Ever wonder how a scout evaluates a player he is watching? It is a process of breaking a player's game into 5 “tools”. I am sure if you are fan of baseball you have heard someone make reference to the term “5 tool player”. You may have heard a name like Mike Trout be thrown around in these conversations. The 5 tools are broken down into power, speed, fielding, arm strength, and hitting for average. Scouts then evaluate these tools on an 80 grade system. The scale starts at 20 and goes to, you guessed it, 80. 20-45 being below average, 50-60 being average to above average, 60+ being ELITE. But today I didn’t bring you here to explain to you how scouts do their job or how the 80 grade system works. We are here to break down and grade the newest minor league teams Name, Colors, Logo and Uniforms.
The newest team to join the minor leagues is the Beloit Sky Carps. A sky carp is a midwest slang term for a goose. Now I am from the midwest and I have never heard the term sky carp, but I must admit it sounds pretty sweet. Not surprised that a nickname so sick came from the Midwest. This name is up there on minor league top names. It has made a direct entrance into the top 10. If this was a NCAA March Madness Bracket lets just say they would be fighting for a 1 seed. Again, the name is sick, but points must be deducted for the simple fact that it is apparently a midwest term that I, a midwesterner, have never heard. A good name, but I am the judge and when I say points are to be deducted they are deducted.
Name: 70
The name is ++, but when taking the colors into consideration we must be able to see past the sick ass name and see the colors for what they are. First color that jumps out at you is neon blue. It’s rumored that this blue reminds people of the shades of blue in the Aurora Borealis. It may just be me, but I could look at google images of the Northern Lights all dang night. As we move past the beautiful blue, a speck of red peeks its glistening head at us. When it comes to colors, red is 1:1. No debate. Between the neon blue and the red this is an 80 grade color scheme. Now you have to take into account the stock greys, blacks, and whites, but as my good friend Caleb Sampen likes to say “It's all part of it.” These colors are essential.
Colors: 80
Now the Beloit Sky Carps are off to a blazing hot start. A 70 grade name and an 80 grade color scheme. That is ELITE. The Sky Carps are shaking up to give Mike Trout a run for his money. Those beautiful colors are now needed to create a logo for the team. I can only imagine after the hot start they are off too, they will have a logo that blows us away. Well...if that isn’t the furthest thing from the truth. With all do respect, is this the best they could do? Why is the goose wearing a scarf? A scarf? That is easily the most beta thing you could have possibly put on the mystical Sky Carp. The team said they put the scarf on because it represented the goose staying north rather than traveling south. I have seen plenty of geese in my day, 0 have had scarfs on. I want to give the logo a 20 grade, but they have won my respect with one aspect on this logo. They have a wrench in the mouth of the goose to represent the blue collar workers who helped build Beloit into what it is now. RESPECT! Jersey Jerry would be proud of the Beloit natives.
Logo: 35
Mike Trout status as top dog will remain for a bit longer. It looked promising, but there were too many flaws we just couldn’t look past. It is time to bounce back though. With the logo being mediocre at best and the colors being an absolute masterpiece we are in a weird place with the uniforms. They can’t be horrible, the colors are great. They can’t be great because the logo is unpleasant. What it comes down to now is, do the colors and the font out shine the logo? Unfortunately, it does not. The hats are sick, the colors pop, but it still has the logo. The jerseys are bland… poor font decision and colors aren’t used to their full potential. Everyone has heard the saying “look good, play good.” Well unfortunately for Beloit this year they will be struggling to look good, but best of luck playing well. I hope you guys have a great season.
Uniforms: 40
This is about as tried and true of an opinion as you can get. I have evaluated this as a veteran scout would. I have dotted all the I’s and crossed all the t’s. I was fair and honest. That is all you can do as a scout. I have dedicated my life to this work and I take pride in doing it the right way. I think Beloit is on to something, they aren’t there yet, but they have built a great foundation. The potential is there. They may need to go to college for 3 years to mature, learn, and grow and see what happens after that. You could always take a risk on the potential and see how it goes. My work here is done.
Overall: 55