quote:Originally posted by J H:
Stats- I understand. However, high school stats provide zero basis for a judgment of player's abilities. There are too many variables that are involved within high school baseball that make it a moot point. Namely, the level of competition. I've had literally hundreds of friends that have been through the recruiting process and several dozen that have been through the professional scouting process and not a single coach or scout that I know of has ever even looked at a player's high school stats. Abilities are solely dictated upon evaluation. I've seen hitters that hit .600 and pitchers with ERAs below 1.00 in high school never play an inning at the next level. I've also seen hitters that hit under .300 and pitchers with ERAs over 4.50 get drafted. Whether those stats were true or not is irrelevant because they didn't matter. The player's talent was the basis for evaluation, not his statistical performance against the given competition.
Well J H, its ok if we disagree, not on how often scouts use HS stats, but whether or not HS provide “ZERO” basis for judgment of a player’s abilities. Its not whether or not the numbers are true because math never lies. 6 hits in 10 ABs is a .600 BA and no one can deny that. The problem is in whether or not the 6 hits were #1 really hits, and #2 came against a good team or a lousy one. There is a way to still use the numbers, but scouts aren’t gonna take the time to do it, even if they understood how, and the reason is, there’s no central gathering place, and no validation process.
What I find hilarious is, the assumption that anyone has the ability to project talent to much of a degree, and if you look closely enough, you’ll find that most players the scouts get all excited about, have pretty darn good numbers no matter who their competition is, because that’s what puts them on the radar. With pitchers it’s a bit different because there’s the almighty talent determiner, the gun to help them out.
