There is an old adage in baseball that goes something like this: If you have the talent, they will find you.
“They” are scouts, both professional and collegiate, and their job is to beat the bushes each year to uncover talented players and get them into their programs. While prep competition is, and always will be, a key part of their beat, summer baseball is where scouts do their most intense evaluations.
With the well-documented success of the East Cobb baseball program in Marietta, Ga., scouts now flock to the South more than ever. More than 400 pro and college scouts were in attendance at last week’s wood bat tournament in Marietta.
While East Cobb players reap most of the rewards of such popularity, Chattanooga-area programs have benefitted.
“I don’t think the East Cobb success has changed a lot of what we do,” said George Koontz, founder of the Chattanooga Cyclones, which fields teams from ages 13 to 18. “But it’s not only East Cobb. There are a lot of other successful programs in the Atlanta area and I will say they have brought more attention to the area, and by that I mean within 100 miles or so.”
Koontz’s teams travel throughout the South, playing mostly at college campuses, where scouts are plentiful. That exposure has helped players such as Kyler Burke, Brandon Turner, Wes Hodges, Blake McDade, Tyler Henry and Ryan Casteel land either pro or college deals.
Koontz, a Chattanooga attorney who has operated the Cyclones since 1993, admires the East Cobb success, but he believes local athletes don’t have to travel to Atlanta to get the most out of summer baseball.
“We play in a lot of the same venues they do – and when we have played their teams we have more than held our own – and getting the guys’ exposure is one of the reasons we play at so many college campuses,” says Koontz, whose teams play about 35 games in the summer and 32 in the fall. “I think there is a big misconception that you have to go down there and pay those prices to be seen.”
Playing big-time summer baseball is not the only way to get noticed. Consider the case of Chattooga High School’s Rashad Ramsey, a three-sport star who always assumed his post-prep days would be spent on the football field.
Ramsey, who had signed scholarship papers to play football at West Georgia State University, caught baseball scouts’ attention this year when he hit .460 and played a dynamic center field for the Indians. He then attended his first baseball camp in Rome, where he further impressed. A few weeks later he was drafted in the 20th round by the Oakland Athletics and currently is playing rookie league ball in Arizona.
“This is the first time I’ve played baseball full time,” Ramsey said just before leaving for his new job. “I never in a million years thought I would be playing baseball. I had always played AAU basketball and then got ready for football in the summer.”