If Athletics scout Rich Sparks’ words ring true, then he and the nearly two dozen other Major League scouts in attendance at the Hank Aaron Invitational “44 Game” have plenty to tell their bosses about when they report back from the elite high school showcase.
“When we go to evaluate a prospect, we look at the tools,” Sparks told MLB Network’s Sedric Granger and Bo Porter during the game’s broadcast.
Sparks attended the 44 Game on behalf of East Coast Pro, which provides opportunities for elite high school players to compete in a professional environment in front of MLB scouts. They will be hosting a scouting event from July 31-Aug. 3 in Hoover, Ala., for top players from the eastern half of the United States.
Named for the number that Aaron made famous during his playing days with the Braves, the 44 Game is the culmination of his namesake invitational. Inaugurated as the Elite Invitational in 2015 (its name was changed to honor Aaron in '19), the Hank Aaron Invitational brings approximately 250 players from diverse backgrounds to the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Fla. There, they receive a weekend’s worth of training, competition and instruction from some of the game’s most respected names.
Those include Ron “Papa Jack” Jackson, Marvin Freeman, Jemile Weeks, Lou Collier, Ken Griffey Sr., and the man known to many simply as “Junior,” Ken Griffey Jr. The top 44 performers from Vero Beach received an invite to historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., where they earned the opportunity to show college and Major League scouts -- like Sparks -- why they were deemed the cream of their crop.
“Run, throw, hit, hit for power and defense,” Sparks said of the attributes he looks for in players while doing prospect evaluations. “Those are the things you start with at the top.”
But for Sparks, scouting the person is just as important as -- if not more so -- scouting the player.
“One of the big things we evaluate is makeup,” he said. “Are they strong enough? Do they have the ability to bounce back? I’ve signed guys that actually went 0-for-17 in front of me but watching how they handle things -- they’re gonna fail. … [Baseball is] a game of failure, and you’ve got to see how these guys react when they do fail, because everybody would love to see a guy go 4-for-4 with two doubles, a home run and a triple, but it just doesn’t happen that way.”
“Makeup” was evident among several of the youngsters comprising Team Robinson and Team Aaron, who played to an 8-8 tie in a seven-inning thriller under Birmingham’s blue skies.
Trailing, 8-4, heading into the bottom of the seventh, Team Aaron put a man on first on the inning’s first pitch via hit-by-pitch. Then, 19 pitches later, the boys in black and gold were within striking distance, stringing together a double, a sac fly and an RBI single to climb within two runs. The latter came off the bat of 2028 infielder Gabriel Coupet.
Coupet stole second shortly after the RBI hit, and LSU commit Devyn Downs took the vacant bag after being struck on the arm by a wayward breaking ball. A wild pitch brought home the speedy Coupet (who’s registered a 6.50 60-yard dash time) from second, before Florida commit Kinon Bastian sliced a screaming single to left to plate Downs.
But Bastian was frozen at second by a rope from left fielder Jaidon Hilliard’s left arm, whose throw beat him to the base by several seconds, and ended the game in a gridlock.
Hilliard’s makeup will be applauded by scouts. As will much of Team Aaron’s roster for executing the comeback.
And if those moments weren’t enough to show scouts some of what they’re made of, the players’ pure talent spoke volumes on its own.
Like Downs, whose bat sounded like a “perfect-perfect” swing on “MLB: The Show” when he cracked a sailing ground-rule double that nestled into a fenced-in area under a billboard to the right of the 400 feet sign in center field.
Or Shea Corona, a Brooklyn, N.Y., product who went 1-2-3 on 12 pitches (nine strikes) as the starter for Team Aaron, baffling hitters with a deceptive changeup that got up to 88 mph (his fastball reached 93).
Then there’s 2028 pitcher Robbie Haywood, whose 94 mph fastball is in the 99.9th percentile of velocity for pitchers his age. And 6-foot-4 righty Brandon Williams, who USA Baseball Collegiate National Team general manager Eric Campbell says is “better than Paul Skenes was at this point in his young career.”
The 6-foot-4, 265-pound Tavis Honeycutt is an imposing presence at the plate, having already shown he can put the ball out of a Major League stadium during All-Star Week’s High School Home Run Derby. Meanwhile, Terence Sullivan, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 225 pounds, has a lefty swing load that brings about memories of Prince Fielder’s home run derby championship at Rickwood last month.
And speaking of multi-generation ballplayers, former Major Leaguers Michael Bourn (Bryson) and Howie Kendrick (Owen) had sons who competed in the game.
“When I first walked in, I looked at both rosters and saw how big these kids were,” Sparks said. “I mean, athletic. As a scout, you love to see athleticism out there on the field. Guys that can run, throw, hit. … It’s tremendous for us … [and] it’s a tremendous opportunity for these guys to come here and have us all watch them. An organization like [MLB Develops], when they get involved in something like this, it can’t do anything but help.”
That’s just what the event, and ones like it, are designed to do.
It began with the visions of men like Aaron, who spoke openly about the dearth of Black mentors he had while growing up as a kid in Mobile, Ala. And it continues with programs like Nike RBI, the Breakthrough Series, the Hank Aaron Invitational and so many others.
“Baseball has been so good to all of us,” Porter said of the 35-plus coaches and mentors who ventured to Vero Beach, “and the best thing that we can do is leave the game better than it was when we found it.
“And I’m always very mindful of knowing that everything that you do for yourself will die with you. Everything you do for others has a chance to live forever.”