Before we get started, I want to thank all who provided feedback on my first piece – I certainly appreciate it. That article for BSL focused on scouting amateur position players, and I’d like to continue along that theme by talking about scouting pitchers. While my experience ranges from scouting Major League ready players to teenage amateurs, I’ll focus here from the perspective of scouting teenage prospects in Latin America.

(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)

We’ll start discussing pitchers the same way we began discussing position players – by talking about physical attributes and athleticism. The first thing that you notice about a young pitching prospect is their frame. Phrases you hear thrown around often are “broad shoulders”, “long limbs”, and sometimes even “wiry”. These traits are ideal in pitchers because they’ve been proven over time to be predictive of future Major League talents when found in young, raw pitchers. Of course in addition to frame, we’re looking for athleticism. This is similar to what you’re searching for in a position player, but particularly important for pitchers is balance and coordination (or at least the potential development of it.) The bottom line here is that you’re looking for a pitcher with a frame that’s going to allow for added strength over time while maintaining the balance and coordination needed to be able to consistently repeat his delivery.

Next, we’ll get our hypothetical prospects up on the mound and discuss delivery. The easiest way to talk about delivery is from the ground up – literally. We’ll start by discussing feet and legs – their step. What direction do they step and where does their foot land (open, closed, straight?) Open is not ideal and therefore not seen often, but straight to slightly closed is an ideal range. When looking at step you also want to see where the foot is landing. It’s a good sign if your prospect is landing in the same exact spot repeatedly, or close to it. Is his stride length good, or is he over or under striding? Is his leg kick balanced and under control before making that stride? Are his hips pointed toward home plate when he lands? You’ll next look at their legs and hips and how they work together. After landing, do his hips efficiently transfer power from his legs as he brings his body around to deliver the ball? This is where the balance and athleticism comes into play the most. Can a pitcher do all of the things we discussed with balance? Does he consistently repeat all of these things well?

As we work up the body, we’ll now focus on the arm. We’ll of course take note of the arm angle (“three quarters”, “high three quarters”, “sidearm”, etc.) but we also take note of how the arm “works”. The term used to describe the way a pitcher’s arm works is “arm action”, which describes how the arm operates from the time the ball leaves the glove to follow through. A few of the terms you’ll hear used often to describe a pitcher’s arm positively are “smooth”, “effortless”, and “quick”. Conversely, you don’t often hear words like “long”, “short”, or “hitch” used often to describe the arm action of a top prospect, although these quirks can still be workable with good coaching. You also want to factor in where the ball is released. Obviously, the further out in front of the body the ball is delivered, the less reaction time the batter has. Finally, you want to factor in how the player decelerates his arm through follow through. “Recoil”, or “bounce back” is often a red flag for scouts, as it can theoretically be indicative of future control/command difficulties or injury proneness.

Next, we’ll move on to describing the actual pitches thrown by the player. When I previously discussed position players, I spoke about their “tools” being the heart of the final scouting report. With pitchers, we’re grading each of their individual pitches in terms of velocity, movement, control, & command using the same 20 to 80 scale that we used to grade position players’ tools. As a refresher on the 20 to 80 scale, 20 is amateur level, 50 is Major League average, and 80 is perennial All-Star level. Most scouting reports will give a 20 to 80 “present” and “future”grade to each of the aspects listed above for each pitch.

You’ll start with the fastball: What is his raw velocity? Based on his body type and age, what do you predict it’ll be at his peak? What kind of movement does it have? Terms frequently used for fastball movement are “tail”, or arm side movement, “bore”, or extreme arm side movement, “sink”, or downward (and often arm side) movement, and “rise”, or seemingly (not actual) upward movement. For breaking balls the focus is primarily on movement. Descriptions frequently used for curveball are “12 to 6”, or straight up and down break, “three quarters”, or having some horizontal break, and “slurvy”, or bordering on slider movement. Some slider descriptions are “sharp”, or late, abrupt break, “dart”, or small, quick break, and “long”, or slower breaking. Ideal changeups are described as being thrown “with good arm speed”, and often have “sink” or “fade”, but can also be “straight” and still be effective if the arm speed is close enough to his fastball arm speed.

The other things to factor in when talking about pitches are control and command. Control simply refers to the pitcher’s ability to throw strikes. Command is more specific, and describes the ability of a pitcher to throw with accuracy where he intends to throw – in or out of the strike zone. Command grades are often given for each of a pitcher’s individual pitch types, and it’s not uncommon for a young pitcher to have varying levels of command with each pitch. For example – a young pitcher may be able to throw his fastball at will to both sides of the plate, but not be able to do the same with his breaking ball or changeup. In order to assess command, I personally like to be hands on with the pitcher I’m scouting whenever possible by standing behind them while throwing and requesting that they throw each pitch to a specific location.

The last thing I’ll discuss are the pitcher’s intangibles. As with position players, we always want to factor in makeup, or the player’s overall mental mindset. We’re still looking for confidence and work ethic, but we’ll also factor in their pitching IQ. This can be a tough one to gauge at the amateur international level, so you do your best to simulate game situations to try and get a feel for it. Also known as pitchability, some scouts believe it can be found more frequently in prospects that come from places that have organized games from a young age like Venezuela or Panama.

I’ve tried to hit all of the big bullet points of scouting young pitching prospects, but in case there’s something you’re still wondering, I’ll be checking the message board and doing my best to respond there.

Cale Cox
Cale Cox

Orioles Analyst

Cale Cox is a graduate of Texas State University & Texas A&M University. He has held roles in Scouting, Player Development, & International Operations for the Atlanta Braves & Baltimore Orioles. He lives in Columbia, Maryland with his wife & daughter.

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