Detroit Tigers: A look at what cancelling summer ball does for MLB draft

With the MLB Draft already being tweaked, cancellation of collegiate summer leagues would mean the Detroit Tigers would have to make plenty of scouting adjustments.

While the Detroit Tigers do have the first overall selection in the 2020 First-Year Amateur Player Draft, they will have to deal with a bit of adversity when it comes to scouting. There have been some rumors about collegiate summer ball being cancelled due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

If collegiate summer ball leagues like the Northwoods League and the Cape Cod Baseball League cancel their seasons, scouting the draft talent becomes monumentally harder. Most college programs only played between fifteen and twenty-ish games this season before cancellations.

With teams only playing roughly a third of their seasons, it will be tough to scout players on their 2020 seasons and see any development.  Summer collegiate ball will give the teams a chance to see some of these draft prospects live, see the growth from prior seasons and the fall, and gauge talent better.

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Without summer ball being played, it is going to make things tough when it comes to scouting.

Looking specifically at the first round, it may be down to one of three to five players, but the later rounds may get tricky.

Scouts will have to use prior known reports, film, statistics, which means that drafting will be done off 2019 stats, small 2020 sample sizes, and reports from prior seasons.

The other thing that summer ball would offer is a chance for players who maybe struggled in 2019, but bounced back, an opportunity to showcase their talent.

Now, if summer ball gets canceled they no longer have that opportunity to showcase development and better stats.

Without the regular NCAA season, players who did play did not showcase their talents against in-conference opponents. The small sample sizes were mostly teams who were opening their season against non-conference opponents.

For the Tigers specifically, there are some clouded thoughts around who the Tigers will take with that first overall pick, whether its Austin Martin, Spencer Torkelson, or even Nick Gonzales. Their other selections

With the cancellation of the NCAA season, the shortening of the draft, and the possible cancellation of collegiate summer ball, it will be quite interesting to see what happens with the 2020 MLB draft.

The Tigers may have to get creative when it comes to making the best selections for the organization. They should be able to use all available resources to scout players looking at 2019, 2020, and any available statistics they can get their hands on.

The Detroit Tigers will continue their scouting with hopes to scout summer collegiate leagues, but if not, they will have to get creative as the 2020 MLB Draft approaches.