The High School Baseball Scouting Process Interview – Part 2

Picking up right where we left off last week, let’s get right to part two of the HSBN exclusive interview with MLB Scout Willie Romay…

Read Part 1 if you missed it!

Anthony: What advice would you give coaches who want to help their players get recruited but don’t know where to start?

Willie: You know, that’s tough, because I know a lot of coaches…first of all, guys that coach high school baseball, man, they really do it because they love the game. You know, guys that coach high school baseball, the time that they spend with those kids and all year long, man, they don’t do it because of the money. High school baseball they coach it because they love the game, that’s for one. I know they have a lot of stuff to do and a lot of times they don’t get a lot of help from their administration in certain schools. Certain schools are great about it, but a lot of times it’s hard, it’s all on the coach. So he has to do his own fund raising, he has to do his own coaching, he has to do his own watching of how these kids are doing in school. There’s a lot of stuff on these high school coach’s plates.

To also throw on about helping to recruit their kids, could be tough. With that said, some of them, some coaches it’s easy for them to do this. They make contact with a lot of people. They have contacts with coaches, with college coaches, with scouts and they try and get that information to them. So there’s various ways that some of these coaches could be able to get that information out there to help their players. But, just being active and whenever they see a college recruiter, whenever they see a scout, just [say], “Hey, you know one of my guys is doing really good, have you seen [so and so]?” That information helps a lot.

“The biggest thing that helps us out tremendously is rosters.”

Anthony: Along those same lines, I’m a parent of a player who’s coach is not that involved in the recruiting process, what can I do to make sure my son gets noticed?

Willie: It’s tough, it’s tough because I understand totally. Parents, because everything nowadays is money, money, money. And a lot of parents work really hard for their money and if you’re not very careful and you start doing that summer tour of showcase to showcase it’s going to be very expensive. So you really got to pick and choose what events your child is attending.

The parents that have the money to do it and choose to do it, that’s great for them. The ones that don’t, you could still get your kid exposure, just talk to your kid. See what they want to do. Most parents wait for colleges or scouts to come to them, but they really don’t even know what their child wants.Do they want to go away to college? Do they want to stay in Florida? Do they want to go away from Florida?

Once you have that idea of what they want to do, then start looking at which schools are on their prep list. All of those colleges have summer camps. All of those colleges have Christmas camps or Thanksgiving camps. If you really like a school and you want to get to noticed by them, go to that school’s particular camp. You’re going right to the program, right to them, they’re going to get a chance see you, if they really like you when you’re at their camp, they’re going to jump all over you. If you’re at their camp and they don’t really talk to you or have interest in you then you know, hey, I gotta move on. But the money you’re spending, you know you’re spending on a direct contact with particular school. Sometimes when you go to a big showcase there might be a lot of players there, and you might get lost because there are just so many guys to see. So, you know, I tell parents be really cautious, and watch how you spend your money because you’ve got to have a plan before you start.

On that same note, academics is extremely important, that’s probably the most important thing., and I cannot stress this enough. I get college coaches that call me every year asking me about players and the first thing they ask you when you recommend a player to them is, “What’s his GPA?” He could be a great player but if they can’t get him into the school because they don’t have a good GPA or a good ACT or SAT score, there’s nothing they can do about it ‘cause they’re putting a lot of pressures on getting certain academic requirements into their school.

So they have to look at what their GPA is. So if a parent really wants to focus on showcasing their kid, focus on academics. Get that GPA up; make sure they have a good SAT or ACT score. Parents are so concerned with spending money on these showcases, but really, they should be spending this money on classes to help improve the GPA and the test scores. Once they have those scores and a good GPA then they can start going to these camps. I guarantee you when a recruiter sees a kid that has ability and they ask them about their grades and they have a good GPA, they’re going to have a lot more interest then if they don’t. That’s just part of the ways schools are doing their stuff now. You’re a student athlete; student first, then athlete second.

Anthony: So it seems like maybe parents have it a little backwards right now. Where they’re waiting for schools to come to them before formulating a plan and then saying, here’s my options, waiting to see where the offers come in. And you’re saying they should do it the other way where they should zero in on what’s good for my kid and what does my kid want, and then go looking for the schools.

Willie: What happens is that, it’s a little bit of both, you know what I mean? Sometimes you can’t compare a player that’s more developed right now to your son, they’re going to get a lot of attention. Again, it goes back to what you and your child are really looking for. There could be kids on the team that might not be as physically developed right now, and they may eventually be better than everybody else on the team. That’s just the way that development works. But the kids that are more developed right now are going to get attention. The schools are going to come see the more developed players.

There might be other kids that aren’t there yet, they’re going to develop a little later in life. They are what I consider a late bloomer. So those kids might not get people to come and see them now, so you have to wait because each particular case is different. If you’re not getting attention, then you have to go to them. If they are not coming to me, I gotta go to them. Who knows their kid better then the parent. You know if he’s ready to go away or if he’s not. You know if he’s academically ready for a certain school or if he’s not. You know if he’s physically ready to go perform at certain university vs. going to maybe a D-II school. You have to look at that and then you target the schools that are geared towards your kid’s ability as a baseball player and also his academic standards. You know by you doing this that you could eliminate a lot of this running around that people do. You might be talking to a school that’s not going to be a top interest of your son to go there because of academics or because of the pressures that that school might have to win now versus develop a kid. Those are all things that parents have to consider to make a well-rounded decision that’s going to benefit for their kid.

Anthony: We talked a little bit before we started about those pressures and about the differences that some parents might not understand of going to a Miami or going to a Division II or Division III school. Can you hit on that a little bit, those pressures and the differences?

Willie: Well you have to…it’s like everything else, there’s different development stages for every player. There’s some kids that are physically developed early and those kids are showing what they could do and they are going to continue to grow. They’re going to get seen by a lot of these schools and a lot of these schools want to get these kids into their programs because they want to win. But some of those big schools, there’s different pressures. When you’re a big university, they have to win! The rankings are very important for them, they want to get to Omaha. That’s the goal of all these big schools, they want to win a World Series. So the pressures of the big schools, the alumni, them wanting to do good, the rankings, some kids get lost in the shuffle and aren’t able to develop at the pace that they need to develop.

Sometimes you go to a smaller school and the kid might be able to develop because he’ll be able to play everyday and even if he’s struggling they’re still going to give him the chance to keep going out there because they don’t have the pressures of having to be ranked in the nation. You have to realize that each program has different requirements and you know, you have to see your kid. If he’s ready for the big D-I program then great but you also have to know the pressures of, they gotta perform; that’s part of the business. If the kid is not really developed then right now, he might have to go to a small D-1 or maybe a D-II, a D-III or maybe even a junior college for a year. So you know, that’s hard. I can’t decide that for parents but they have to decide that for themselves and be realistic with their kids and where they are right now.

Anthony: What do you think is the biggest misconception of parents is when it comes to having their child recruited?

Willie: I don’t know, I think that when you’re being recruited as a parent, that’s more for the college side. You know, I know a lot that I tell about scouting is from the pro side because that’s what I’m doing everyday. But as I parent, I can understand. If you’re getting recruited by a school, you want to make sure that it’s going to be a great academic school for your kid. The bottom line, you want to get a degree so you can have a better future and he can have a good job, that’s your main thing. But they have to find out, what can that school bring for my son academically? What can they provide for my son on the baseball side? Can they make him better? Do they have good facilities? Is it a place my son can grow? Is it a place where my son is going to be safe? You know those are all things that…it’s not just one thing, the baseball program. No, I would have to look at everything. Academics, university, what programs do they provide, what opportunities they could provide my son for his development in the future. And the baseball program, is it a program that’s going to continue to work to my kid to get better? It’s very important.

‘Most players at South Florida high schools should be playing college baseball somewhere in the country.’

Anthony: On the pro side, you talk to a lot of parents. Where do you think they are more mislead when it comes to the pro side of the scouting?

Willie: Well, I understand parents, everybody’s dream is to be a major league ball player. I mean you want your son to be the best that he can be, but the realistic numbers is that even if you’re drafted, you know you are in the top 2% in the whole country. So wherever you’re drafted it should be considered special and a great achievement. Whether it’s the first round, or, well this year they are going to change it to only 40 rounds, so anywhere in the top 40 rounds, you’re still in the top 2% of the country, that’s good! But sometimes parents don’t understand how much talent there is when it comes to the whole country. You know all of the teams are evaluating players all over the United States and sometimes in Latin America. So they’re doing different evaluations at different stages.

There might be a kid that might be the best in his city or county, but when you look at the big picture of the whole country, he’s just another ball player and sometimes when you don’t get out and see the big events all over the country, it’s hard to understand that. So sometimes parents they might think, “Oh, my kid’s doing really well right now, maybe he’s gonna get drafted.” And man I wish every kid could have that opportunity to play pro ball, you know. I see how hard they work, I would love it! But the realistic part is that it’s hard to even be drafted. You are in the top percent to even have the chance to play pro ball. One thing that’s realistic that every kid could strive for is, go to college. Going to college and getting a good degree and being able to get an education, everybody can do that, and I mean everybody, especially here in South Florida, most players at South Florida high schools should be playing college baseball somewhere in the country.

Anthony: Give me some of your biggest frustrations when you’re trying to gather information about a player. You hit on this a little bit and I know we talked about it a lot off the record in the past about your frustration in this area.

Willie: Well, sometimes it’s harder. ‘Cause I understand, we talked about it before, the high school coach has so much stuff going on that you know they have multiple hats that they have to wear in order to keep their program as one of the top ones. But for all scouts I think the biggest thing that helps us out tremendously is rosters. Just having rosters at games is huge because for one, if there are rosters accessible the scout and recruiters we are not going to go to the dugout to bother the coach because we have the roster. That’s the coach’s workplace. They’re working, they’re doing their thing with the team. You know, I don’t like it when they interrupt me when I’m working, so I totally respect that. But the rosters, if they are available somewhere in that high school field when you show up, it is great because then I could know who the players are on the field without bothering the coaches. I can start identifying guys. I can start seeing all the guys that I like. Who are the guys I could put on my follow list for next year? So that gives me tremendous information that I think is going to help me in identifying the kids that I want to see.

Anthony: How does the talent in South Florida compare to the rest of the country?

Willie: South Florida is one of the top talented areas in the country. You look at the draft numbers every year, and I could just go based on the draft numbers, the three biggest states for the draft every year is California, Florida and Texas, in that order. California normally has somewhere between 260-270 players drafted, depending on the year. Florida has somewhere between 180-190. Texas has maybe 80-100, it depends. The numbers, I’m not being exact, but it just goes to show you how California, Florida and Texas are so big. Lately with so much baseball and the weather, Arizona is really climbing. They’re doing really well because the weather allows them to play all year round. Georgia, Tennessee, all of the [southern] states that could play baseball all year round are getting better. But Florida is great because there is all year round baseball, and the competition is strong, the weather’s great, and you get to see these kids develop all year long in Florida.

Anthony: Being at the center now of high school baseball down here, one of things I’m constantly discussing with coaches is our power rankings, which I believe is the least important thing we do on any of our sites. But coaches will say, “well this team’s not that good or that team’s not that good.” And my frustration is, we’ve seen all the teams, and some of these coaches just create things based on what they’ve seen in the past without any real knowledge of how a team is playing in another county, or even within their own county.

In the scouting area, you kind of touched on this before, you’re getting the same thing with parents that are seeing their kids play against certain groups of teams, and their not really realizing what’s on the other side of the country or even what’s in the next county over. Is that hard to talk to parents about, when they think their kids are at a certain level, and maybe they’re not at that level in a scout’s eyes?

Willie: When you’re talking to parents about their child it’s a very delicate situation because you know, all of us as parents, we live for our kids. And parents sacrifice tremendous amount of time and money in their kid’s development. So I understand that it’s a delicate situation because everybody wants the best for their child.

Parents just have to be patient and understand that there might be some kids that are ready right now and some kids that are not. But if your kid is a hard worker and he is a good student and brings home
good grades and he stays out of trouble, man you know, as a parent you’ve won! That’s the outlook that I look at. So I always try and tell parents, “Be positive with those kids because kids right now they are so delicate, they are a sponge and whatever information people give them or how they talk to them. It’s part of the developmental stage for when they get older. When you are constantly giving people positive thoughts and positive things they start to believe it, and it’s become part of their make-up.

“Kids are trying their best. I’m sure they all would love to get a hit every time they get up to bat, or they would like to strike out every hitter they face, but as long as their competing and they’re learning sportsmanship of going out there and competing and playing the game the right way; they’re on the right track.”

Anthony: Before we finish I want to thank you for your time and effort in helping us shed some light on the scouting process. We look forward to working with you in the future to help raise the awareness to coaches and parents when it comes to scouting, and hopefully that will lead to much more exposure for South Florida high school baseball players and programs.

The last question is personal and has to do with human nature. You watch South Florida players grow from freshman in high school, into potential first round MLB prospects. How rewarding is it when you find a player at a young age and your work changes their lives?

Willie: You know, that’s a beautiful thing. I think that for me that’s a special gift, that’s part of what we do. When I go scout, I scout because I love the game. I’ve been around it my whole life, and I love to go out there and see baseball. I’m very fortunate that I do what I do for a living. For me it’s not a job, it’s something I love and enjoy. So when I’m able to find a young man that is special, both physically and mentally, it is very rewarding. I get excited when I go to see a game because I want somebody to really shine…I want to look at it and just be like, “Oh my God, this guy’s going to be a future star!” I’m looking for that.

I’m considered to be a positive scout. I always look at the positive things from everybody. I don’t go out there looking at the negatives. I look at what can they do to get better? And when I see a young kid that continues to play ball and you see it in them, they have this special engine inside of them that they want to get better, they want to go hard, they play the game the right way, they’re very dedicated, they’re very ambitious, and you see them grow physically until all those tools come together and they get to the big leagues. It’s very rewarding to see a young man grow from a young high school kid to a big leaguer.

You know, in South Florida it’s been, in all my years of scouting, a big hot bed. I’ve seen it happen so many times. There’s just numerous players that I’ve seen grow. They’re high school guys like everybody else and they keep growing and growing and they play the game the right way and now they are fulfilling their dream in the big leagues. That’s what my job is all about, to see that development. I’m very fortunate to do that.

Anthony: Alright, thank you for your time, I’m sure your insight will be a tremendous tool for parents, coaches, and players.

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