Radioball,
If you go to the “new” advanced search at the top of the pgcrosschecker home page and search for 2006 and Georgia, you will find all but 2 of the players listed. Each year there are about 1,500 draft picks and a few thousand DI recruits. Of those in one or the other of those groups, most all have been identified in crosschecker. People can check for themselves… That’s what I did.
I believe you are referring to the predraft list by Allan Simpson in the “baseball draft” section. This is all together different than any rankings list including State by State lists. Allan is one of the very best there is at draft coverage, but it is his opinion based on talking to many scouting directors and college coaches. Like everyone else he’s not perfect.
Truth is, my opinion would have been different on some of those players. We actually liked Demperio, Fuller, Langley, and Brewer a little bit better than Allan. Neither he or us were exactly right. Never will be! Some times a player is drafted early and we disagree with the value of that pick. Usually we are right, sometimes we are wrong. I, personally, didn’t think Prince Fielder would be as good as he obviously is, even though we ranked him fairly high in high school.
RB, I take no offense to your posts. In fact, I really wish more people would take the time to research this stuff, including others who rank and grade players. You are correct in saying there are players who slip through the cracks. But the real proof, based on the draft, is in who signs and who doesn’t. There are many who go undrafted who are much more talented than those who are drafted. It happens every year and the true results show up at a later date in a later draft or in pro ball. Andrew Miller, Matt Weiters, Jeff Clement, Alex Gordon, the list goes on and on, of those we ranked much higher than where they were drafted out of high school.
Jbbaseball, regarding your question. It is hard to put a number on what highly ranked is. I like “iitg’s” description of being identified. The top 300 is very very high in my estimation. The top 100 is kind of like “elite” status. At this time almost anyone listed in the top 1,000 could end up being ranked in the top 50 later on. So all spots are important. Also, players we have yet to rank could and probably will end up in the top 100 at some point. Obviously it is important to see them along the way.
Keep in mind that it’s possible, even likely, that a player ranked in the 900s could be a better prospect than someone ranked in the top 200 at this time. We just haven’t been able to recognize that yet. Or in some cases we have simply made a mistake. We try hard not to, but we do make mistakes! And yes, sometimes we miss a player all together. That does bother us, but you just work harder the next time.
I think this thread can help educate people that are interested in rankings. Maybe even educate us on some things. I just hope it stays clean rather than give naysayers an opportunity to vent. So far all the posts have been very good and polite, but experience tells me that might change.
In the end most of us on here have the same objective of helping young players. I don’t like to do rankings, but the interest in them is very surprising. We are “fair”, but the rankings are not always “fair”, if you know what I mean.
The one thing Radioball has proven is that while it can be important to be on the list, it is not neccessarily the end if you're not. That is a very important point!