Xavier Scruggs is having a blast working weekday mornings as part of MLB Network Radio’s The Leadoff Spot.
There are those who are early risers, and, well, there are those who aren’t. Scruggs, 37, is tailor-made for being part of the three-man team heard each weekday at 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. ET on SiriusXM channel 89. No different than those turning on their favorite radio or TV station, first thing after waking up to get the top news stories, baseball fans, too, rely on The Leadoff Spot for import news that occurred during the overnight.
Steve Phillips, the former New York Mets’ general manager, directs the flow of news that is coming from the 30-clubs. Former 13-year MLB veteran Eduardo Perez and Scruggs, who played professionally for the Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals, in Mexico, South Korea, and Dominican Republic, are Phillips’s “wing men.” Scruggs, particularly, more often than not, is at the ready with copious amounts of player statistics to validate points being addressed by the panel.
Starting his day off early from his home on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Scruggs’s habits of chasing information to present to listeners shouldn’t be a surprise. Years of playing baseball Stateside at all levels, days began early in the morning at training camps, with workouts in batting cages and with trainers.
“That’s my routine,” Scruggs told The Epoch Times about being wide awake at a time when a majority of people are still hours away from getting out of bed. “I look for information for the listeners. Box scores, and I look through analytics. I enjoy the challenge of transferring the data I have to the fans.”
Going from being a position player for a MLB club to conducting your daily work in front of a computer, and requiring a media credentials to have access to clubhouses he used to roam freely in, this a process Scruggs continues to tackle. Along with crediting his Leadoff Spot co-workers Phillips and Perez for his adapting to a new role in the game that he has been part of, going back to his three years playing g college ball at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2006–2008), Scruggs also offers appreciation to fellow MLB Network reporter Jon Morosi for his reaching a “comfort zone.”
“They helped me find my lane. I owe them a lot for the opportunity I have been given,” says Scruggs, who was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2008.
This week, the same as in past MLB seasons since joining The Leadoff Spot, Scruggs is joined by Phillips and a producer for the show traveling the Grapefruit League visiting team spring training sites. It’s early Sunday morning, as members of the Pittsburgh Pirates make their way into their clubhouse at LECOM Park for a workout prior to a scheduled exhibition game, Scruggs, Phillips, and their producer enter the room. Each holding a microphone, the trio find a friendly, and familiar face approaching them.
Tommy Pham, who Pittsburgh signed to a one-year free-agent contract last month, reaches out to Pham. They are old friends. Both came up in the St. Louis Cardinals’ system together, having been teammates for seven seasons in the minors and on the MLB level. It was during the 2014 season that both Scruggs and Pham shared bus rides with the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds, and then in September would make their MLB debuts.
The handshake and hug exchanged between the ex-teammates is genuine, and is repeated shortly after they first met in front of Pham’s locker inside the Bill McKechnie Home Clubhouse. Along with interviewing Pham, part of the 30 clubs in 15 days schedule of the MLB Network platform, Scruggs and Phillips search out others to speak with, and for their morning listeners to learn from. Joey Bart, a catcher who came over to the Pirates last season in a trade with the San Francisco Giants is next on Scruggs and Phillips’s checklist.
Scruggs is the quintessential reporter/analyst for The Leadoff Spot. His international baseball experiences in Mexico, Dominican Republic, and South Korea make his comments valued at an even higher level than most originally thought when Scruggs joined MLB Network Radio. With an ample supply of ballplayers being signed out of Japan and South Korea’s Korean Baseball Organization, it’s Scruggs’s specialty through playing in 257 games for the NC Dinos in the 10-team league that offer him the upper hand in discussing international play.
The often, slow, well-thought out answers Scruggs gives concerning a slew of questions from callers to the show, or a give-and-take sessions with Phillips and Perez on breaking baseball news, Scruggs is alert and firing away facts. Just as he played first base with precision and determination, Scruggs has reached the same level of expertise at MLB Network Radio.
