THE WORLD'S LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE SCOUTING ORGANIZATION
| 2,496 MLB PLAYERS | 15,806 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
2,496 MLB PLAYERS | 15,806 MLB DRAFT SELECTIONS
Sign in Create Account
Sign in Create Account
General  | General | 4/13/2005

Baseball America's Allan Simpson

Patrick Ebert
As a young man growing up in British Columbia, Canada, Allan Simpson often had to go to great lengths to get his fill of baseball information. Tired of missing out on baseball news not only at the major league level, but also at the minor league, college and high school levels, Allan took matters into his own hands in creating Baseball America, one of the finest--if not the finest--baseball publications available. The editor-in-chief since its inception, Allan talked to me recently about how Baseball America became a reality, how he views the publication and how he sees some of the finer aspects of baseball that he takes particular interest in.

Patrick Ebert (PE): I think a lot of people have read that you started Baseball America in your garage when you lived in Canada. Can you expand on the origin of Baseball America?

Allan Simpson (AS): It's a good story. It goes back to 1981, so we've been around now for 25 years. I'm a Canadian and that was one of the complicating factors in getting this off the ground. At the time--and it's still the case--you couldn't just start a business in Canada, move to the States and set up shop. So I had to tackle this from a different point of view. The best I could do, given the immigration laws at the time, was set up an office in my garage at my house in Canada. I had moved about two miles north of the border, just above Seattle, close to Bellingham, Wash. That's where I moved to get Baseball America off the ground. I did as much as I could going back and forth across the border on a daily basis. I made sure I set up post office boxes in the States, because obviously if you're trying to sell a baseball publication you can't do that from Canada. It's like trying to sell a hockey publication from the States; it just doesn't work. From a credibility standpoint I had to give the impression that it was an American product. We could have the paper printed in the states, we had it mailed from the states, we could do everything pretty much with the exception of having an office in the states. Eventually, when it got off the ground a couple of years later, we got it to a point where the immigration people said, "If you want to take it to the states now, you're allowed to do it, but you're going to have to sell it to do so." So, I sold it in 1983 with the idea that I would buy back a certain portion of it once it re-located in the United States. It just so happened that the person I sold it to at the time was a fellow by the name of Miles Wolff, who owned the Durham Bulls, which later became the Durham Bulls of Bull Durham movie fame. Miles brought Baseball America to Durham, North Carolina where we still are located. In the two years we had it operating out of Canada, we may have had 5,000 or 6,000 subscribers, and it eventually escalated to the point where we were at 70,000 (subscribers). With all of the competition now from the internet and other publications doing the same thing, our subscriber base has fallen off a bit.

As for the motivation to begin a publication like Baseball America, I grew up as a huge fan of The Sporting News. At the time it was baseball's paper of record, and in my mind was the best baseball paper ever, regardless of what we've tried to accomplish at Baseball America. If you look back at some old Sporting News' from the 50's, 60's and I guess until the early 70's, they were an outstanding baseball publication. Then they started to have something for everyone by bringing in football, hockey, basketball and all sports, and they were getting a little bit away from baseball. A lot of the baseball coverage that they were cutting was their minor league coverage. They never had college, high school or draft coverage or any of those kinds of things that I really had developed a special interest for. Growing up in Canada, I was about 1,000 miles away from the closest major league team, which was in San Francisco at the time. When you have a huge appetite for baseball, and the closest big league city is a thousand miles away, you really have to tap into whatever other resources are available. We had some minor league clubs that were much closer to home, so my interest developed extensively in minor league baseball as I grew up. While in college, I went up to Alaska to work in the summer leagues, so I developed a big interest in college baseball and the draft. I had this passion for the game and there was no publication satisfying those needs, so I decided if no one else was doing it, I would give it a shot myself. That's how the idea for Baseball America evolved.

It was 1981 at the time. If you trace everything that has happened in minor league baseball, in the last year especially when they set attendance records, the real renaissance of minor league baseball started in 1981. Now, I'm not saying that's because Baseball America came on the scene at that point to help promote the game, but it says more about the good timing of when we came on. 1981 was also the year when the emphasis in the draft went decidedly more towards college players. It used to be a predominantly high school draft, and that was the year we had double the amount of college players taken in the first couple of rounds. To me, that was a sign that college baseball was coming of age. If anything, it was great timing on my part to launch Baseball America in 1981.

PE: So the initial focus was on minor league baseball, college and high school baseball and the draft?

AS: Pretty much, and it remains so to this day. I think it's obvious that Major League Baseball gets a tremendous amount of coverage--and it did back then--in all of the daily papers and the other major publications like The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, etc. But for some of the other areas of the game, which I thought there was interest in, there just wasn't any kind of national coverage. That's the minors, the draft, high schools, colleges, winter ball, summer amateur leagues, whatever. There was no national outlet to cover this kind of stuff. So my intent was to cover the areas of the game that weren't getting national exposure. I've always looked at Baseball America as being almost a supplement to everyone's daily newspaper, or now ESPN, and that's always been the focus of the magazine.

PE: You mentioned growing up 1,000 miles away from the closest major league city. How much would your passion have been different had you had access to the world-wide web years ago?

AS: Things have changed dramatically in the way people now get their information. Gosh, if I could have had access to some of this kind of stuff, it might have changed everything. I grew up about 250 miles northeast of Vancouver in Kelowna, B.C., and I never got daily box scores, I never got anything substantive in terms of daily coverage. I used to have to travel to watch minor league baseball, as many as 250-300 miles to the nearest minor league cities such as Spokane and Vancouver. I was so desperate for baseball information that every Wednesday I would sit at the end of my driveway waiting for my postman to bring my Sporting News because that was my only outlet for getting baseball news. If it didn't come that day, I'd drive all over to see if I could find one in a newsstand. Heck, I would routinely go up into the mountains above Kelowna to pick up games better (on the radio) at night. That's how desperate I was for baseball information.

PE: How much has Baseball America grown with the inception of the internet and your website?

AS: The internet has become a competitor of ours, since there are now so many other websites out there. But at the same time it has helped Baseball America be more current. We can now get information up on our website in a very timely fashion. As just a newspaper, you're at the mercy of the postal system. (The news) can often be a week or 10 days old by the time people get the newspaper. The internet has given us the opportunity to be very immediate with a lot of our coverage. We can preview weekend events and know that people read it before the weekend is over. We have always had to be very mindful of what we print and when our readers receive their paper.

We have always had some major league coverage, but our coverage has always been geared towards the kind of content you can't always get in your regular newspaper. We do features and we have columns by some of the best writers in the business. We've had Peter Gammons as one of our columnists for 20 years, long before he went to ESPN. We've had Jayson Stark for 20 years, long before he went to ESPN. Tim Kurkjian was one of our columnists back in the 80s before he left, at that time to go to Sports Illustrated and later to ESPN. All of the baseball experts that are recognizable faces at ESPN right now started with Baseball America first. We've had good luck with some of our writers. At the same time they're good baseball people and they've always recognized what we're trying to do with our coverage. They have been very loyal to stay on with us as long as they have.

PE: How much of your day is spent talking to scouts, scouting directors, college recruiters, etc.?

AS: Quite honestly, not as much as I would like to, but obviously we do talk. We cover every area of the game, so it's a lot of work. It's a big baseball world out there. It's not like football where you play one game a week. (In baseball) you have games every day--minor league clubs, colleges, high schools, etc. There are literally thousands of games that are being played every week, and it's impossible to try and stay on top of all of those games. For that reason, it's important that we have good access to scouts, coaches and those kinds of people. They're our eyes and ears a lot of times. They tip us off on things we need to know. I spend a fair amount of time (talking to scouts). It depends what time of year it is because we do so many other things beyond our paper and website. We do a lot of books, so that keeps our offseason pretty busy. But you have to find the time to talk to scouts.

There are three kinds of scouts we talk to. There are those that respect what we are doing and want to help us promote the game, and are very willing to share their information with us. There are some scouts that are a little bit guarded in what they will share with you, but if they recognize that you've done your homework and have been working with the right people, they usually work with you. And there are some scouts and ball clubs that have the opinion that they won't talk to you because their club spends hundreds of thousands of dollars getting scouting information, and they don't want to see it being used in a publication that is being sold for three bucks. But generally I believe the people in the scouting community recognize that we do quality work, and they're more than happy to share information with us. Just so long as their names aren't used.

PE: Has the work you have done, particularly your minor league top prospect lists and your draft coverage, ever influenced what player a team may target in trade or how they may approach the draft?

AS: Oh yeah. It actually has. (For instance) there is our Prospect Handbook. There are clubs that will read up on our player reports before they make a trade. It may not make or break a trade, but it has influenced trades from time to time. There is also no question that when teams are doing all of their pre-draft meetings, they will have a copy of Baseball America's draft preview issue in their war room in the last several days before the draft. Not that teams necessarily agree with our rankings 100 percent, but I think they recognize that we have talked to an awful a lot of people in compiling our lists. We will have players ranked higher on our list than a scouting director has on his list, or another club might not have at all. I think we have helped the industry in uncovering a few players, but scouts have helped us an awful lot as well.

PE: Speaking of the draft, what do you think of the talent available for this year's draft?

AS: It's a good year. You can always see the talent coming at the college and high school levels, often a year before. I don't know if there is a lot of front-line pitching in this draft, and it may be a little bit thin in a couple of areas, but overall I think it's a strong draft. There are a lot of outfielders, a lot of athletic type players, and there is some depth to the pitching. I also think there are more middle infielders out there than what people were thinking at one point.

PE: How often do you get out to watch players and watch the games themselves?

AS: I'd like to go to more, but when you're dealing with hundreds and hundreds of players you don't have the opportunity to get around and see everybody. A lot of times when I go out I just go to watch for the pure enjoyment of the game. I'm careful that if I see only a handful of players it may skew my viewpoint of how I look at those players versus the players that I don't see. I can form my own opinions about the ones I see, but I have to be careful that I don't form an opinion that is too strongly weighted towards somebody I do see, and unfairly weighted against somebody else because I didn't see them play. That's why we rely so much on the opinions of the people that do actually get out to see all the players, like Perfect Game.

We're in a great area here in North Carolina for watching baseball at the development level. We're four hours from the closest major league team (the new Washington club), but within a two hour radius, we have Triple-A baseball, Double-A baseball, high A, low A and the rookie leagues. So we've got virtually every level of professional baseball within an easy drive, and we're right in the heartland of ACC country with (North Carolina) State, Duke and North Carolina all within 20 minutes. North Carolina has the third most Division I schools of any state in the country, and being somewhat in the sun-belt area of the country the quality of high school baseball isn't bad either. We're perfectly located for the areas of the game that we're trying to cover.

PE: Who is the best player or players that you have ever seen that stand out in your mind?

AS: (Long pause) You caught me off-guard with that one. I don't know if I could put my finger on one specific player. I saw Brien Taylor and Josh Hamilton when they were in high school. Those are the two No. 1 overall picks that have come from North Carolina. Obviously that's not a great track record given what has happened with both of those guys, but I thought Josh Hamilton was going to be an absolute star. I'm sure I've seen other guys that you knew had big-league written all over them. There are just so many players.

PE: How did Baseball America's relationship with Perfect Game USA begin?

AS: We were aware what Jerry (Ford) and Andy (Ford) were doing with Perfect Game at a time when showcases were becoming prominent in the 90s. The Area Code Games was the originator of the showcase concept of seeing top players and it was a natural evolution of what the Area Code Games were trying to do that Jerry, Andy, Jason (Gerst) and Tyson (Kimm), and everyone over at Perfect Game, would produce more showcase events. Our association with Perfect Game was a desire on our part to be a little more pro-active in terms of having a scouting presence with Baseball America. For the most part we have journalists here, and we didn't have a scouting wing that could see and evaluate all the top high school players. We looked closely at the Area Code Games, Team One (Baseball) when they were a little bit more active, and Perfect Game. We just liked the way Perfect Game operated. They have a great staff of people with lots of professional and college experience. They have the best reputation with professional scouting departments and the top college programs. We came to the realization that we saw more potential with Perfect Game than anybody, and that goes back six or seven years now. We're not surprised that Perfect Game has evolved into the premier showcase company at this point, because you could see it coming. You could see how they did their events, and the care that they put into them. So we really made an effort to align ourselves with Perfect Game, for them to do the scouting of our high school players, because we were in that business to some degree. We in turn can help them out in a few areas as well, and I think it's been a good partnership.

PE: For people that don't know, could explain some of the things that Perfect Game USA does for Baseball America specifically, such as providing the scouting reports for your Prospects Plus publication?

AS: The partnership we have is through Prospects Plus, trying to identify the top players in the country and provide scouting reports to major league clubs, and probably more than anyone, for colleges that don't get a chance to go to all the different events. Perfect Game certainly has a number of their own events, and they scout other events as well. If you're a coach on a limited budget and you can maybe go to only two or three events a year, the intent is to do the scouting for the college. If you can't afford a thousand bucks to go out to the Area Code Games or the Perfect Game National you can maybe spend some money on Prospects Plus and let Prospects Plus do the scouting for you.

PE: When you publish your lists of say, the top 100 draft-eligible high school prospects, are you basically taking the lists that are provided by Perfect Game, or are you combining their information with what you hear from the big league clubs?

AS: In some cases yes, and in some cases no. There are times of the year when we use the Perfect Game list exclusively, and there are other times when we separate ourselves a little bit and do our own research. With our preseason All-American teams, at both the high school and college levels, we've always had the MLB scouting directors vote on those teams for us. At those times, we will be very clear that the teams were picked through consultation and voting of the scouting directors. With our draft coverage, which is a big part of what we have done over the years, we will double up the information we receive by doing our own homework with the information that Perfect Game provides.

PE: Speaking of these lists and the scouting directors that you talk to, getting back to an earlier point about how certain teams are willing to cooperate and share information with you for different reasons, how many scouting directors do you talk to when you're compiling the preseason All-American teams?

AS: The way it works is we put together our own worksheet, or checklist, of names that we've gathered over the last several months, from seeing players in summer ball or at different showcase events or from word of mouth. The checklist probably has a couple hundred names, broken down by position, and we will send that list to the clubs and have them vote on the players. We don't just ask the clubs who the best players are. If they can recognize that we've done an awful lot of homework ourselves to put these lists together, they in turn will just say, Here's your best guy, here's your second best guy, here's your third best guy, and so on. They won't help us if they know we haven't done our work first, and obviously we have always done our work first before we try to get information from them. I would say out of the 30 clubs out there, we'll hear from as many as 25 organizations each year. There are about five clubs that philosophically just don't want to share their information with anybody.

PE: Is there a team, or a couple of teams, that you hold particular interest in, whether it be a team you grew up watching or a team that in particular you admire the work they do in building a successful organization?

AS: I was a huge Cincinnati Reds fan growing up, in the 60s and 70s. I'm not anymore. Being from Canada, I had a natural inclination towards the Expos. Prior to pursuing this career, I was a general manager in their minor league system when they had a team in western Canada in Lethbridge, Alberta. So in that sense, I was a fan of the Expos. And being from the Pacific Northwest, I was a fan of the Seattle Mariners. You have to allow yourself to cheer for some teams even if you're supposed to be neutral when you have to give equal treatment to all the clubs. I was involved with baseball with a couple of organizations before I started Baseball America. I also spent three summers in Alaska, working for the semi-pro Alaska Goldpanners, a team that has sent about 200 players to the big-leagues over a 45-year period. I went from working for that club in the mid-70's that had Dave Winfield as the left fielder, and three years later, to the team in Lethbridge that had Andre Dawson as its center fielder. So I had some good exposure to a couple of premium players growing up.

In this business, you have to respect organizations like the Braves, or some of the teams that do things right year in and year out. I have a great amount of respect right now for the Twins, just the way they do things on a limited budget. They get the most bang for their buck. I'm not particularly a big fan of teams like the Yankees. They do not have a great farm system right now, and they think they can fix everything by throwing money at the problem. I admire teams that are being run efficiently and effectively, and I think the Twins are at the top of the game right now in that regard.

PE: If you were a GM, what are some of the philosophies you would institute to build a successful organization?

AS: To me it all starts with the draft. Being a big fan of draft history, I would go for a blend of high school position players and college pitchers. To me, that's the best track record for getting the maximum out of a draft. I don't think it's right to go to one extreme or the other, but I think college pitchers tend to work out better than high school pitchers, and I think high school position players have a higher ceiling than college ones. You can't be like Oakland and some of these Moneyball teams and look at one extreme or the other. As far as developing the players in your system, you have to get the right players in the first place and let nature take it's course.

PE: While your top prospect lists seem to be your most popular features, what are some of the things that Baseball America does to keep the publication fresh and what can your readers look forward to in the coming year?

AS: To me, the two things that Baseball America is known for is it's draft coverage and it's minor league and organizational prospect rankings. I look at the draft as kind of a bridge between amateur baseball and professional baseball. If you're going to cover the draft properly you also have to cover high school baseball, because that's where some of your players are coming from, and college baseball, because that's where the bulk of the rest of your players are coming from. From there they all go into the minor leagues, probably the one area we emphasize over all others.

Readers and fans look to us for identifying the top prospects in the game, and we'll cover those players until they reach the major leagues when the mainstream media will begin to cover them. It's important for us to understand who we are, understand what our niche is, what we're trying to be: The publication that covers the game at levels that don't get much national exposure. That's how it's been for 25 years. We're pretty hard-core in how we approach it, but I think we have to be because we can't get relevent information out there fast enough. It's important to stay ahead of the game and our competition. We have a good formula working, and I don't know if it's going to change appreciably over the next year or the next five years.

PE: I think a lot of people look at what you do at Baseball America and feel you have one of the greatest jobs in the world. How great is it to pursue your passion?

AS: It is a heck of a job. I've always wanted a job where I could hardly wait to get to work each day, and that's still how I feel. Sometimes you have to tell yourself to go home, or to stop doing something, because you could easily work 80, 90 and sometimes 100 hours a week, especially when we come up on draft time. It is a terrific job, there's no question about it, and I feel blessed to be in the position that I am. I don't even look at it as a job. It's a hobby that I work on all of the time. I don't know what else I would do right now. This is clearly what I set out to do 25 years ago, though I don't know if I could see this thing where it is now back then. There are a lot of people that want jobs in baseball, and that's why there are so many people willing to get in the game any way that they can--even with the low wages the game sometimes pays--just because of the hold baseball has on people. It's the most fascinating business out there.

Patrick Ebert is affiliated with both Perfect Game USA and Brewerfan.net, and can be contacted via email at pebert@brewerfan.net.
Give us your feedback
General | Blog | 6/16/2026

Wolforth Throwing Mentorship: Article 66
Ron Wolforth
Article Image
  The Number That Just Killed MLB Expansion: 1,217   USA Today's Bob Nightengale dropped a bomb shell recently that the baseball world is still digesting. Major League Baseball wants to expand to 32 teams. Team executives are quietly opposing it and the reason has nothing to do with cities or money.   They cannot find enough healthy pitchers.   Between 2020 and 2024, professional baseball performed 1,026 Tommy John surgeries at the minor-league level alone. Another 191 at the Major League level. More than twelve hundred elbow reconstructions in five years on the best young pitchers in the world.   That is not bad luck. That is a system reporting a verdict on itself.   For fifteen years, the youth-baseball industry has chased one number: velocity significantly more than projectability and arm care.    Recruiters scout by it.    Social...
Read More
College | Story | 7/10/2026

Cape Cod Notebook No. 1

Perfect Game Staff
Article Image
Cape Cod League Scouting Notebook  Maverick Rizy | Ole Miss | RHP | Brewster Whitecaps  The towering 6-foot-9, 250-pound right-hander continues to stand out with one of the more unique looks on the Cape, pairing a massive frame with a low three-quarter slot that creates difficult angles for hitters. While his fastball velocity was down from its typical mid-90s range during this look, working mostly 90-92 mph, it still generated plenty of swing-and-miss. He paired the heater with an 81-83 mph gyro slider featuring tight bullet-spin action and mixed in an 85-mph changeup with quality separation. Rizy battled his command early in the outing I saw, before settling in to strike out five over three innings, showing the ability to adjust as the game progressed. Through 12.2 Cape League innings, he has recorded 18 strikeouts, and his combination of size, deception, and projectability...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 7/10/2026

Windy City Invite & Open Scout Notes: Part 2

Perfect Game Staff
Article Image
Windy City Invite & Open Scout Notes: Part 1 Braedon Paczocha (2028, Palmyra, Wis.), a 5-foot-11, 180-pound frame catcher for GRB STiKS 16U Black, displayed a quick bat with the ability to do damage. Showed a good feel for the barrel throughout the weekend, hitting .538 (7-for-13) with 3 doubles, 8 RBI, 2 stolen bases, and a 1.376 OPS. Also received well behind the plate with quick, efficient transfers and displayed good instincts.    ’28 1B Brock Hamilton (IL) displays some present strength, driving this ball deep into the LCF gap to leg out a triple. Creates loud contact off the bat and does damage here. #WCInvite @WhitesoxAce pic.twitter.com/6EK81gG9Wi — Perfect Game Illinois (@PG_Illinois) July 5, 2026 Brock Hamilton (2028, Flossmoor, Ill.), one of the top first basemen in Illinois, brings a physical 6-foot-5, 240-pound frame with plenty of present strength...
Read More
Draft | Rankings | 7/10/2026

Final 2026 MLB Draft Board: Top 500

Tyler Henninger
Article Image
After months of coverage, evaluations, and discussions, the 2026 MLB Draft is upon us. With that, we present our final Top 500 Draft Board.  The final update features several notable movers, including a handful of late risers who made one final push up the board. While there was movement throughout the board, the top remains unchanged. UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky and Texas prep shortstop Grady Emerson lead the way again, as they have for much of the cycle. With the games complete, reports filed, and the board finalized, the evaluation process is over. Now, we get to sit back and watch the draft unfold. Rk. Name Level Pos. B-T School Hometown State Commitment 1 Roch Cholowsky C SS R-R UCLA Chandler AZ 2 Grady Emerson H SS L-R Fort Worth Christian Argyle TX Texas 3 Vahn Lackey C C R-R Georgia Tech Suwanee GA 4 Jacob Lombard H SS R-R Gulliver Schools Miami FL Miami 5 Jackson Flora C...
Read More
Showcase | Story | 7/9/2026

13U National Kicks Off in Fort Myers

Alyssa Golden
Article Image
This Friday through Sunday, many of the nation’s top young prospects from the classes of 2030 and 2031 will head to Fort Myers, Florida, as the 2026 PG 13U National Showcase gets underway at JetBlue Park. The invitation-only event features some of the brightest young stars in the country as they look to make their way onto the national stage. This showcase provides players with an opportunity to compete against elite talent from across the country while also serving as a key evaluation for the 2026 PG 13U Select Baseball Festival. “The 13u National Showcase will be the first showcase for a lot of these guys, but we’ve seen their talents throughout this past fall, spring and the summer circuit, securing their invite to the event,” said Jheremy Brown, Perfect Game’s National Director of 13U & 14U Player Development and Festivals. Among some of the stand...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 7/9/2026

Windy City Invite & Open Scout Notes: Part 1

Donovan May
Article Image
’28 RHP Jack Potsma (IL) went 4.0 IP w/ 4 K, running the FB up to 91 mph. Quick, whippy arm w/ a tall, projectable frame. FB had quality arm-side run, while adding a SL. Good control in the delivery w/ the ability to fill up the zone. FB: 87-91 | SL: 68-73 #WCOpen @RaysIllinois pic.twitter.com/8HfMEeamIC — Perfect Game Illinois (@PG_Illinois) July 6, 2026 Jack Postma (2028, Barrington, Ill.) is a tall, projectable 6-foot-5, 195-pound pitcher with a quick, whippy arm and loose, athletic actions. The GRB Rays 16U Illinois Green right-hander ran his fastball up to 91 mph with heavy arm-side run while filling up the zone and inducing weak contact. Postma complemented the fastball with a slider and mixed in a fading changeup, giving him a quality three-pitch mix to build upon. Over 4.0 innings, Postma struck out 4, allowing 4 hits while throwing 66% strikes.  ’27 RHP...
Read More
Press Release | Press Release | 7/9/2026

SHIVERSTICKS NAMED OFFICIAL POPSICLE OF PERFECT GAME

Article Image
  667 Progress Way | Sanford, FL 32771 | 319-298-2923 www.perfectgame.org | facebook.com/perfectgameusa | @PerfectGameUSA     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   SHIVERSTICKS NAMED OFFICIAL POPSICLE OF PERFECT GAME   Former MLB All-Star Vernon Wells to Make Select Appearances at Perfect Game Events to Promote the Partnership   Sanford, Florida (Thursday, July 9, 2026) - Perfect Game, the world’s largest youth baseball and softball platform and scouting service, today announced a new partnership with ShiverSticks, naming the Texas-based company the Official Popsicle of Perfect Game. Throughout the travel baseball season, ShiverSticks products will be featured across Perfect Game’s premier events and facilities, with onsite activations, concession integration, digital promotions and social media content designed to introduce players and fans to the...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 7/9/2026

16u WWBA Scout Notes: Day 3

Perfect Game Staff
Article Image
16u WWBA Scout Notes: Day 1 | Day 2 Carlos Acuna (2028, Sylmar, Cal.) turned in an impressive start on Wednesday, tossing four shutout innings with six strikeouts and just one hit allowed. The 6-foot-1 right-hander filled up all four quadrants of the strike zone with his fastball, which lived in the 86-87 mph range and touched 88 a couple of times. He mixed in a true 12-6 curveball with huge depth down in the zone, and showed comfortability doubling up on the breaking ball. ‘28 Francis Conners-Schmid (NY) was dominant out of the ‘pen, 6 Ks in 2 hitless inn of work. Lived 88-89 & touched 90 multiple times. Sharp horz break to the SL w/ teeth & tight spin (clip). Athletic mover w/ serious 2-way upside. @JKselectBSB #WWBA @PGMidAtlantic pic.twitter.com/z859j3UCEq — Perfect Game Scout (@PG_Scouting) July 8, 2026 Francis Conners-Schmid (2028, East Chatham, N.Y.)...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 7/9/2026

Future Stars Take Center Stage at 14U BCS

Alyssa Golden
Article Image
The 21st annual 14U BCS National Championship returns to Fort Myers, Florida this Thursday through Monday, bringing many of the nation’s top teams to compete for one of the summer’s premier titles. Seven nationally ranked teams, featuring some of the top prospects in the class of 2030, will take the field looking to prove why they rank among the country’s elite. Headlining the field is No. 25-ranked outfielder James Watson of Canton, Georgia. The No. 9 outfielder in the nation has been one of the most productive hitters in the field this season, posting a 1.227 OPS while batting .394 with eight home runs, 69 RBI and 32 stolen bases over 84 games. Watson has also excelled on the mound, recording a 3.50 ERA with 65 strikeouts in 44 innings while holding opposing hitters to a .181 batting average. The athletic two-way player owns a 94 mph exit velocity, an 88-mph outfield...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 7/8/2026

Premier Invite Scout Notes

Perfect Game Staff
Article Image
Tripp Merren (‘29 TX) with a pair of missiles off the barrel today including a no-doubt 2-run 💣 and triple later both to RCF. Electric bat speed with easy strength off the barrel. Can really scoot around bases. #PremierInvite pic.twitter.com/VUEHQZ0bmM — Perfect Game Texas (@Texas_PG) July 3, 2026 Tripp Merren (2029, Houston, Texas) took home MVP honors enroute to a big championship win for the Houston Texans Astros Scout Team. Merren stands in at 6-foot-0 from a pretty physical frame at this age. He has the athleticism to go with it and already looks like he has filled out a good bit. Merren fits the mold as a true power hitting corner guy but can play all over on the dirt. He finished the week going 9-15 that included two doubles, a triple, and two homers. He also drove in seven runs and scored nine times. Talk about a complete week and Tripp was simply in the heart of...
Read More
Tournaments | Story | 7/8/2026

16u WWBA Scout Notes: Day 2

Perfect Game Staff
Article Image
16u WWBA Scout Notes: Day 1 ‘28 Rylan Jenkins (GA) hits the bottom of the CF wall for a 2-RBI double; great rhythm to the stroke w/ lots of easy strength in the barrel. 6.46 runner. @BravesScout16u #WWBA @PG_Georgia pic.twitter.com/oxSt7fvsUw — Perfect Game Scout (@PG_Scouting) July 7, 2026 Rylan Jenkins (2028, Tennille, Ga.) found a few loud barrels Tuesday morning, sending a pair of hard liners off the outfield wall. He drove in four runs and crossed home three times himself. The 5-foot-9 lefty hitter takes a smooth path to the baseball with excellent rhythm to the operation. He generates lots of easy strength at the point of contact and consistently produces high exit velocities to the pull-side and middle of the field. Jenkins is extremely twitchy and gets down the line in a hurry. He runs a 6.46 sixty and turns doubles into triples often. Tripp Sapp (2028, Loganville,...
Read More
Loading more articles...
About Perfect Game :: Contact us :: Terms of Use :: Privacy Policy :: Testimonials :: Job Opportunities
Copyright 1994-2026 by Perfect Game. All rights reserved. No portion of this information may be reprinted or reproduced without the written consent of Perfect Game.