Any validity to these rankings or are they flawed in some way?
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Do a search for past threads on this subject. There is plenty to find. No reason to beat this dead horse again.
Francis7 posted:Any validity to these rankings or are they flawed in some way?
No more flawed than any other rankings (see AP, Coaches and CFP rankings) 
It depends somewhat on the state. I can tell you here in Ohio they do a very good job, but I think PBR here in Ohio probably has more guys working than most of the other states. Do they miss someone here or there....sure, but in my son's case, class of 2015, it was pretty darned good at the time. We knew a lot of the kids, probably well over half and for the most part, the rankings were pretty spot on based on what had happened up to that point (HS and travel ball). 4 years later looking back on them, the rankings didn't reflect college success for a lot of kids.....but there are a lot of reasons for that...academics, injury, etc, but if you were looking at the kids as they headed off to college they were pretty good
Depends on class as well. Younger classes will have less participants and there will be more churn. Can't speak for other states, but our states PBR will scout other events, not just PBR events, as well as HS games, and will communicate with other state's. Francis, I will say the #1 in your state is a total stud (and a true 2022 just turned 15). We face him frequently.
NYCDAD - true story:
My son's team faced him in a tournament championship game back in 2018. When we saw him warming up, we all thought "We have no chance." And he cut through the first few batters of our lineup like a hot knife through butter.
Now, my kid is coming up. And I'm thinking "not striking out would be a victory." And, while I usually have my phone video'ing ABs, I don't bother this time because I'm thinking "this is not going to be pretty."
And, of course, karma gets me again - my kid hits one 325 feet into the left-center gap for a double. (It was the only hard hit ball we had against him all game.)
After the game, my son asked me if I got the double and I had to tell him no. Shame...that would have been a keeper.
I'd say in our state they're more accurate than PG as they see the kids multiple times. They come to the high school games and other organization's tournaments. My son usually only plays in 1-2 PG tournaments a year & there is usually just a disinterested kid setting at the scorers table, so no real scouting done to see where he should be ranked.
nycdad posted:Depends on class as well. Younger classes will have less participants and there will be more churn. Can't speak for other states, but our states PBR will scout other events, not just PBR events, as well as HS games, and will communicate with other state's. Francis, I will say the #1 in your state is a total stud (and a true 2022 just turned 15). We face him frequently.
A 2022 just turning 15 would be on the young side here. We typically see:
Freshman = 15
Sophomore = 16
Junior = 17
Senior = 18
Obviously makes him that much more of a stud as he should probably be a 2023 if he is just turning 15.
22and25 posted:nycdad posted:Depends on class as well. Younger classes will have less participants and there will be more churn. Can't speak for other states, but our states PBR will scout other events, not just PBR events, as well as HS games, and will communicate with other state's. Francis, I will say the #1 in your state is a total stud (and a true 2022 just turned 15). We face him frequently.
A 2022 just turning 15 would be on the young side here. We typically see:
Freshman = 15
Sophomore = 16
Junior = 17
Senior = 18
Obviously makes him that much more of a stud as he should probably be a 2023 if he is just turning 15.
He's 15 and 1 month now. For a point of comparison, my son is also a 2022 and he's 15 and 7 months.
I'm pretty sure 15 and 1 is as young as you can be here for a 2022. My son's classmate is 15 and 2 and I know his parents thought about reclassing him because he was the youngest in his grade.
On the flip side, we know another 2022 here who reclassified twice and is now 16 and 11 months. (He's already committed to a major D1 and tops all the 2022 rankings - so, no one seems to care about his age.)
Lots of places in this part of the country the age cutoff is 12/31. My 2022 is 15y3m, my 2020 is 17y/2m and will still be 17 when he starts college.
They both have had summer teammates that were older but a grade behind.
Francis7 posted:22and25 posted:nycdad posted:Depends on class as well. Younger classes will have less participants and there will be more churn. Can't speak for other states, but our states PBR will scout other events, not just PBR events, as well as HS games, and will communicate with other state's. Francis, I will say the #1 in your state is a total stud (and a true 2022 just turned 15). We face him frequently.
A 2022 just turning 15 would be on the young side here. We typically see:
Freshman = 15
Sophomore = 16
Junior = 17
Senior = 18
Obviously makes him that much more of a stud as he should probably be a 2023 if he is just turning 15.
He's 15 and 1 month now. For a point of comparison, my son is also a 2022 and he's 15 and 7 months.
I'm pretty sure 15 and 1 is as young as you can be here for a 2022. My son's classmate is 15 and 2 and I know his parents thought about reclassing him because he was the youngest in his grade.
On the flip side, we know another 2022 here who reclassified twice and is now 16 and 11 months. (He's already committed to a major D1 and tops all the 2022 rankings - so, no one seems to care about his age.)
You guys need to take age completely out of the equation, your kid either is good enough to play or they are watching the studs play, simply no other way around it. Every kid entering college as a freshman has the same NCAA eligibility...whether they are 18 or 20, coaches could care less now old a kid is. The kid my son competed against in his D1 freshman recruiting class turned 20 in November of his freshman year. My son was 18 years, 6 months. Guess who beat who out for playing time???
There are several D1 FBS college football players in their LATE 20’s, one kicker at USC is 29-30 years old, played in Austrian Rules Football. As a 28-30 years old guy, I would be well on with my life, but he had eligibility and the school decided he fit their need best. Get used to your kids competing with guys older than them, much older. It’s gonna be a reality. If you (or your kid) is hung up on that, you won’t last long.
PBR rankings in my state are not overly accurate I believe because they just started our state last year. So they are still trying to build a name here and they did not start scouting HS games till the season was half over.
I image it will get more accurate as the years roll on. I also would see them being more accurate then PG since they will watch players in other events that they don't run (ie HS games, non-pbr tournaments, etc...) where PG only looks at PG events and even then halfheartedly unless you are an identified national stud.
2019 was a P5 commit. He was top 15 in our state on PG. He wasn't ranked on PBR. Never went to a paid PBR event either. You can probably put the pieces together with that information.
PG also ranks my son more highly than PBR. Having observed both lists and their rankings of players I know, I'd say that PG values size, athleticism and projectability while PBR in our state seems to be more backward looking...reflecting past successes that a kid has had.
Somehow my 2020 is is the exact same in both PG and PBR state rankings. He's never done a PG showcase, but has played in many WWBA and Super 25 tourneys. He did several PBR showcases and their state games.
My 2022 is state ranked in PG but has one of those generic rankings, something like #3 RHP but there are 20 kids that have that.
He has a top 5 PBR state ranking (overall/position), but again the 2022s were just ranked last year.
My 2022 also informed me over the weekend that he's ranked in the top 100 worldwide in MLB the Show. I told him he should leave that part out when talking to coaches, or really anybody...
I didn't even know Pabst Blue Ribbon had amateur baseball rankings
Truth be told the rankings don't matter but its hard not to pay attention. PG has my son higher than PBR. He has attended two PBR events since 9th grade, one being the Futures. He's been to a lot more PG things, maybe that accounts for it. PG has him top 10 for position and overall in the state and PBR isn't far off for state but nationally, they are pretty different. I'm not sure how PBR does their reporting. They documented the velocity jump of another kid who pitched during state semi finals (they had the date listed), but didn't document my son's. Not sure how they decide what events and who gets documented. State semis were at a AAA stadium so the velo was on the big screen. I'm not bitter....much
