Baseball’s scouts pick their players carefully> They have to decide which players can survive

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They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are young, some are older.

Their job is simple, but not easy.

They dress like many others, in fashionable slacks and golf shirts, but something about them stands out.

They are easily spotted as they walk through the stands at the Mansfield Complex Field in Bangor and on other baseball fields across America.

Baseball scouts are a different breed.

They almost always sit together behind the backstop. Some use radar guns to chart the velocity of pitches. They occasionally take notes and often talk among themselves.

Bangor High School ace righthander Matt Kinney got used to seeing a half-dozen scouts every time he took the mound this spring. That led to him being drafted in the sixth round by the Boston Red Sox on Thursday.

So what is the process that leads to a player being drafted?

Players can be drafted right after their senior year in high school. The teams have until the player’s first day of college to sign him. If they don’t sign him, they forfeit their rights to him and the player can be drafted again after his junior year in college.

Toronto Blue Jays scout Ted Lekas said the first step involves discovering that a player has enough talent to warrant a close look.

“You might see a guy in a tournament or somebody might pass a name on to you,” said Lekas. “You make a note on the player and decide whether you want to go see him or not.”

“We’ll send letters to coaches and they’ll recommend players, not necessarily from their team, but players they have seen,” said Red Sox scout Buzz Bowers. “Then we try to follow up on that.”

Bowers said Kinney caught his eye at the State American Legion Tournament in Standish last summer.

The scouts monitor many categories.

If the prospect is a pitcher, Lekas, Bowers and Chicago Cubs scout Tom Bourque said they look for size, arm speed, arm strength, arm looseness, delivery, athleticism, fastball potential, fastball movement, breaking ball potential and rotation on the breaking ball.

They try to project how a pitcher will develop.

Kinney, at 6-foot-4 and 195 pounds, met one criteria without having to throw a pitch.

“If a guy already has size, you don’t have to wait for that to happen. That’s one variable you don’t have to worry about,” said Bourque. “They’re going to get stronger and if they have size already, it’ll be even better.

“There are exceptions, but there aren’t that many pitchers who aren’t at least 6 feet tall,” added Bourque. “There is an adage that big guys have to prove they can’t play and little guys have to prove they can play.”

Pitchers with loose, fluid arms are popular among scouts “because there is less chance their arms will break down,” said Bourque.

Yet another criteria for Bourque is natural balance. That can overcome mechanical deficiencies, he explained.

The scouts agree that pitchers in New England aren’t as far behind their Sun Belt counterparts as the hitters are.

“The pitchers in the warmer weather throw a few more innings, but that isn’t as great a factor as hitters getting more at-bats (in warm climates),” said Lekas. “Hitting is an art, and the more repetitions you get as a hitter, the better hitter you become.”

New England-bred pitchers have certainly been more prominent in the majors lately than hitters. Atlanta’s Tom Glavine, St. Louis’ Ken Hill, and the Chicago White Sox’s Jason Bere of Massachusetts, Texas’ Bob Tewksbury of New Hampshire, Colorado’s Bill Swift of South Portland, and Cleveland’s Charles Nagy of Connecticut are living examples.

Houston’s Jeff Bagwell from Connecticut and Cleveland’s Paul Sorrento from Massachusetts are the only prominent hitters.

In assessing hitters, the scouts look for bat speed, power, the way the ball jumps off the bat, stride and balance.

When it comes to defense, scouts assess throwing arms, hands, foot speed and instincts.

There is another important criteria.

“Desire,” said Bowers, a 30-year scout for the Dodgers before joining Boston’s organization three years ago. “It’s very important to talk to the parents and the boy. He has to really want to play this game.”

“I like to talk to a kid to see if he really loves baseball,” said Bourque. “Everybody has their down times and if he is going through a down time in the minor leagues, it can get really tough if he doesn’t love the game and if he doesn’t have pretty good self-esteem.”

Each organization has scouts for every region of North America, and there are scouts in other countries like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

The scouts answer to area supervisors and the organizations have sectional or national cross-checkers as well as scouting directors.

Bourque said the national cross-checkers “try to see the top 100 to 150 players” submitted by the scouts.

Unlike college coaches, who are limited by the NCAA to specific periods when they can talk to high school seniors, pro scouts can talk to a possible draft choice any time.

The scouts can make life hard on the college coaches, but Maine assistant coach Jay Kemble said it’s part of the job.

“Their job, just like ours, is to go out and find the best athletes and bring them into their organization,” said Kemble.

A college recruiter can offer a player a free education and the experiences of college life including the chance to mature. If the player develops, he will probably improve his draft position and his signing bonus by the end of his junior year, said Kemble.

When it comes to high school players, Lekas said, “Some kids are ready, emotionally and physically, to begin their pro careers. Others aren’t and they might be better off going to college.”

Kemble pointed out that life can be difficult for an 18-year-old playing rookie league ball for $800 a month thousands of miles from home.

Kemble said he attended a recent coaches convention where player agent Scott Boras said a high school player shouldn’t sign for less than a $1 million bonus.

“I’m biased, but it made a lot of sense,” said Kemble. “He was comparing what somebody with a college degree would make over the course of a lifetime compared to somebody without one.”

However, several players have educational clauses written into the pro contract.

Said Kemble: “It’s a big decision.”