How to Become a Major League Baseball Scout

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. Lynn Lashbrook, president and founder of Sports Management Worldwide, Portland, Oregon and I'm here to talk to you, how do you become a major league scout? And if you look at the roster of major league scouts, sure a lot of percentage of people that played in the game, maybe played in the minor leagues for seven years, had a chance to study the game, didn't get to play to the elite level, sometimes they become the best scouts. But baseball culturally has been a very networked organization but now that has changed and I know here at Sports Management Worldwide we have an online course where you can actually learn the components of sabermetrics, the digital video analysis of the player, how to project, how to study compared to other players with certain positions. College baseball has become so popular and so all those abilities to use more technology in scouting I think give people an opportunity to break in the business not because you knew somebody but also you bring value. Sometimes there's a lot of players who have played all their life but really aren't as tech savvy as a young person passionate about baseball that didn't play to the elite level. And so what we try to say in the business of baseball with technology and everything, there's more than one way to break into the business. For example, females aren't playing major league baseball but that doesn't mean they don't have an eye for talent. And each person brings a unique set of values when they want to get into this business. Yes it's hard to break in, a lot of people go into coaching. As a coach you learn to scout and as you develop that network and you bring value. But as a player and as a coach or working in the digital video analysis room, breaking down film of all the games, studying the game, researching, looking at all the sabermetrics of the famous Bill James who started sabermetrics. There's so many ways to develop a skill and a talent that the opportunity to break into baseball are better than ever because they're looking for talent, they're not looking for somebody that necessarily played the game. And so I encourage you again if you're really passionate about baseball and you want to be a scout, start learning from day asking more and learning more than just watching the game and cheering when the team goes ahead. Study it and pick the brains of other scouts out there and network and start setting up a portfolio so someday you may the opportunity to demonstrate that you can be a scout just like the person next to you."