2007 Pre Season High School All Americans

The source of this list please

quote:

Robert Stock,C/RHP,Agoura HS, Agoura, CA

Didn't we have a big thread a while back about how he LEFT HS for USC? Or am I mistaken?

I'm sorry, but pre-season HS All-Americans. Please people.

Robert Stock

http://usctrojans.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/stock_robert00.html


http://usctrojans.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/082406aaa.html

It is amazing? How many high schools are in the country? and a list of pre season all americans? As was said in another forum just play the game.

Well that list is pretty interesting. All but one of those players was selected to last years Aflac Classic.

What would people say about that list if it turned out to be very accurate? I don't understand why anyone has a problem with these things.

I read every day on this site posts about who the best 07, 08, 09 players are. It's all about someone's opinion and what is wrong with that?

No one is advocating that we do not play the games. The list of players posted will be among the most scouted high school players in the country. All will have MLB Scouting Directors flying around the country to see them this spring. Then a couple other kids who happen to be in those games will be discovered. It could be said that these players will be on all the MLB lists as well. It doesn't matter how many high schools there are, all those listed are for real! And yes, there are some outstanding ones who are not listed.

What is the harm?

Decisions decisions!

I not only get to go see my son's college games locally, his former Juco, local, my older son's and my alma mater in town, but 2 outstanding local guys on different teams on this list, and I am within 10 minutes to both fields!!

This will be crazy fun!

PG-

There's no harm in at all. My beef with this stuff is that the players selected are the ones who shell out $$ to go to different showcases and a really good player who doesn't attend (for whatever reason, but usually $$) gets no attention. It just seems to me that people pay for the showcases, get their name on lists, and then have to keep paying for showcases to keep their name on lists. Meanwhile a good player whose parents don't have the money does not get any recognition.

We had a local kid last year named a HS All-American. He wasn't even an All-Western New York player. We had another kid at UB who was a Puma All-American in HS and he didn't even make it through fall ball at a weaker D-1 program.

Don't take this as an anti-showcase post, but how can these people really claim to know who a pre-season HS All American is?

02^04Mom,

Let us all know your opinion if and when you see those guys. Tip - Get there on time to watch Justin Jackson take infield.

Also, I don't know how far it is from you, but if you can get a chance to see the high school team Bumgarners on (South Caldwell), it will be a treat. And he is not the only big prospect on that team! They are loaded.

pfbear,

In some All American teams it might be a pay to be an All American type thing. This is not always the way things are, though.

I really wish all the people who might have a legitimate (All-American type prospect) and can't afford to attend a showcase, would email me. We have lots of ways to quickly check out players without them paying any money. Our goal is to know who the top players are.

For the umpteenth time (speaking on our behalf) You can not buy a ranking with PG! (There are thousands of people who know that) We have ranked many players very high, that never attended a PG event. We do need to know who they are if they don't attend any high profile events or our own events. If we've never heard about them, we can't check them, and they will not be ranked!

Please understand that these statements are the opposite of selling anything. Truth is it would be much better for business if parents and players did feel it was mandatory to attend our events to be recognized! But then again the truth is, while it might help, it is NOT mandatory. Never has been!

Our job is identifying the best high school players in the nation. We DO claim to know who most all of them are. We will always miss a few, but those at the top, we don't miss. Just check the results every year and see for yourself.

pfbear13 that is the nature of the beast, the best listings are those who have rankings based on research from watching showcases, tournaments, high school games, word of mouth from like scouts, high school and college coaches, etc.

Not many organizations are going to put that much effort into the research without a return on their investment such as selling subscriptions to papers or online websites.

Baseball America was considered the rule of thumb in the past, but they are now being supported by a different organization, so it should be interesting what they have to say this year and if they use a wide source for references.

There are kids ranked on PG, as Jerry says, who have not attended an event for whatever reason. My kid is one of them. I still have flight credits due to cancelling Jupiter due to injury. Could the ranking be higher if the kid attended PG events? Maybe, due to more evaluation opportunties. His reason to attend was to merely compete again with the other top players attending!!

The "lists", as I call them, are good to be on, be it Baseball America, PG, Teamone, Louisville Slugger, etc., but they won't help a kid in the batters box, talent and desire does.

The better lists are the college rosters, MLB scouting reports, and so on.

So PFbear13, I have no disagreement with you, same with PG. PGJ does provide a valuable service, but it all comes down to the kid performing consistently well every playing opportunity they have.

By my kid missing Jupiter due to injury, he subsequently dropped a few pegs on BA and PG. Does that mean he is a lesser ballplayer? I don't think so. I think it means kids who did well just were added to the "lists". No big deal.

Bear13, I have realized there are several ways for a kid to get noticed, but it all starts with performance. Feel free to PM me.

Like I said, I'm not anti showcase at all and I know PG is probably the industry standard. It just sort of chaps my rear parts to see some of this stuff when we all know darn good and well, there are players out there that have talent, but no $$ to back the talent up.

And I am not questioning whether these kids are good or not, I'm sure they are all very good players.

I've been watching JJ play since he was 4-5 yrs old, he was the starting ss as a freshman when my 04 was a sr. 02 got to play with Cam as well.

I watched the Bumgarner/Runion match up last year at Reynolds and expect to see that again this year.

Both of these local guys are the real deal, not only that, they are SUPER nice kids. Polite, respectful, and will even give an old lady a hug!

As I stated in another thread, if the preseason AA list has any NC players on it and doesn't include Justin Jackson, Sam Runion and Madison Bumgardner on it, it is suspect. I have seen them all play, Bumgardner numerous times, and they are the real deal. They are not the only great players in NC but you certainly have to include them and put them toward the top of the list when you are discussing the best players in the state.

02^04Mom,

That's great, you have something to compare other players with. Maybin, Jackson, Runion, Bumgarner, Poovey, etc.

You and Michael'sDad are always welcome to help us out. You are among the people who understand what the highest level talent is like. We feel fortunate that we get to see that talent every year.

Yes, some good ones are missed, but it's not anywhere near the number some people believe. Playerrs like Maybin, Jackson, Bumgarner and Runion don't just grow on trees. They are extremely special and with or without them attending our events, I bet we would know who they are.

Always fun to compare the preseason all-americans to the actual all-americans and the pre-season rankings to the final rankings.

Always have to take the pre-season rankings,etc. with a grain of salt, but still interesting to see.

Our school gets to play against some of the top teams and players each year so it is interesting to see if they make the pre-season rankings.

The one local guy I thought had an outside chance at cracking the lists didn't. I do expect one of the local teams to be nationally ranked in the pre and post season rankings and I'm a little surprised that none of 3 or 4 top players from their team got mentioned, but it is a big country after all.

Frank .... what publication is this pre season list from?

Pre-season HS All-American lists have been pretty standard stuff in Football, basketball and other sports for years. I don't see why we can't recognize who to watch for baseball as well. This isn't the first baseball list and it won't be the last. Like PG said, this list gives scouts an A-list to follow and hopefully see other "diamonds" in the meantime.
As far as those other "All American" lists, well, I have stated before that there should be a Standards Committee to rank and rate these lists based on results..i.e. LOI's, draft status, etc...I think you would see that PG does it right...

TRHit...after a little surfing, the source of this list is Prospect Watch. I do not know where there information or who the sources are for the kids on this list, maybe some pro scouts or scouting type services. They do have quite a few past articles from PG. Maybe someone can lend a hand on the background of Prospect Watch.

I read what those making or using these lists have to say and wonder if they truly do believe they’re not only identifying every top shelf player in HS, but that they are ranking them in the proper order.

What is the criteria used to be selected for one of these lists?

I assume one has to be the player is in HS.

Is another one the player has to actually attend a HS or can he be home schooled?

Are players attending very small schools just as able to be identified as players from large ones?

Does the player have to be eligible to play?

Is the eligibility exactly the same for everyone?

Are only HS Jrs and Srs eligible?

Do statistics play any part at all in the process, and if they do, what part do they play?

Would Babe Ruth’s great great grandson bump #1,000 if he were #1,001?

Would the baseball commissioner’s son move from #989 into the top 20 before the list got published?

When all the criteria is set, how many total players are we talking about?

For the sake of discussion, let’s assume there are 1,000 players making the grade. What’s the process for ranking them?

Is someone gonna try to tell me there’s such a significant difference between the #500 kid and #501 that they can be ranked properly? Or for that mater, is the worst of the top 1,000 HS players in the country so much worse than the highest ranked one so different it would be obvious to anyone who didn’t know them?

Sorry, I’m not one who believes these things have much veracity as far as identifying the very best players and ranking them properly. However, I do believe they do as good a job as can be expected in a situation like this as we can expect in today’s world.

It just amazes me that if there was a list made of the current top 20 ML players, there wouldn’t be more than a very small percentage of people who’d agree those were the absolutely the top 20. And of those that did, there’s very little chance that much of a percentage of them would agree on the rankings.

And look what’s available for people to use to judge ML players! Not only do they have some very detailed and many times more accurate stats than any available HS players, these guys have literally millions of people watching them play and analyzing everything they do, just about including which hand they wipe with!