How Do You Rate Draft Prospects?

[Stotle]

What is your method?

1) Scouting yourself?

2) Reading scouting write-ups?

3) Reading articles from media sources like Baseball America?

4) Looking at their statistics?

5) MLB-Draft.com?

6) Other?

Which methods do you think are the most accurate? Since most will be marking multiple boxes, how do place each of the above in importance?

[McNulty]

I trust my own eyeballs, which is why I'm so vehemently defending Buster Posey around here. But obviously being in Florida only exposes me to so much, so reading BA and BP is definitely the way to go.

You should of included the message boards in the poll, because my brain is way too muddled to keep everything straight without you and Greg pointing things out to me.

[Greg Pappas]

Good thread.

I've mentioned this a few times before, but... my site (MLB-Draft.com) uses a diverse criteria for determining the ratings/rankings of draft prospects. It is a formula based upon the 'collective' opinion of each player. I use Baseball America (BA), Baseball Prospectus (BP), MiLB.com, MaxPreps, various additional scouting reports and even the occassional personal conversation with player's head coaches as resources.

If every resource says that John Doe is the best player in the draft, I tend to think that he is. If half the resources say Mike Doe is a good defender at 3B, while the other half says he's merely adequate, I would tend to call him average until further notice. Each resource's views on players are weighted a bit more or less than others, as I've learned over the years which do the best jobs of being the most accurate and informed. There are also times that I use my own instincts and feel pretty strongly in favor of raising a player's collective ranking up or moving him down. I usually do well when that happens, which is encouraging.

Again, cool thread.

[Mackus]

Everything but scout myself.

But by far, my biggest source of information are the guys here like Markpolis and Greg.

[markpolis]

Thanks Mackus.

I voted for "all of the above". I use every source possible to draw my own conclusions about the players. Having played college baseball, I would love to watch the players more in person, but it's not really possible, so I rely on others to do most of the scouting.

Also, I really take into account how a player does in the summer leagues, such as the Cape Cod league and other summer All-Star leagues. It's one thing to hit .450 against inferior competition, but to do it against other quality prospects (some using wooden bats) is indicative of future success.

[allstar1579]

Thanks Mackus.

I voted for "all of the above". I use every source possible to draw my own conclusions about the players. Having played college baseball, I would love to watch the players more in person, but it's not really possible, so I rely on others to do most of the scouting.

Also, I really take into account how a player does in the summer leagues, such as the Cape Cod league and other summer All-Star leagues. It's one thing to hit .450 against inferior competition, but to do it against other quality prospects (some using wooden bats) is indicative of future success.

Exactly the same here. I try to catch as many games as I can, but for some reason life doesn't leave too much time to scout players for free