Insider Scouting Insights from a Global Crosschecker

Scouting used to be an art and not a science. Yet, baseball has adopted more objective insights in evaluating talent in the current landscape. 

Scouting has expanded from ball flight characteristics such as spin rates, break charting, spin efficiency, throwing velocities, exit velocities, and launch angles to appreciate process metrics associated with biomechanics and athletic performance.   

All that said, what can be done to evaluate future health?  

What can be put into the scouting prediction engine that estimates the number of innings pitched a pitcher can achieve or plate appearances for position players?

Grateful for my Go-To Scouts

In my career, I have been mentored by many scouts that are both subjective in their approach and objective. They have all taught me a ton about players' behavior, communication, execution of movement, on-field positioning, decision-making and anticipation, competitiveness, consistency, and comparative analyses with current MLB players.  

Bottom line, you must watch a lot of baseball to be good, and you also will have your fair share of misses when endorsing an athlete for the MLB Draft.  

Consider Albert Pujols, who signed in the 13th round for 60k and is soon to be in the Hall of Fame. He was the 402nd player selected, meaning everyone whiffed 401 selections earlier. If you have ever been in a draft room, there are many factors at play, and not everyone agrees on a player. And in those days, objective data was scarce.  

If you are wondering who the scout is who got him to sign with the Cardinals, that would be Dave Karaff, an area scout who saw something in Pujols and was able to convince his regional and national crosscheckers. 

Introducing Carlos Gomez

One of my go-to guys in the field, and guest in this week's podcast, is Carlos Gomez, Global Crosschecker for the Seattle Mariners.  

He is unique as he oversees the scouting reports of players throughout the entire globe. When he was with the Angels, he was the International Scouting Director and had to evaluate athletes as young as 14 years old for future prospect consideration. He has always tried to refute his biases and demonstrates a strong scientific approach to assessing talent. I absolutely loved diving into data with him and providing biomechanical insights for sprinting, hitting, and pitching.

One thing that we discussed in this week's podcast is physical development. When athletes enter the organization undersized, there is a huge focus to gain mass. Carlos has a massive challenge in projecting future bodies, especially if the athlete did not come to him physically developed.  

The Danger Associated with Mass Gains

Although gaining lean mass is desired in professional baseball players during their minor league development, it could expose athletes to the risk of injury if their relative arm strength goes down.  

The ArmCare App measures relative strength, which is a metric expressed as % bodyweight strength. Relative strength was an issue we faced in professional baseball, especially when great scouts like Carlos signed smaller statured players.  

For example, take an athlete who comes into your team or organization who weighs 150 lbs. In two years, this athlete is now 195 lbs. That means the dominator in relative of strength has increased, which could drive down the measure. Extrapolate that to your athlete population— you may really have a health issue if body size increases at a higher rate than throwing arm-specific strength.  

Ultimately, if the athlete throws gas with a low relative strength measure, the throwing arm may be more fatiguable. 

The moral of the story is that many factors go into player projection, and MLB players these days are averaging over 200 lbs in body weight. If the big boys do not have their total arm strength to a level of 70% body weight, or an ArmScore of 70 on our app, then they are inching closer to injury and the potential of poor future performance. 

How Strong Do You Need To Be?

The ArmScore is the summed total of all relative strength measures from our shoulder and forearm-specific tests.

I really see a future for throwing arm strength assessment in scouting and player development as Strength Matters Most to future performance. If you have a weak arm relative to your body size, it may lead to fewer innings pitched and increased risks. 

If you are a scout, a coach, a sports medicine clinician, a parent, or player, then working toward establishing greater innings pitched for your players or yourself should be your primary goal.  

If we attack weakness and educate our scouting community about throwing arm strength analytics, then athletes will have a pathway laid out upon signing, as athletes with weaker arms can be remediated early in their career. Or on the flip side, if an athlete has a questionable MRI, a super-strong arm may elevate teams' confidence in the prospect so that they can proceed to offer the athlete a contract, rather than taking it off the table, which happened to Vanderbilt phenom, Kumar Rocker in the 2021 Draft.

Stay tuned for more on integrating ArmCare.com in scouting to project future innings pitched and ensuring athletes are resistant to injury. In all accounts, raising the level of understanding about throwing arm strength is critical for everyone's success in the game. 

Reach out to me if you have any questions! 

Thanks,

Ryan

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