The Wild West of Baseball

With swagger to his gait as Marshal Will Kane, wearing  a tin star and a sidearm, Gary Cooper’s eyes scan the deserted dusty street in High Noon for the outlaw he “sent up” years ago arrives on the noon train. Unaware of the result in front of him, Marshall Kane cautiously makes the walk. Flip the script to a ballpark of an independent league team and that’s the walk some scouts armed with a stopwatch and radar gun make in pursuit of big league talent.

Searching for talent in independent ball is a lot like the Wild West Days, where a scout surveys the field and in a moment can fire off his shot at a player. Without a draft or International signing deadline, a scout has to have a quick trigger when purchasing players out of the Independent League, but a dead eye on the talent as signings from the Independent leagues come with limitations.

Billy Milos has taken that walk into the lonely Independent League ballparks during his 29 years as an evaluator. The scout from Northwest Indiana has purchased roughly a dozen future major leaguers from the Independent ranks.

Presently with the Colorado Rockies as a professional scout, Milos looks back with pride at his years with the Minnesota Twins and the work in independent ball. One such player who comes to mind is right-hander Randy Dobnak, who after a stellar collegiate career for Division II Alderson-Broadus University in West Virginia, found himself undrafted in 2017. Joining the upstart United Shore Professional Baseball League Dobnak established as a strike-thrower with quality to his stuff.

Without financial help from major league teams, independent ball clubs make money from hosting games, but also from selling players to big league clubs. The USPBL operates outside of Detroit as a four-team league playing at a single facility. With a need for minor league pitching help recommendations from former big league catcher Jim Essian turned manager of the Utica club and USPBL administrator Justin Orenduff who toiled in the Dodgers system for seven seasons. Without time to make a trip to Detroit, the Twins lost out on a pitcher they wanted, but in watching video of Dobnak, Milos saw something special with his arm action and delivery.

“I think he (Dobnak) is better than the guy we missed on,” the scout told Twins farm director Brad Steil. So after six outings with Utica, Dobnak was purchased to fill a need in rookie ball. From there the righty proceeded to pound the strike zone and move up the ranks.

Come 2019 Dobnak began a meteoric rise through the Twins minor league season that saw him start the year for high-A Ft. Myers and finish it on the mound at Yankee Stadium in a League Divisional Playoff Game.  Projected as a piece of the Twins future rotation, the former independent hurler landed a five-year, $9.25 million contract extension in 2021.

A finger injury cropped up along the way for Dobnak, who was recently traded to the Tigers at the trade deadline as part of the Chris Paddock deal. Over the course of his five years in the bigs, Dobnak threw strikes, walking just 2.4 batters per nine innings. He has registered nine wins along the way for one special Independent League purchase that brings a smile to Milos’ face.

With a quick arm and some legal issues, Nick Anderson toiled in the independent Frontier League for several seasons. Sporting pedestrian numbers as a starter in 2012-13, come 2015 and a move to pen work Anderson took off for the Greys, a traveling team in the Frontier League. Milos made four trips to see the hard-throwing righty, who in ’15 had four saves and a sparkling 0.75 ERA to go with 12 strikeouts and zero walks over 12 innings of work.

What looked like an easy purchase due to the numbers was complicated by legal problems. Milos did the leg work in talking with the probation officer handling the case and with the trust from Minnesota scouting director Mike Radcliff and general manager Terry Ryan, Anderson became a Twin. Armed with a 94-96 mph fastball, the righty was in Triple-A within two years before being dealt to Miami. Once with the Marlins, Anderson went on to enjoy six seasons of big league action that also saw him suit up for Tampa, Atlanta, Kansas City and most recently Colorado. In all, the fireballer has registered a 14-7, 3.45 mark with 10 saves in 166 outings out of major league bullpens, while also appearing in three World Series games for Tampa Bay in 2020.

Most recently, Milos struck Indy gold with Carson McCusker and Payton Eeles as the pair has graced the Twins’ top prospect lists in 2025. A draftee out of high school by the Brewers, McCusker was passed over in the draft after a four year colligate career at Oklahoma State. After two undistinguished seasons in the Frontier League for Tri-City, the pieces came together for the 6’8” outfielder in 2023 when he shot out of the gate batting .433 in 37 games.  Former big leaguer and Tri-City manager Pete Incaviiglia recommended for Milos to come look at his fly catcher.

“He has huge raw power,” noted Milos, who watched McCusker for three games and walked away impressed. “You just don’t see that level of athleticism in a guy his size. “

After prodding Twins now-pro scout director Brad Steil for a month, Minnesota purchased his contract. The rangy outfielder has rewarded the Twins as a solid Triple-A ball player who enjoyed a cup of coffee this May, collecting his first major league hit off Tampa’s Mason Montgomery.

Meanwhile, former big leaguer and long time independent ball manager Butch Hobson kept whispering in Milos’ ear about a diminutive middle infielder.  The manager of the Chicago Dogs of the independent American Association in 2023 touted a “Pete Rose type” player who grinds out at bats. Rising just 5’5” Eeles has always hit, is a plus runner and with eight makeup which tops the grading scale.

“I saw him for three games and just fell in love with the player,” said Milos who couldn’t get him signed due to the late date of the Amateur Draft despite showing the bosses a highlight film on Eeles. “It was the most complete work I ever did with a player.”

Unfortunately, Milos didn’t get to share the excitement of purchasing Eeles’ contract as the Baseball Nerds running the Twins unceremoniously let Milos go after the 2023 season. However, they must have kept the video as the organization reached out to purchase Eeles early in 2024. The speedy infielder went on to hit .306 with 41 stolen bases between two A-ball stops, before logging 64 games at Triple-A St. Paul.

With all the moves the Twins made at the 2025 trade deadline, it is reasonable to expect Eeles to get his big league call up this season as the versatile infielder has added outfield play to his resume to go with a .284 average for St. Paul— but then again, the Minnesota Nerds did not call the dynamo up for his debut. Yet, when it happens Billy Milos will have a moment of satisfaction, while also showing the Minnesota Brass who has mishandled the Twins into a debacle of a 2025 season that they shouldn’t have let him go.

With so many independent league teams and spread out the United States, having strong connections is a key to success in scouting Indy Ball. Like Milos, long-time scout Jaymie Bane relies on a strong scouting eye and affable personality in connecting with Independent ball managers.

“It’s context and contacts,” noted Bane. “In that you know its independent ball and you rely on your contacts to help you as a scout.”

Bane, who is in his 26^th year as a scout, works as a pro scout/Independent League contact for the New York Mets. The former southpaw out of Arizona State has worked the independent league circuit for both the Red Sox and now the Mets.

One of Bane’s first forays in the independent ball forum came with the Red Sox, when Incavigilia nudged Bane to take a look at pitcher Chris Martin. Drafted out of high school by the Tigers and in junior college by Colorado, Martin suffered a shoulder injury and was basically told to find a job—which he did. Story has it, one day while playing catch with a co-worker who was in a men’s league, the friend encouraged Martin to try baseball again. The Texan turned down the independent Ft. Worth team, but signed up with Incaviglia who was managing Grand Prairie in the American Association.

It was an age with no analytical data but he threw a ton a strikes. The Red Sox annually held an Independent ball workout where Martin was invited and caught the eye of the Red Sox.

“He threw a bullpen and it was easy to see his stuff,” Bane recalled. “We moved him to the third base side of rubber and it came out better.”

After 25 pitches Bane took Martin to lunch to check out his story, later signing the 24-year old. A quick trip through the Red Sox system and with a 2013 trade to the Rockies, the righty found himself on a big league mound. Bouncing around the major leagues, which included a trip to Japan where the 6’7” hurler picked up a split-finger; Martin has now logged over 400 big league appearances and continues to pitch this season for the Texas Rangers.

“He’s a really good dude,” said Bane in that the added satisfaction of scouting independent ball comes from being able to potentially impact a players’ life with just one game in the bigs. “The arc of the Indy player is different than those who are drafted.”

Another favorite story of Bane’s comes from the Mets purchasing the contract of Jonathan Pintaro. A right-hander out of Division II Shorter University in Georgia, Pintaro was never short of “stuff.”

Using his connections, Glacier Range Riders manager Paul Fletcher whispered in Bane’s ear about Pintaro early in the 2024 season. Bane made the trek out to Kalispell, Montana – which is beautiful country and like the Wild West to see the righty who was logging impressive ratio of 23 K/1 BB for the Pioneer League entrant.

As the lone scout in the stands, Bane watched three innings before wandering over to the dugout and telling Fletcher that he would purchase Pintaro. The manager went to the mound and told the righty the Mets were going to sign him and tears followed as well an announcement over the loud speaker to the fans.

“He was up to 96 mph with a low three-quarter slot,” recalled Bane. “It worked and he threw strikes. The Mets staff has done a wonderful job with refining his stuff and mindset.”

“I think this is an organizational win when you’re talking about a kid that was pitching in independent ball last year,” said Mets manager Carlos Mendoza of Pitaro in an AM/NY article posted on June 25, 2025.” For our scouting department to identify the talent, put him in the system, and then player development, helping this kid to a point where his name is in the conversation for a potential call-up. Now, he’s getting an opportunity. Credit to him. It’s not easy what he did.”

Pintaro debuted with the Mets on June 25^th this year, working two-thirds of an inning in the Mets 7-3 win over Atlanta as the righty fanned Braves shortstop Nick Allen for his first career strikeout. He was since returned to Triple-A Syracuse awaiting another call to the bigs, hopefully to help the Mets in their drive to the NL East title.

“With Independent Ball there’s a true evaluation point that is similar to amateur scouting,” noted Bane. “It is old school scouting and players come from everywhere.”

It is scouting Wild West style.