The Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau is a centralized scouting resource that operates under the auspices of the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. Headquartered in

Ontario, California Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, ...

, the MLBSB's efforts supplement the independent, proprietary amateur and professional scouting operations of the 30

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

clubs. In 2012, the MLBSB employed 34 full-time and 13 part-time scouts in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

.MLB.com: Major League Scouting Bureau Q&A
/ref> In 2010, it announced plans to expand its activities beyond Puerto Rico to other countries in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

. According to MLB.com, the MLBSB's scouts "provide information on amateur prospects as a part of its mission to support the efforts of MLB clubs in the First-Year Player Draft. The MLBSB also provides professional scouting services, including the collection of video footage of players throughout the professional ranks, both domestically and internationally."MLB.com: MLBSB Overview
/ref> It maintains an eligibility file on amateur players — many of them teenagers — and holds 35 tryout camps each June in its countries of operation. The current MLBSB was founded in 1974 by outgoing Milwaukee Brewers

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Jim Wilson, and became part of the commissioner's office in 1985. However, its roots date to the founding by Major League owners of the Central Scouting Bureau in 1968, a period of time when many big league clubs were downsizing their scouting departments. The CSB's first director was

Jim Fanning William James Fanning (September 14, 1927 – April 25, 2015) was an American-Canadian catcher, manager and front office executive in Major League Baseball. Often called "Gentleman Jim", Fanning was the first general manager of the Montreal Expo ...

, former farm and scouting director of the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

. In August 1968, Fanning resigned after seven months with the CSB to become general manager of the expansion

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...

. He was succeeded by former Chicago Cubs "head coach"

Vedie Himsl Avitus Bernard "Vedie" Himsl (April 2, 1917 – March 15, 2004) was an American professional baseball player, manager, coach and scout. Born in Plevna, Montana, Himsl was a member of the class of 1938 from Saint John's University in Collegevi ...

for two years. Then, the CSB was temporarily dormant for almost four years until it was revived, as the MLBSB, by Wilson. From 1998–2014, the MLBSB was supervised by director, and then senior director, Frank Marcos. He announced his departure from the bureau in October 2014. He was succeeded by former Major League executive

Bill Bavasi William Joseph Bavasi (born December 27, 1957) is a former Major League Baseball general manager. He currently works as director of the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau, appointed in November 2014. Bavasi previously served as an assistant to ...

.Baseball America 2014.11.21
/ref>

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

MLBSB's Official page
on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

Major League Baseball 1974 establishments in the United States