Across the world, people play baseball at all ages. From the kids playing tee-ball to the majors and everything in between, baseball allows for development of skill as well as the development of the person.
College is a building block in a player’s career. This is where they have been evaluated in high school and now will be under the microscope of major league teams looking for the best prospects.
Jeff Mercer, head coach of Wright State’s baseball team, has a vision when he recruits players out of high school.
“When recruiting position players we follow a very strict model based on athleticism and defense, we want to shrink the game defensively,” Mercer said. “We have a detailed set of physical attributes we look for when recruiting pitchers, mostly based on joint mobility’s, arm slot and hand size. Player personality isn’t an inexact science, but we try to be thorough to find players who have the same goals as our program. They want a degree, they desire personal development, they want to play professional baseball and win championships.”
The model of having strong defensive players has Wright State sitting at number seven in the nation for fielding percentage.
Mercer also shared his experience with what the MLB scouts look for in a player and the tools that they like to see.
“Professional scouts first look for the best athletes, then for the best baseball players; ideally they want a terrific athlete that also has a high level understanding of the game. Physically, the five tools are speed, arm strength, defense, hit for average and hit for power.”
