What scouts look for in pitchers .:. StevenEllis.com .:. Pitching Tips for Baseball Success with Steven Ellis

This week, I got a number of questions pertaining to the MLB draft. The No. 1 question many of you had was what scouts look for in baseball pitchers. Here you go...

When scouting a pitcher, the first quality a scout will look for is arm strength. To an extent, this is a God-given talent. But you can improve it to a degree by following a strengthening program such as TUFFCUFF.

One game under a radar gun will tell if a 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 Stalker Gun will pick up the speed of the fastball after it has traveled 2 feet. A fastball will lose 8 mph from the time it leaves the pitcher's hand to the time it crosses home plate. The average major league fastball is 89 to 90 mph on a Stalker Gun. Pro scouts rarely sign pitchers who do not throw at least 88 mph on the Stalker Gun.

CHECKLIST FOR GRADING PITCHERS

Fastball: The first thing a scout looks for is a fastball with good velocity and movement. A fastball should sink, rise, slide or tail. A major league fastball is in the 89 to 90 mph range.
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. A slider will break about 6 to 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 to 20 mph slower than the fastball. It will make the hitter swing way out in front of the pitch.
Pitching delivery: A pitchers 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, understriding, landing on the heel or his arm lagging behind the body. Any mechanical problems left uncorrected can lead to control and arm problems.
Control- The ability to throw strikes on a consistent basis is vital for any pitcher to have success at the major league 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.

As you may know, pitching prospects are graded on a scale from 8 to 2. 8 is hall of fame caliber. 7 is MLB all-star material. 5 is major league average. 4 or below and you severly hurt your chances of being drafted. (See chart below.)

PITCHING VELOCITY SCALE (STALKER GUN)

The number on the left is the "score" a scout will grade you. The number on the right is pitch velocity as recorded by the Stalker Gun.