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ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:15 pm Who calculates those team ratings?

Internal scouting
Who: Professional scouts employed by each MLB team. They assess players using a standardized scouting scale, with grades ranging from 20 to 80, and are responsible for the team's official prospect list.
How: Based on observable performance and data. Scouts grade players on a variety of tools (e.g., hitting, fielding, arm strength) and combine these to calculate an "Overall Future Potential" (OFP) score.
External rankings
Who: Media outlets like ESPN, FanGraphs, and Baseball America. These outlets often employ former front office executives and scouts to provide analysis. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel is an example of an analyst who provides these rankings.
How: Based on a combination of data and subjective evaluation. These outlets analyze a combination of scouting reports, advanced data, and their own expert opinions to create their rankings for the public, as explained by FanGraphs and Baseball America.

I would approach those prospect rating with healthy skepticism before I made a trade based upon that. Those ratings could be doctored to make a prospect appear to be more appealing than he is for the intended purpose of trading him for better return.

Carp4Cy wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:19 pm

ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:15 pm Who calculates those team ratings?

Internal scouting
Who: Professional scouts employed by each MLB team. They assess players using a standardized scouting scale, with grades ranging from 20 to 80, and are responsible for the team's official prospect list.
How: Based on observable performance and data. Scouts grade players on a variety of tools (e.g., hitting, fielding, arm strength) and combine these to calculate an "Overall Future Potential" (OFP) score.
External rankings
Who: Media outlets like ESPN, FanGraphs, and Baseball America. These outlets often employ former front office executives and scouts to provide analysis. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel is an example of an analyst who provides these rankings.
How: Based on a combination of data and subjective evaluation. These outlets analyze a combination of scouting reports, advanced data, and their own expert opinions to create their rankings for the public, as explained by FanGraphs and Baseball America.

I would approach those prospect rating with healthy skepticism before I made a trade based upon that. Those ratings could be doctored to make a prospect appear to be more appealing than he is for the intended purpose of trading him for better return.

Not to mention, internal scouts might have insider information about a prospect - injury risk, pain in shoulder, mental health, attitude, attention span and ability to learn, time spent at practice, hustle off the field, leadership/teammate qualities, etc that are never published. The prospect's coaches should always know more about a player they control than outside scouts can possibly garner from just watching on field performance.

ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:15 pm Who calculates those team ratings?

Internal scouting
Who: Professional scouts employed by each MLB team. They assess players using a standardized scouting scale, with grades ranging from 20 to 80, and are responsible for the team's official prospect list.
How: Based on observable performance and data. Scouts grade players on a variety of tools (e.g., hitting, fielding, arm strength) and combine these to calculate an "Overall Future Potential" (OFP) score.
External rankings
Who: Media outlets like ESPN, FanGraphs, and Baseball America. These outlets often employ former front office executives and scouts to provide analysis. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel is an example of an analyst who provides these rankings.
How: Based on a combination of data and subjective evaluation. These outlets analyze a combination of scouting reports, advanced data, and their own expert opinions to create their rankings for the public, as explained by FanGraphs and Baseball America.

I would approach those prospect rating with healthy skepticism before I made a trade based upon that. Those ratings could be doctored to make a prospect appear to be more appealing than he is for the intended purpose of trading him for better return.

NYCardsFan wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:39 pm

ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:15 pm Who calculates those team ratings?

Internal scouting
Who: Professional scouts employed by each MLB team. They assess players using a standardized scouting scale, with grades ranging from 20 to 80, and are responsible for the team's official prospect list.
How: Based on observable performance and data. Scouts grade players on a variety of tools (e.g., hitting, fielding, arm strength) and combine these to calculate an "Overall Future Potential" (OFP) score.
External rankings
Who: Media outlets like ESPN, FanGraphs, and Baseball America. These outlets often employ former front office executives and scouts to provide analysis. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel is an example of an analyst who provides these rankings.
How: Based on a combination of data and subjective evaluation. These outlets analyze a combination of scouting reports, advanced data, and their own expert opinions to create their rankings for the public, as explained by FanGraphs and Baseball America.

I would approach those prospect rating with healthy skepticism before I made a trade based upon that. Those ratings could be doctored to make a prospect appear to be more appealing than he is for the intended purpose of trading him for better return.

No team is making trades based on "external" ratings, whether from another team or a third party. Those third-party/outisde ratings are a source of independent information/evaluation, just like sell-side research reports are in public equity and debt markets. Sophisticated market participants (in baseball, finance, etc.) often consume third-party research as additional input, but they don't make decisions based on it, and they certainly don't rely on their potential counterparties' evaluations.

NYCardsFan wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:39 pmNo team is making trades based on "external" ratings, whether from another team or a third party. Those third-party/outisde ratings are a source of independent information/evaluation, just like sell-side research reports are in public equity and debt markets. Sophisticated market participants (in baseball, finance, etc.) often consume third-party research as additional input, but they don't make decisions based on it, and they certainly don't rely on their potential counterparties' evaluations.

Ronnie Dobbs wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 14:23 pm

NYCardsFan wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:39 pmNo team is making trades based on "external" ratings, whether from another team or a third party. Those third-party/outisde ratings are a source of independent information/evaluation, just like sell-side research reports are in public equity and debt markets. Sophisticated market participants (in baseball, finance, etc.) often consume third-party research as additional input, but they don't make decisions based on it, and they certainly don't rely on their potential counterparties' evaluations.

That's my thoughs as well. I mean, maybe they might use some of the external rankings to compare to their own, just to see if there might be something they missed. I have to think that teams who spend millions on an entire system to scout players and develop prospects aren't going to just subscribe to Baseball America and make decisions that way.

I'm pretty sure I've heard Derrick Goold talk about this. All teams have their own internal rankings, and not just for prospects. I'm just throwing out some names, but one team might think that JJ Wetherholt is the top prospect in the draft, while another might rank Trey Yesavage. Or Baseball America might rank some guy #1 in the Mariners system and the Cardinals make a trade instead for their #4 and people might wonder why, but maybe the Cardinals just might rank that #4 a lot higher.

ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:15 pm Who calculates those team ratings?

Internal scouting
Who: Professional scouts employed by each MLB team. They assess players using a standardized scouting scale, with grades ranging from 20 to 80, and are responsible for the team's official prospect list.
How: Based on observable performance and data. Scouts grade players on a variety of tools (e.g., hitting, fielding, arm strength) and combine these to calculate an "Overall Future Potential" (OFP) score.
External rankings
Who: Media outlets like ESPN, FanGraphs, and Baseball America. These outlets often employ former front office executives and scouts to provide analysis. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel is an example of an analyst who provides these rankings.
How: Based on a combination of data and subjective evaluation. These outlets analyze a combination of scouting reports, advanced data, and their own expert opinions to create their rankings for the public, as explained by FanGraphs and Baseball America.

I would approach those prospect rating with healthy skepticism before I made a trade based upon that. Those ratings could be doctored to make a prospect appear to be more appealing than he is for the intended purpose of trading him for better return.

ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 14:03 pm

NYCardsFan wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:39 pm

ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:15 pm Who calculates those team ratings?

Internal scouting
Who: Professional scouts employed by each MLB team. They assess players using a standardized scouting scale, with grades ranging from 20 to 80, and are responsible for the team's official prospect list.
How: Based on observable performance and data. Scouts grade players on a variety of tools (e.g., hitting, fielding, arm strength) and combine these to calculate an "Overall Future Potential" (OFP) score.
External rankings
Who: Media outlets like ESPN, FanGraphs, and Baseball America. These outlets often employ former front office executives and scouts to provide analysis. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel is an example of an analyst who provides these rankings.
How: Based on a combination of data and subjective evaluation. These outlets analyze a combination of scouting reports, advanced data, and their own expert opinions to create their rankings for the public, as explained by FanGraphs and Baseball America.

I would approach those prospect rating with healthy skepticism before I made a trade based upon that. Those ratings could be doctored to make a prospect appear to be more appealing than he is for the intended purpose of trading him for better return.

No team is making trades based on "external" ratings, whether from another team or a third party. Those third-party/outisde ratings are a source of independent information/evaluation, just like sell-side research reports are in public equity and debt markets. Sophisticated market participants (in baseball, finance, etc.) often consume third-party research as additional input, but they don't make decisions based on it, and they certainly don't rely on their potential counterparties' evaluations.

I suspect to some extent teams do rely on third party evaluations. When I see trade discussions I regularly see "so and so is the #... in the system".

ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:15 pm Who calculates those team ratings?

Internal scouting
Who: Professional scouts employed by each MLB team. They assess players using a standardized scouting scale, with grades ranging from 20 to 80, and are responsible for the team's official prospect list.
How: Based on observable performance and data. Scouts grade players on a variety of tools (e.g., hitting, fielding, arm strength) and combine these to calculate an "Overall Future Potential" (OFP) score.
External rankings
Who: Media outlets like ESPN, FanGraphs, and Baseball America. These outlets often employ former front office executives and scouts to provide analysis. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel is an example of an analyst who provides these rankings.
How: Based on a combination of data and subjective evaluation. These outlets analyze a combination of scouting reports, advanced data, and their own expert opinions to create their rankings for the public, as explained by FanGraphs and Baseball America.

I would approach those prospect rating with healthy skepticism before I made a trade based upon that. Those ratings could be doctored to make a prospect appear to be more appealing than he is for the intended purpose of trading him for better return.

ramfandan wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 16:31 pm No different than NFL .. Teams don’t draft guys by ranking of Mel Kiper or Todd McShay …lol

NYCardsFan wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 15:08 pm

ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 14:03 pm

NYCardsFan wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:39 pm

ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:15 pm Who calculates those team ratings?

Internal scouting
Who: Professional scouts employed by each MLB team. They assess players using a standardized scouting scale, with grades ranging from 20 to 80, and are responsible for the team's official prospect list.
How: Based on observable performance and data. Scouts grade players on a variety of tools (e.g., hitting, fielding, arm strength) and combine these to calculate an "Overall Future Potential" (OFP) score.
External rankings
Who: Media outlets like ESPN, FanGraphs, and Baseball America. These outlets often employ former front office executives and scouts to provide analysis. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel is an example of an analyst who provides these rankings.
How: Based on a combination of data and subjective evaluation. These outlets analyze a combination of scouting reports, advanced data, and their own expert opinions to create their rankings for the public, as explained by FanGraphs and Baseball America.

I would approach those prospect rating with healthy skepticism before I made a trade based upon that. Those ratings could be doctored to make a prospect appear to be more appealing than he is for the intended purpose of trading him for better return.

No team is making trades based on "external" ratings, whether from another team or a third party. Those third-party/outisde ratings are a source of independent information/evaluation, just like sell-side research reports are in public equity and debt markets. Sophisticated market participants (in baseball, finance, etc.) often consume third-party research as additional input, but they don't make decisions based on it, and they certainly don't rely on their potential counterparties' evaluations.

I suspect to some extent teams do rely on third party evaluations. When I see trade discussions I regularly see "so and so is the #... in the system".

You regularly see "so and so is the #... in the system" because that is the publicly available information to which the reporter has access.

ecleme22 wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 16:00 pm

ScotchMIrish wrote: ↑19 Nov 2025 13:15 pm Who calculates those team ratings?

Internal scouting
Who: Professional scouts employed by each MLB team. They assess players using a standardized scouting scale, with grades ranging from 20 to 80, and are responsible for the team's official prospect list.
How: Based on observable performance and data. Scouts grade players on a variety of tools (e.g., hitting, fielding, arm strength) and combine these to calculate an "Overall Future Potential" (OFP) score.
External rankings
Who: Media outlets like ESPN, FanGraphs, and Baseball America. These outlets often employ former front office executives and scouts to provide analysis. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel is an example of an analyst who provides these rankings.
How: Based on a combination of data and subjective evaluation. These outlets analyze a combination of scouting reports, advanced data, and their own expert opinions to create their rankings for the public, as explained by FanGraphs and Baseball America.

I would approach those prospect rating with healthy skepticism before I made a trade based upon that. Those ratings could be doctored to make a prospect appear to be more appealing than he is for the intended purpose of trading him for better return.

No good organization blindly trusts other organizations.

If Bloom has a good system, his team knows what players they want in other orgs. Dark horses, diamonds in the rough, etc.