Scouts and Technology

I very much like this take on how the new tracking technology will help scouts:

More recently, I asked Pirates general manager Neal Huntington — who worked as an advance scout before becoming one of baseball’s more forward-thinking general managers — about how scouts and Statcast might get along. Huntington suggested that Statcast would likely free scouts to better fulfill the main duty of the profession for as long it’s existed: to watch games.

This seems like the most basic of job requirements, but it can actually be a problem.

As Dave noted on the podcast, scouts have essentially been glorified data-entry personnel for years, recording radar-gun readings, pop times, run times, etc. The lack of technology has too often forced scouts to divert their eyes from the field.

It’s a problem with which I, as a former beat reporter, can relate.

A big part of my day job is solving problems like this, freeing people from tedious data entry, or finding more efficient ways to use the technology that is available to them. I sell these changes as, “You’ll have more time for more important work.” For scouts, it’s seeing what the tracking systems don’t see.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2wCI9Uc