Orioles Scouting Reports

The National Baseball Hall of Fame has recently released a database of scouting reports on a section of its website called Diamond Mines.  There’s also going to be an exhibit at the Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, New York for the next two years.  The exhibit and the new searchable website are dedicated to honoring the men behind the scenes of major league baseball, the scouts.  The database is fascinating to play around in and there are tons of old scouting reports to search through.

Of course the first thing I did was search for all of the current Orioles and I was somewhat disappointed to find that there aren’t any reports for them on the site.  I assume that’s because the teams didn’t want to release reports to the public for players that are still playing and give away information that they are still using.  Once I got past this initial (brief) disappointment, I moved on to searching for players who were no longer playing for the team.

This brings us to Cal Ripken Jr.  When you search for Ripken (the search is by last name only) you get 5 reports each for both Billy and Cal.  Jackpot!  That’s what leads me to this post.  I’m going to share with you the 5 reports that come up for Cal Ripken Jr. with minimal commentary.  The reports are so awesome by themselves, you don’t need me telling you how awesome each one is at length.  So that’s enough of this intro.  Let’s move on to the reports.

You can click on each report to make it bigger.

This report is from September, 1985 and has information on a bunch of Orioles.  Cal is listed as having plus arm, hit and power tools.  His run tool is graded below average and I’m guessing the X under fielding means he was viewed as an average fielder.  There are also extra notes on Larry Sheets, Michael Young, and Mike Boddicker.  I’m impressed by the impeccable handwriting, something scouts are definitely not known for.

The next report from July 1, 1989 focuses only on Cal.  At this point, he had been in the major leagues for 8 seasons but the White Sox were still doing individual reports on him.  I’d expect this to be a report on how to pitch to him that an advance scout would file, but it’s not.  They graded his 5 tools all average or above, and even added the ever important 6th tool – bunting.  I guess Cal wasn’t good at bunting because the scout only gave him a 40 for the drag bunt that Cal laid down.  I can’t imagine he saw him drag bunt more than once.

I like his summation “He can play.  Would help any ML club.”  I wonder how much that helped the White Sox considering he was a 7 time All Star at the time.  Still, it’s pretty cool to see.  I also like his strong points “Good day in, day out player.” This was in the midst of his consecutive games streak so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this scout respected his ability to play every day.

This report is also from the White Sox organization and even though the form is the same, the information contained on it is quite different.  From browsing through the reports, it seems that every organization has its own scouting forms and that each teams forms changed somewhat through the years.  This report has the advance scouting information filled out in the bottom right hand corner of the form.  It says that the White Sox should attack Cal up and in or on the outside corner when ahead in the count.  The report also recommends to shift the defense towards the left field line and deep because Cal was mostly a pull hitter.

This one is an Orioles team report filed by Scott Reid.  Filed to which team, I don’t know.  But the report is fascinating.  Mickey Tettleton was still on the team, and was showing his power.  You’ve got to feel bad for Billy Ripken when Reid says, “Plays hard but has limited ability; extra man.” In this scout’s opinion, Cal Ripken was already better suited for 3B but he was not willing to move.  He’d be proven wrong in 1996.  He also thought Brady Anderson was an average extra outfielder and advised his team not to go after him.  Brady didn’t put together his first good season for another couple years, in 1992.  Reading the note on Ben McDonald just makes me sad, “Great potential; Plus FB, CB, CH; Intimidating.”  It’s a shame McDonald never filled that potential.

Also included is a 24 year old Jose Mesa, as a starting pitcher.  Reid hadn’t seen him so he couldn’t file a report on him, but he was still a starter.  That is fun to remember.  There’s also a great report on Curt Schilling.  Remember when he was on Oriole?  “Plus FB and SL. Young will get better.”  He was 23 at the time and posted a 2.54 ERA in 35 games out of the bullpen that season.  It’s a shame the Orioles didn’t hang on to him.

There are some duplicate notes on this report because it’s filed by the same scout, Scott Reid.  Reid still thinks Cal Ripken would be better off playing third base than shortstop.  Here’s his report on Gregg Olson, “Plus FB; Great CB; Quality Closer.”  I miss watching his outstanding curveball dive under a batter’s swing.  Check out the report on David Segui from Frederick and Rochester.  The report notes that he was a plus bat with power potential.  He did end up having some good seasons at the plate, but the power never quite came to fruition.

That’s the end of our little journey through the scouting reports through the prism of Cal Ripken Jr.  In my opinion, these reports are one of the most fascinating things to be released in the baseball community in quite some time.  If you get some spare time, I’d highly recommend spending some time on the Diamond Mines website.  It’s as enjoyable as it is illuminating.