As the Brewers and Rays prepare to meet in the World Series, the discourse surrounding their success has largely centered on their analytics departments.
The Brewers and Rays employ two of the largest analytics staffs in MLB. From research and development to systems engineering to data analysis and more, both are renowned for being among the best in the game.
But attributing their success solely to analytics ignores a critical part of both organizations’ DNA.
The Brewers and Rays also have two of the largest scouting departments in baseball.
“I feel like the first question I get in the game is, ‘What’s the secret formula?’ as if it’s like a math problem to be solved,” said James Armstrong, the Brewers’ vice president of domestic and international scouting. “And that’s kind of what they expect probably of us or Tampa…but I have to cite the quality of our ground game. I mean, our scouts, that runs everything on the international and domestic side.
“Having a really good ground game, building relationships, and then just being able to kind of know when to jump on an opportunity. I would continue to cite that as the secret formula, and it’s not so secret. It’s what scouting’s been about for its entire history.”
Entering this season, the Rays employed 84 people on their scouting staff, fifth-most in MLB. The Brewers had 78, tied for 10th-most.
Beyond headcount, both employ a bevy of scouting legends with 20-plus years of experience, from Bobby Heck and R.J. Harrison on the Rays side to Mike Berger and Corey Rodriguez on the Brewers side, among many others.
At a time when many teams are discarding veteran evaluators in favor of cheaper, less experienced hires, the Rays and Brewers invest heavily in bringing in—and retaining—veteran scouts at both the pro and amateur levels.
“I think that lived experience is something that cannot be replicated, whether that’s a player’s lived experience or a scout’s lived experience,” said Rays assistant general manager Kevin Ibach, who previously served as the team’s pro scouting director. “…We’re going to make adjustments. We’re going to do things a little bit more progressively, if you will.
“But as long as we’re open-minded and we’re willing to make the adjustments, no different than a hitter making adjustments at the plate, we’re going to benefit from the years of lived experience that some of our scouts have had.”
Scouting and analytics are often framed in adversarial terms, a proxy for old school vs. new school methods of evaluating players.
The Brewers and Rays, however, are among the clubs demonstrating that scouting and analytics are not an either-or proposition. Many of baseball’s most successful franchises in recent years have combined top-flight analytics staffs with robust scouting departments rather than prioritizing one over the other.
The Brewers and Rays are two of only six teams to rank in the top 10 in both scouting department and analytics department size. The others are the Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies and Blue Jays.
All six are among the 10 winningest franchises of the decade.
“I chuckle that we are still in this like, scouts versus data dichotomy or assumption that they don’t work in harmony,” Armstrong said. “I think the data revolution of baseball has only made our scouts better because they can leverage it. But old-fashioned hard work and grind is still going to be what powers the machine, quote unquote.”
One area where the Rays and Brewers differentiate themselves, in particular, is their commitment to pro scouting. At a time when many organizations are de-emphasizing pro scouting or eliminating it altogether, the Rays and Brewers are pouring more resources into it.
The Rays have 19 scouts on their pro scouting staff, tied with the Blue Jays for most in MLB. They are one of the few teams that still scout Triple-A aggressively and in person, and maintain a sizable presence from major league games all the way down to the lowest levels of the minors.
“Just given how many times we look to be transactional, the depth of our scouting staff certainly helps,” Ibach said. “And I think that’s evidenced probably more than anything by, like, the Junior Caminero trade, having three scouts that live in the Dominican Republic that are focused solely on the Dominican Summer League, versus a lot of teams cover that level with amateur scouts or with domestic pro scouts that have to travel there and get a limited sample of looks.
“Extending coverage all the way across the pro landscape is something that has really allowed us to be successful over the years in acquiring players that turn out to impact our major league team.”
The Brewers, meanwhile, eliminated the distinction between pro and amateur scouts and use the term “domestic scouts” to describe their U.S.-based personnel. All 31 of their domestic scouts have pro responsibilities in addition to their amateur coverage. Their 29 international scouts have pro coverage responsibilities on top of amateur coverage, too.
“We value that experience in the pro scouting space a lot,” Armstrong said. “I mean, having people that get to be connected in both spaces just makes a better scout. And then we find ways to use it, of course, and leverage it in pro scouting decisions.”
Technology and data have undeniably played significant roles in the Brewers’ and Rays’ success. But that has come in conjunction with, rather than in place of, large scouting staffs.
That’s no anomaly, either.
Including this year’s matchup, nine of the last 10 World Series participants had scouting staffs larger than the league average.
“I think when we collaborate and we work together to find the best possible valuation on a player, I think you’re going to have better outcomes,” Ibach said. “So, if we were labeled a purely scouting organization, I think that would be a misnomer. Just as like when we’re described as a very analytical organization.
“I think those of us who work behind the scenes know it’s a collaboration of everyone to really make these decisions impactful.”
The Rays and Brewers are often categorized as analytics-heavy franchises. In reality, both are driven every bit as much by their scouting departments as their analytics departments.
And neither organization plans to change that approach anytime soon.
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