For Tim Wilken, baseball is in his blood.

“My father had scouted for 25-30 years with the Pirates and the Phillies,” said Tim with a big smile.

The Dunedin native has followed in those footsteps as an area scout in Florida for 41-years.

He got his start with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1977 when they first landed in Dunedin. 

“Kind of working the concession stands and going back to school getting my degree and I could throw batting practice all day long  so they would give you an extra fifteen bucks a day for throwing batting practice,” he said.

Currently a scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Bay Area is Tim's turf.

“I probably see about 185 guys a year, from latter part of December in to the draft in June,” said Wilken.

Unlike other scouts, Tim is old school when it comes to his techniques.

“Here’s my notebook right here," he says as he holds up a small green notebook, "I take that all the way through to the draft.

“I just like to jot down a few things and then when I get home, I’ll probably write them up but a lot of scouts don’t like to write until the next morning," Wilken explained.

“It’s extremely competitive, today with the media that all the organizations have and all the background there’s rarely a guy that the media would say who?”

Tim's eye for talent is one of the best in the business, signing players like, the late Hall-of-Famer Roy Halladay, three-time all-star and league MVP Josh Donaldson and Rays manager Kevin Cash to name a few. Tim is always excited for the next big pro prospect to come along.

“Basically, I try to let the game happen in front of me as much as I can," said Wilken. "It doesn’t always have to be todays performance. I’ve had situations where guys have gone oh for four with four strikeouts and I still liked the guy leaving the ballpark, sometimes you’re going to have to come back and watch the guy a second and maybe even a third time."

If you like traveling, then Tim's job is for you, the veteran scout estimates he travels between 150 and 175 thousand miles a year.