Anglers Interns Hope Cape League Experience Paves Their Path To MLB

Hundreds of the nation’s top college baseball players embark on Cape Cod each summer to play in the prestigious Cape League. Some are looking to rebound after a rough spring, while others look to build on past success while showing Major League scouts that they can continue to produce against the best of the best.

However, the ballplayers aren’t the only ones who have big league dreams.

For many interns, including Eli Nehrt and Jason Steiner, two rising college seniors who serve as Chatham’s general manager, MLB scout liaison and director of baseball operations interns, spending a summer in the Cape League provides an opportunity to pave their own paths to professional baseball careers.

“A lot of people told me this is the best place for summer baseball in terms of internships and obviously the competition,” said Steiner, a St. Louis native majoring in political science with a minor in computer science at Southeast Missouri State University. “So being able to get out here and work with Eli and meet the coaching staff and work with them has really been a huge opportunity. This is the pinnacle for interns — a lot of people are trying to get out here and a lot of people that get out here are able to go to the front office of baseball teams and have a lot of success doing so.”

One of Nehrt and Steiners’ biggest responsibilities is producing and maintaining data that helps make playing and coaching easier for the Anglers. They are also in charge of the team’s correspondence with MLB scouts and serve as liaisons that provide scouts with information or answer any questions they might have.

“The way [scouts] look at players is a lot different than you would think,” said Nehrt, a Springfield, Ill. native and sport administration major at the University of Louisville. “They look at all the stats and everything which is what you would think, but there’s some intangibles that you don’t really think about.”

Although their roles are common throughout the Cape League, Steiner said one thing he learned while applying for various internships was that Chatham allows its front office interns to make bigger impacts than other teams across the league.

“With the Anglers, we get to do a little bit of everything,” Steiner said. “We have three different roles — we’re the GM intern, the MLB scout liaison and the director of baseball operations. This is the only organization where you get to do a little bit of everything that I know of, or at least that I saw when I was applying for internships.”

The duo have also received a crash course in the technology platforms baseball teams utilize for advanced analytics, including Trackman, TruMedia, Synergy, Python and Java systems.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about making the data these players are producing easier for the coaches and players to understand,” Steiner said. “Last night, Eli and I finished our Harwich reports for the coaching staff to use for advanced scouting purposes. It gives our guys a little boost of confidence stepping in the box to know what they are going to be seeing, how the guy throws it and how fast he’s going to be throwing it.

“Same thing for our pitchers when it comes to hitters, knowing our opponents’ hitting tendencies and things like that. It creates a little more added confidence whenever they are stepping on the mound or into the batter’s box.”

Their hard work has made life easier for Chatham’s first-year manager Jeremy Sheetinger and his staff.

“Jason and Eli have been huge additions to our staff, helping us in a variety of ways that contribute to our success on the field,” Sheetinger said. “Coupled with Sydney (Hernandez), our Trackman specialist, they are providing critical info that helps our players and our team.”

Although their roles almost always require long days at the ballpark, Nehrt and Steiner have been thrilled with their time in Chatham.

“Chatham is great. The town is great, and the people who run this organization have been nothing short of amazing,” Nehrt said. “They are creating great opportunities for me and Jason and the talent up here is amazing — you’re watching great baseball every day and that’s just not something you get with a lot of summer leagues. It just has a different vibe to it, a competitive feel, and you know that all of these guys are trying to end up in the same place.

“That’s what Jason and I are trying to do, so it’s cool to experience it with all of these guys that are the same age and trying to make it to the same level that we are.”