Major League Baseball is instituting a dead period for amateur scouting, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan. Passan reported that MLB issued a memo prohibiting teams from evaluating high school juniors and seniors from Oct. 15 through Jan. 15. A similar ban applies to college players from Nov. 15 to Jan. 15. The MLB draft is in mid-July, so the spring and summer are when teams do the bulk of their evaluations. This is another step by MLB to change the sport at lower levels in a way that benefits the health of players.