their teammates in the outfield. Major league scouts track the careers of 3,000 U.S. minor league players printout. Such traditional scouting reports as "He's got an arm that can throw a lamb- chop past a wolf" may no longer suffice.
But baseball romantics need not despair, writes Weissman. Discus- sions of America's favorite pastime have always been punctuated by statistics and probabilities-batting averages, earned run averages, strikeout percentages. Now fans will just have more numbers...