Advanced Scouting Reports

Welcome back to Show! In the 3rd Episode of Season 9 on The Robby Row Show I sit down to share some insight on a really good question that got brought up during my recent Outing Breakdown pertaining to the use of “Advanced Scouting Reports”

Join me as I talk about my personal experience with advanced scouting reports in baseball. As a pitcher, I have seen the impact of data analytics on the game and how it has personally changed the way I approach outings.. for the better and for the worse..

Learn more about the importance of advanced scouting reports and how they can help you on the field, with insights from my own journey in the world of baseball. Whether you're a player, coach, or fan, this video is a must-watch for anyone interested in the ever-evolving world of baseball analytics.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Yo, What up dudes, RobbieRowe, I have a question here on
my recent outing breakdown. I canlink in this video as well. I
have a comment here. That's areally good question, something I've actually been
wanting to do more stuff on.I've talked about it a little bit in
outing breakdowns, but I'll throw thequestion up on the screen. The question
reads, I was wondering if youuse advanced scouting reports on hittes to form

(00:21):
your approach, and if so,what are the key stats or observations you
use. Oooh great, I'm goingto grab a ball for this great freaking
question. A bunch of things thatimmediately pop into my mind when I first
read this question. The first thingthat comes to my mind is advanced scouting
reports we have access to at thelevels that I've played at and at different

(00:41):
points in my career, I havebeen one to utilize some of the advanced
scouting, some of the new agedata analytics, sabermetrics, call it what
you want, but I have foundthrough again, this is just me personally,
my personal experience. When I wasa starting pitcher, I got drafted
twenty ten, pretty high pick,and I felt as if at that time

(01:04):
the thing to do was to divedeep as a starting pitcher into scouting reports,
reading hitters, carrying in a notebook, around taking down notes. And
I wouldn't say that's advanced scouting byany means, but at that time you
got to think. Right, twentyten to twenty thirteen, I was a
starting pitcher and there was on aDiamondbacks organization and then traded to the Pittsburgh

(01:25):
Pirates organization. And at that timeit wasn't so much about advanced scouting the
team had. It was more sothat we were doing stuff on our own,
you know, on our own time, with our own eyes, maybe
sometimes with or without the team's pitchingcoach. But I found at that time
that for me to be the bestversion of myself as a pitcher, I

(01:46):
think it's more so relying on mystrengths and understanding what I do well,
not from just like an attack andscouting report, you know, dynamic,
but more so like from a personalityhow I carry myself, like my thought
process and all that stuff. AndI felt at that time, again this
could just because I was younger,I didn't know how to filter a lot

(02:07):
mentally, but at that time itwas more so like a burden. It
was more so overwhelming. I'm veryI'm very OCD perfectionist, and I felt
like while in performance, it washindering my performance because it wasn't allowing me
to be completely free. I dida segment the other day on you know

(02:28):
how how the fear of throwing strikesor the fear of overthinking and overthinking in
general, how that hinders athleticism,and that was something that early in my
career was like super super apparent.I was like, dude, like,
I'm going out there and I'm likethinking too much. I got all these
numbers in my head, and Igot like, this guy swings the first

(02:49):
pitch, this percentage of time,This guy doesn't hit breaking ball as well,
this guy hits one twenty three offa glove side down fastball, like
all these things that I felt thatI was a tempting to prepare myself mentally
and physically for a good result inthe game, but in doing so,
I think I just kind of suffocatedmyself and it was very restrictive. I

(03:10):
know, I'm not answering this particularquestion in terms of advanced scattery reports and
the metrics, but I wanted togive some context and some good nuggets in
there as well. Now, asI got older, and this kind of
goes hand in hand with the simplicitythat came from being a bullpen guy.
But as I got older, Igot moved to the bullpen and then kind
of taking everything that I've learned earlyin my career applying it later in my

(03:32):
career. That's when I started finallyhaving a little bit of success out of
the pen back end of the pen, where it was more so the mindset
of just attack, go out there. Hey, I throw pretty hard.
Here it is hit it, andthen I got a freaking wrinkle here it
is hit it. Whatever. That'sa very oversimplification to the attack mode at

(03:52):
that point. But what was reallyinteresting, I'd say, is right when
so I got to big leagu campin twenty sixteen, repeated in twenty seven
and then got released actually out ofminor league camp in twenty seventeen from the
Saint Louis Cardinals organization, went toIndie Balls twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen,
threw really well in Indie Ball,and twenty eighteen finally ended up getting picked
up by the Texas Rangers. Iwant to say May, I believe it

(04:15):
was May or early June of twentyeighteen, got picked up by the Texas
Rangers, and that's when I firstsaw this data analytics push right in in
affiliated baseball, where I think atthat point I was I was starting again.
I was kind of coming out ofthe pen, long guy, like
I was just whatever, you know, they needed me to be. But

(04:38):
the times that I did start,the times that I did pitch. The
next day I showed up, therewas a piece of paper on my desk,
not on my desk. I didn'thave a desk on my chair in
my locker and without really and againthis is twenty eighteen, so take this
with a grain of salt, becausethere wasn't a whole lot of understanding right
with what these types of numbers meantand all this stuff. I felt like

(04:58):
at that point was when in twentyseventeen as well with Saint Louis, I
was always one that wanted to likethrow on the track man and all this
stuff, but like having no ideawhat all this you know, data analytics
stuff meant. But it was atthat time where I saw, like,
frick, there's a huge missing pieceto this, right, Like there's a
huge missing bridge guy, and itwas kind of just like, here's these

(05:18):
numbers. Do with it what youwill. And so around that time was
when I started becoming familiar obviously mebeing just naturally curious and kind of wanting
to know everything. That was whenI fully dove into it myself and then
granted in the long run, Iended up blowing out my lat in that
twenty eighteen season, had to misspretty much the second half of twenty eighteen,

(05:40):
all of twenty nineteen, and thenCOVID happened in twenty twenty, so
a good amount of time off,you know, from worrying about performance.
And that was when I was ableto train a totally different side of the
game with data analytics and understanding allthese things that were coming into New age
baseball, which was super interesting butextremely beneficial, and I found that I

(06:01):
was I was starting to get betterat that point with the ability from my
end to take on copious amounts ofinformation, find ways to translate it,
to make sense and to simplify inmy head. To then when I did
get back into playing that twenty twentyseason was the COVID League. Got a

(06:23):
couple starts in that and then twentytwenty one, I was like kind of
fully back, you know, playingstarting pitcher indie ball twenty twenty one,
twenty twenty two, And it wasfunny because there was times where I felt
as if the approach right and againthis is indie ball too, so like
the amount of information that we hadwas nowhere near what the information is available

(06:46):
for players now. I wouldn't saylike an affiliated ball in the big leagues,
of course, but shoot, evenindie ball. It's like the advancement
in all this technology in the gameexploded from that that time gap right around
that that COVID league to where itwas like inaffiliated ball. I went from
basically like kind of having to dostuff on my own and pick some people's

(07:09):
brains along the process, you know, to get some information to where it
was like all right, fast forwarda couple of years later, twenty twenty
one, twenty twenty two. Shoot, we were an indie ball man.
We had you know, yaker tech, which is a technology very similar to
to track Man rap Soto, whereit would accumulate a lot of this data.
So I know, we're eight minutesinto this video, but now I

(07:30):
can kind of start getting into thisquestion. I found out later in my
career that I was able to takeon a little bit more information. But
I think the goal for me atthat point was not so much how much
information can I take on and stillcompete and play and throw, you know,
pitch my game essentially, But itwas all right, what what information
do I need? Right? Whatis it out of all of this this

(07:51):
this this vast array of numbers andinformation, like, what is it that
I need to kind of fixate on? And I personally found that a taking
on a lot of context, right, like taking on a lot of information
from from me personally was was stillnot good. I felt like I kind
of still got away from my gamea little bit, but especially with guys

(08:13):
that that you know, succeeded offme kind of consistently. I'd say those
were those were the guys, Andthere was probably one or two in every
lineup that I would face again.Indie Ball that that I would kind of
dive a little bit deeper into theadvanced gat of reports and start looking at
counts attack counts that that he thatthis particular hitter would want to engage most

(08:37):
in And honestly, for me,I think the biggest, the biggest advanced
scouting things that that I wanted tofixate on, especially as a starting pitcher.
It varies honestly as a as abullpen guy, because as a bullpen
guy, you know more so you'relooking at when does he like to swing?
Does he have a two strike approach? What? You know? What

(09:00):
quadrants he is he looking to dodamage? In starting pitchers, there's going
to be a little bit more informationthere because you're going to face him multiple
times. But I think the biggestthings that I want to know as a
starter was kind of piggybacking off whatI was saying earlier with like, is
this guy early in the count swinger? Is he super aggressive early? Does
his approach change with guys in scoringposition? Does his approach change with guys

(09:22):
on base? You know? Ishe someone and that doesn't feel comfortable with
two strikes so he's going to tryto engage and counts earlier or does he
feel comfortable late in counts? Doeshe feel comfortable with two strikes? Does
his approach change with two strikes?What parts of the plate is he looking
to do damage in? Is hespitting off speed early? And does he
gauging off speed late, Like,there's a lot of things you can break

(09:43):
down. But basically, the reallycool thing about today's day and age is,
like I was saying with the ACattack is if you have a pretty
good system, you can go inand get as close to absolutes as possible.
Now, I believe baseball is sounique in that there's really, you
know, not a whole lot ofabsolutes, but there there's for sure tendencies.
And we always say, like numbersdon't lie, check the tendencies.

(10:07):
So with tendencies come, you know, is is he going to this specific
part of the field in this specificcount And like I said earlier, is
especially in indie ball, it's goingto be different in affiliated ball, Big
Lea's because I'm you know, there'sthere's guys one through nine that can do
damage to you indie ball, althoughindie ball is like extremely talented now and

(10:28):
obviously I haven't really had a wholelot of success in indieball, so take
this with a grain of salt.But in indie ball, it's not so
much one through nine is going tohurt you, right, Like there's gonna
be guys that probably put up putup a good ab and whatnot. But
you're looking at at three four guysmax that that can do some serious damage.
And those are the guys that Iwould go in in a little bit

(10:48):
and get a little bit more advanced. I would say that in that scouting
report process, and again that thatlooks very similar to just understanding. And
again when you're looking damage, you'relooking at typically guys that drive runs in
you know, a problem at thedish with guys in scoring position, right
bases empty, it's a little bitdifferent. So basically what I go what

(11:11):
I do is I would go inand I would just look at either like
past game films, if I've facedthis this lineup multiple times and kind of
just observe. I know that's nottoo far advanced scatter reports. But basically
what I was wanting to know moreoften than anything else is exit velos in
particular counts versus particular pitches. Thatwould give me pretty much a good understanding.

(11:37):
And you can get a little bitmore advanced because you can look at
like right handed pitchers with a verticalapproach angle very similar to mine right,
or you look at right handed pitcherswith very similar arsenal, you know,
a very similar repertoire to mine toget pretty close to like absolutes. But
for me, what it comes downto is just tendencies, right, and

(11:58):
basically a hit approach. A hitteris basically going to tell you what his
approach is. If you face him, you know, in a series,
like as a starting pitcher, facehim twice in a season, you get
a pretty good idea just from observing, right, like what his approach is.
But then you can take that astep further, like you said,
with advanced gaunery reports. And thenthat's where I would form an approach because

(12:22):
I'm gonna then tailor a little bitagain, not change too much because I
don't want to get completely out ofmy game. I'm somebody as a starting
pitcher, I'm I don't really throwwith a lot of velocity. I'll get
it up, you know, maybeto like ninety one ninety two as a
starter. I think I think twentytwenty one was a little bit different because
I was just coming back, soI'd get it up to ninety five then

(12:45):
not really overpowering as a starting pitcher. So I'm somebody that's probably going to
rely more upon like craftiness to getsomebody out. But going into the advanced
gaunery reports, I would just wantto see tendencies from a hitter when is
he trying to engage? And thenI know this isn't advanced scouting, but

(13:05):
like you can go in and justlook at old school spray charts. Nowadays
they're going to be a little bitdifferent because those spray charts are probably going
to be accompanied with like an exitvlow and like the pitch. But shoot,
man, there's so much dang information. Just to answer the question again,
I've already said this probably I knowthis is so much context advanced scouting
reports. There's one key piece,like I said earlier, with exit velocity

(13:30):
in particular locations, So you're includingthe heat map, but you're also including
the particular counts, and you're includingthe particular pitch. So for example,
big bopper coming up first and secondright RBI opportunity and could potentially do some
damage for me to know that.Let's say he does on average ninety five

(13:52):
point one miles per hour exit velocity, so that again that has to be
balls being put into play that couldpotentially record an out right. So that
particular number in exit velocity, saywhen it's two balls no strikes, and
then you can even go deeper intothat and you can go two ball,
so a two and zero count firstand second writing on the mound exit velocity

(14:16):
versus this particular pitch in that particularcount. So for me, another piece
that I'm looking at too is thepitch speed of whatever it is. The
more I play, the more Irealize that the speed difference on the particular
sequences and pitches play a huge rolein obviously like disruption of timing. So

(14:39):
that's going to be something I'm goingto look at too. Kind of another
layer, especially if it's a youknow, if someone in that historically hits
pretty well off me, I'm wantingto see now like that that velocity difference
from pitch to pitch, because you'llsee in advanced scouting that some guys struggle
anything like under seventy five. Giveyou an exit velow, give you an
average, give you an expected wOBA, and then so any pitch from you

(15:03):
know, fifteen to twenty inches ofvertical movement or fifteen to twenty inches of
horizontal movement on a fastball, youcan come up with exit vlows again average.
Like, It's really interesting because youcan break it down to basically,
see does the guy struggle with withride guys you know up in the zone

(15:24):
big hole there, guys struggle withtwo seam guys horizontal movement. You can
kind of come up with this approachof packing him vertically or horizontally, and
as a starter for me, I'msomebody again going off craftiness that you can
look at. Okay, I'm probablygoing to get this guy more so vertically
where it's fastballs up, curveballs down, as opposed to like, all right

(15:46):
now, I'm going cutter, sliderand change ups in. So that's going
to give me a good idea too, approaching a guy again that's more so
advanced with guys that historically do prettywell off me. But on an average,
say an average start against a teamthat I haven't faced yet, I
can basically just pull up a game. And that's what's so cool about today's

(16:08):
day and age. Even in Indieball, they have game streams, right,
I can pull up a stream fromthe previous game in which you know,
this team, this lineup faced aright handed pitcher, and I would
probably want to be a little bitmore precise with that right handed pitcher.
I'm not going to want to watcha game from a guy that attacked that
lineup at five to eight through ninetynine, right, Like, I'm going

(16:30):
to try to get as close tosimilar as possible, especially with similar offerings,
because if you watch games against acertain lineup that you're going to be
facing the attack plan. The approachfor a lot of the hitters, based
on what you throw as a pitcher, is probably going to be roughly the
same across the board. Right,fastball in this particular location, majority of
the time, at this particular velocity. Second best pitch is this going to

(16:52):
want to throw it in this particularcount So their attack plan is going to
be very similar against that particular pitcherversus you. So you can kind of
base it off just by observing onesingle game what these guys are gonna do,
right, And I would say,for I don't even know if this
part is like advanced scouting, butI care more so about the last I

(17:15):
care more so about the last likeseries three or four games, than I
do the season. Right. Ithink a lot of pitchers will look at
seasonal breakdowns for guys, and inmy experience, I've learned that hitters are
a byproduct of their last like series, so last three to maybe seven games

(17:37):
instead of what they've done for thatentire season. Same thing for pitchers,
right like bullpen guys. Now there'sgoing to be outliers of course, right
like you can face a guy thatin his last seven games is oh,
for fricking twenty one, and thenagainst you he goes four to four,
Like that's always gonna happen. Butlook at those last seven games, last
fifteen games, those statistics, Ibelieve, if we're going to get going

(18:00):
to give you a better idea forfor a hitter's attack plan. But just
again, I'm trying to understand andread a hitter's attack because then I'm gonna,
you know, obviously go in theopposite direction of what he's trying to
do. That gives me as apitcher a little bit more conviction. I
believe in every single pitch, amental conviction in pitches because there again there's

(18:22):
that preparation phase mentally, you know, And that's where I think Scotty reports
are extremely beneficial because it kind ofstarts, you know, subconsciously getting in
there and subconsciously this layer of beliefin the old nogin that like you're prepared,
and as soon as you feel preparedmentally, you know that leads into
that conviction physically, So that wouldbe the why that I do it.

(18:47):
But that's a twenty two minute video, So those are the but really good
question. I can honestly speak alittle bit more on some other things,
but that is a lot of contexton a singular or two lines worth of
words and questions. So hopefully youknow you got something out of that.

(19:07):
Philip, thank you to to fillup. It's not Felipe, is it.
Thank you to fill up for askingthat really good question. And if
there's anyone that wants a little bitmore information, I can probably talk about
this for like another hour because there'sso many little like subcomponents to scouting and
especially advanced scouting that that I couldtouch on. But that's I wanted to

(19:30):
wanted to throw a lot of thosethings in there, So hopefully that helps
somebody kind of, you know,wanting to get an approach, because I'm
sure there's there's so much there's somuch confusion surrounding like scouting reports because I
think it's one of those things youngerpitchers like know that they they should do
because it looks good, but theydon't quite know how to how to truly

(19:51):
use it to their benefit, right, And that's kind of where I was
at too, as an eighteen yearold in professional baseball. I was like,
I know I wanted to use thisstuff, but like how And then
what you do is you just startwriting stuff down and then you start realizing
in performance like what you need.Like it kind of it kind of works
itself out in that way because you'llstart realizing I don't really need to know

(20:11):
this about this guy, Like Idon't need to know this, but like
I really want to know that.I really want to know that. So
tendencies approach again, I'm basically justtrying to paint a picture for what this
guy is trying to do against me. Now, that's not gonna that's not
gonna get me out of my traditionalapproach. That makes me who I am
as a as a starting pitcher.But it's little things that I can utilize

(20:33):
in a you know, in andat bat that gives me just that little
bit more leeway to potentially make amistake because you know, I went against
what he's trying to do. Andthis is such a fine line, such
a fine line, because you getreally close to the falling victim of that
over articulation up here, that robotlike approach, and then you're pitching to

(20:59):
a scout and report or instead ofjust like competing. And that's the biggest
thing for me personally that I tryto avoid is a foundationally athleticism competition.
Those are your two things, right, like, no matter what, always
just freaking compete, be a dog, but also be freaking an athlete and
have fun doing it because it isreally fun. There's been so many times

(21:21):
in my career where I try tojust be somebody that I wasn't, somebody
that's like, ooh, look atme. I got a little book and
I can read things that I knowabout that guy because I've observed, And
now I'm going to go out anddo things that I'm not typically used to
doing, but some freaking guy didlast week and got him out. So
I'm going to do that personally,identify those key components of a scouting report

(21:42):
that that could be of use toyou, right. But I've met so
many freaking guys along along my journeythat like don't want anything to do with
scouting reports. They don't want eventhey don't even want to watch the dang
game because if they watch the game, they might pick up on something and
then they'll think about it when they'reperforming, and it's like I get it,

(22:03):
right, Like I one hundred percentget it. But that's the most
important layer to everything that I'm talkingabout here within you know, Skyer reports
and stuff's first and foremost personally identifyyou before anything. Right, if you're
somebody that feels suffocated with Skyny reports, freaking don't don't do them, dude,
But just don't use that as anexcuse because you don't want to put

(22:26):
in the work, you know whatI'm saying, No for certain, and
that's kind of you know, Imight not have had the best career playing
wise and affiliated ball, but that'swhat I can I can look back and
be grateful for. Is like,dang, dude, I may not have
had the performance I wanted, butthere were so many little pieces in that
you know, career, especially inthe early stages, that like I can
learn from and like my application tothose those learning endeavors might not have been

(22:52):
the best, but I still wentthrough them, right, and now maybe
I'm I'm better equipped now to giveback like in this way. All right,
great question, Philip. Appreciate youguys, and as always, reach
out to the Robber Roshow dot comslash ask if there's any questions you guys
want me to talk about like thiscool much love, God bless until next
time. So