Fan Scouting Report results - 2008

Tom Tango has posted the results of the annual Fan scouting report in which some of you participated. For those of you who are not familiar with the survey, he asked fans to rate the fielding skills of players on their favorite teams just based on observation and instructed them not to use any stats at all. Fans were asked to scout players on reaction/instincts, acceleration/first few steps, speed, hands, release/footwork, throwing strength and throwing accuracy.

He then tabulated the results which can be seen in detail at his site. Each player ends up with a score between 0 and 100 on each of the 7 skills. Tango explains that the league average rating for each of the 7 categories is 50 and that a player with a rating of 70 or better is in top 16% in the league. Remember that those benchmarks are for all fielders, not for a particular position. For example, if a first baseman and a shortstop both have a composite score of 50, they are considered to have average fielding skills. However, the typical shortstop is a better fielder than the typical first baseman. Thus, the first baseman will be ranked higher at his position than the
shortstop will at his position.

I'll be looking at the results throughout the winter but I'll start by listing the composite scores for the available or potentially available shortstops:

Omar Vizquel 82
Rafael Furcal 81
Khalil Greene 77
Jack Wilson 76
Cesar Izturis 70
Ramon Santiago 64
Adam Everett 63
Bobby Crosby 55
Julio Lugo 39
Edgar Renteria 35

The highest ranked shortstop is John McDonald at 87 and the lowest score is Alex Cintron at 16.