About
Who is this Guy Anyway?
As a kid growing up in New York City, my indoctrination into baseball began with the first pitch I ever saw. I flipped on the TV one night and there was Dave Winfield crushing a pitch into the left field stands at Yankee stadium. I was hooked.
After following the Yankees for a couple of years, my father began taking me to Shea stadium in an effort to pull me away from the dark side. It worked as I became hooked on “Dr. K” and “Straw” and followed the Mets through their glory years. At Mets games, my father would force me to spend inning after inning watching Keith Hernandez position himself at first base because Hernandez was “the smartest player my he ever saw”. As my ability to read situations on the field improved, I began to bet unknowing Mets fans that I could predict when certain plays would occur on the field. Whenever Darryl Strawberry was tipping his plans to steal second or Lenny Dykstra’s hands inched ever so slightly up the bat handle, I was usually winning a hot dog. I guess one could say I was a bit of a baseball sideshow freak at age eight.
At 11, we moved to Connecticut and I began following minor league baseball. Between the rare day trips back to Shea and my fascination with Fenway Park, I would go to a handful of New Britain Red Sox and New Haven Ravens games per season. I played my high school ball in Connecticut before moving to Tennessee where I finished out my high school career.
Fast forward to college and my playing in SEC for a short time before transferring to a smaller school to play immediately. (I was not patient in my youth). I was a 3-time all-conference player on JUCO and nationally ranked DII teams and probably would have played a little pro ball had I not partially torn my ulnar ligament in my elbow. As a catcher, I always focused on the little things and I think that has been what has helped me when it comes to looking at talent. I didn’t have the arm of “Pudge” or the size of Charles Johnson, so I emulated the Joe Girardi’s of the world who simply played sound fundamental baseball.I’ve played with a number of current and former major leaguers including Scott Downs, Henry Owens, David Pember, Jason Grabowski, and against a number of others including Pat Burrell, Jason Michaels, Lance Niekro, and more.
After finishing my college career, I worked in professional baseball for the Tennessee Smokies of the Southern League as a P.A. announcer and media relations intern. I also did a little work at a local sports talk radio station as both a baseball analyst and producer for minor league games.
I was working in baseball, but not close enough to the game so I returned to Florida (where I played) to coach and teach while starting a side business helping “C” level high school athletes in Florida earn scholarships to schools in other parts of the country.
After a couple of seasons doing that, I took a job working for a now defunct showcase company as a Director of Southeast Operations where I had the opportunity to meet a number of college coaches and professional scouts. After the company went under, I continued to help a handful of small schools scout and recruit talent in South Florida until getting married and leaving baseball behind for awhile.
Now that Savannah’s stadium is a two minute drive, I decided to start a scouting blog because I simply did not see any league-centered blogs out there and the “Sally” is always FULL of top 100 talent. It was also important for me to focus only on players I watch in person. There is simply too much prospect information out there being presented as first hand knowledge when it’s little more than fluff and speculation. 99% of what you find on this blog will be from notes, audio, photos, and video done by me.
If you are looking for a blog which re-posts popular opinion and worries about what major scouting sites report about players, then this site is not for you. I am also not really a fan of any major league team so my views will not be slanted to favor prospects from any major league organization.
As a simple guide, SCOUTING REPORTS are written for players I’ve seen multiple times while GAME REPORTS are for players seen only once.
I hope you enjoy the blog and continue coming back to read about arguably the best prospect league in minor league baseball.
Mike Newman