The sentry gun rumor for the Scout only suggested that the ball was meant to "distract the sentry", not destroy it. My take on it: Hit the ball, ball passes over or by a sentry(s), sentry(s) shoot the hell out of the ball til the ball hits the ground, Sentry(s) keep going with their generic duties. No busting from direct contact with the ball, no "Scout stunnin' my sentry!" crap, no fuss...just annoyance. Regardless of the rumor, it does seem like the Scout is becoming much more defensive, but this doesn't fill in the hole regarding the Scout's focus with these new weapons. I have a hunch we'll see that one weird weapon the Scout had in the earlier trailers of TF2.

Edit:
And now the maps are out...

 http://www.teamfortress.com/scoutupdate/watchtower_and_junction.htm

To my understanding, the only significant change to the Scout when equipped with the new bat is a lack of a double jump -- nothing more. Everything else brought to the table is pure speculation right now, so I can't validate a thing until the update comes out, sadly. Charge time, melee damage, rate of fire, ball limitations, stun time; can't be sure yet. Your right though, there is a lot of W+M1 spamming with everyone -- my unconditional hate towards pyros with this for the moment -- so the spy DOES need something to make him more useful in the future, which is obvious. =P

Also Valve and Steam can blow me for the nerfed demoman, the stickies now seem to do more damage to the demo than to anyone else.  It's not that of a easy class to play and anyone who thinks otherwise, I dare you to play demo and fighter scouts, pyros, snipers etc.  The only area where demos excel is in doorways and against sentries in certain areas...  The fact that they don't have a gun makes it much mroe challenging than soldier or heavy.

it's all on how you play.  Demo is obviously potentially as twitch skill easy as the engie if you play them that way....just put stickies on ground and wait for ppl to pass.  Press button.  win.

I agree that its hard to play demo well if people are attacking your weakness...that is, getting in close to you (or being very distant to you).  thats what separates a good demo from a bad one.  Ducktor is good because he knows how to compensate and play well even when he is fighting in non-optimal conditions for his class.  Every class has challenging aspects to the game....I wouldnt say that there is one class that is just easymode in all situations.  There are times as a soldier that I think the demo is less challenging because they dont have to manage thier ammunition use as much as me....they dont have to worry about surviving an encounter because their aim was off for one or two shots...or that if they do miss, well the ammo really wasnt wasted because its still sitting there active and they just have to be patient enough for the player to wander close to it again.
I guess I'm just saying that I dont think any class is easy, or more/less challenging than the others.  The difference is that a good player knows the strengths and weaknesses of his class...and plays to the strengths.  And he/she is observant and knows whats going on around him...thats all it takes to be good.

harte Kerl = tough guy

Hmm since I play scout so much I may actually try to unlock this stuff legit. Of course the downside is there will be thousands of scrub scouts to contend with ;  ;

The weapon with the most custom skins ever?

Probably.