How Useful are Rankings

I am just a player's parent, but we found it to be pretty accurate for several 2006 kids who were drafted. Not only in the top three rounds, but also in the late rounds.

Our boy is an 2007 and they had comments about him in a game during his regular HS Season. Kinda like Big Brother is out there watching all the time.....

We did have one Advisor tell us it was bull, but then again, he was an Advisor.

Homerun.... Rankings are very useful, but are represented incorrectly! While the top players are known by EVERYBODY, there are players that fall through the cracks. When my son was a senior I would scour the baseball rags and see if my son was rated. He never was rated, not even in the top 1000. Then draft day comes and son got drafted. The person that drafted my son was at the house 2 hours later and said that they have seen him play since his soph. year.

baseball publications, while useful don't tell the whole story. I my house they do have their place (for entertainment only)

We have ranked players for many years. Yes, there are some players who fall through the cracks. Not as many as one would think, however.

As a point of reference… Perhaps the very highest percentage of any group that subscribes are agent/advisors. Followed by College Coaches and MLB Scouts.

If a player is ranked fairly high, he will receive lots of attention from the three groups above. Anyone could check this out if they really wanted to.

Rankings are relative to the people doing the rankings and PG/Crosschecker does the best job-- they are no nonsense

Just curious... will this information be made available to the "insider" level subscription or must one have a "parent" or "scout" level?

momandcpa,

I'm not exactly sure how all that works. Our responsibility is to do the rankings and provide scouting info.

I think the rankings and scouting files are not part of the lowest level.

To be sure, the answer to your question can be found by emailing dmixon@perfectgame.org

His name is David Mixon.

Thank you very much, PGStaff. I'll do that!

Hopefully some do "fall through the cracks". I'm pretty sure my '07 son won't be ranked anywhere as the "name" players get all the buzz in this area and he had recently changed positions when he went to PG's Atlantic Coast and it showed, but he has been told by a couple of MLB area scouts they are following his progress and will be watching him at some of his HS games. One indicated he had known of him since spotting him at a camp late in his Soph year. Maybe he'll impress one of them.

To the parents:

Who cares more about rankings---parents or son?

Lets not go crazy over this

PGStaff - Would son have had to participate in a perfect game showcase to be ranked? Has had several invitations, but none are close and the ones that would have been doable, interfered with summer team.

I found the rankings to be very accurate. So accurate that it was almost scary. You almost felt like MLB was reading BA and PG rankings during the draft. When my son was drafted out of high school all the scouts knew who was saying what and where my son was ranked. Trust me they read all this stuff! I used these ranking as a guide to help find a fit for my son in his college search and it helped me develop a strategy when it came time to negotiate with the MLB club. I admit I followed it very closely --- BUT ---If your son isn’t on a national ranking I wouldn’t worry too much about it. After all ranking are opinions and we all know what they say about opinions. I also agree with TRHit that parents care much more about rankings and recognition than the players.
Fungo

FirstTimer I can answer that as well as PGStaff or at least validate what I know he will say because it happened to my son... The answer is NO! While most ranked players do attend PG events as part of their exposure strategy, participating (or not participating) in a PG event does not change where a player is ranked or where PG ranks them. While I'm sure PG would like every ranked player to attend at least one of their events, the two are completely separate as they must be.
Fungo

Thanks Fungo! I have no idea if my son is ranked or not, he has seen lots of scouts over the summer and will see more during this fall season. The phone calls are coming in so weather he was ranked or not I guess really doesn't matter. Like you said, I was worrying more about it than he is! Thanks again!

I compared PGCrossChecker's "Draft 2006 State-by-State Follow List" for Georgia with the actual 2006 draft results. I only looked at high school players. PGCrossChecker (PGCC) did pretty well in the upper rounds and, not so surprisingly, not so well in the lower rounds.

PGCC broke down its pre-draft rankings into four groups:

Group 1 -- Projected rounds 1-3
Group 2 -- Projected rounds 4-8
Group 3 -- Projected rounds 9-20
Group 4 -- "Chance draft/Player to watch"

PGCC listed one HS player (Cedric Hunter)in Group 1 (projected in rounds 1-3). Consistent with PGCC's projection, he was, in fact, drafted in the 3rd round.

PGCC listed 6 players in Group 2 (projected rounds 4-8). Four of those 6 were, in fact, drafted -- 2 in the 2nd round (Brent Brewer and Tom Hickman) and 2 in the 3rd (Nick Fuller and Torre Langley). One of the 2 who was not drafted was Michael Demperio, but Baseball America's draft blog quoted his dad as saying, "We turned down the Braves' first pick in the second round." (He went to Texas instead). Assuming this to be true, at least 5 of the 6 players listed in Group 2 were evaluated/drafted as 2nd/3rd round talents by MLB teams. (NOTE -- The other undrafted player, Ben Paulsen, had originally signed with a JUCO, Young Harris, but around the time of the draft signed with Clemson, so there may have been signability issues there as well). Thus, the bottom line with Group 2 is that PGCC may have under-rated them, but only slightly.

PGCC listed 19 players in Group 3 (projected rounds 9-20). 7 of the 19 were drafted. That seems like a decent result for PGCC, considering the signability issues with HS players in those rounds. The 7 went in the 20th, 21st, 29th, 32nd, 34th, 35th and 48th rounds, respectively. Thus, with one exception (the 20th rounder), they were all picked in a lower round than projected. The biggest "miss" for PGCC in this group was an 11th rounder, Brandon Rice, who didn't appear on PGCC's lists at all, even as a Group 4 possible "chance pick".

PGCC did not fare too well with Group 4 ("chance draft"). They listed 53 players in this Group, of whom 5 were drafted. That's not bad in itself. But there were 12 other players who were NOT on PGCC's list who were drafted. To PGCC's credit, the 12 were all lower round picks (i.e., rounds 23 to 50). Of those 12, 9 had never attended a PG showcase. Of the 3 who had, 2 were rated by PG as "9's" and one as a 7.5. The 7.5 player was the very last pick in the draft (#1502). According to an article on mlb.com, that player's father is a part-time scout for the Cards, which is the team that picked him. (PGCC could easily be excused for missing that one).

Looking at total numbers, PGCC listed 79 Georgia HS players as possible draft picks (including 53 "chance draft/players to watch"). 30 Georgia HS players were actually drafted, of whom 12 were not listed as even "chance draft/players to watch" by PGCC.

The morals of the story --

1) PGCrossCheckers did a very good job at the upper levels of the draft. There was not a single Georgia HS player taken in the top 10 rounds who was not identified by PG.
2) The most significant "miss" was a player drafted in round 11 who was not identified as even a "chance draft" player.
3) PG didn't do all that well below round 20. There were a number of players who were obviously on the radar screens of MLB clubs that were not on PG's list. A disproportionate number of those players had never attended a PG showcase.

Thus, to address the question that started this post -- how useful are rankings? -- as to the PG pre-draft rankings, I'd say they're useful in identifying the top 10 round talent. After that, there are plenty of players who fall through the cracks and yet get picked up in the draft.

Radioball,
There are actually multiple influences to this draft ranking accuracy. While you could say PG missed on a particular player because he wasn't drafted in the top ten as projected --- I could say MLB missed on the same player because he wasn't drafted in the top ten rounds. Understand too that all players have a say so in whether they are drafted or not. PG may have them projected in round six and the MLB club want them in round six but the player has said if I falls past round five don't draft me. The higher rounds are very dependent or a players desire to play at the next level. Clubs don't throw money at players in the higher rounds trying to change their minds so many player that COULD go in the higher rounds will pass. Too many influences to pinpoint where the "glitch" is.
Fungo

PS: I can remeber "drafting" players when I coached dixie youth baseball. While the top players were very easy to rank the weaker players were much harder to evaluate. Many times it came down to how good looking the player's mother was or if the player had a new bat he could share.

FirstTimer,

News flash , gotta agree with Fungo.

I had never heard of Perfect Game until a friend of mine told me my son was ranked #4 in the state going into his senior year of HS. The only showcase he had been to was the AZ Fall Classic which isn't put on by PG.

Fungo, I agree and am not knocking PG. I think they did an excellent job with the crystal ball in projecting the top ten rounds of last year's draft.

As acknowledged in my prior post, signability has a lot to do with whether a player gets drafted and where he gets drafted. If, as in the case of Michael Demperio, the Braves call on draft day and the Demperios say, "Don't bother drafting Michael, he's not signing for that," then he won't get drafted. Likewise, if the MLB team calls and the player says -- "I don't know, I kind of really would like to go to school, ... but maybe ..." -- he may get drafted, but as a chance pick in a lower round than his talent would dictate. You obviously can't knock PG for having identified those types of players as a potential high draft picks. That probably explains a lot of the "Group 3" players who went a little lower than projected by PG.

I also recall drafting Little League teams and completely shooting in the dark in the last couple rounds. I remember wanting to pick one kid solely because his nickname on the registration form was "Sonic", which I thought was pretty cool. It's essentially the "bell curve" phenomenon. The outliers on either side of the bell curve -- the really, really great players, and the really, really bad ones -- are easy to identify. As you move from the edges of the bell curve, the players become harder to distinguish from one another.

In any event, the point of my post was not to use 20/20 hindsight to quibble with the accuracy of the pre-draft rankings, but rather to affirm a comment by Michael'sDad -- "Hopefully some do 'fall through the cracks'" in the rankings and yet are noticed by MLB scouts. There's no question that happens, maybe not in the top 10 rounds, but certainly after that.

RadioBall:

An excellent, valuable and easy to follow analysis of the draft v PG rankings compare and contrast. The results also follow the pattern of MLB scout logic. The MLB scouts I have talked to in my area say there real job is to find that "jewel" that everyone else has missed. And when they do, and he is drafted by their club, that is the "success" story they tell later. Not the Number one draft pick that they saw as a freshman in high school because everyone knows about that kid.

Again, kudos galore from me at least for putting the issue in a factual perspective. Check out the Statistics & Scorekeeping forum. We could use a guy like you.

TW344

Fungo had this little gem above...

quote:

I used these ranking as a guide to help find a fit for my son in his college search and it helped me develop a strategy when it came time to negotiate with the MLB club.

I think this is exactly how parents should use the rankings if your son happens to be in them. It is your one objective and fairly darn accurate snapshot into where your son fits and what the scouts/coaches think out of your earshot.

No, its not an absolute...but its about as close as you're going to get as a parent to the real scoop.

quote:

Originally posted by justbaseball:
Fungo had this little gem above...

quote:

I used these ranking as a guide to help find a fit for my son in his college search and it helped me develop a strategy when it came time to negotiate with the MLB club.

I think this is exactly how parents should use the rankings if your son happens to be in them. It is your one objective and fairly darn accurate snapshot into where your son fits and what the scouts/coaches think out of your earshot.

No, its not an absolute...but its about as close as you're going to get as a parent to the real scoop.

Interesting stuff Radioball. Thanks for the hard work.

I am not so much focused on the number of players listed that do get drafted. In the first 5 rounds - its pretty much a no-brainer.
As you point out - signability has alot to do with that - especially in mid and late rounds - and it skews the fairness of the evaluation as well. My guess is that PG doesnt miss more than a handful of the top 200.

I am more interested in the ones that werent on any list - and did get drafted. A slightly different twist.

In the Georgia scenario you laid out - 40% of the actual draftees were not listed.

Thats alot IMO.

Using Georgia as an example - if you arent listed - its a tad bit lower than 50/50 that you will get drafted anyway. Interesting.

Would love to see those stats for the entire draft.

I hate it when I have to do all this work. Our records show 28 high school players were drafted out of Georgia high schools last year. I think this is accurate, but it’s always possible I’ve somehow missed one or two.

Anyway the research shows 15 of 28 were ranked by number.

11 of the remaining 13 draft picks from Georgia high schools were ranked within the state of Georgia.

Only 2 of the 28 from Georgia were not ranked at all. 26 of the 28 were identified.

While not perfect, we would love to be better, but we would settle for that accuracy in every state. Surely no one thinks the rankings can be much more accurate!

Then there’s this to consider…

Players from Georgia who were ranked highly but went undrafted include Michael Demperio who is attending U of Texas, Brandon May who is attending U of Alabama, Ben Paulson who is mentioned above, Dean Weaver who is at U of Georgia, Mark Fleury who is at U of North Carolina, Matt Smith is at U of Mississippi, Andrew Robinson is at Georgia Tech, Mike Meschke is at U of Alabama, Justin Earls is at U of Georgia, David Cunningham is at Auburn, Matt Cerione is at U of Georgia, Joey Lewis is at U of Georgia, Jeff Lorick is at U of Virginia, Evan Parrish is at U of Georgia, Rich Poythress is at U of Georgia, Kevin Bishop is at U of Kentucky, James Wiley is at U of Mississippi, Brendan Hall Cal State Fullerton, Robbie O’Bryan is at U of Georgia, Andrew Manning is at Auburn, Jon Michael Redding, Jace Whitmer, Kyle Heckathorn, and several others. Many of those above would definitely have been drafted if they were signable in a later round. Several would have been picked on the first day of last year’s draft, some perhaps in the first few rounds!

We have no problem admitting we completely missed those 2 draft picks, but don’t we have to wait a few years to see just how accurate the rankings actually were?

By the way, if it is so easy and everybody knows who the kids are that will be drafted in the first 5 rounds, please help us out. We’ve been doing this for years and sure don’t think it’s very easy. Major League clubs couldn’t tell you who will go in the top 5 rounds other than their own picks. There are players drafted in the first 5 rounds that some clubs don’t have turned in at all.

By the way, we at PG only rank high school players. The draft blogs and other draft lists are simply educated opinions of the writers. While there is a lot of good info in the draft predictions and articles it is based on research and opinions of the writers.

The rankings we’ve done for years have nothing to do with predicting the draft. Our rankings are simply based on who we think are the best players, whether they are signable or not. We still ranked players like Dellin Betances, Jordan Walden and others very high even though we had information they weren’t going to be drafted real early. We still saw them as first round talents, just like Matt Weiters when he came out of high school. We had Scott Kazmir ranked number one, but he even had a high school teammate drafted before him. Others can decide if the ranking or the draft slot was right.

To answer the questions here…

Are PG rankings accurate? Fairly accurate, but far from perfect.

Are PG rankings important? Yes, very important for many who are ranked highly. We know this for a fact from experience and conversations we have with people in recruiting and scouting.

Are PG rankings important for every player? No it didn’t matter where Delmon Young or Justin Upton were ranked. However, both were ranked #1 before the draft.

Are PG rankings fair? We take lots of pride in our rankings. It’s our honest opinion. We can afford to be wrong… we can not afford to be wrong on purpose.

Do you have to attend certain PG events to be ranked? It is not mandatory to attend any particular event to be ranked. However once we think someone is one of the best players we will try to get that player to one of our events. The more we see a prospect the more likely we are to rank him accurately.

Does anyone complain about the rankings? Yes, more than you could ever imagine.

One final point… You do not build credibility by being inaccurate very often. You lose all credibility by being dishonest. It only takes one dishonest moment for college coaches to avoid you.

Both honesty and accuracy are very important to us and in that order.

PG,

Looks like you took some offense to the "no-brainer" comment. It was actually meant to be a compliment to your organization. Sorry you took it wrong. (Or maybe I wrote it wrong - LOL)

More importantly - I think Homerun04 is getting some great insight into his original question - from both parents (with college and pro players)- and the man who actually runs the entire organization.


Homerun04,

From my own perspective as someone who has no connection to PG at all (other than having fun going to their tournaments) - and after having followed the rankings closely for a long time - here is my two cents:

When it comes to identifying the top HS talent - you can rest assured that PG wont miss many. What I have seen is that by the time the kids graduate - the best in each state are identified with exceptional accuracy.

Every college coach I have ever spoken to (and there have been many) are aware of PG's rankings and take them seriously.

IMO - "Identification" is the key word - and I tend to put less importance on the number rankings. Just too many variables to consider after the first 5 rounds (approx) anyway to predict draft pick order.

The rankings do have significance. A good one can help you gain more exposure and a bad one can hurt you. You better be ready to play if you attend any PG showcase or tournament.

Fairness and honesty. If you knew the man who runs the organization - even a little bit - you would quickly understand that those two traits are the hallmark of PG - and (in addition to the staff skill and experience in talent i.d.) - why they are so successful. Without those two very important traits - they would be toast IMO.

You DO NOT have to attend a PG event to be recognized by PG. I have heard this from alot of parents over the years. I can remember in 2002 and 2003 when some HS parents in my son's school told me (and/or implied) that the only reason my eldest son made a State list was because we paid for it. That was a lie - but such is life. You ignore it and move on. If that is what they want to believe - there isnt much you can do to change it.

One of the questions posed on this thread:
Are PG Rankings important?
PG Staff responded:
Yes, very important for many who are ranked highly. We know this for a fact from experience and conversations we have with people in recruiting and scouting.

Now here is a follow up question, and I am just looking for opinions here:
What is YOUR definition of being ranked highly (Top 50, 100, 250)?
And why?

quote:

Originally posted by jbbaseball:
One of the questions posed on this thread:
Are PG Rankings important?
PG Staff responded:
Yes, very important for many who are ranked highly. We know this for a fact from experience and conversations we have with people in recruiting and scouting.

Now here is a follow up question, and I am just looking for opinions here:
What is YOUR definition of being ranked highly (Top 50, 100, 250)?
And why?

Are there about 115,000 Seniors(2007) who will play HS baseball this year ?

I suppose top 1000 means .00870, or less than 1%, which is good company to be in.

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:

Players from Georgia who were ranked highly but went undrafted include....

It still amazes me that PG has so much information on so many kids. They are almost omnipotent.

PGStaff,

I think we must be talking about different lists. I am referring to the "State by State Pre-Draft Follow List" dated June 1, 2006 that appears on the PGCrossCheckers website.

I believe that the list is available only to PGCrossCheckers subscribers, but here's the link:
https://www.pgcrosschecker.com/Default.aspx

That list included 79 Georgia high school players and placed them into the following categories:

Group 1 -- Projected rounds 1-3
Group 2 -- Projected rounds 4-8
Group 3 -- Projected rounds 9-20
Group 4 -- "Chance draft/Player to watch"

As indicated in my prior post, there were 12 Georgia HS players who were drafted, but who did not appear on this list, even as a "chance draft/player to watch." They are listed below. The first number is the round in which they were drafted. The second is the order in which they were drafted:

11, 324, CIN, Brandon Rice, rhp, Spalding HS, Griffin, Ga.
23, 692, MIL, Schott Shuman, rhp, Tift County HS, Tifton, Ga.
30, 893, LAD, Alex Burkard, lhp, Milton HS, Alpharetta, Ga.
33, 984, CIN, Justin Curry, rhp, Buford (Ga.) HS.
39, 1157, KC, Steven Moore, rhp, Thomasville (Ga.) HS
40, 1187, KC, Chris Snipes, lhp, Warner Robins HS
40, 1193, LAD, Chris Jones, ss, Redan HS, Stone Mountain, Ga.
45, 1340, LAD, Greg Hendrix, lhp, North Atlanta HS
47, 1395, SEA, Sean Ward, Evans (Ga.) HS
48, 1421, TB, Alex McRee, lhp, Chestatee HS, Gainesville, Ga.
48, 1434, MIL, Brandon Owens, rhp, Heritage HS, Conyers, Ga.
50, 1502, STL, Charles Matthews, rhp, Athens (Ga.) Academy

I also cross-referenced these 12 players against the "2006 Prospects - Top 1000," which was updated on May 18, 2006. I could find only one of the 12 -- Alex McCree -- who was ranked in the Top 1000.

I understand that PG's "Top 1000" rankings are not intended to project the draft, but rather overall talent. "Draftability" and talent are not necessarily synonomous because, as you state, many of the better players are not signable. They want to go to college.

The "State by State Draft Follow List", on the other hand, seems to have been specifically intended to project which players would be drafted and where they would go.

I did not intend my post to turn this thread into a "for PG" or "against PG" debate. For what it's worth, I'm "for PG" and believe they do a terrific job of identifying and showcasing talent. I would encourage anyone interested in playing college or pro ball to attend their events. I consistently tout PG showcases by word of mouth in my local baseball community. My own son attended four of them, and we considered the money well-spent.

As for the ranklmgs, it's easy to second guess them after the fact. It's more harder to perform the valuable service of "crystal balling" things in advance. But that's my point. It is a crystal ball, at least once you get past the top couple hundred kids. To return to the point of my original post -- there are many players who get drafted without ever having a national rank. As I recall, there were 513 HS players drafted in 2006. Looking at just Georgia, 12 of those HS draftees did not appear on the "Top 1000" list and were not identified as even "chance draft/players to watch" on the PGCrossChecker list that came out during the week immediately preceding the draft.

So going back to some of the earlier posts by TxDad06 and Michael'sDad that prompted me to peak my head out from my usual "lurker" status and post -- yes, there are plenty of players who are not ranked, and yet get drafted. They're not likely to go very high, of course. Note that 10 of the 12 players listed above were drafted in rounds 30-50. Nevertheless, that's 10 players who still consider themselves in the running to make it to the bigs.

How high is high?

I checked on how many VA players were in the top 1,000 2007's ranked on PGCrosschecker.com. Only 25, which if you think about it, is just about proportionate to VA's share of the US population. I would think anyone should be proud to be considered one of the top 25 players in their home state.

I would also think that all of those players could hope for Division I scholarships if that were their goal. I have personally seen VA's 24th player, # 977 overall, and can assure you that any college program would be happy to have him. Certainly there are more scholarships given out than there are players on these lists. And I know several players heading to pretty darned good programs and getting decent %'s who don't make the top 1,000 cut.

Finally, out of fairness to PG, I think any time anyone tells you you "bought" your son's ranking by paying for showcases, you should shut them up. It just ain't so. I know of several players who are ranked who have never been to a PG or WWBA or BCS event. I am sure it's easier to be noticed if you put yourself right under their noses, but it is evident that they are looking beyond their own events to find people.

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!

Do college coaches read rankings?

I will share this one story with you. At a time entering his senior year when PG and BA had our son ranked very high...a very influential one-time college recruiter walked up to me at an event, pulled out his wallet with PG/BA's top-20 player rankings and asked, "Have you seen this?"

Thats right, he had it in his wallet. I guess they read them.

PG, if there were one thing I'd like to see in the rankings -- not a criticism, just more of a wish list item -- it'd be a position-by-position ranking. The way it is, the top of the charts is stocked with pitchers. We seem subjectively to be valuing pitching above all else. I love pitchers, don't get me wrong, but it seems to me we're comparing apples and oranges in ranking them with guys who aren't pitchers. Plus, you have to really review the list to determine who's the best C, 2B, or whatever.

I wouldn't do away with the rankings, but it'd be fun to see breakdowns like:

1. All players
2. All hitters (those ranked for offensive skills)
3. All pitchers
4. LHP and RHP breakdowns of # 3
5. Each defensive position -- C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, OF -- maybe combine infielders or MIF's if you want to keep it simpler.

It just seems to me that when people recruit they are often looking to fill a particular need, and right now that info has to be gleaned, as opposed to having it already set out for you.

Or, is this stuff already available at a higher price subscription? Maybe I was just too cheap to get all the info?

Midlo Dad, that's an excellent idea. I know at the PG showcase my son attended, many of the most highly rated participants were either pitchers or 2-way prospects.

MidloDad-


I have a "sneaky" feeling the "Scout" level of PGCC has this stuff.

PGStaff-
Can you confirm?

I do know that our tech guy has added an "advanced search" and plans to add many more features including sort by academics.

Right now you can search by grade/year, position, PG grade, State, height, velocity.

For example you can get a list of all the RHP or LHP in a given year/grade that throw over 84 or other velocity. Then you can click on the players name to open up his file.

The goal is to allow subscribers to sort for just about anything they could desire. The whole thing is geared towards scouts and college recruiters.

It's only about 3 months old and we are striving to improve everything about the crosschecker site.

Sorry, I don't know which levels allow the different things, but I imagine it is all stated on the site somewhere.

The BaseballWebTV site adds the video of a very large number of those listed in pgcrosschecker. BBWTV is also a work in progress that will continue to improve over time. The two sites work closely together to provide scouts and recruiters with everything they could want outside of being there in person.

There is one college that made an offer to a player based on the video on BBWTV. The recruiting coordinator had seen the player and the head coach had not. The assistant coach showed film of the player on BBWTV to the Head coach. The head coach (based on the video) told the assistant to go ahead and make a very substantial offer. I know this sounds far fetched, but it is very true and the college played in Omaha this year. The player is also ranked fairly high on crosschecker and has a fairly complete file there.

PGStaff-
My son has attended PG events and is listed/ranked in PGCC.
Question for you:
Right now my son is listed in your databases as a MIF.
The advanced search right now does not allow a "filter" for MIF. So his info will not show up if a coach/scout happens to do a filter by position. Will that be added soon, or should I contact someone at PGCC and change his position to SS/2B or vice versa?

BTW, please pass along that both Baseball WebTV and PGCC are great sites! They continue to evolve/improve. I am very impressed with both sites.

jbbaseball,

Thank you very much for the heads up. I will talk to our tech guy and get that fixed.

If you don't mind, could you email me the same? jerry@perfectgame.org

My mind is not exactly a steel trap these days.

I can remember things that happened when I was 10 years old just like it happened yesterday.

Problem is... I can't remember the things that did happen yesterday.

Any and all suggestions for improvement are extremely welcome.

midlo dad:

You have a pm.