Q & A With the Mike Newman of Scouting the Sally

Author: Will Sommer

I recently had the chance to interview Mike Newman. For those of you who don't know his work, Mike runs an excellent blog--Scouting the Sally. If you are a Mets fan interested in the teams farm system his blog is a must read. I cannot praise his blog enough.

Will Sommer

How did you start scoutingthesally.com? 

Mike Newman
I ran another prospect site, baseballhandyman.com that was more or less doing what a lot of other people were doing which is collecting information and putting a new twist on it. I attended a couple games at the end of a Savannah Sand Gnats' 2008 season and was able to see Jason Hayward and Jesus Montero. I wrote scouting pieces on them and it was the most fun that I had writing in months and the pieces received fantastic feedback from people. I found myself wanting to do more scouting pieces than anything else when 2009 came around. I was writing a weekly piece for Mets Geek at the time and had a chance to see Wilmer Flores, Jefry Marte, Jeurys Familia, and Kyle Allen. It made me want to get away from writing about stuff I had read or talked to people about and wanted to focus on what I saw in person.  Living in Savannah and being a mile away from the stadium, I said, "Boy, it's a chance for me to see these guys first and write the first scouting report on Flores or shoot the first video, It's like being able to get to the scoop all the time, It's been a lot of fun educating Mets' fans and other fans about prospects before they break onto the national scene.

Will Sommer Did you ever imagine Scouting The Sally would become the blog it is today?  When you started it, did you think this blog has a future or did you think: I'll do this for a month, couple months and just call it quits?

Mike Newman
When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards. This is like adult baseball card collecting for me. I have a son that's three years old and I hope that by doing the site, he'll be able to take a look and see all the guys that I've seen and maybe be a part of that as a kind of entrance into baseball. I think the site itself is still in its embryonic stage it’s still very young. I haven't even gotten to a year yet.  As far as Mets' fans go, I think most hard core Mets' prospect fans know about the site, if they don't already read the site.  But as far as other organizations and the other 11 teams that are in the South Atlantic League, I don't think I've really been able to reach all of those fans yet, so I still t think there's a long way to go. What's been most surprising to me has been the outreach from people who work in baseball for a living. They have been very kind and sort of invited me into their club. I find that to be a real honor.

Will Sommer
Minor League scouts or Major League teams have indeed told you some things and have read your site.

Mike Newman

I get found by a lot of parents of players and scouts who are looking for information on specific players. A few scouts have reached out to contact me, and I've learned that the site is out there in the scouting community. That's been a really exciting thing for me to be able be able to sit down at a baseball game once in a while and talk to somebody who has actually heard of the site.

Will Sommer
The majority of your site is mostly focused towards Mets' players. Correct?

Mike Newman
Yeah, it's more or less by default because I live in Savannah and Mets' fans have been so fantastic to me over the last year and a half/two years that I feel like I'm repaying my debt by covering the Mets' guys that are here.

Will Sommer

In the near future, as the blog continues to grow would you like to focus not on just the Mets, but on the other 11 teams in the league?

Mike Newman
I mean that's really the next step in the growth process is to find some kind of sponsorship or advertising dollars and to be able to get out there and scout a little bit more. Right now I'm pretty much limited to the Savannah area and it's nice living three blocks from a ballpark. However, geographically Savannah is two hours or more away from the next closest professional stadium. It’s a pretty good trek to get to Charleston or Jacksonville. I made it down to Jacksonville to scout Mike Stanton last year, but to make that trip, I'm either driving till 3:00 in the morning or staying overnight. Being a teacher by day with a wife and two kids, there's not a lot of extra money to just jump in the car and go to Greenville for a three game series because I want to see Lakewood or something like that, so I'm more or less limited by who comes to Savannah. I mean not many people have seen Jimmy Fuller five times already. I have. Not many people have seen 300 Wilmer Flores at bats; I have so… those guys that are here every day. Obviously I'm going to know them inside and out, and it's going to continuously create more material for me to write about. Whereas, I may see Tyler Matzek once and then never see him again.

Will Sommer
In 2010 Wilmer Flores has shown vast improvement, but most Mets' fans, like myself, only see his stat line.  What do you see when you watch him that Mets fans may not know about?

Mike Newman
One of the big differences between 2009 and 2010 is that Flores is stronger now and growing into his body a little bit.  When you look at a lot of these international guys, you look at it 
and say, "Well how old is he really?" But you look at Flores he was so awkward and gangly last year that you look at him and think: Man that guy really is the age that he is supposed to be.  Now he's a year older. He's a year stronger. He's made some minor tweaks with his swing, which has him in a much stronger hitting position, and I think it shows.  The second time through, he's going to have more confidence, and it just so happened that he started off super hot. I know he's been slumping lately, but he's a guy that's really prone to long hot and cold streaks. I'm sure he's going to turn around and he's going to take off again.  He's just too good a talent not to.

Will Sommer
Now he's only 18, so obviously he has a long way from the Major Leagues, but can he stick at shortstop? If not what position do you see him at long-term?

Mike Newman
He won't stick at shortstop, I agree with that. However, I don’t agree with people who have said, "Well, he's going to be a first baseman. He's going to be an outfielder. He's going to play a defensive position where he can be hidden.” I don't think that's really fair to Flores because if you just took his defensive hands and his ability to adjust his glove to baseballs, I tell you, he's got some of the best hands I have ever seen out of any player.  Yeah, the footwork may not be great and the speed may not be there, but if you're looking at those hands, they would be fantastic over at third base. The first thing you teach a shortstop is to charge everything and cut down the length of your throw.  Flores does that beautifully and that would help with slow rollers. He also has enough arm to play third base.  So I really think, and I've spoken to scouts who agree, that not only can Flores be an average third baseman at the big league level, there's an outside shot that he could be a little bit above average there.

Will Sommer
Jefry Marte, struggled mightily in 2009 and again he is not doing great in 2010.  What are your thoughts on him?

Mike Newman
The one thing that you can't teach baseball players is to hit a fastball. The ability to hit a 95-mile an hour fastball is something that really separates guys who play in the big leagues from guys who don't, and I have yet to see a fastball that Jefry Marte can't get around on. However, in the year and a half that I've watched him play, he's very similar to the hitter that I saw in day one in that: Yeah, he tees up on a fastball middle in, but he doesn't make good adjustments to breaking balls. He has trouble with fastballs over the outer half of the plate, and his defense has actually if possible seems to have gone a bit backward from last year. He's not going to be a third baseman, and he's eventually going to have to move across the diamond to first base. I don't think it's an if. That's a when at this point.  And to play first base at the big league level, you have to project is a 25/30 homerun guy at a minimum. The way that Martes' hitting right now, yes, he can put into a charge in a ball when he hits the right way, but the in game power doesn't show quite enough for me. He has a really long way to go if he's going to be a first baseman, a lot longer than Flores and at this point. I don't think Martes' is a good prospect as his teammate Cesar Puello is at this point.

Will Sommer
James Fuller, his stats are there but obviously stats are not really what you'd look for in a long A season, so James Fuller, does his ERA 1.70 reflect him as a pitcher?

Mike Newman
It reflects him as a pitcher in the South Atlantic League, and when I say that it's: He's 23 years old pitching against a lot of hitters that are 19 and 20, so he should have a big advantage, and he does. But I do like James Fuller a lot more than I like most 23 year olds. He's not a big kid, 5' 10" or so. But in short spurts, he can throw 90/91 from the left side and that always has value, and he's a tough kid. I mean he just attacks and attacks and attacks. I watched him a few nights ago go pitch-for-pitch with Tyler Matzek who was the seventh overall pick and received a $3.7 million bonus, and he didn’t flinch. Do I think that the 1.7 ERA is going to carry to the upper levels and James Fuller is going to wind up being a number three starter for the Mets? No way. But when you're looking at a guy who's a 28th round draft pick, if he sniffs New York and winds up being a left-handed reliever, that would be a huge win for the Mets, and I think that's what a lot of Mets' fans don't really put that into perspective.  That's tremendous value if a 28th round pick makes the big leagues and has any kind of role whatsoever.  So the fact that myself and some scouts that I've spoken to can see him in that role, it's huge.

Will Sommer
Obviously the draft took place last night and is going on today and a little bit of tomorrow. Obviously you can't project where these guys are going to be because some guys like James Fuller can surprise people, you just don't know, but are you looking forward to seeing any guys next year in the Sally League?

Mike Newman
Well you know I've only had about five minutes today to take a look at the Mets' list and if we're talking just the Mets here, I'm going: Oh my goodness.  I'm definitely going to miss Harvey.  Harvey's not going to wind up here. If he does happen to sign, they're going to show him off in Brooklyn probably in front of the Mets' faithful.  But the Mets seem to do the same thing every year and this is not atypical in that this year they drafted a load of college hitters and a load of college arms and the first high schooler that they drafted was with the 302nd pick overall Who might not even sign. I haven't really looked that deep into the draft yet, but in just doing a spot check of those guys and seeing college center fielder, college arm, college this, college that, if they wind up opening in Savannah next year, it's hard to project any of them as really good prospects because they're going to be 22/23 playing in full season A baseball, which is the same thing that's going on right now with this pitching staff. Last year it was Sean Ratliff and Josh Satin and this year it's the pitching staff.  It's great to see a 2.40 ERA on paper from a team and get excited, but you see the guys on a day in and day out basis and you're seeing these are real grizzled college pitchers that are chewing up guys that are a lot younger than they are.

Will Sommer
Basically in your opinion wiith the Mets draft, it's either if they get stuck in low A Savannah, then potentially they could be stuck there for long term.

Mike Newman
Well there's always a guy that surprises me like when I saw Josh Thole. He was the perfect example of why the Savannah Sand Gnats were so awful three years ago as a cleanup hitter batting .263 with 0 HR. Then he switches positions, all of sudden learns how to hit, makes some adjustments and is now looking at a career as a backup in a Major League uniform.  So things can change and things can happen, but If a kid’s 22/23 and opens up next season in Savannah as a 2010 draft pick, they're already behind the pace. I mean look at it this way: They're five years behind Wilmer Flores.  They're four years behind high school picks.  People don't really understand just how huge that age versus level really is and how it's really hard to take a lot of 23/24 year old guys that are in the South Atlantic League as serious prospects just because of whom they're playing against and those kids being so young.

 

I want to thank Mike again for taking the time to answer my questions.

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