Berardino: Scouts must look past stats

[Seth Stohs]

Baseball draft: Scouts must look past stats to find a Kirby Puckett - TwinCities.com

 

Berardino writes a great article on what the scouts need to look at.

 

Body type, personality makeup and devotion to a deeply unforgiving sport are among the traits that must be analyzed and assessed, initially by area scouts who can have responsibility for up to a handful of states, then by regional supervisors and national crosscheckers, and finally by scouting directors, general managers and, in rare cases, team owners.

 

These things are often ridiculed, but they absolutely matter.

 

There is a lot in the article about Kirby Puckett:

 

"There's a bunch of scouts that did not have Puckett on their draft list," Ryan says, "and I mean a bunch."According to Earl Brown's 1982 scouting report released by the Hall of Fame as part of its Diamond Mines exhibit, Puckett had no better than an "outside chance" of reaching the majors.

"And that was generous," Ryan says.

[jorgenswest]

Many remember Puckett as a first round draft choice in 1982. They forget he was a January draft choice. Players in that draft rarely made it to the majors.

 

The 26 players drafted in the first round in that draft combined for a 50.1 WAR. Kirby contributed 50.8 of that 50.1. None of the three other players that made to the majors posted a positive career WAR.

[bird]

This series of articles by Berardino should be required reading for anyone who thinks they can look at some stats and form a valid opinion about the draft prospects, and for those who think Ryan, or Smith, or any other GM plays a dominant role in who gets selected.

 

jordenswest, thanks for the interesting facts on the '82 January draft.

[kab21]

Not even in the minors against more uniform competition are stats everything. I'm typically apply a 50/50 breakdown for stats and scouting. In college and especially HS they mean even less.

 

I am slightly impressed by Bryant hitting a HR more than every other game though with the new composite bats.