When scouting a pitcher the first quality a scout will look for is a strong arm.

This is a natural talent that can only be improved to a certain degree. That's why WebBall and other sites emphasize you develop your fastball to perfection before spending too much time on off-speed pitches.

However there are things scouts look for as well as arm strength and velocity - movement, a curveball with tight rotation, free arm action and proper delivery, with complete extension on the follow-though. Basically, this comes down to a live, quick arm, aggressiveness, and the ability to concentrate.


Fastball

The first thing a scout looks for is a fastball with good velocity and movement. A fastball should appear to sink, rise, slide or tail. A major league fastball is in the high 80's. Throwing with both two-seam and four-seams, plus a cutter grip (off-center) will enhance the movement on the fastball.

Curveball

When grading a curveball, scouts look for a fast tight rotation on the ball. A good curveball will break both laterally and downward about two feet. A good curve ball gives the illusion of falling off the table with its sharp downward breaking motion as it approaches home plate.

Slider

A good slider can be a tremendous compliment to a good fastball. A good slider will have a tight lateral spin, like a bullet. The seams will appear like a red dot - the smaller the dot, the better. A slider will break about 6-18 inches as it approaches home plate. It should look like a fastball until it breaks across the plate.

ChangeUp

A good change up can be a tremendous asset to any pitcher by making fastball seem that much quicker to the hitter. A good change-up should look identical to the hitter only it travels 15-20 mph slower than the fastball. It will get the hitter way out in front of the pitch.

Delivery

A pitcher's delivery should be as smooth as possible. It should look effortless with no mechanical problems like throwing across the body, landing on a stiff front leg, overstriding, landing on the heel, or his arm lagging behind his body. Any mechanical problems left uncorrected can lead to control and arm problems. No scout will consider a pitcher prone to injury because of bad mechanics.

Control

The ability to throw strikes on a consistent basis is vital for any pitcher to have success at the college or pro level. If the pitcher has less than overpowering stuff his control becomes even more important to his success. A good pitcher will be able to throw 70% of his pitches for strikes and can throw breaking pitches for strikes when behind in the count.

Physical Changes

A scout should also consider growth factors. Has the propect reached his full height yet? Can he gain or lose weight? Will he become faster or slower? Has he filled out yet? Does he a have history of being hurt? How much has his skills improved from last year.

Make-Up

A good prospect will also have intangible qualities - a strong desire to succeed, coachability, maturity, temperament, improvement, drive, hunger, consistency, knowledge of the game, competitiveness. Does the player have the physical tools plus the strong make up to play in the major leagues. Only about 10% of the players who sign a minor league contract will. (Sometimes it's all about how badly a player wants to reach the top level and how well he's willing to work at.)

 

One game under a radar gun will tell if the pitcher has the arm strength to be a major league prospect.

There are two basic models of radar guns used to clock the speed of fastballs.

• The Jugs Speed Gun (Fast Gun) will pick up the speed of the fastball after it has traveled 3.5 feet,
• A Bushnell or Ra-Gun (Slow Gun) pick up the speed after the ball has traveled mid-way to the plate (for the Ra-Gun it is said to be 40-50 feel, the Bushnell depends more on distance from Gun to Ball).
• Then there is the Glove Radar which straps on the catcher's mitt to give at the plate readings.

A fastball will lose 8 mph from the time it leaves the pitchers hand to the time it crosses home plate. So the JUGS Speed Gun is usually 3-4 mph faster than a Slow Gun. The average major league fastball is 88-89 mph on a JUGS Speed Gun and 84-85 mph on the Ra-Gun. , about 7-8 mph slower. All readings are relative - as long as pitchers are compared the same way. However, scouts will rarely if ever sign a pitcher who does not throw at least 85 mph on the JUGS Speed Gun.