Baseball talent from Southeast Missouri is on Braves' radar

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say Doug Still was the SEMO Conference Player of the Year as a senior.

Sitting behind a small table next to a baseball field at Indian Park in Kennett, Missouri, on Wednesday, Jon David French points a radar gun and stares intently toward a pitcher about to go into his windup.

On the field, Terry Tripp stands with a clipboard in hand, his head following the ball as infielders field grounders and throw to first base repeatedly.

French, a scout for the Atlanta Braves, and Tripp, an area supervisor for the Braves, are in large part the reason why multiple baseball players from high schools in Southeast Missouri and from Southeast Missouri State have been drafted by the Braves organization.

In the past three drafts, the Braves had selected six players from Southeast Missouri.

Kennett's Adam Grantham was drafted in the 32nd round of the 2012 draft while Southeast's Shae Simmons, from Scott City, and Trenton Moses, from Advance, were drafted in the 22nd and 26th rounds, respectively, that year. Simmons was promoted to the major leagues on May 31 after a rapid rise through Atlanta's organization.

Malden's Tanner Murphy was drafted in the fourth round of the 2013 draft, and in this year's draft Southeast's Matt Tellor was selected in the 10th round and Sikeston's Doug Still in the 33rd.

French, who is a graduate of Kennett and lives in Kennett, had a clear explanation for how this has occurred over the last few years.

"It's just that Tripp and I really work this area," French said. "A lot of scouts really don't get down this way. I'm from here and I know there's talent here, and that's why we're getting them. We're covering the area and working hard."

On Wednesday, French, along with Tripp, held a Braves tryout camp in Kennett with about 70 prospects in attendance. French also invited college coaches to attend in hopes that some of these kids can continue playing baseball in college.

Terry Tripp, left, and Jon David French watch baseball prospects for the Atlanta Braves organization go through drills Wednesday, June 25, 2014 in Kennett, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

"Some of the kids I saw Wednesday -- there was probably about three guys I liked, three pitchers and I've already been talking to them and their parents," French said. "And as a matter of fact I'm going to go watch one of them this weekend."

Jon David French, right, records the speed of pitches as Terry Tripp, standing left, watches with others Wednesday at the Atlanta Braves tryout camp in Kennett, Missouri. French, a Braves scout, and Tripp, an area supervisor with the organization, have been instrumental in the Braves finding baseball talent in the area. The team has selected six players from Southeast Missouri over the last three drafts. (Fred Lynch)

Tripp and French both pointed out that the process of scouting players, no matter how much they initially are interested in their talents on the baseball field, is a lengthy one.

There is much more that goes on behind the scenes to see if players could be a good fit for the Braves organization.

For one, once French finds a player, he lets Tripp know so that he'll come watch them. If Tripp agrees that it's a player he's interested in, then he calls someone above him in the organization to come watch.

"That's just the order we go," Tripp said. "He does a lot to help us, and I feel comfortable in his ability and I trust his opinion so when he hollers about a player I try everything I can to go see them, and hopefully I feel the same way about them that he does.

"It doesn't always work out that way, but that's what we try to do," Tripp added with a laugh.

French first observes a player on the field to decide if he could potentially play professionally. He also researches what the player is like off the field.

"With me as far as like pitchers -- arm strength," French said about what will catch his eye. "Well, even position players -- arm strength, bat speed and their speed in general. And the number one thing is makeup, also. You know, if a kid is going to be coachable. Is he going to work hard for us? That's the number one thing we look at.

"We're going to make sure the kid, if we're interested in drafting him, that he's going to give us 110 percent and he's going to work hard for us. You know, we're putting an investment in somebody like that so we've got to know a little about their background."

That was what the process was like for Still. French had seen him play before, but really liked what he saw at the camp in Kennett last year and kept in contact with him.

The lefty from Sikeston went 4-3 his senior season with a 2.44 ERA and was the SEMO Conference Player of the Year.

While it may have come as a surprise to some when the Braves selected Still, he had a pretty good idea because they'd continued to follow him throughout that year.

"Obviously we see him pitch through the spring and stayed in touch with him through the winter months and met his family and did all the background homework on him and everything, so there's a lot that goes into it," Tripp said. "But I give [French] a lot of credit for the high school kids down there because he gets to know them so well at a young age, and by the time I get to them he already knows everything about them so it makes it really easy for me."

Tripp covers the Midwest for the Braves, which includes Missouri, Kansas, southern Illinois and Tennessee, and has been commended multiple times by Southeast coach Steve Bieser for Redhawks being drafted by the Braves.

Tripp, however, believes that Bieser deserves the credit.

Tripp knew Bieser when he was a coach at St. John Vianney High School in St. Louis, and the relationship he's formed with Bieser throughout the years has played a key role in the Braves scouting players at Southeast.

"He'll holler and then I'll either go see him or [French] will see him," Tripp said of Bieser. "It's easy for me to get to because I'm from southern Illinois. I live in southern Illinois, so Cape's not really that far from the house, so I see a lot of them.

Terry Tripp, right, and Jon David French time a prospect during the Braves’ tryout camp Wednesday in Kennett, Missouri.

"I see a lot of the Southeast kids before [French] does just because of where I live and the relationship with Bieser. And [Southeast pitching coach] Lance Rhodes used to coach at Wabash Valley, which is right down the road from the house."

It doesn't hurt that the Redhawks have had success -- they were the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season champions this year -- or that Simmons quickly has become a staple in the Braves bullpen.

"The higher-up guys have our trust," French said. "Because we're the ones seeing the kids and reporting them in, so as you can tell, in the past few years I think we've drafted six kids -- and one of them made it in the big leagues -- so they're trusting us quite a bit."

French is confident that the connection between the Braves organization and Southeast Missouri will continue in the future.

"There's talent down here -- from Cape up to St. Louis all the way down here to Kennett," French said. "There's a lot of talent. We're going to keep working it hard, and I know there's probably other guys, other teams out there that's eventually going to hit this area. You can tell -- the Cubs took Kevonte Mitchell this year."

Mitchell, a Kennett graduate that had signed to play baseball at Southeast, was drafted in the 13th round by the Chicago Cubs earlier this month and had been on the Braves radar as well.

"I love it," French said. "I'll tell you what, I couldn't ask for anything more than to get a kid drafted and they make the big leagues from down in this area. I mean, I get just as much satisfaction if I'd had a kid down here that goes to college. If I can help any kid in any way get into college or to pro ball it's very satisfying. If I didn't do that, didn't get anything out of it, the satisfying part, then I wouldn't be doing this. I would go find another job."