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Statistical evaluations have now become the primary method to evaluate a player and the on-site evaluation by a professional scout become secondary. In essence they have begun to place a much greater emphasis on the statistical compilation of a player's performance then on the eyeball to eyeball judgment of the scout in the field or the major league advance scout's evaluation. It has become an empirical approach to player evaluation, which stresses the importance of base on balls, slugging percentage and "on base percentage" as opposed to batting average or "outs" as the essential criteria for evaluating the true value of a player's performance. After over 44 years in professional baseball, which I have spent mostly as a general manager, as a vice president and director of baseball operations or as a director of player personnel, I am still strongly of the belief that no major league organization can ever be totally successful without the scouting intelligence and judgment of a quality scouting - computers or no computers.  High and Inside, My Life in the Front Offices of Baseball However, I am also fully cognizant that the availability of modern technology has provided a host of new and progressive methods and techniques in helping to evaluate a player's potential and performance. There is certainly reason to sometimes think "outside the box." More often than not it becomes necessary to do so in light of the ever-changing challenges and the technology in today's environment. The availability of the computer and the in-depth television analyses such as "Right View Pro" and other systems, which can analyze inning by inning and pitch by pitch both during a ball game in progress and for post game evaluation. These systems have been a tremendous tool for players, coaches and general managers in evaluating a player's game performance, and for instruction. The technology that is available today is light-years ahead of what was available in years past. It would be folly not to employ every possible revolutionary concept and modern tool available in today's market place in helping to make player evaluations and player decisions. Yet, despite the modern-day approach to player analysis and the technology available, I still firmly believe that the intrinsic value of an experienced professional scout's evaluation has to be a major factor in any player evaluation system. This is not to say that statistical analyses should not play a role in the final and overall player evaluations, but I am convinced that they should not become the dominant factor. I do not discredit statistical analysis, because it does have a value, but we must also recognize its limitations. In my opinion the current Moneyball approach that some general managers have adopted overlooks certain important aspects of the game. On base percentage is obviously a factor in winning ball games but there also has to be someone who can drive in those runners on base to put numbers on the board. For me it is something I learned many years ago from my days in the Baltimore Oriole organization working with Earl Weaver, which is simply that a major factor in winning ball games is that you don't give up outs needlessly. The most precious possession you have on offense are those 27 outs. Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics philosophy ignored fielding skills, foot speed and the basic physical skills (or tools) of a player. In the Bill James way of thinking, which became the Oakland A's way of thinking, the "naked eye was an inadequate tool for learning what you needed to know to evaluate players and baseball games." It would follow that the importance of scouts and scouting intelligence was overstated. All too often a professional baseball scout was characterized as a former player, one of the good old guys who would sit in ballparks all across the country, chewing tobacco, traveling in bunches, ignoring modern technology, steeped in ancient concepts and theories that were long outdated. Nothing could be further from the truth. If one accepted the position that you can only truly evaluate a player's ability by statistics, then how in God's name in looking back at the history of our great game have we been able to discover, without the value of statistics, the many great players of the past who are now enshrined in Cooperstown?
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