(Photo: Tom Tingle/The Republic)
Diamondbacks scout Mark Ross lowered himself onto the metal bleachers, pulled out a radar gun and pointed it toward the pitcher’s mound. He had driven some two hours to get here, a field on the outskirts of a junior college campus, mountains looming in the distance. He was tasked with making a determination on the pitcher’s future.
Ross will gaze at him and he will cycle through his mental Rolodex of deliveries and arm actions from a lifetime of working in baseball. He will try to forecast what the pitcher might look like against professional hitters later in the summer, what he might look like two years from now, five years from now.