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From Scouting to MLB: Hector Zepeda's Baseball Journey · Scene Projects Sports Network

• 0:03
  Yeah.
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  Ninja balloons and baseball tic tacs.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Head to the back, and I'm
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  stepping with a purpose.
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  Grip on the back, and you know I get to work.
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  V Shaq swing, got the whole field nervous.
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  Pitch coming fast, but I'm turning into search.
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  Crack of the bet, yeah, you heard that sound.
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  Send it to the fist.
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  Now they looking around.
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  Coach like, damn, how you hitting like that?
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  I just point down like V Shaq.
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  I mean, now I'll chase hits.
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  I create that contact.
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  Barrel it up.
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  Let me show you the man.
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  Launch like a perfect.
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  I'm sending it back.
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  Out of the park, yeah,
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  I'm stacking up stands on the cage to
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  the game.
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  I'll never fall off.
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  Every swing dialed in.
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  I don't never feel lost.
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  Hindsight low away.
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  It don't matter at all.
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  If it's
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  Welcome into the scene, Project Sports Network.
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  I am your host, Bubba Starts.
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  A very special edition of seven eight nine today, an interview with international baseball
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  scout Hector Zapatas.
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  Hector, welcome to the show.
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  I'm glad to to you to have me on your show.
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  Thank you.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, it's an honor.
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  And I know that, obviously, your name rings a lot of bells for guys, with your work with
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  Manny Ramirez.
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  We're not gonna talk too much about that today, but I I'm sure you'll address it in your, in a
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  little bit of your backstory, which just wanna establish a little bit of first, and then we'll
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  pick up the conversation from there and talk about all the things that you're doing now for
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  young baseball players around the world.
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  Yes.
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  I, been I'm going on twelve years scouting for baseball, you know, making dream happen for the
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  guys that are just finishing from playing college baseball that didn't get drafted or the
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  much higher level that's looking to the free agents that's looking to get to the much higher
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  level, like different world, like Mexico, Asia, you know, or in the winter, Puerto Rico and all
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  the Latin world that, you know, that's what I do for I've been doing for twelve years.
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  A grueling job, but a very exciting one as well.
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  I mean, I think a lot of guys out there listening to the show especially would love to
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  get paid to watch baseball all year round and to travel and and have the opportunity to do
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  this.
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  And it can be very rewarding, obviously, when a a young player that you've addressed or, you
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  know, a a veteran of the game and and and someone who's done it for a long time is able
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  to get to that next level.
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  And whether that next level is coming from amateur to whatever pro league it may be,
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  whether it's in, you know, Mexico or around Latin America or making it to the show, I'm
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  sure that can be absolutely thrilling, for yourself, but a a grind all the same.
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  Oh, yes.
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  It is.
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  It's a grind.
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  It's it's what a lot of them worked for since little.
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  But, till they get to this next level, that's when the grinding gets a little bit more
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  extreme.
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  And and, you know, that's when you really know, you know, how far you know, definitely, it
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  shows how far can you go into that next level.
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  It's a grind.
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  It's a I just taught I just coached, helping my friend coaching this past two weeks ago, and,
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  they won a championship.
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  And we tell them, you're just going through the baby step.
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  You know, you're twenty twenty seven.
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  You're gonna probably get drafted.
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  And the guy that's right here helping us, which is talking about me, got more to tell you once
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  y'all do get drafted.
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  And I give them the whole big, step what's gonna come to them in the near future.
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  And I tell them, this is nothing to be handed to you.
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  This is hard work.
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  When your parents wake up in the morning, they're going to work, and they're gonna give
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  it all they can for the company.
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  And this is the same thing with baseball.
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  And I think more so in baseball than some of the other sports that, you know, getting
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  drafted, the work actually becomes 10 times harder from that moment than working your way
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  through the professional lower ranks to finally make it to the major leagues.
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  Right?
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  So can you kind of explain for those that aren't necessarily aware, we just completed the
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  MLB draft just a few days ago.
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  And for a lot of these young men have, you know, now completed their amateur career.
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  Some of them will be going back to amateurs even after they get drafted, if I'm not
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  mistaken, similar to what you can do in the NHL.
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  But the they're kind of completing this arc of their career and now stepping into the
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  professional ranks, I would say, less than probably a tenth of a percent of guys go
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  straight from getting drafted to playing in the show within a calendar year.
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  Is that a fair assessment?
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  Yes.
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  It's a it is.
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  It depend how much they want it, how much grind that they're gonna they wanna put in to to make
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  it to the show as there's there's quite a few from last year that are moving up rapidly.
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  And know, we go to Manny Ramirez's son.
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  Lucas Ramirez is doing well.
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  He he did well in his rookie year.
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  He's just a sample of what how far you can get up there.
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  And now he's hit he's playing in class a, doing very well, even hitting over 300 and playing
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  for, good defense.
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  So that's what this guy that just got drafted this weekend need to know and need to be
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  expecting that, if you want it, you could really move up as fast as you can, but always
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  do it taking your time.
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  You know, taking your time, learning what needs to be fixed of your weakness and turn it into,
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  powerless to, to move up as far as you can in in professional baseball.
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  And the the grind, they're gonna once you get used to the grind and what you gotta do, it
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  comes easy for you each and every day, and they will move up as rapidly as they can.
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  Is it possible, the College World Series, obviously, just finishing a few weeks ago.
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  Is it possible as these players are drafted, these amateur guys that just finished their
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  season?
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  Now we know their summer league ball.
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  Shout out to the Northwoods League, which has, quite a few teams in the Upper Midwest close to
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  where I'm at, which is a summer showcase league for amateur players that have dreams of playing
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  professional ball.
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  But is it possible for some of these amateur guys as they get drafted now, are they with
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  these teams immediately and and, you know, training and playing single a ball to finish
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  off this year, or are they waiting, you know, almost, you know, nine months to really get on
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  the field and join in spring training?
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  I've I've never really given it much thought, honestly.
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  Yes.
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  They have till the twenty seventh of this month to get their contract settled and signed.
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  And once they do get signed, they go rapidly to the rookie, level season and join the other
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  guys in their the organization they're with and start developing their self into getting ready
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  for next year.
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  And that's great for them because they're going in the midst of their season, but they're gonna
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  be learning the system that they're gonna be compared for the off season.
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  So they could be ready when the when they have a full season of them to get ready for next
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  year, next season that's coming up.
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  So they're gonna get a little taste of it.
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  Well, and what a long season.
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  Just kinda thinking about that, you know, for for these guys guys that did play in the
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  college world series and and not that amateur baseball stops at any point.
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  There really is no off season anymore for any amateur athlete that's playing in the
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  collegiate ranks or or attempting to get there.
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  You're really focused on your sport all year round.
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  But to go straight from, you know, the the off season and a whole season grinding it out,
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  maybe playing in the college world series, maybe making it all the way and coming away
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  with a championship as the, you know, the the team the teams did this year.
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  And then you're drafted less than a month later and could be back in in on a single a team and
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  right from, like, the top of the amateur ranks all the way to the bottom of the professional
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  ranks again and and kinda working, and that work never stopping.
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  So that just makes for a really long year.
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  These guys gotta be exhausted by the time this season ends and they finally get a chance to
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  breathe in November.
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  It is.
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  It is.
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  I think, you know, all these years that I've been doing this, I never thought about that
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  part.
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  But I could imagine that especially the pitchers.
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  Especially the pitchers that go to the grind trying to win for, you know, every inning just
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  to doing good, just to get their team to that next level, like you said, in the world college
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  baseball, which it was a it was exciting championship game that I saw in it in years.
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  It was a grind.
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  It was a but, yes, it is it it will take a toll on them, but this organization in the MLP will
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  understand that part, especially for the pitchers, and they will pay with them in the
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  game.
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  And as they go get paid in this game, like, again, they will learn what they're gonna be
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  expecting for next year.
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  And especially through the conditioning, they will get learned from the trainers to bring it
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  in an off season.
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  And, yes, I I heard a lot about guys that play in a in a college playoff, and they say, well,
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  we need a break.
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  But once you get drafted, there's no breaking.
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  There's no, you just gotta go to work.
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  Now it's time to go to work.
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  You've done your job.
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  You made it there.
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  Now go in and do your job and make it happen.
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  Yeah.
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  It's it's a crazy, a crazy world in professional sports and and maybe the craziest
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  with the MLB.
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  You know, obviously, the NFL draft is in the offseason, and then they, you know, players get
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  drafted and and you're able to you know, you have rookie mini camp and then the the
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  mandatory, and then, you know, you kinda work up.
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  You know?
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  You're in your off season and you're working up to it.
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  These guys have just finished a season and are right, you know, kinda thrown into the thick of
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  it with these MLB teams.
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  And it's probably a a good reason why you don't see a lot of kids get drafted at at, you know,
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  20, 21 years old, and then playing in the MLB later that fall.
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  That just doesn't happen.
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  And there's a lot more to it.
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  You there's a lot more to learn, I feel like, to the Major League Baseball game, and that's
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  why it usually takes, you know, several seasons even for the top talent to reach the show.
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  They're they're working their way through single and double a, eventually to the triple a
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  ranks, and then maybe getting a call up in September.
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  But often that process for the top prospects are are is a three to four year process to
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  finally make that jump.
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  Yes.
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  It it does takes quite a while.
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  I I had six under my belt that made it to the major leagues, and, one of them is Francisco
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  from the from the Mets, the catcher, who were, he come from Venezuela, and there was another
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  guy that was catching in the same country that the Dodgers had drafted named Diego.
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  And it's crazy that that, the Halley were making the guy, Diego, the prospect.
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  And I told the guy, this guy's gonna make it to the major leagues faster than this one did.
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  And exactly what happened.
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  He's in his, what, third year already with the Mets.
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  You know, I know he had been having some some injury here and there.
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  Even I have another one named, Jason Dominguez from, the New York Yankees.
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  Another one that I talked to on the side.
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  I just got it.
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  And he's doing he's having his injury as well too, but he's gonna have a a good established
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  season one day, one year.
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  And, I can't wait to see that going for him because, they're highly like, Yankee highly
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  look at him very much to be that next guy.
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  How hard is it to to scout these players, especially internationally?
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  So when you're watching the, you know, a college world series, right, and you're in
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  Omaha and watching that ball, it's very easy to assess these guys because you're seeing top
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  talent against top talent.
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  Right?
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  These are highly recruited players playing division one, NCAA.
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  All of them are highly touted for most probably some of them since they were in, you know,
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  middle school, high school, you know, early high school Yeah.
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  To reach those ranks.
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  But internationally, it's not always like that.
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  You're having to identify a a a not necessarily diamond in the rough, a diamond in the middle
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  of the mine.
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  Right?
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  And and identifying talent and skill when maybe they're not playing against the the top talent
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  around them.
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  How much different is it identifying talent internationally as opposed to, you know, inside
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  of the leagues?
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  And, yeah, I know the Mexican leagues have a ton of great talent around them as well.
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  But just the differences between kind of scouting domestically here in The US and
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  internationally.
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  Yeah.
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  They it's it's very difficult.
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  Like you said, they don't play with these high quality guys in university, and and they get
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  drafted young.
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  They get drafted at age 16 on up.
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  And those are the one that you you really had to, really had to scout them to make sure that
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  the great level that the that the organization you work for I wanted to know is he gonna be
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  that next star.
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  We know that he's only 16 years old, got a lot to build up on him, and it is most it's much
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  difficult than it is here in The US to scout these guys to make sure that you know they're
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  gonna be the superstar.
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  And but the good thing about them, the program that they're in, they have them there twenty
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  four seven every single day training them, getting them better, fixing them what they need
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  to be fixed and the weakness at the young age.
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  These you're talking about 12 to 14, and then here comes 15, 16.
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  That's when they they start getting much better, and you can see the difference.
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  You can see the difference between that.
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  And you know that it'll come up to be that soup that next superstar in the MLP.
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  It's just how much you how much the grind that you're gonna want to do it to make it up there
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  is go back to The US grinding as well.
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  But a lot of them will come they come hungry.
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  It's crazy because I have a guy that's with the New York Mets went through the same stage.
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  He got drafted by Los Angeles Angel, Jeffrey Yang.
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  He's he's pretty known in the spring training of jumping up in the air when you strike out
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  somebody, a lefty.
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  And he's, he started he got drafted at 16, gave came to The US, made Arizona his home, got
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  released, and he didn't do nothing much.
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  So I moved to Arizona, and I heard about this guy.
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  I scouted him, tried to get him with with us in Mexico.
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  Unfortunately, he got a better opportunity with the who was it?
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  Oh, Miami Marlin.
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  He had a second chance.
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  You know?
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  It's that believing that you give it on to the young guys.
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  And he believed in kick grinding.
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  Now he's getting a step closer to Major League Baseball.
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  And, this stuff like that, you, wanna make sure that or give them hope to make it to that
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  level.
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  And these kids, that's what they got in the in their country.
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  Well and speaking of hope and and opportunities, I know that you're doing a lot
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  of work with the Orlando Zepeda Foundation, which is, exists to fund scholarships for less
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  fortunate athletes to be able to help them to attend travel ball and join teams to give them
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  that opportunity.
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  Can you speak a little bit more about the foundation?
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  Yes.
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  The Orlando Sopero Foundation, when Orlando, me and his son and and and a couple of guys in the
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  family, he he his dream is to, continue the legacy of what he had to go through as well,
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  like Jackie Robinson, Roberto Olomar, John Gibson, all these guys, what they had to go
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  through to get to where we at, to put us where we at to make it to the major league.
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  And that's his his, his dream is to help the young, unprivileged kids that don't have that
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  opportunity, don't have the fun, the parents that go to to struggle to try to keep their
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  kids in baseball.
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  And our our job is to continue the Orlando Sopeda dream and make that happen for them, to
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  help them with scholarship, with possibility to get drafted, but to build future for them.
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  And if baseball doesn't work out, at least we will build future for them and know that they
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  could continue that baton to somebody else and probably have their own academy and do the same
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  thing.
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  And but, yeah, that's what we we, are working on right now.
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  We already have the foundation the traveling team in California, Boston, and now working in
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  here in Houston, Texas, as well as, in Puerto Rico, which we do have, we're gaining a
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  facility there as well as a baseball field in in San Juan in Puerto Rico.
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  And, yeah, I'm very happy.
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  It's a process, though.
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  It's a process to make it happen and to build confidence for the family and get sponsorship.
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  That's the key is getting sponsorship so the parents don't have to pay the the traveling you
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  know, the fees for the for the tournaments, uniforms, stuff like that.
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  That's that's why we build Orlando So Better foundation to make that happen for them and to
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  make dream go for them.
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  So that way they can know that there's the parent can know that hope is still alive for
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  their kids so they won't have to learn nothing in the in the street or anything, you know,
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  darkness, the dark side of the street or the life and bring them into the light to help the
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  parent with that part for the for those kids.
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  Yes.
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  And absolutely love that you're you're keeping this hope and these dreams alive.
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  We hate to see any dream crushed for the lack of funding, when there's just so much money in
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  the world.
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  You see the huge contracts that are being signed by these players every day.
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  There's obviously enough money going around to make this next generation of ball players to
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  make all of their dreams possible, and then it really just comes down to the work.
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  So really appreciate the work that you are doing with the foundation.
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  The website is orlandozepeda.com.
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  That's cepeda.com.
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  You can find out more about the foundation there, find out how you can support them as
• 20:47
  well.
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  We hope to get, plenty of sponsorships in there and support these young men's dreams and really
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  to help and support these families.
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  No parent wants to, you know, not give that opportunity to their child.
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  And, you know, unfortunately, some of these kids and especially the international kids, you
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  you're never going to make enough money to be able to do that if you're trying to convert
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  pesos to dollars.
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  Right?
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  It's hard enough to live everywhere right now.
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  That's not to say that it's any better for someone in the inner city as it is for someone
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  you know, I lived for a year in Mex in Mexico, Hector.
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  I don't know if I had had spoken to you about that in our discovery call, but I I know full
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  well that how hard it can be to live and to earn money in some of these areas, but that
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  that shouldn't matter when it comes down to allowing these kids that this dream has been
• 21:43
  given to them.
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  Right?
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  You know, God has made this possible and has put this fire inside of these these young men
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  to pursue this dream.
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  And it really comes down to how much grit and determination they have to see that through,
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  and and we want to help in any way that we can here at the Scene Project Sports Network to
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  promote these causes like this that are supporting these players.
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  And, hopefully, in the future, being able to support the players themselves maybe with some
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  coverage of themselves or these tournaments or whatever we can do.
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  Right?
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  ESPN can't be everywhere.
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  So that's why I started this network and really to support the amateur ranks and and these
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  young men before they become big stars and the young women as well in in the softball ranks.
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  So, Hector, really appreciate you taking some time for me today.
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  I hope that we can call upon you again in the future maybe as an analyst for us when we have
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  deep deep dives that we wanna take down the scouting route.
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  But really just wanted to have you on for a few minutes today, talk about your history and the
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  foundation a little bit.
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  Anything else that you wanna plug before I let you go?
• 22:56
  Yes.
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  I just want a correction of the it's our it's www.orlandozapetafoundation.com.
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  It it will be it'll it'll pop up when you look up the the hall of famer, x m o b, Orlando
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  Zapeta, and they'll come up to it.
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  But, yes, I'll be glad to come back on the show and talk more, especially about everybody
• 23:20
  always, like to have me for the the conversation about Manny Ramirez as well.
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  But, yes, I would like to come back on the show and talk more about about the scouting and what
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  we look for and what could what they could work on in the near future.
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  I think that would be really fun to talk about some actionable tips for young ball players
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  and, some things that we can do, some drills that they can be doing.
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  And, hope to meet in person one day, and we can roll a camera, and you can show us a few of
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  these things in person maybe and to get some great content around that.
• 23:56
  Hector, we got the website fixed now, orlandozapatafoundation.com.
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  Really hope that everybody gets on there and at least checks the foundation out, makes a
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  donation or or a sponsorship if you can.
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  If you love baseball and you wanna see young baseball players' dreams come true appreciate
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  you coming on the show today, and thank you for being part of the scene.
• 24:23
  Thank you for having me on the show again, and, we're looking forward for the next time.
• 24:28
  Thank you.
• 24:31
  So the Beast Tech is an incredible tool no matter matter what age kid that you have, but
• 24:36
  just to be able to work and making sure that their hands are getting to the right position
• 24:40
  as they hit the ball.
• 24:41
  It is something you don't have to go chase balls any of those things, but this beast tack
• 24:45
  is incredible because when you get that twelve six rotation, it's real easy to tell that
• 24:50
  you're putting a good swing on that.
• 24:52
  And my kids is after I teach them what they're looking for and they can work on it on their
• 24:56
  own if they want to.
• 24:57
  So a great training tool for a team, great training tool for individuals.
• 25:01
  So I highly highly recommend you purchasing a Beast Tack so that your player can be the best
• 25:08
  that they can be on the baseball field.