player Ranking

It means they think he is good...very good.

Enjoy the games. Your son is committed to a perennial top-40 program. Thats really all you need to know.

He got a 9.5 that is outstanding. He is ranked #392 out of all the hs players in the nation. That is outstanding as well. He is going to UGA in the SEC. Outstanding as well.

Why is he ranked #392? Because those that put the rankings out believe there are 391 players ahead of him and thousands behind him.

Players rankings change all the time. Sometimes because someone sees them and they have a great game. Sometimes because they have a so so game. Sometimes because some new kids come onto the seen and play really well. Sometimes because others drop or rise in the rankings as well.

None of this is going to matter one bit when he steps on the UGA campus in a couple of short months from now. Absolutely none of it. Enjoy your summer.

There are over 478,000 high school baseball players. 392 is a pretty good ranking. UGA isn't too shabby of a baseball school. I don't understand the problem.

This sounds more like a way of bragging and trying to downplay it more than anything else. Everybody knows where a 392 ranking stands out of 478,000.

The problem is, I was wondering why players ranked as 7.5 and 8.0 were ranked several hundred slots lower.I have no problem with this all. I wanted to know from PG was what were the rankings based on.I completely understand how lucky we are to to to a great school like UGA.Why you think I am complaining I don't understand. I was merely asking PG for an explaination.

quote:

The problem is, I was wondering why players ranked as 7.5 and 8.0 were ranked several hundred slots lower.

That is a legitimate question, no doubt and I have seen PG answer it before and I am sure he'll answer it again for you.

Look, welcome to the hsbbweb btw. Some friendly advice, but we see posts here all the time that seem disguised as questions but more often than not appear like infomercials for someone's infinitely gifted child.

If your aim was to find out what you posted in the second post then ask that question. If your aim is to announce something about your son then we have a signing forum for announcements, we have a high school reporting thread for bragging and/or results, and we even have the infamous PG thread with over 100,000 posts where he invites people to tell us about your son. Transparency is always a good idea Again, welcome!

astro21,

Sorry I just saw this thread and it's getting late.

Actually I would prefer not to discuss your son because it is very easy to figure out who he is. This could cause some discomfort for everyone concerned. Let us leave it at... We think he is very talented.

Regarding others with a lower grade being ranked ahead of him... I would really doubt there are any 7 or even 8 graded players ahead of him. However it is possible for something like that happening. I can only comment if I know the exact situation and players that someone is talking about. This is probably not a good place to mention names and talk about that.

We only grade players at showcase events. This is because we can't always see everything that we need to grade on, at a game or tournament. However, it is possible that we graded a player an 8 and then saw him again at a game or tournament where he showed us things we didn't see previously. That player could jump up in the rankings but his grade would remain the same from whatever specific event he was at earlier because that is what we actually graded him at that event. Same goes for a higher graded player keeping the grade even though we saw him later and thought we had him graded too high.

It's just like a scout grading someone a 40 one time and then after seeing him again give him a 50 or higher OFP. This could be because of seeing him at two different positions or because he was that much better one time over the other. Obviously it can go the other way, too.

Anyway, the rankings change frequently as we see players. Your son is a 2011 player so all I can say is that a year from now he might be "ranked" much higher and it's possible he could be "ranked" lower. Truth is we are in the process of completely updating the 2011 list now. It's a very tough job that involves listening to many complaints.

It sounds like U of Georgia agrees with how we graded your son. BTW, we are very close to the coaching staff there.

You are welcome to ask questions here or you can email us with questions. Your opinions and questions will be met with respect. We look forward to seeing your son play this year. Congratulations on the verbal commitment and best of luck.

question re the pro rankings - what would the difference between 40 and 50 be as far as projectability - and is there a rough method of comparing pro # to PG #. eg 40 = 8?, 50 = 9? approximately of course.

My son has a friend who was tested as a 47 at a recent scout combine.

TX

liner,

Most all of our scouts have MLB scouting backgrounds. We purposely grade on a 10 point system so that people don't confuse our grade with the MLB Scale. This is because we are grading on two separate things… College Potential and Professional or MLB Potential. Potential is the key word and it’s also the toughest to determine. We tend to give any benefit of doubt to the player because we have seen so many cases where players have improved dramatically in a couple years time. Thus our grades tend to be a bit on the high side (maximum potential) at times. Remember its scouting and evaluating along with predicting the future… this can and does lead to mistakes being made at times. Everyone involved in this stuff has made mistakes. Scouts and recruiters are well aware of that. However, a grade above 9 means we feel fairly certain about that player’s potential.

The 2-8 or 20-80 scale is something we use internally, but we don't release those grades. A 50 is MLB average. In its simplest form, if a player runs a 6.8-6.9 60 or a 4.2-4.3 Home to First time from the right side he would grade out 50 as a runner. Actually there are other things that could affect the running grade also.

Anyway, being that 50 is MLB average, a 50 grade on the MLB scale would be a high grade on our 10 point scale, at least a 9.

Keep in mind that MLB Scouting reports can have two grades. One based on current ability (tools) and another based on Future Potential (Projection). Sometimes the numbers can show a 40 now and 50 later and sometimes it can be the other way around. Also keep in mind that scouts can add or subtract from an overall grade if they see areas that they like or dislike.

Regarding the 47 you mentioned. It is not normal that a player would know his grade, but a 47 is very good. He would be slightly below MLB average ability based on that scouts opinion who graded him. The thing to be careful about is if the “scout combine” you refer to involved MLB scouts, the Bureau, or just some guys using the MLB scale. That could make a big difference in the accuracy or actual value of the grade.

An overall 50 grade on the MLB scale would be an overall 10 on our scale. There just aren’t that many of them out there. Obviously all 10s are not equal and that is where the rankings separate the 10s. And remember that a player can be graded very high at one thing and still have a low overall grade. Sometimes you will see this with extremely good runners who grade out a 70 but the other tools pull the overall grade way down.

In our 10 point system everything is graded and then averaged out. We score heavily in areas like playability and instincts. Usually if a player has at least two tools with one of them being “hit” he will score very high 9-10. If he hits well enough, he could score high with just that one tool. As mentioned if the one tool is “run” it would require more in order to be considered a serious pro prospect.

The other thing is that when we give out a grade it is based on one of two things. College potential and Pro potential. This either/or grading tends to confuse some people and we have been thinking about changing it. However I don’t think it confuses the college recruiters or MLB scouts.

Sometimes there can be a player that we think could be a star player at any college in the country, but he might not have the necessary tools to be a great pro prospect at the time. From time to time there is the extremely projectable player who is actually a better pro prospect than a college prospect. In our 10 point system they could be either/or. And of course, often they are both.

Hope I’ve kept this fairly simple, probably not. Our philosophy is simple though. We know we will be wrong at times, but we will never be wrong on purpose!

Let me start off by saying how sorry I am about the wording of my first post to this board.I know I have nothing to brag about, my son conributes on a very good team and is by no means a star.Maybe a little background will explain why I ask the question here.My wife sent PG an e-about two months ago wondering about the rankings and never got a response.I know PG contributes on this board and that is why I ask my inital question here.

thanks, very comprehensive!

The 47 had committed to a D1 as a junior from what i understand.

Another thing to consider is that there are new players showing up in the rankings on a regular basis. A few of them are top players. Any player who maintains their ranking over a long period of time despite the new players being added to the rankings is doing quite well.

quote:

Originally posted by astro21:
The problem is, I was wondering why players ranked as 7.5 and 8.0 were ranked several hundred slots lower.I have no problem with this all. I wanted to know from PG was what were the rankings based on.I completely understand how lucky we are to to to a great school like UGA.Why you think I am complaining I don't understand. I was merely asking PG for an explaination.

Ratings and rankings are an inexact science. It goes back to my theory on rankings- there are only two that should matter to you. The college program that signs your kid and the pro team that drafts your kid. All the other stuff is superfluous. Don't get caught up in it. I'm not saying they are bad. I AM saying you shouldn't worry about it.

First of all, the rankings are extremely important to those who are ranked. Nearly every top college recruiter would admit that. There's a reason why those schools mention the rankings when talking about the players they have successfully recruited. If a player is ranked high on the list he will definitely get a lot of interest from colleges and MLB scouts. There's just way too many cases where this has proven to be true. In fact, it has been true in every case. The first step is identifying who the best players are. We are not idiots who can't recognize talent and college recruiters and scouts know that. So if we rank a player highly, it's going to always create a lot of interest.

playball21,

We have associates and good contacts throughout the country. Many of the best travel teams in the country play in our tournaments and they want to promote their top players.

There is not a day that goes by that we don't get reports on hundreds of players all over the nation. Our people actually see most of those players recognized as top prospects in addition to everything else. That said, it is always best when we actually see the players ourself whether that be at one of our events or another event that we scout.

Also we work closely with those involved with ECP, TOS, and Area Codes and we are partners in charge of selecting the players for the Aflac All American Game. We couldn't do that very well if we didn't know who the top players were. In addition we have many of the 30 MLB Scouting Directors on our PG scouting committee.

So in many cases our list is their list and their list is our list. If that doesn't mean anything we are wasting a lot of time and money trying to get things right.

PG Staff-

2013 son recently took part in Il indoor showcase and received a 7.5 grade. He is a RHP pitcher and corner infielder and participated in all of the position player drills and also did the pitchers bullpen session topping out at 81 mph. He's a decent high school position player but his future in college will most defintiely be as a pitcher. In future PG events would it be better for him to only participate as a pitcher? He probably graded out as a 7 for position play and 8 for pitching and ended up 7 1/2 (?). Thank you and please advise when able.

johnj,

If he's going to be a pitcher, make sure that is listed as his primary position. As a 2013 I would still have him play a position if he wants. BTW, you could be correct about that situation. Still it will be most important where he is in another year or so.

Usually we grade a player on what he does best, but it can get cluttered at times when young kids are doing everything.

Sometimes it is hard to answer questions without knowing which player we are talking about because they are all different.

Best of luck

I want to thank you ,for the imput from this board. I received an explanation from PG and now I understand the ranking system.This also helped our son understand.I am sure most of you know, teammates can be very competive

PG,

Are the player profile ratings (1-10) based solely on the performance of the showcase or do you also contact summer coach/hs coach to get input.

gap2gap,

We do get lots of information from coaches, but we can only grade on what we see.