Ahead of Sunday night’s MLB Draft, Perfect Game is running a mock draft special across their platforms. The 65-minute special features host Daron Sutton and analyst Vinny Cervino, Perfect Game’s scouting director. It will air at 7 p.m. ET Saturday across their PGTV platforms and is also available on demand at perfectgame.tv. And it’s part of an extensive program of draft coverage for them across their social platforms and beyond.
Beyond the mock draft special and social coverage , PGTV will be embedded with three top draft prospects on Sunday night. They’ll have crews in the homes of PG-ranked No. 1 overall prospect PJ Morlando, No. 2 overall prospect Konnor Griffin, and No. 17 overall prospect Braylon Payne, with those crews providing quick clips of selection reaction for social platforms, but also full draft day experience documentaries in a few weeks.
Ahead of the draft, Sutton and PG head of media Will Burge spoke to AA by email, with Sutton saying draft coverage is crucial to their overall mission of telling prospects’ stories, and they’re able to excel at it thanks to their long history covering these players.
“It’s the longtime coverage, how long we’ve been able to see these athletes. I think about PJ Morlando, the number one player in the land, and his dad, Perry. We know that Perry was a career military man. We know PJ was at one time a 13- or 14-year-old catcher. We’ve seen him at dozens of Perfect Game events over the years, and I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know him and his family.
“The number two player in the land, Konnor Griffin, wasn’t even supposed to be graduating. We know that. We know he classed up. We were close to him when he made that decision. We know about the go-cart accident he got into when he was very young and resulted in many, many stitches on his face. And we’ve seen him grow from a kid who was 5’4”, 105 lbs. at our events to someone bigger than the world at 6’5” with broad shoulders.”
Sutton said he thinks that history of coverage of these athletes differentiates them from other draft broadcasts and analysis.
“I think it’s everything. We’ve seen these athletes for a long time. We know their life stories. We know their families. And for us to share their stories in our draft coverage, with a deeper understanding beyond just the skillset and beyond something someone just may have read, I think that is the most important part of our coverage.”
Burge said draft coverage is key to PGTV’s overall approach.
“We have been putting an increased emphasis on showing the PG athlete’s entire baseball journey, so our Draft coverage is very important as we are able to show the culmination of the journey. We want to grow our coverage beyond the moments and stories that happen while playing for Perfect Game. So, having extra emphasis on the Draft is a natural progression of that initiative.
“We watch these athletes literally grow up right in front of our eyes. So it’s always an honor to capture such a milestone moment and the culmination of all those years of work that the players and their parents put in.”
And Burge said that coverage, and the relationships they’ve built with it, is what lets them get the kind of embedded access they’ll have Sunday.
“I believe that really speaks to two things. First, to the trust that the parents and athletes have with Perfect Game. Our employees get to know these kids when they are 8, 9, 10 years old and literally watch them grow up at events over an 8-10 year span. So, they get to know us and we get to know them and their families.”
Burge said Sutton’s background and reputation, as well as his history of work for Perfect Game, is also helpful.
“Secondly, when you have a guy like Daron Sutton – a veteran big league broadcaster and son of a Hall of Famer – tell their stories over the years, it resonates with them. Daron has fostered great relationships with the players and their families and it results in some truly spectacular coverage.”
Sutton said the chance to be in these athletes’ homes on draft day is an incredible privilege, and one they don’t take lightly.
“First of all, we are honored to be in the homes of these athletes. In the home of PJ Morlando, the number one player in the nation. The home of Konnor Griffin, the number two player in the nation and of Braylon Pane, the number 17 player in the nation, on draft day.
“I think what’s so special is that very few people are able to do so. I think there are live interviews that go down and there should be. There are a half dozen players that are actually going to Texas and will be part of the draft, and they should do that because it’s the right fit for them, and what an experience it will be for them. But there are very few – in fact, maybe no one besides Perfect Game – who are cinematically inside the home for the draft party for these athletes when their lives change forever.”
Sutton said he reinforces PG’s understanding of the significance here when reaching out to families.
“In my communications in lining this up with the families, I make it clear to them: ‘This is your son that you’ve devoted 17 or 18 years of your life to and we understand how important this day is.’ Not to put a marriage above the Draft, but we treat that day as if we are doing the most elite wedding video, a keepsake for the athlete that they can look back on and share with their grandparents or with coaches who meant so much to them. A keepsake they couldn’t do themselves.”
Burge said the invites for this kind of access show off the relationships PG has built.
“It means that we’ve made a fantastic connection with the athletes and their families. For them to allow Perfect Game cameras into their home to document one of the greatest days they will experience as a family is something we cannot overstate. To be able to tell their stories so intimately, which effectively puts a cherry on top of their Perfect Game career, is something we don’t take for granted.”
Sutton added that these documentaries have appealed to many well beyond the prospects’ family and friends.
“That keepsake is wildly aspirational for everyone else coming up the ranks. We got instant yesses from the families to come into their homes to shoot these documentaries because they watched last year’s videos and the ones from the year before and understood how much we care. Perfect Game comes at it from such a high level of respect. We are flies on the wall, and we are documentarians, and it means the world to us that they allow Perfect Game to be there.”
Read on for more on the mock draft special, Perfect Game’s cross-channel media distribution, and more.
The post Daron Sutton on Perfect Game’s MLB Draft coverage, embeds with prospects’ families: ‘We know their stories.’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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