Sport Analytics student with multi-sport experience across data analysis, player development, and community.

I open the Trackman tagging app and type in the team name for the first game of the 17u National Team Championships, it says "17u NC Champs Canes National/ New York Mets Scout Team". One mom talks about how she's driven 15 hours south, another 10 hours north. I go down to the dugout to get the lineups and kids are introducing themselves to each other for the first time, while coaches don't know their players' names.

This is the antithesis of team sports.

The problem is clear to me: MLB teams are not investing in their own people, in their own backyards, and the current state of their scout teams are proof. These scout teams started as groups of players that MLB area scouts would get together and coach for a summer, allowing them to get a closer look at the players before they entered the draft. However, the connection between MLB teams and the scout teams seems to be getting further and further away, as nowadays, the "scout team" moniker is slapped onto any old travel team such as Canes, Wow Factor, or Team Elite. When this happens, the only thing that teams get out of it is the ability to wear the MLB team's branding for a weekend.

To me, these scout teams are for the most part, useless, and represent a massive missed opportunity to develop American baseball talent in MLB backyards. My proposition is simple: These scout teams should be converted into baseball's version of soccer's youth academies all around the world, focused on providing affordable, well coached, and well funded baseball to youth in their local communities.

To help explain what MLB should be striving for, simply look at the example of Lamine Yamal. Lamine walked into FC Barcelona's La Masia academy as a 7 year old from a working-class neighborhood. For the last 12 years he has been surrounded by the best facilities, coaching, and infrastructure a youth athlete could ask for, for little to no cost. This has turned him into a global superstar who is taking over the world at age 19 for the club he grew up idolizing.

When a 7 year old from a working class family in America wants to play baseball and get access to that level of facilities or coaching, he would likely have to pay exorbitant costs, travel around the country, and then transfer to a prep high school. After this, he will get drafted by a random MLB team he has probably talked to a handful of times. This is highly unattainable for most Americans and it makes the sport unattractive to those who can't afford it.

This is a shambolic structure. How can MLB fix this?

One potential answer lies in creating MLB youth academies — free or very low cost youth baseball teams affiliated with each MLB franchise, locally sourced, coached by org staff, and housed in team facilities. The vision: 30 academies, one per team, replacing the for-profit travel ball organizations that dominate elite youth baseball. Youth interest would skyrocket, the sport would become far more accessible, and the talent pipeline would be unlike anything American sports has ever seen.

This already works internationally. The Dominican Republic, with a population similar to North Carolina, fields a WBC team comparable to the US entirely because of MLB academies there. And domestically, Brice Matthews grew up in the Houston Astros Youth Academy for free, was drafted in the first round, and became the first academy product to reach the big leagues last year. There are currently eight official MLB youth academies. That leaves 24 teams that don't have one — 24 places that could be massively impacted.

The structural challenge is real: unlike FC Barcelona, which can sign the players it develops, MLB teams can't guarantee they'll draft their own academy talent. The best solution is heavy incentivization — an additional fee for drafting another team's academy product, similar to NPB posting fees, scaled to draft slot. Whatever the mechanism, teams must have a financial reason to invest in elite youth development.

Please stop giving your branding to random travel ball organizations.

You have the potential to create a youth development system unlike anything this country has ever seen.

Invest in your community, and it will invest in you.

Read on Substack →

For the first time in 20 years, Raleigh is once again a city of champions.

In a story that was fit for film, Rod Brind'Amour coached the same franchise he captained to the Cup in 2006 to their second in 2026. While the cup was being passed around on the ice in Vegas, WRAL's Pat Welter asked Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon a question I've had on my mind for years: "MLB to Raleigh. What are the odds?" Dundon responded by saying Raleigh is "in a great spot" and will have a "compelling offer" when MLB looks to expand.

The RDU area has roughly 2.4 million people — in the ballpark of Tampa Bay, Denver, and Pittsburgh, and above Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Milwaukee. The metro is growing at around 2.5% year-over-year and ranks second nationally in urban growth rate since 2020. Wake County's median household income is $101,763, well above the national average. Research Triangle Park contributes over $25 billion in economic impact annually across 400 companies — a corporate suite base that rivals any expansion market in the country.

Raleigh's median age is 34. Almost 40,000 people moved to the Triangle from 2024 to 2025 — young professionals with disposable income looking for a local identity. The Hurricanes sell out the Lenovo Center. The Durham Bulls consistently rank near the top of the International League in attendance. North Carolina produces more MLB players than any state without a franchise, currently 7th nationally with 35 active MLB players born in the state.

And then there's USA Baseball's National Training Complex in Cary — the largest and highest-level youth development organization in the nation. The partnership potential between a local MLB franchise and USA Baseball would be genuinely game-changing, and is a factor Nashville simply cannot offer.

Nashville is the national front-runner. I understand why. But Nashville's tourism-driven identity puts it at risk of becoming a transient market — the same problem that plagues Miami and Las Vegas. MLB needs loyal locally-supported markets, not flashy tourist centers. Eighty-one home games a season demands consistent attendance from residents, not visitors.

I close my eyes sometimes and I get transported to a summer night, the sun setting on a sold-out stadium. I see tailgates pregame. I see people who see each other every summer at these games and build a community around a team that represents them. I see kids playing youth baseball in the same jersey that their favorite players wear.

And then I wake up and realize it's time to get to work.

Read on Substack →