Baseball America - 2013 Preseason High School All-America Team

Interesting that we were just talking about kids overlooked for the Louisville Slugger list.  Here you have 2 VA guys overlooked on the LS list, and the guys on the LS list are not on the BA list.

I guess we'll let PG/Rawlings be the tie-breaker, when that list comes out?

IMO, this list is more accurate than the LS list. I would imagine the PG list will be more inline with my thinking.  No one does HS better than PG. 

Congrats to the 3 EvoCanes on this list (and ex former EvoCane). 

Midlo,

This is interesting as it pertains to something you mentioned in the Louisville thread regarding someone and the National Showcase.

There are 42 players on the three teams listed. Here are some interesting stats…

39 of the 42 are Perfect Game National Showcase players (Minneapolis, MN)

30 of the 42 played in the PG All American Game. (San Diego, CA)

20 were PG Jr. National Players

34 of the 42 are ranked in the top 50 by PG

40 of the 42 are ranked in the top 100 by PG

The other 2 are ranked 140 and 182 by PG

Of the 42 players here is how they ranked nationally by their position by PG (remember there can only be one #1 at a position)…

9 are ranked #1 at their position

7 are ranked #2 by their position

10 are ranked either #3 or #4 by their position

12 are ranked in the top 10 at their position

2 are ranked #11 at their position

The other two are ranked #15 and #16 at their position.

And how about this number…

The 42 players listed have combined to play in 527 Perfect Game Showcases and Tournaments.

So when we come out with the Rawlings/PG All American list next week, you will see a lot of the same names.  Of course, there will be many other names listed as well for both the All American and All Region teams. When it comes to Virginia, you will see a lot more names of top players listed. And it’s likely we will still miss a player or two who deserves to be mentioned

The thing we won’t have to do is go look at what someone else has already done. (and switch a few names around to look original) We actually see all these players, usually see them more than anyone outside their teams or family.

And people often claim we just favor those who play in PG events. Why wouldn’t we, doesn’t everybody. This is not our list (above) we are talking about. It always amazes me how one person can do what it takes us 50 people or more to do. Then again, I guess all you have to do is be able to read what the 50 have to write.

So what do the 50 people know? Well some have scouted nearly their entire adult life. Some are former Coaches and Professional players.  And the younger guys keep getting hired by MLB scouting departments. We have lost 6 PG Scouts in just the past two years to MLB Scouting Departments. Two to the Blue Jays, one to the Reds, one to the D’Backs, one to the Astros and one to the Royals. All are now full time area supervisers. There were many others before the last two years.

Sorry if this sounds like bragging, but, man, this stuff aint easy! It takes a lot of real good hard working people and a ton of money to try and be as accurate as possible. Still knowing you will be making some mistakes along the way and you will receive lots of complaints.

Every year, there is someone fairly unknown at this time of year and he ends up being an early draft pick. We find out during the spring, but isn’t it odd that no one ever finds that kid before that. If all the lists were compiled separately and everyone had to actually find and see the players, maybe there would be fewer kids missed. There are many undrafted (out of high school) players that end up first round out of college.

Our theory is simple…  If they are first round out of college… They were a first rounder out of high school! We just didn’t know it! Everyone just missed on them or they didn’t know about them. After all, it’s all about trying to predict (project) how good someone will be. All college players were in high school at one time. The job is all about trying to figure out who is going to be the best. Granted some grow, get much stronger, more coordinated, late bloomers, etc. But it is the same person that was in high school. We were the only list to have Stephen Strasburg ranked (#138) when he was in high school. If we were perfect, we would have ranked him #1 back then, but we didn't see it. Of course, we had no idea that he would be this Stephen Strasburg some day! We also had Matt Wieters ranked near the top after we saw him and we had Buster Posey ranked very high. In fact, we named Buster an Aflac All American as a RHP/SS. Wieters wasn’t drafted and Posey was a 50^th round pick out of high school. Looking back, you could say that they both should have been first rounders. It just took someone else to have a vision of Buster Posey as a catcher! It all looks very obvious NOW!

Personally, I’m far from being anyone special. Still I have some pride and I love what we do.  Maybe someone can read between the lines in this post and figure out why I posted it. Hint: It wasn’t to promote PG, because that really isn’t necessary as you can tell by the numbers above.

Thanks, “redbird” that means a lot!

You don't mean to suggest that someone else is reading your rankings and basically stealing your work, do you? 

Midlo,

I remember many years ago before all the mock drafts and rankings lists. We had to scour the country and our list looked much different than any other list out there. We actually had Carl Crawford, ranked behind Beckett and Hamilton. Carl did not appear on any of the other lists. Yet, now I hear all the old Carl Crawford stories of him doing this and him doing that.

Truth is Carl lived in the 5th ward in Houston and he was extremely poverty stricken. Dan Jennings, then scouting director for the Rays, knows the Carl Crawford story better than anyone.

Now days every list is about the same with some number jockeying to look original.  You never see a player ranked top 50, let alone #3 in the country go unmentioned on other lists. Being that we are always the first to release rankings in every class, and we don't go by anyone other than our own opinion, it becomes clear as a bell what happens from there.

It's been a problem for us for quite some time now.  We've been told there is nothing we can do about it. Even the written scouting reports are way too similar. To the point that you wonder, has there ever been this much agreement in baseball?

The worst part is that someone on a $10 budget can become a so called expert and make a lot of money by using people that have a million dollar budget to do the actual work. One guy can benefit from what it takes 50 or more people and a lot of time and money. This has created a new business, based on the hundreds of websites out there dealing with scouting and the draft. Hardly any of those people even spend the money to attend our events.  Yet that is the place they would actually see all these players they write about, rank, and use in their mock drafts. Then sometimes they will see a player one time and have it all figured out. We all know players can be much different one game to the next. So the more you see them the more accurate you can evaluate them.

I've actually talked to a couple of the guys doing this.  They have no problem telling me that they spend most of their time and get most their information on the PG Site. I didn't know whether to be happy or mad after hearing that. At least they didn't lie or try to hide it!

That's it... guess this all caught me at a weak moment when I wasn't all that busy.

Legally, there are things you could do.

Financially, probably not the best idea.