2009 Fans' Scouting Report

The Reds are currently badly underrepresented in the annual Fan Scouting Report dataset. We currently have had 15 ballots submitted, compared to 55 last year. The only teams with fewer ballots this year are the Pirates (14) and Marlins (12). Even the Royals have 26 ballots, people! The Royals!

What is the Fans' Scouting Report? It's the best quantitative, publically-available, skills-based assessment of player fielding ability that is available to the public. It is the best check against objective fielding measures that we have. It is the only stat that explicitly separates arm strength from accuracy, or first step from sprint speed. It is my go-to fielding stat for any player who has played less than a full year in the big leagues (UZR is not particularly reliable before ~2 years of data), and it can be yours too!

But we need a good sample of informed opinion to make the scouting data reliable. So please, if you have a few minutes and have watched more than 10 Reds games this season, please click on the link above and provide your assessment of the fielding skills of our Reds. You can rate as many (or few) players as you like, and can omit any skills that you do not feel comfortable evaluating. Remember, do not consider fielding stats when filling out your ballot--this is supposed to be a scouting exercise! Thanks! -j

about 1 month ago JinAZ 8 comments 0 recs |

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Links if you're interested in learning more about the "Fans data"

http://jinaz-reds.blogspot.com/2007/10/player-value-part-3a-fielding.html
http://jinaz-reds.blogspot.com/2007/10/player-value-part-3b-comparing-of.html
http://jinaz-reds.blogspot.com/2007/11/where-should-they-be-playing.html

The last one is one of my favorite articles that I did with these data, where I tried to evaluate where Reds players should be playing based on their fielding skillsets (this was looking at the 2007 team). If we get a nice sample for the 2009 team, it’s an exercise that I’d enjoy doing again here at Red Reporter.
-j

I write at:
Beyond the Boxscore
Red Reporter
Basement-Dwellers.com
Twitter: @jinazreds

by JinAZ on Sep 30, 2009 10:47 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

You guys (and gals?) rock

2 hours later and we’re at 30 submissions. Still could use more, but we’ve already doubled our sample size. :)

Also, I’ve recommended to Tango that he add Drew Stubbs to the list of players. I’d certainly like to get Fans data on him as we look to next year. If Tango adds him, I’ll reply again here. -j

I write at:
Beyond the Boxscore
Red Reporter
Basement-Dwellers.com
Twitter: @jinazreds

by JinAZ on Sep 30, 2009 12:52 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Now we're at 40

Thanks folks. I feel good about the dataset for most players. Some still have only a handful of ratings (e.g. Craig Tatum—any Louisville fans out there that can comment on him?).

Tango said that Stubbs would be on the list tomorrow.
-j

I write at:
Beyond the Boxscore
Red Reporter
Basement-Dwellers.com
Twitter: @jinazreds

by JinAZ on Sep 30, 2009 9:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs