Posted by: Jack Mankin (MrBatspeed@aol.com) on Thu Mar 15 00:50:08 2001

>>> jack...i was told by one scout that he and most scouts can look at a hitter taking dry cuts in the on deck circle and know if that hitter has good batspeed....i was told by an ex-major leaguer that scouts use a stop watch to measure bat speed (i have NEVER heard of this)...do scouts indeed simply LOOK at a hitter and know if they have batspeed?....how accurate are they in their visual observation??....respectfully, grc....<<<

Hi grc

Answering your question is probably going to get me in hot water with major league scouts because my honest appraisal of their ability to spot and define mechanics that generate bat speed is quite low. They played in an era where the key words to good hitting were “quick hands”, “keep it tight and compact (meaning a linear A to B hand-path)” and “keep your shoulder in there (shoulder rotation was equivalent to casting).” I am sure there are exceptions but there are still far to many that grade hitters along those lines.

“....i was told by an ex-major leaguer that scouts use a stop watch to measure bat speed” – I am afraid there may be some who think they can.

“most scouts can look at a hitter taking dry cuts in the on deck circle and know if that hitter has good batspeed” – Most of the hitters have more linear mechanics in the circle than they exhibit in the game. I really wonder what impression most scouts would have of a batter in the on deck circle practicing bottom and top-hand-torque??

Grc, you got me into this, so you should take some of the heat.

Jack Mankin