden" thread here, MN-MOM...........

Mr. Williams - thank you for that article. Here is the money quote from the article imho and I have never seen anyone say this before:

quote:

Do they breathe the sport like it's air?

I agree with FO that this thread should be golden. Also, TxMom's post was a classic as everyone else here has said.

There's a poster here who is very good friends with Hank King, who obviously has a knack for seeing things that others don't.

The bottom line, all you need is one scout to really believe in you, and you have to believe in yourself.

I do believe that Hank King is an agent at this time and his ability to identify talent is one of the important things to consider when seeking an advisor/agent.

TPM - those are good points about Hank King. Notice he said that what caught his eye was the pop-up

His name was Joey Belle at the time and he had a reputation at LSU as a hot-head/unstable and many teams back away from him. The Indians General manager at the time - Joe Klein, took a lot of heat for drating him in the second round given his emotional baggage. On draft day, the GM's main quote was that Belle hit the highest pop-ups he had ever seen in his life. The average fan was left scratching their heads Joe Klein was right about that player. Albert Belle, although never considered a nice guy, was one heck of a player.

quote:

Originally posted by fillsfan:
I am trying to find out what separates players who get drafted from players who do not. I know there are tools like pitch speed, running speed and power that can't be taught that stand out when you watch games. Are these the types of things that catch the eyes of scouts.
I know there is no science to this but I am curious as to what gets a kid drafted, even in the 20th - 30th rounds.

This is the original post question.

Another answer...........an agreement between the two parties that match

In regards to drafting players:

A) Be very skeptical about players that play dual sports splited with baseball
B) Injuries kill pitchers
C) Talent can come from anywhere.
D) Some tools guys pan out, others don't. Some sluggers pan out, others don't.

If I was a scouting director, I want my position players to be from the college ranks and my pitchers to be drafted out of high school. Unless its a talent like Justin Upton who will be considered a success if he only reaches half of his potential.

One important thing you didnt think about Mr. Scouting Director. You have a 2 year contract, guess those HS pitchers you draft will be credited to the next SD after you!!

quote:

If I was a scouting director, I want my position players to be from the college ranks and my pitchers to be drafted out of high school.

William77,

Sure you don't mean the other way around?

You can take your pick of the college position players and I will take my pick of the high school draft picks. Of course neither of us can use players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Japan, etc. who are not elegible to be drafted.

You mentioned Justin Upton, so I won't include him. There are probably a lopt more, but here are some of the position players I get at each position...

INF - Alex Rodriguez
INF - Derek Jeter
INF - David Wright
INF - Jimmy Rollins
INF - Chipper Jones
INF - Scott Rolen
INF - JJ Hardy
INF - Eric Chavez
INF - Marcus Giles
INF - Brandon Phillips
OF - Ken Griffey Jr
OF - Manny Ramirez
OF - Matt Holliday
OF - Carl Crawford
OF - Torii Hunter
OF - Gary Sheffield
OF - Jermaine Dye
OF - Grady Sizemore
OF - Jeff Francouer
OF - Jeremy Hermida
OF - Gary Matthews
OF - BJ Upton
OF - Cliff Floyd
OF - Adam Dunn
OF - Vernon Wells
OF - Delmon Young
1B - Prince Fielder
1B - Adrian Gonzalez
1B - Derrek Lee
1B - Jim Thome
1B - Justin Morneau
1B - Casey Kotchman
C - Joe Mauer
C - Ivan Rodriguez
C - Yadier Molina
C - Russell Martin
C - Jorge Posada
C - Brian McCann

Note: Looking over that list, I just realized something. There might be more than one future
Hall-of-Famer at every position.

Well, all you said is true but:

Todd Helton 1B- College
Ryan Howard- College
Chase Utley- College
Aaron Rowand- College
Garrett Atkins-College
Dan Uggla- College
Barry Bonds- College
Khalil Greene- College
Jason Bay- College
Eric Byrnes-College
Mike Lowell- College
Travis Hafner- JC
Frank Thomas- College
Nick Swisher- College
Curtis Granderson- College
Jermaine Dye- College
Ryan Braun- College
Troy Tulowiski- College
Stephen Drew- College
Rickie Weeks-College
Mark Teixera- College
Hunter Pense-College
Ryan Zimmerman- College
Jacob Ellsbury-College
Mark Reynolds- College


I will not lie and say your list of position players will produce more HOF's but my list helped their teams quicker.

Added to Golden Threads by request ... some very good reading here!

With regard to high school vs college, position players vs pitchers, so much depends on the MLB club's approach to their own farm system that I think it is difficult to balance the discussion. Some teams prefer the young ones, to groom on their own, while others prefer the college players to utilize some of their maturity and experience.

So many factors in all of this ... that's why they pay those GM's etc the big bucks !!! And some of them still don't get it right

Going back to the original question on the thread and some of the comments about intangibles. Interestingly, we have a local kid that just got drafted. Granted he was way down the list but he got drafted. His only tool really is he hits for power. He is a SS that runs a 7.3. IF throw is 86. He strikes out a lot and when he does he goes in the dug-out and throws a hissy fit. Just this week he got kicked out of the state Legion tournament b/c he threw a bat in the dug out after striking out and injured one of his teammates. He makes a lot of errors in the field, as well. When he is hot he can flat out hit the ball - but that is it. Makes you go back to the original question - why do some get drafted and some not. I think he got hot at the right place at the right time. He got lucky and got seen one of his good games. And, the scouts weren't there at the games where he had 2 errors and struck out twice, yelled at the ump and then threw his helmet across the field to his dugout.

Hit,

I'm guessing that if he is still playing legion ball someone hasn't signed for him to play pro ball. Maybe the MBL team had second thoughts. If he's holding out for $$$, I wish him luck. Hope he has a back-up plan.

Initially I was thinking that they saw a diamond in the rough. Maybe upon closer examination they saw the flaws.