  in professional sports, scouts are experienced talent evaluators who travel extensively for the purposes of watching athletes play their chosen sports and determining whether their set of skills and talents represent what is needed by the scout's organization. some scouts are interested primarily in the selection of prospects, younger players who may require further development by the acquiring team but who are judged to be worthy of that effort and expense for the potential future payoff that it could bring, while others concentrate on players who are already polished professionals whose rights may be available soon, either through free agency or trading, and who are seen as filling a team's specific need at a certain position. advance scouts watch the teams that their teams are going to play in order to help determine strategy. many scouts are former coaches or retired players, while others have made a career just of being scouts. skilled scouts who help to determine which players will fit in well with an organization can be the major difference between success and failure for the team with regard to wins and losses, which often relates directly to the organization's financial success or lack thereof as well. ==kinds of scouts== scouts tend to have to perform one of two tasks, either scouting opposition teams to research the opposition's players and tactics, or scouting individual players to identify their level of skill and to keep track of potential new signings. contemporary major league baseball teams tend to classify scouts and their differing responsibilities as follows: *advance scouts follow other mlb clubs their team is scheduled to play and file reports on trends and tendencies that influence pitching, defensive, offensive and game strategy. *major league scouts and professional scouts (the most senior of whom are sometimes called "special assignment scouts" or "special assistants to the general manager") typically track active players under contract to other teams for potential acquisition. they also may support advance scouts. per their designation, the former follow players in mlb, while "pro scouts" work minor league and independent league baseball. *amateur scouts evaluate high school and college baseball players and prepare their mlb teams for the [[major league baseba
Sports_occupations_and_roles