If you’re a high school or collegiate baseball player with the skills and determination to go pro, John Gonsalves might want to talk with you.

Gonsalves is a part-time amateur scout with the Seattle Mariners and you might like what he has to say.

Of course, he has to like what he has to see.

“You have to pass the eye test,” said Gonsalves, a Carver resident in his fourth year working for the Mariners. “If you see someone who looks like an athlete, you just watch him play. You look for the five-tool type of player, of whom there are very few. (A five-tool player can hit, hit with power, has speed, can field and can throw – all at a high level).

“So you look at all their attributes and you grade them. You might see a kid who can hit mammoth home runs but strikes out half the time. But that power potential is something that pro teams are always looking for.

“For example, a kid might be an average runner, an average fielder with an average arm, but he has what they call plus power. That’s what (teams) are attracted to. If somebody has one great skill, like in pitching, if you have a 17-year-old kid who’s throwing 90, 92 miles an hour but has trouble finding the strike zone, he has a plus arm. So he’s someone you keep your eye on.

“You’re always looking for that one, or more, great skill. If you find one with all five, well, everybody else has found him, too.”

Then it’s up to which team gets the opportunity to select him when the amateur draft rolls around in June.

“With pitchers,” Gonsalves said, “you have to break down their delivery, find flaws in their delivery, watch their shoulder position, try to project whether they’ll be starters or relievers. That comes after watching kids throw quite a bit. The skill guys (veteran scouts) can do that.”

An Easton native who has lived in Carver for the last 11 years, Gonsalves, 54, is an amateur scout  who tracks high school kids, college players and other free agents who haven’t been signed yet.           

“A pro scout,” he said, “will go to minor league games and scout prospects within their own organization to see how they’re progressing and/or scout prospects in other organizations for possible trades.”

Pro scouts also scout other major league teams for various reasons. The scout’s parent team could be coming up soon on another MLB team’s schedule and a pre-series scouting report is due. Those “possible trades” might also figure in the scouting equation, as does another aspect of a scout’s learning process.

A face at Fenway

“The only pro scouting I do is at Fenway Park during September,” Gonsalves said. “Part of my training to be a scout is go to a bunch of pro games and actually scout the Red Sox. So I’m sitting there a couple of years ago, thinking, ‘What am I doing here? Here I am, a guy who lives in Carver, and I’m scouting Dustin Pedroia.’ The reason I was given is you can’t really scout a pro player unless you know what a pro player is.

“So I go to the Red Sox games early, watch batting practice, and watch how they proach the game. Then when I see college kids or high school kids, you try to see some of the same things. The Ce Cod League season (which Gonsalves also covers) is done by then, the draft was in June, college is certainly over, so it’s kind of a training ground to keep us on our toes.

“I do it every year. The fun part about it for me is you get to meet some of the older guys who have been around baseball for a long time and get to talk to them. You learn quite a bit.”

Gonsalves’ scouting area is the northeast, which embraces all six New England states and New York. Recently he was in warm, sunny Fort Myers, Fla., where he scouted some high school players as part of a working vacation.

“While I’m there, I give the scouting department a different look,” Gonsalves said in a phone interview. “Other scouts and I are there and everyone turns in a report on everybody they see.”

Gonsalves was not in Florida during spring training. He spent time watching New England college teams getting ready for the season.

“We try to cover every college,” he said. “We talk to the coach, find out who he believes his prospects are or draft-eligible players. College players are not draft-eligible until after their junior year (or if they’re 21 at least 45 days before the draft). So for three years we watch them, especially as a junior because they could be part of that year’s draft.

“Most college freshman we’ve seen as high school players and we just watch them progress. I keep files on them, file reports and go from there.”

Gonsalves said it is customary for big league organizations to pay for a draftee’s final collegiate year should he return to complete his degree.

Junior college players are draft-eligible at any time.

Gonsalves emphasized that scouts “just recommend the players. We don’t select them (in the draft).” That’s up to a team’s general manager and its scouting supervisor after all the players have been checked and cross-checked and final reports have been filed.

The highest draft pick of Seattle based partly on the recommendation of Gonsalves is power-hitting first baseman Mickey Wiswall of Stoneham and Boston College. He was drafted in the seventh round after his junior year in 2010 and is now with the High Desert Mavericks of the Class A Advanced California League.

Gonsalves grew up in Easton and attended Oliver Ames High School (Class of 1976). He was an infielder at OA and at UMass-Dartmouth (an ’81 grad), later played some semi-pro baseball, then started a family. He now has six kids and seven grandchildren.

His full-time job is that of a purchasing agent for a Middleboro firm that manufactures equipment for the packaging industry, but he finds time to serve as assistant boys varsity basketball coach at Oliver Ames in the winter and coach a Central Mass. AAU baseball team during the summer.

His high school connections helped Gonsalves land his scouting position. He was an assistant to Coyle-Cassidy baseball coach Brian Nichols, who eventually left that job for one in scouting. Now the east coast area scouting supervisor for the Mariners, Nichols asked Gonsalves to come aboard.

“Baseball is a good old boy network. It’s who you know,” Gonsalves said. “I’m sure there are a lot more qualified baseball people than I, but I just hpened to know the right guy.”

It’s not about the money

Money is not what anchors Gonsalves to scouting.

“It’s not a very lucrative job,” he said. “You don’t get paid a lot of money. I do it not so much for the money but for the love of the game. You get to see a lot of good players play and meet a lot of good coaches. That’s where I get most of my joy from. That’s very rewarding.”

Also rewarding is helping kids get into college, even if it means that a high school player he’s scouting, and recommends for drafting by the Mariners, will delay his signing a contract.

“Being a part-time scout,” Gonsalves said, “I talk to a lot of kids. It means as much to me if I can use my references that help a kid get a scholarship somewhere as it does getting a kid drafted in the 30^th or 40^th round and he might never make the big leagues. But a reference to a kid getting into a good school, that’s very rewarding. As I tell the kids, school really comes first. Get your education.

“If you’re looking at a kid in high school and you’re thinking about drafting him, chances are a lot of the top prospects have college offers at a Division 1 school. He’s pretty much set unless you draft him very high and unless you obviously give him a large signing bonus.”

Signing bonuses range widely, descending significantly from Round 1 of the Major League Baseball draft through the 50^{th    and final} round. The average first-round pick in 2010 got $2,220,966, 10^th-rounders were paid an average of $137,143, and those between rounds 41 and 50 received an average of $14,304.

Seattle’s first-round draft choice (second overall) in 2011, left-handed pitcher Danny Hultzen from the University of Virginia, signed a five-year contract worth $8.5 million. The deal for the 6-3, 200-pound Maryland native included a $6.35 million signing bonus and escalators that could push the total value to $10.6 million.

Hultzen, 22, is currently pitching for the Double-A Jackson (Tenn.) Generals of the Southern League.

“I spend a lot of time with high school and college kids. My biggest advice to kids – aside from the educational aspects – even if they’re not pro prospects but still good ballplayers, is that somebody’s always watching, somebody’s always observing how you play, how you act – sportsmanship. You never know who’s watching, so always hustle, never show a bad attitude because that is all part of the process.”       

Attitude is a big part of the process.

“One of the key questions is ‘What type of kid is he?’ Is he coachable? What’s his attitude? What’s he do when he fails? Baseball’s a tough game and you fail a lot of the time, so what does he do when he fails?

“If I see a kid who’s been great, and I call in someone else to watch him and that person sees him once and at his worst (attitude-wise), that’s it. They don’t want to see him anymore. That can be as damaging as it could be. Like anybody else you’d recommend in any job, that’s a bad recommendation for you. And that’s really what you want to avoid, obviously.”

Making a house call

Another way to judge a prospective draftee is to make a home visit, dig right in and poke around up close and personal. It’s akin to college basketball coaches on a recruiting trip.

Said Gonsalves, “That’s a great way to find out more about the kid, find out about his family, find out where he’s going to go to school, find out if he’s interested in the draft. Basically, try to find out his draftability.

“You might have a kid who’s going to Brown University, his father’s a surgeon, and he might be a great pitcher and you ask him. ‘Are you interested in playing pro baseball?’ And he says, ‘Well, maybe after I graduate from Brown. I want to be a surgeon like my dad.’ That’s part of those discussions.

“The other part of it could be the kid doesn’t really want to go to college and wants to start (pro ball) right away. Those kids will say, ‘Please sign me. I’ll play for anything. Just give me a chance.’ ”

Projectability and comparisons are two key words in a scout’s vocabulary.

“You try to project what 16- and 17-year-old kids you’re looking at will be like at 21 or 22,” Gonsalves said. “That’s the skill part of it, to take a kid and break him down and say ‘in five years this kid is going to do this, or he’ll be doing that.’ That comes from experience.

“When it comes to comparisons, when you file a report, you might say, ‘This kid hits like Pedroia’ or ‘this guy pitches like Jon Lester.’ ”

Talent like that would make any scout one hpy fella.

NEW YORK – Felix Hernandez was in another of those low-scoring, tie games when the Seattle Mariners scored for him in the sixth inning Friday.

He never recovered.

Moments after Jesus Montero’s solo home run against his former teammates put Seattle ahead, the New York Yankees rode a two-out, three-run home run by former Mariner Raul Ibañez to a two-run lead that became a 6-2 victory.

It wasn’t as if Hernandez was dominant one moment, lost the next – this one was a battle for him for most of his 62/3 innings. When he got to the sixth inning tied, it was as much a matter of will as control.

Though Hernandez may be one of those pitchers who can get away with subpar games like this – he allowed 11 hits in less than seven innings – he cannot do it without runs.

For five innings against New York and Hiroki Kuroda, the Mariners gave Hernandez one run, that coming on the first leadoff home run of Dustin Ackley’s career.

One batter. One swing. One run.

Six innings later, it was still all the Mariners had, and they would have trailed by then had left fielder Mike Carp not thrown out Alex Rodriguez at plate in the fourth inning.

“It was the first time I’ve really cut loose a throw since I got hurt in Jan,” Carp said. “I came up with the ball, tried to stay on top of it and made a pretty good throw.

“If nothing else, that’ll help my mindset from now on.”

That play was as much a matter of third base coach Rob Thomson’s poor decision as Carp’s arm. Had Thomson held up A-Rod, the Yankees would have had the bases loaded with no one out.

Instead, the game remained tied and a big inning was gutted.

So when Montero silenced Yankees fans with his fifth home run of the season, the Mariners had a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning.

Felix couldn’t hold it.

“I gave up a lot of singles but controlled it until that one pitch to Raul,” Hernandez said. “I started him each at-bat with a sinker but that pitch didn’t sink. That’s the one pitch tonight I want back.”

Hernandez uncharacteristically walked the first man he faced in the sixth, Rodriguez, and gave up one of Robinson Cano’s four hits to put two men on with no one out.

He rallied for a force out, then a strikeout – his seventh – to bring up Ibañez.

The man who came up through the Seattle organization is universally well-liked by those he has played with – the Mariners, Royals, Phillies and Yankees – and against.

After hitting his sixth home run into the right-field stands, Ibañez is still one of Hernandez’s favorite ex-teammates. He just didn’t like him quite as much for a few moments.

“One pitch, game over,” Hernandez said.

After six innings, it seemed that way. After nine, it was hard to argue, even though New York had tacked on two more against the Mariners’ bullpen.

“Maybe he wasn’t quite as sharp as we’ve seen Felix, but you have to remember, he was within a pitch in the sixth inning of taking a 2-1 lead into the seventh,” manager Eric Wedge said.

What beat the Mariners, Wedge said, were two innings filled with opportunity, none of them realized.

“One inning (the second), we had runners at first and second base, no one out; the other (the fifth), we had the bases loaded with one out, and we didn’t score either time,” Wedge said. “You get a run in each of those, different game.”

The Yankees wouldn’t argue.

In the second inning, the Mariners used a Kyle Seager single and walk to John Jaso to create a threat, but Kuroda retired Justin Smoak, Carp and Michael Saunders without allowing the runners to advance.

“I felt better tonight,” said Smoak, who had three hits. “But that first at-bat, I had a fastball over the plate, and I’ve got to do more with that.”

Again in the fifth, the Mariners rallied – singles by Smoak and Saunders, a walk to Ackley – this time with one out. Kuroda struck out Brendan Ryan, then got No. 3 hitter Ichiro Suzuki to ground into a force play at third base.

As a result, Hernandez had no margin to work with. After the sixth, he trailed 4-2, then was knocked flat on the mound by a Derek Jeter single up the middle.

“That was close,” Hernandez said, shaking his head. “I stayed down a minute on that one.”

It was Seattle’s seventh road loss in a row, and the trip gets no easier: two more against New York, then two in Boston, a pair in Cleveland and three in Colorado.

larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners Twitter: @LarryLarue

I think Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge made the right move by benching Chone Figgins. The decision came Friday (May 4), likely after Wedge finally realized that Figgins is in a slump that he won’t emerge from as a member of the Mariners.

If anyone needed that he had made the right call, it came over the weekend when the Mariners won two of three games from the Minnesota Twins.

In games on Saturday (May 5) and Sunday (May 6), Dustin Ackley did pretty well as the new permanent leadoff hitter. He went a combined 2-for-5 with 4 runs scored and 4 walks. It was no coincidence that the Mariners won both games, helping break an ugly losing streak that had dropped the team into third place in the American League West.

Those fans that had called for a Figgins removal finally got their wish granted and now there is no looking back. After hitting just .188 in the 2011 season, Figgins was given every opportunity to prove that he could still give value to the Mariners batting order. I liked it when Wedge moved Ichiro Suzuki to third in the lineup, clearing a spot for Figgins to work as the leadoff hitter. In 25 games, though, he hit just .189 with 28 strikeouts and showed that it was time to move in a different direction.

Wedge also made the controversial decision to bat shortstop Brendan Ryan second in the order, despite his own early struggles. This is another player that needs to get things turned around, but the reality is that he may just keep that spot warm for Franklin Gutierrez. With the way that the current Mariners roster looks, I think that Gutierrez seems like the perfect hitter to tuck between Ackley and Ichiro when he finally gets healthy.

I don’t have a prediction for what Wedge is going to do when Gutierrez gets recalled from his rehab stint in Tacoma, but it definitely means that an everyday player will have to get optioned or designated for assignment. It certainly seems like the obvious candidate is Mr. Figgins at this time, especially since the team has exhausted every idea of finding use for him.

More From YCN:

Miguel Olivo Heads to DL

May 2012 Mariners Schedule

Mariners At Spring Training

Casper Wells Ready to Rock

Mariners Payroll Breakdown

References:

Mariners_Pitching_Stats

Mariners_Hitting_Stats

Best_Mariners_Of_All_Time

Seattle_Mariners_Team_Page

*Ryan is a lifelong Seattle Mariners fan who never misses an opportunity to attend a game at Safeco Field. He has been attending games since 1985, and has fond memories of The Kingdome, Edgar Martinez, and the historic 1995 team. Sodo Mojo!

ARLINGTON, Texas – Eight games into 2012, the Seattle Mariners open at home tonight with a 4-4 record, and enough questions to fuel a quiz show.

After being held in check by left-hander Derek Holland on Thursday, and losing their third in four games at the Texas Rangers, this time 5-3, the Mariners flew home with general manager Jack Zduriencik and manager Eric Wedge huddled up front in the plane.

It might be too early to worry about who’s hitting and who’s not, although it’s clear Miguel Olivo (.143), Brendan Ryan (.200) and Jesus Montero (two RBI) have not started hot.

Of course, not everyone has a torrid first week of a re-opened season.

And having seen everyone in the rotation now, there may be a slight concern regarding tonight’s starter – Felix Hernandez and his slightly slower fastball – and perhs Hector Noesi.

But one or two starts hardly foreshadows a 162-game season.

What likely concerns the Mariners as much as anything is their bullpen, which so far is divided into three categories.

The good: Brandon League, Tom Wilhelmsen, Lucas Luetge, probably even Erasmo Ramirez, who had a tough inning Thursday.

The bad: George Sherrill, Steve Delabar.

The One-Who-Shan’t-Be-Mentioned: Hisashi Iwakuma.

Sherrill has been ineffective in two pearances, Delabar has allowed four home runs in less than five innings and Iwakuma has yet to pear in a major league game – a sign that, at this point, Wedge doesn’t trust him in a game that’s close.

Is it too soon to begin thinking about Chance Ruffin or Shawn Kelley, a pair of hard-throwing right-handers currently pitching for Tacoma? Be assured it is not, though whether thinking becomes action is a different question.

This much is certain: The Mariners can’t operate with a four-man bullpen, and they’re a little gun shy about three of their relievers.

Rosters are built to be tweaked, and this one may be tweaked soon.

There doesn’t pear to be any power hitters yet ready to join Seattle – a team that, after Kyle Seager’s solo home run Thursday, owns four homers in eight games.

“We’d like to have him bat three times in the lineup,” Brendan Ryan said of Seager.

The offense, for now, is a work in progress.

Jason Vargas held the Rangers to one run through four innings, which meant at the end of four he trailed only 1-0. When he gave up a two-run home run to Michael Young in the fifth to make it 3-0, Seattle needed another one of those miracle finishes.

They tried.

Alex Liddi singled home Ryan in the sixth inning and Seager’s upper-deck bomb in the seventh cut the deficit to 3-2.

Vargas gave up a leadoff double in the bottom half of the inning, and Wedge went to rookie Ramirez, making his second big-league pearance.

Ian Kinsler doubled a run home, then scored on a Young single and before Ramirez got out of the inning, it was 5-2.

Could the Mariners repeat the magic of Wednesday? Not less than 24 hours later, they pushed home a run in the ninth inning, and they got the potential tying run to the plate against reliever Mike Adams.

Then pinch-hitter Michael Saunders grounded out, and that was that.

Among the things to consider going into tonight’s game is that, playing perhs the worst team in the division (Oakland) and the best (Texas), the Mariners went 4-4 on the road.

Nothing to be embarrassed about.

“We were in close games the last three here, and we just didn’t win two of those three,” Seager said. “They pitched us well. We pitched them well. They could have gone either way.”

Now, for the first time in months, the Mariners will be in Seattle, sleeping in familiar beds, playing in their own park in front of their own fans.

“We’re going back where it’s cool,” Vargas said. “Between spring training and Jan and this part of the trip, it seems we’ve been on the road an awfully long time.

“We know what Texas can do, they know what we can do, I look forward to playing them again.”

Wedge said all four games here were winnable, and that if rookie Ramirez had come in with his “good command,” the Mariners might have split the series.

“Might have been a different game,” Wedge said.

“I wouldn’t say 4-4 was a bad trip, but we wanted more,” Seager said. “Let’s get back to Safeco Field and see what we can do at home.”

The Mariners face Oakland (three games), Cleveland (three) and the Chicago White Sox (three) in their first homestand. The best thing about that? None of those teams is Texas.

larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners Twitter: @LarryLaRue

TODAY

Oakland (Bartolo Colon: 1-1, 5.84 ERA) at Seattle (Felix Hernandez: 1-0, 4.40), 7:10 p.m., Root Sports, 710-AM

PEORIA, Ariz. () Hector Noesi remains on track for a slot in the Seattle Mariners‘ starting rotation.

Noesi allowed two runs over four innings before rain canceled Seattle’s game against a Colorado Rockies‘ split squad Sunday with the Mariners ahead 3-2 in the top of the fifth.

”I think I’m doing good this spring,” said Noesi, acquired from the Yankees along with catcher Jesus Montero in the trade that sent pitcher Michael Pineda to New York. ”I learn about everything every time I go out there. Just my mechanics were a little open.”

In his third spring-training start, Noesi threw two wild pitches, walked two and allowed four hits. Colorado had runners at the corners with no outs when rain and hail caused a 34-minute delay, then cancellation.

Rockies right-hander Tyler Chatwood allowed three runs, seven hits and three walks with three strikeouts in 3 2-3 innings. None of the spring training stats count because of the rainout.

”Toward the end I got a little gassed and got a little ahead of myself instead of just staying within myself and trusting my stuff,” said Chatwood, who is competing for the fifth spot in the Rockies’ starting rotation.

Kyle Seager tied the score at 2 with his third home run of spring training, a two-run drive in the fourth.

Chone Figgins had two hits for Seattle, the second a run-scoring single off Chatwood. Figgins made his third start of the spring at shortstop and has also played second base, third base and center field as the Mariners look for a position for a veteran who has struggled for much of his time in Seattle.

”He’s had a lot of hard outs this spring,” Mariners manager Eric Wedge said. ”He enjoys playing. I don’t think he’s really too concerned about where he’s playing, he just enjoys playing and it really helps us out, the fact that he is that versatile.”

Colorado’s Eric Young Jr. doubled and scored on Tim Wheeler’s sacrifice fly in the first inning and a pair of Noesi wild pitches allowed Jordan Pacheco to score after a walk.

NOTES: The Mariners were without SS Brendan Ryan (quadriceps) for a third straight game. Ryan could return to action at shortstop as soon as Monday, Wedge said. … The seven Mariners relievers who were scheduled to pitch Sunday but didn’t get in the game are to throw in a minor league game or a bullpen session Monday. … Montero was unavailable due to illness but is expected to be in the lineup at designated hitter Monday. … The Rockies were to have sent a split squad to Tucson to play the San Diego Padres on Sunday, but due to weather concerns that game was postponed to Thursday afternoon, also in Tucson.

PEORIA, Ariz. () Hishashi Iwakuma’s second spring training outing for the Seattle Mariners was an improvement yet was short of where he wants to be.

His pearance limited because of high pitch counts in an intrasquad game and in his first start last Monday, Iwakuma gave up two runs and four hits over four innings Saturday in a 5-5, nine-inning tie against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a split-squad game.

Iwakuma threw 52 pitches in an outing that included a walk, a hit batter and a wild pitch. He gave up a solo homer to Matt Treanor in the third and another run in the fourth.

“I feel it was much better than last time,” he said through a translator. “I tried to pitch the split-finger and the sinker, too. … I want to pitch many innings, and I planned to pitch a couple of innings this time, so I’m glad I did that.”

Dodgers starter Nathan Eovaldi, who also has relieved this spring training, allowed two hits in three scoreless innings completed in an efficient 26 pitches.

“As long as I’m out there,” said Eovaldi, who hopes to make the big-league roster. “I felt like I performed really well last year. I’d like to really limit my walks and attack the hitters and get quick outs.”

Kyle Seager, a 24-year-old hoping to make Seattle’s opening-day roster, hit a solo homer in the fifth.

“It’s a good sound off the bat,” Mariners manager Eric Wedge said of Seager. “He’s definitely stronger and he barrels up the ball very well for a young man, but he’s driving it more this spring.”

Seattle had a four-run sixth that included doubles for Chone Figgins and Ichiro Suzuki and an RBI single for Seager, who also scored twice. Ronald Belisario allowed four runs in the inning, three of them earned.

“When Belly gets the ball up, he’s going to get hit,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “He’s going to flatten out and he gets frustrated.”

Dodgers starting shortstop Justin Sellers, running from first base on a hit in the third inning, was struck in the chin by a bouncer into the hole between first and second. He was called out for interference and was shaken up, and he was replaced in the fourth. Sellers was light-headed and complained of a headache, Mattingly said, and was taken back to the Dodgers’ camp in Glendale for further evaluation.

“Our doctors are over there, they cleared him and sent him home,” Mattingly said. “No concussion. … I’ve got him in the lineup tomorrow, too, but that could change.”

NOTES: Dodgers OF Andre Ethier was scratched with his second occurrence of mid-back stiffness in a week. He felt discomfort during morning batting practice and had been scheduled for a day off Sunday, according to Mattingly. … The game was delayed momentarily when umpires made Belisario cover his forearm with a wristband. … The Mariners have changed regular-season game times on Sept. 5 and Oct. 3. because of the new playoff format. The Sept. 5 game against Boston was moved from 12:40 p.m. PDT to 7:10 p.m. and the Oct. 3 game against the Los Angeles Angels from 7:10 p.m. to 3:40 p.m. PDT. … Mariners ace Felix Hernandez is scheduled for his second spring training start Sunday against San Francisco in Scottsdale.