# Baseball questions

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-questions/620057>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [April 26, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-questions/620057 "2012-04-26T20:13:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CheeseDonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@CheeseDonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheeseDonkey)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-questions/620057/1 "2012-04-26T20:13:56Z")

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1. What is a national crosschecker?

2. In Japanese baseball, what is the “distribution draft?”

3. Anyone know the story behind Astros minor leaguer Steve Martin, who was born in _Swaziland_?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-questions/620057/2 "2012-04-26T20:25:40Z")

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1. A team’s national crosschecker is a scout who compares prospects from all over the country. Most scouts are regional, so they cover a specific area. The NC will get recommendations from regional scouts for which guys to check out and compare to other prospects throughout the country.

2. ?

3. ?

You have some relatively obscure baseball questoins. I like it.

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**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-questions/620057/3 "2012-04-26T20:41:43Z")

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[http://www.hsbaseballweb.com/pros/scouting\_ranks.htm](http://www.hsbaseballweb.com/pros/scouting_ranks.htm)

That’s a decent, although brief, description of baseball scouting.

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**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-questions/620057/4 "2012-04-26T21:46:47Z")

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1. Just as in American pro sports, if a league is expanded, (new teams added) existing teams get to “protect”, or exclude from the draft, a certain number of players (like 75% of their roster.) The remaining players then go into the “distribution draft” and the new teams get to pick a team from those players. MLB last did this when the Rockies and Marlins were added. I think it was called an expansion draft. It was done in MLS a couple of years ago when Montreal was added.

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**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-questions/620057/5 "2012-04-26T23:48:53Z")

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> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#):
>
> MLB last did this when the Rockies and Marlins were added. I think it was called an expansion draft.

Nitpick: Devil Rays and Diamondbacks.