By Eric Valent: "Whirlwind of a Draft"

The Free Agent Amateur Baseball Draft was on June 9th.  As the Northeast Area Supervisor for the Phillies, I’m responsible for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England. That’s a lot of ground to cover. Thankfully, I've had 3 part-time scouts who've helped search through the amateur names over the scouting season as well. 

The last 2 ½ months have been hectic. I opened the scouting season in Florida at the end of February. I spent about 3 weeks down there watching all the Northeast colleges open up their seasons in warm weather. It’s a grind down there, but it’s a great time to see lots of players and zone in on who you want to see again. At the end of March, I make my way back up into the Northeast to start with the high school baseball season. There are not many days off for me from the end of February until the draft. Usually, the only days off you get are the rainy ones. With the scouting season so short in the Northeast, one can’t afford to miss too many days. The only time I’m off during this time is because of bad weather or a family commitment. Other than that, I’m out watching games and looking for future Phillies.

As my first scouting season has come to a close, I can say I really enjoyed myself.  It was fun seeing college and high school players in different areas and comparing them with each other. Once our lists were in, I just made phone calls on signabilities of players and making sure the players on my list were healthy.

Scouts can have an idea of where a player may get drafted, but nobody knows for sure until the draft begins and teams start making their picks. We can all speculate this and that, but one team taking a certain player can turn the whole draft in the first couple of rounds upside down. Of all our hard work leading up to the draft, there’s no guarantee that I may even get one player from my area. In the end, it’s what’s best for the organization and where our objectives are for any given year.

I tried to give you a broad perspective of what I do during the draft season. To sum it up, it’s two and a half months with not many days off.  When the draft ends, my job is to go sign any players of mine that got drafted.  Then the cycle begins all over again with the class of 2010 as I spend this summer following prospects for the next draft cycle.

Eric Valent played parts of 5 seasons with the Phillies, Reds & Mets before giving it a a try in Japan.  Promising himself he'd quit if he wasn't a full-time big leaguer by the age of 30, Eric did just that.  He's now a Northeast Area Supervisor for the Phillies.  He has one wife and two children and writes a little something every other week for Jimmy Scott's High & Tight.