Touré Harris Sr.

@utahscout1219 @8JoshPark19 @naiello44 @ClintHurdle13 @JMikeMLB @diamondflorida1 @cindybristow @RmJustinj @Jed_Chrisman Looking forward to this next chapter! Great work that you’re doing, Jeff. Thank you. ⚾️

Some stories never make the scouting report When I started The Scouting Classroom Series, my goal was simple. I wanted to pull back the curtain on professional scouting and teach the game through the eyes of someone who spent twenty years chasing tomorrow’s Major Leaguers. I wanted players to understand what scouts were really evaluating. I wanted parents to see beyond the radar gun. I wanted coaches to understand how reports were built, how decisions were made, and why the smallest details often separated good players from future big leaguers. What I never expected was how many of you would connect with the stories. Not just the lessons. Not just the scouting reports. •The stories •The long drives across the West •The hotel rooms that became offices •The conversations after the games •The players who changed my career •The ones I believed in •The ones I missed  •The mentors who shaped me The moments that never made it into a scouting report—but never left my memory. Somewhere along the way, I realized something. The greatest education I received during twenty years in professional baseball wasn’t found in a radar gun, a stopwatch, or a scouting report. • It was found in the people So today, The Scouting Classroom begins a new chapter. The mission hasn’t changed. If anything, it’s becoming more personal. We’ll still break down the evaluation. We’ll still discuss tools, projection, mechanics, makeup, player development, and everything that goes into building a Major League scouting report. But now, you’ll also come along for the ride. •The miles •The stories •The difficult decisions •The unforgettable people •The moments that shaped the scout I became Because sometimes the greatest lesson isn’t written in the report. It’s everything that happened before it was Thank you to everyone who has followed this journey—from the very first lesson to those who have only recently joined along. Your comments, conversations, and encouragement have reminded me that baseball is about much more than the game itself. The best stories… I haven’t told them yet 🎯 Behind the Radar Gun What baseball question have you always wanted answered by someone who spent 20 years inside professional scouting? Leave it below 👇 Your question could inspire a future story or edition of The Scouting Classroom… Jeff Scholzen
Veteran MLB Scout | Author | Educator #BehindTheRadarGun 🔎

@DMEASrecruiting @ClintHurdle13 @mckayjeff5 @utahscout1219 @8JoshPark19 @naiello44 @JMikeMLB @VandyonTigers @cindybristow @diamondflorida1 @BSBSCOUT Absolutely. There’s a different sound that just grabs your attention. A hitter has to do something right to generate that type of sound.

@ClintHurdle13 @mckayjeff5 @utahscout1219 @8JoshPark19 @naiello44 @JMikeMLB @VandyonTigers @cindybristow @baseballguy805 @diamondflorida1 @BSBSCOUT Some of the best ones I was fortunate to learn from and be around didn’t even have to see a swing, they could hear the sound off the bat 3 fields away.

THE SCOUTING CLASSROOM #49 HOW SCOUTS LEARN TO TRUST THEIR EYES “The best scouts aren’t born with great instincts. They earn them through experience.” ⸻ The Veteran Scout People would often ask me, “How do scouts learn to trust their eyes?” The answer isn’t found in a radar gun, a stopwatch, or a scouting manual. It’s found in years of repetition. Over 20 years as an MLB area scout, I evaluated thousands of players. Some reached the Major Leagues. Some never played another professional game. Every one of them added another lesson to my education. Scouting is one of the few professions where experience becomes your greatest teacher. Every player you evaluate is quietly building a mental database that helps shape the next evaluation. Over time, you begin recognizing “patterns” because you’ve seen them before. A swing reminds you of another hitter. An infielder’s actions trigger memories of someone you signed years earlier. A pitcher’s delivery feels familiar. Those comparisons don’t guarantee you’re right. They simply give your evaluation perspective. EXPERIENCE CHANGES YOUR FOCUS When I first started scouting, I’d catch myself watching the baseball. I had to teach myself to hone in on movement patterns. As the years passed, I found myself watching everything around the baseball. I watched how players prepared before first pitch. How they reacted after failure. How quickly they adjusted. How they carried themselves when nobody thought anyone was watching. Eventually, you realize the clues to a player’s future often happen between the pitches—not during them. That’s where experience begins to separate evaluators. YOUR BIGGEST LESSONS COME FROM THE PLAYERS YOU MISSED Every scout has players they wish they had evaluated differently. I certainly do! (Dustin Pedroia) Those misses become some of your greatest teachers because they force you to honestly ask: • What did I overlook? • What mattered more than I realized? • Did I overvalue tools and undervalue makeup? Those questions aren’t failures. They’re part of becoming a better evaluator. DON’T SCOUT THE BOX SCORE I’ve watched players go 4-for-4 and leave with concerns. I’ve watched others go 0-for-4 and improve their report. Why? Because scouts evaluate how the game happened—not simply what happened. Did the player make adjustments? Did the tools play against quality competition? Did he compete when things weren’t going his way? Tomorrow’s box score rarely tells that story. CONFIDENCE IS EARNED THROUGH PREPARATION Trusting your eyes doesn’t mean believing you’re always right. It means knowing you’ve done the work. • Multiple looks • Detailed notes • Honest conversations • Objective comparisons Preparation replaces emotion with conviction. That’s where confidence comes from. • Not ego, but preparation After two decades in professional baseball, I never walked into a ballpark believing I had everything figured out. I walked in believing there was still something the game could teach me. I think that’s one of the greatest lessons scouting ever gave me. The best evaluators never stop learning because they know every player has another lesson to offer. In the end, trusting your eyes isn’t about being right every time. It’s about earning the confidence to stand behind your evaluation because you’ve remained objective, prepared, and willing to keep learning. That’s how scouts learn to trust their eyes. #BehindTheRadarGun 🔎

@utahscout1219 @8JoshPark19 @naiello44 @JMikeMLB @VandyonTigers @cindybristow @ClintHurdle13 @diamondflorida1 @DMEASrecruiting @BSBSCOUT 🎯 First lesson I learned when sitting with veteran scouts as a college player was how to use my eyes.

@jcuevas9_ @PepperdineBASE @tylerlatorre Truly deserving of all the good things that come your way, Lefty! Your passion & respect for the game will take you far. Keep going! 💪🏾⚾️

Dreams come true! @PepperdineBASE #MakeWaves

@WoodyCliffords @NorCalU1 🔥

Surprised Kaipo with his 1st Mastros Experience on his 14th Birthday 🔥

@WoodyCliffords @latsondheimer @hardy03bsbl 🙏🏾🤞🏾⚾️

Throwing My Name in the Hat for a Local Job. Been turning down some Good Coaching Opportunities but Hesitant to Move My Kids or Commit to a Horrible Commute. Let’s see what Happens in the Next Couple Weeks. It’s Go Time ⚾️💪🔥 @latsondheimer @hardy03bsbl

@utahscout1219 @nextlevelbb @naiello44 @8JoshPark19 @DarrinHenry @RmJustinj @MichaelGargan17 It’s more fun to like players.

The Scouting Classroom #11 • Negative Scouting: Why Being Right Can Still Make You Wrong! One of the most dangerous habits in scouting is something experienced evaluators have talked about for decades: Negative Scouting The dangerous part? Negative scouting is easy. In fact, if all you do is focus on flaws, weaknesses, and reasons a player won’t make it, you'll often be right. Maybe even 90–95% of the time. Because the reality is simple: Most players don’t become impact Division I players. Most players don’t become professional players. Most players don’t become Major Leaguers. So if your entire evaluation strategy becomes centered around finding reasons to eliminate players, the process gets pretty easy. "Too small." "Bat speed isn't enough." "Arm strength is below average." "Body isn't ideal." "Delivery is messy." "The breaking ball isn't there." You can quickly write players off and move on to the next field. And statistically, you'll probably look smart doing it. But here’s the problem: Scouting was never designed to be an elimination process. Scouting is about identifying future players. That’s where negative scouting becomes dangerous. Because if all you see are present deficiencies, eventually you'll talk yourself out of future stars. You'll eliminate players before they've had the opportunity to become who they’re capable of becoming. That’s where projection enters the conversation. And projection has always been one of the hardest parts of scouting. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SKILLS AND INGREDIENTS A seasoned scout once explained it this way: Skills can be taught. Talents usually cannot. Young evaluators sometimes confuse the two. A pitcher may have inconsistent mechanics. He may struggle repeating his delivery. He may occasionally lose the feel for his breaking ball or fight command. Those things matter. But experienced evaluators understand there is another question that matters just as much: What are the ingredients? You begin asking yourself: • Does the arm work?   • Does the baseball come out easy?   • Is there athleticism?   • Can he spin a baseball?   • Does the body project?   • Is there a natural feel?   • Does the ball jump differently?   Because mechanics can improve. Pitch design evolves. Strength develops. Bodies mature. Deliveries change. Players learn. But some natural traits are much harder to create. That’s why scouting requires projection. You're not evaluating only today's version. You're evaluating tomorrow’s version. WHAT YOUNG SCOUTS MISS Young evaluators often walk into a game trying to identify what's wrong with a player. Veteran scouts frequently walk into a game asking a different question: "What could this become?" That sounds like a small difference. It isn’t. Because prospects aren't finished products. They're unfinished stories. That doesn’t mean flaws should be ignored. Good scouts absolutely see flaws. The difference is they don’t stop there. They understand the challenge is balancing: • Current weaknesses   • Future possibility   That balance is hard. Because projection requires conviction. It requires being willing to put your name behind a player before everybody else fully sees what he may become. THE LESSON Anybody can sit behind home plate and write down reasons a player won't make it. That part is easy. The difficult part is seeing future ability before everyone else sees it. Seeing ingredients before production. Seeing projection before polish. Seeing future strength hidden inside present weakness. Because sometimes the player everyone talks themselves out of... becomes the player everyone.  That’s called Scouting! (As always, save this graphic below for easy reference) 👇 #BehindTheRadarGun 🔎

@WoodyCliffords Agree. Just don’t go at the beginning of the season. Every game 34 or below lol! I’ll be there next month.

Amazing Experience and Town. Hit up The Sandwich Man and Zembys 🔥

@utahscout1219 This is excellent! Great story! Thanks for sharing!

@JLucroy20 @sean0murphy 🎯

I talk about this with my guys all the time. My HS kids are lectured daily on this. My sons team played in an 8U tournament this past weekend. We tied first game on Saturday, and was shellacked 2nd game. On Sunday we showed up in losers bracket, told the boys no chirping, no goofing off, let’s go out, compete, and see what happens. We won first game, won second game (beat the team that smashed us the day before), and then faced a TikTok baseball team for the championship. Their kids had eye black, sliding mitts, pink cleats, and the flashy colored belts. All show. We are a city league select team. This other team was a 2k/season travel team. At 8U. Wild if you ask me. Anyway, we beat them. Yes, they are 8. Yes, they got a gaudy, cheap rings. My point is, teaching kids to compete and let their play do the talking is what separates the mediocre from the best. We must have “necessary arrogance” when we take the field. @nextlevelbb is correct. Find me a group of gritty, tough, and courageous players that don’t care what they look like or what expensive equipment they have and you will find winners. No talk, no show, just grind. High level baseball people look for these characteristics when they scout players.

@WoodyCliffords That’s a great day!

Been such a Great Sunday. Beautiful Weather. Only had a couple hours of work. Spent the whole day at the Baseball Field but just as a Fan Today. Got to watch a few ⚾️ Games with My Pops and Kaipo did Great with a Couple good innings on the Mound and a Long 2B over the CF’s head. Now get to watch the end of this Epic Game between USA and Dominican Republic. Life is Good

@joshgessner The law of dominant thought

I just finished reading Masters of Uncertainty. There’s a framework in there that completely shifted how I think about pitching under pressure. Navy SEALs are trained to jump out of planes into hostile environments, and if they focus on the outcome of what could go wrong, whether they’ll survive, they’ll freeze and they won’t perform. Instead, they’re trained to stay in the present by focusing on what they can control in that exact moment. That means jumping out of the plane correctly, checking their gear, and executing the next step, then the next. For us as pitchers, it’s the exact same thing. We get caught up in outcomes. What if I walk this guy. What if I give up a bomb. What if my velo drops. That outcome focused thinking is what deteriorates performance. I know this is way easier said than done, but here’s what’s worked for me. I distract my mind by focusing on what I can control in that moment. For me, that’s keeping my body as relaxed as possible throughout my delivery, then exploding as hard as I can at the last second. That’s it. That’s the only thing I’m thinking about during my delivery. The key is to distract your mind by giving it a task it can actually control. For Navy Seals, it might be the jump out of the plane. For me, it’s putting my body in the best position to throw hard and accurately. You can’t control the outcome, but you can control your process, and when you do that, the outcome takes care of itself.

@WoodyCliffords ✌🏾😎

People telling me I can’t Like USC and UCLA. Here’s how this Works. As a Sports Fan My Only College Team I Root for is USC. As a Player Development/Hitting Coach/Mentor I have Coached Players from Hundreds of Colleges and I will always Support My Guys 👊 Pretty Simple 🤷‍♂️

@WoodyCliffords @GraphkRaider A-grade dope right there!!

@GraphkRaider Our Kids Play 🏈 together. He said he Loved his interview with the Raiders but would not Leave McVay unless it was a HC Opportunity. Hard to Disagree. The more time you Spend on a Paid Internship with McVay the Better. He’s a Great Dude. Would be 🔥 but still wouldn’t Call Plays

Hire Nate Sheelhaase as the OC and let’s run it. Rams kind of sleeping on promoting him and now with Kingsbury there things can get interesting #RaiderNation

@shegone03 🎯

Baseball Doesn’t Need More Data Readers It Needs Pitching Coaches If professional baseball truly vetted the people being hired as pitching coaches, a lot of jobs would disappear overnight. Because what’s happening right now isn’t coaching. It’s data reading. Somewhere along the way, the game decided that if you can interpret ball-flight charts and recite spin efficiency, you’re qualified to stand on a big-league mound and teach pitchers how to get outs. That’s not development. That’s outsourcing responsibility to numbers. Let’s be clear about something: data matters. But data is not coaching. You can teach a real pitching coach how to use data. Good coaches want to learn it. They’ll study it, question it, challenge it, and then filter it through feel, execution, and competition. What you can’t teach is how to pitch. And that’s the problem. The Game Has Replaced Pitching Coaches With Throwing Coaches Talk to professional coaches around the league guys who have actually stood on the mound, competed, failed, adjusted, and survived and you’ll hear the same thing over and over: Many of the new pitching hires have never pitched at a professional level and have no idea how to actually get hitters out. So what do they default to? “Throw it down the middle and see what happens.” “Trust the data.” “Velocity plays.” That’s not pitching. That’s gambling. Pitching is a competitive skill built on execution, sequencing, movement, deception, and decision-making under pressure. It’s understanding how hitters adjust, how counts matter, how adrenaline changes mechanics, and how to get through an inning when you don’t have your best stuff. Those lessons don’t show up on a dashboard. Ball Flight Without Execution Means Nothing Ball flight data without execution is useless. Velocity without command is meaningless. Spin rate without intent is noise. A pitcher doesn’t get paid for having elite metrics in a bullpen. He gets paid for outs. And outs come from being able to repeat a delivery, control the baseball, adjust in real time, and compete when the game tightens. Right now, too many organizations are creating glorified throwers, not pitchers. Guys who can light up a Rapsodo in shorts. Guys who look incredible in controlled environments. Guys who fall apart when hitters stop chasing and the game speeds up. That’s a coaching failure. Coaching Is Not Explaining It’s Teaching The best pitching coaches in the game don’t drown players in information. They simplify. They prioritize. They understand who the pitcher is, not who the data wants him to be. They know: When to push and when to shut up When data helps and when it hurts When feel beats force When execution beats intent They don’t sell pitchers on magic numbers. They teach them how to own the mound. And here’s the part that matters most: real coaches aren’t impressed by bullshit. Professional players can smell it instantly. If you’ve never had to get outs with a tired arm, a bad feel day, or a runner on third and one out, your credibility is gone before you open your mouth. Get Outs Baseball is not a lab experiment. It’s a competitive game of outs. The industry doesn’t need more self-proclaimed “throwing coaches” who hide behind screens and spreadsheets. It needs pitching coaches people who understand the craft, respect the chaos, and can blend data with reality. Data should inform decisions. Execution should decide games. Until professional baseball gets back to hiring coaches who can actually teach pitching, not just explain it, the game will keep producing arms that look great on paper and disappear when it matters. And that’s not development. That’s failure dressed up as innovation. #shegone @notgaetti @BobFile @twuench @billdubs @SliderDominate @slider_sinker @iamrags @ROXSystem @BLocsports @TheRealJHair @DMEASrecruiting @itsJohnRocker @45PedroMartinez @rogerclemens @Plesac19 @BackWoodRebel39 @GlendonRusch @CoachMunoz51

@EmilyCWaldon Praying for strength, comfort & healing. You will beat this. 🙏🏾

@baseballguy805 Appreciate you so much, my friend

Any amount of prayer & support goes a long way 🙏🏾

@ROXSystem Agree. Very underrated candidate who I thought might get an opportunity this last cycle.

Benji Gil is proving why he’s the best manager in all of Mexico and why he should be managing in MLB. The man is a winner. He’s the 10th man in each ballgame, he oozes confidence, he’s always well prepared, and he handles his team and the media with authority. A true leader.

@WoodyCliffords @BBruddahs Happy Birthday bro!

A Psychic said that I was going to Live until I was 90 Years old. If that is True I am Half Way to The Final Boss. Get it Calculated, Do the Math… I am Old 🤣 Can’t wait to Celebrate in BLot with My Bruddahs this Weekend #RaiderNation @BBruddahs

@WoodyCliffords @BBruddahs 💯

This Team Sucking has nothing to do with OAK for anyone that needs to hear it. This Team would still Suck in Oakland , Los Angeles, Las Vegas or F$cking Iraq. We Suck. Coaches, Roster, but Nice Facilities🤣 @BBruddahs #RaiderNation