scouting report misses

[banny]

I have several old copies of Baseball Digest magazine. In March of each year,they list the scouting reports of new prospects. The scouts are right most of the time but they don't always have a crystal ball. Consider some of these gems. I'll post more later on. These are scouting report quotes from 1965 issue of Baseball Digest:

Rodney Carew- "Shows some improvement in his hitting but overall just an average player.Speed average.Fielding and arm below average."

Tony Perez- "Weak hitter. Fair fielder. Must bat higher to have chance."

Phil Niekro- "Fair in all departments but not of major league caliber as a starter. Might become relief man."

Steve Carlton- "A very good fastball. Has curve and shows good arm.With experience can become a big league "if".

Ferguson Jenkins- "Top fastball. Control only fair.Curve poor.Might be a prospect later on if he works hard on curve and slider but can't get by on speed alone."

[Steve Jeltz]

It's a good thing that the scouts gave their scouting reports anonymously. The one I found hilarious was the scout who wrote that Tony Perez was a "weak hitter". I guess the scout who watched Niekro didn't realize that he had a pretty effective knuckleball and could be "fair" with his other pitches. I wonder what he thought 20 years later when Niekro won 300 games, mostly as a starter.

[Dalkowski110]

"He's not really that different from [J.C.] Romero. His likely career is as a lefty specialist. That career could start five years from now, or it could start now."
-2002 Baseball Prospectus on Johan Santana