Les (who use to work at GoldenComm) came back to his stomping grounds to talk to Jason about all things baseball.
“Anything Dave Matthews…” Les' request for walk up music.
Les Lukach grew up in Chula Vista (Hilltop High School).
Both parents were immigrants to the USA. When Les brought up his parents, it reminded me (Jason) to cite an open letter that Les wrote to his mother (who recently passed away on Mother’s Day). The letter was a tribute to her, “the strongest person I have ever met.”
Les was recruited to work at GoldenComm back in 2016. He worked in our Online Marketing Group and was one of our marketing and content experts.
But, as Les describes in the podcast, “baseball was always in the back of the mind.”
Les had a blog that got some attention, and after a few opportunities crossed his path, he decided to move to PBR (
Prep Baseball Report) and that’s where he’s at now, full time, overseeing the State of California for the company.
PBR is the largest baseball scouting organization in the USA.
Roughly 400 employees (headquartered in Illinois) that are doing all things prep baseball. Really a “movies type career” as for lack of a better description, Les is a scout.
Some of the tools that Les and PBR use are:
Trackman technology to measure all the analytics of the ball.
Ball Fly Technology (off the bat, or off the hand)
RSI Testing
Blast Technology
PBR’s subscription-based website holds player profiles. The best way a player can get a complete profile is by attending one of PBR’s events.
More than 1,000 college and pro scouts use PBR to look for players that would be a possible candidate for their organization.
A normal query that a college or pro scout might look for is:
Plays in California. Right-Handed Pitcher. Over 6-foot-3. Throws 87 mph on the fastball. And what is the GPA.
The GPA is maybe the most important stat on the kid (outside of the talent). Obviously if they are looking at your GPA, that means you have the talent that they are looking for.
Les talks a bit about the transfer portal. NIL. And how college coaches recruit and staff/scholarship their squad.
Overall a fascinating podcast and we’ll have Les back later for part 2 – we just did not have enough time to talk about all the things that baseball lends interesting.
Love having GoldenComm alumni in the office and watching them do great things.