JETHAWKS NOTEBOOK: AN EYE ON THE FUTURE SCOUTS KEEP UP ON PROSPECTS.

Byline: Gideon Rubin Staff Writer

As the major-league baseball trading deadline nears, rumors swirl about the futures of some highly regarded players.

Almost invariably, contending teams looking to add marquee names to their roster for the stretch run have to give up prize young players within their farm systems.

As an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, the JetHawks have players who fit that profile, someone the Mariners could package in exchange for a high-profile player that could help put them over the top.

Though not an exact science to be sure, the job of identifying the stars of the future almost exclusively is the responsibility of scouts.

Each major-league team employs approximately 25 scouts to serve as the organization's eyes and ears. They attend baseball games at all levels - from summer league, to high school, college, and the pros.

And like the game of baseball itself, the highly competitive business of evaluating talent has its winners and its losers, who succeed and fail for many of the same reasons players do, according to Matt Lundin, a Philadelphia Phillies scout and area supervisor for Southern California.

``I think that for scouts it's not that different than the guys that play,'' said Lundin, citing work ethic as the key ingredient for success in both playing and scouting.

``Work ethic separates scouts also because for the most part we're our own boss; I set my own schedule unless my scouting director or our cross checker comes to town; you've got to go (on your own). You've got to drive to some places you've never heard of and you've got to sit in some bad weather and get rained on and be cold and hungry. A lot of times if you're soft or your work ethic is not real great then you'll be passed up by other scouts.''

Lundin, a who graduated from Tustin High in Orange County, played college baseball at Cal State Fullerton, and was drafted by the Phillies, but a back injury he suffered in high school eventually forced him to stop playing.

But through an association he had with John Cole, a Toronto Blue Jays scout, he began evaluating players for a living just two years after finishing college.

Lundin, who is in his first year of scouting on a full-time basis, spent several years evaluating players as a part-timer in the New York Yankees and Blue Jays organizations.

While working as a part-time scout, Lundin was a coach at Rancho Santiago College (formerly Santa Ana College), and coached summer-league ball in Orange County.

As the coach of a state championship Connie Mack team last summer, he had former Palmdale High ace Matt Harrington on his pitching staff.

A typical day for Lundin, admittedly an early riser, begins with a 6:30 a.m. wake-up call. Since he scouts for an East Coast-based team, he usually has several voice mail messages he needs to respond to before getting in an exercise workout and writing up player reports.

Lundin spends most of his mornings on the telephone inquiring about things like weather conditions or the whereabouts of players he's interested in seeing, and by noon he's generally on the road.

Lundin said he likes to get to the ballpark early so he can watch players take infield and batting practice, which he calls an opportunity to see players' work habits.

``I'm not a huge batting practice guy, but I do like to see a guy in batting practice not so much for what he's doing as far as swing and stuff because the game is where you're going to evaluate a guy's ability to hit, but batting practice is important to watch because you can see a guy's work ethic, and you can see how hungry a guy is.

``If you find a kid who's hungry and he takes batting practice seriously and takes a good infield, that guy will spark your interest a little more than the guy who just goes through the motions.''

Sitting in the stands with his radar gun and stop watch, Lundin often is asked the same questions over and over.

``It never fails. Every night we have people coming up to us asking us 'What are you doing? What are those guns? What do you do with those things? What is that watch?'

``Then they go, 'Why do you do that? Do you get paid?' ''

Fans often ask him which team he works for, and when he says he is employed by the Phillies, they respond by saying, 'Well then why are you here? These aren't the Phillies.' ''

Like most scouts, Lundin will have an occasional beer spilled on him by an overly exuberant fan. Recently, a woman sitting next to him mistakenly used his bag for her garbage.

``I didn't realize it until five or six innings into the game, but my bag was full of peanut shells, candy wrappers, ketchup things you use for hot dogs,'' Lundin said. ``It happens.''

Lundin said scouts today use a radar gun called the Stalker, a compact unit which has a handle that also serves as a rechargeable battery.

When he started scouting, he said the most commonly used radar gun was the Jugs gun, a more bulky unit which plugged into a separate briefcase.

Although Lundin said the Stalker is more convenient, the Juggs gun was a more accurate machine, noting that the newer more convenient model often malfunctions in situations where other scouts have similar radar units nearby. He said his Stalker gun was picking up cars on the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway while he was scouting at Lancaster Municipal Stadium.

Lundin said despite the competitive nature of their business, that there is camaraderie between himself and other scouts.

``It's very much a of fraternity, except when it comes to the information part. Everybody is very close to the vest with their information.''

But there are exceptions.

``A guy's gun might run out of juice, and he'll be like `hey can you pick me up?' ''

And, more often than not, one scout will assist another.

So who scouts the scouts?

In the Phillies organization, that is the responsibility of Mike Arbuckle, the team's scouting director.

Lundin said Arbuckle told him he can come into town and after traveling with a scout for just two days he'll know if a scout is working hard and has a handle on his area.

A big reflection of their work is the June draft, which can make or break a scout's career.

``If all of a sudden there are three or four guys in your area drafted in the first three or four rounds that you didn't have on your draft list, then that's a problem,'' Lundin said. ``That probably means you didn't see those guys and you didn't work very hard.''

One of the most difficult aspects of signing players is determining their ``signability,'' Lundin said.

Lundin was instrumental in the Phillies selecting former UCLA star Chase Utley in the first round of the June draft, but he admitted that when negations with him after the draft stalled, it became a distraction in terms of looking at other players.

Utley, a left-handed-hitting second baseman, came to terms with the Phillies on Thursday.

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Photo:

Termel Sledge of the JetHawks, a top major-league prospect, takes a lead off first base.

David Crane/Staff Photographer