How You Can Attract Interest from College and Professional Baseball Scouts

If your dream is to be a baseball player, you're not alone. The problem is, the number of kids with a dream who are given the opportunity to play college baseball is small, and the number who then go on to play in the big leagues is miniscule.

But if you're one of those kids with a dream, what can you do to make yourself stand out? What do college and pro scouts look for in a prospect?

1. One thing you can do is simply make contact with scouts, rather than hope they somehow already know about you and will make contact with you. It's not as if every scout is magically aware of every prospect in the country. It's really not considered inappropriate or too forward for you to contact scouts directly that you want to be aware of you. If you're hoping for a baseball scholarship to a big college program, or you're already doing well in college and hoping to catch the eye of pro scouts, don't be shy about contacting them. For instance, you might want to put together a video tape of highlights of your play, press clippings, detailed statistical breakdowns of your performance, etc., along with a polite, well-written cover letter.

It can be equally or more effective to contact scouts through third parties. Your manager can be crucial here. If you're hoping to go to a college in your state, for instance, there's a good chance there's a scout for that program that keeps an ear to the ground by maintaining contact with high school managers in the area. If your skipper goes out of his way to talk you up to the scout, that could be key to gaining you an opportunity.

2. Once scouts know you exist, the first thing they'll look at in evaluating you is your stats. Scouts want to make sure you've had success against lesser competition before picking you to play on a higher level.

Are they only looking for those who have totally dominated at the lower level? Not necessarily. Certainly scouts recognize that someone could have a lot more potential than they've shown so far. But what that usually means is they'll give a shot to a player who has been very good but not great, because they believe he could be significantly better with work on his mechanics, proper coaching, etc. It rarely means they'll give a shot to someone who has performed at a mediocre or below level, just on the basis of potential.

If you are "only" the second best pitcher on your team, or the third best catcher in your league statistically, a scout may well be willing to take a closer look at you. If you're ranked somewhere around the middle or worse statistically, there better be very unusual circumstances for you to get a second look. So do everything you can to keep those stats up.

3. From among those who've achieved substantial success at their present level, scouts are looking for prospects with the right "measurables."

Some of that, like height, you can't do a lot about. But you can work on getting yourself in the best shape you can, so that such things as your percentage of body fat come out as well as possible.

But then also think about the measurables that occur in a game context. How many miles per hour is your fastball? What is the precise time it takes you to get from the batter's box to first base? From the moment a pitch crosses home plate, how long does it take you as a catcher to throw that ball and have it arrive in the second baseman or shortstop's mitt at second base? If you catch a moderate depth fly ball and throw to home, how much time does it take from when the ball hits your glove until it hits the catcher's glove?

Look at every aspect of your game like that that can be measured, and find your weak spots. Look to bring everything up to as high a level as you can.

4. But again, just as there are a lot of players with awesome statistics, there are also a lot with the right height, foot speed, arm strength, etc. Scouts know these things only tell part of the story. They put as much, maybe more, emphasis on "intangibles."

Besides the factors mentioned above, when a scout talks to you, talks to your manager and coaches, maybe talks to your family, observes your play on tape, observes your play in person, etc., you should assume he has a long list of intangibles on his mind. He wants to know certain things about you as a ballplayer, such as:

* The way you handle adversity

* Your intelligence

* Whether you are a good teammate

* Your maturity

* Whether you stay out of trouble off the field

* Whether you are focused and paying attention at all times on the field

* Your hustle

* Your work habits

* Whether you are looked to as a leader

* Your aggressiveness and desire

And much more.

If you're honest with yourself, you likely know your weaknesses, or at least can figure them out. You should assume any scout will quickly become aware of them as well, and so you should work to improve in those areas.

That'll give you your best shot at impressing a scout, and realizing your dream.