from Amazon
Monday, October 10, 2011
No A+ prospects?
John Sickels tries to explain it.
It was pointed out yesterday that through 16 years of prospect analysis, I have never given anyone a Grade A+. Commentators wondered if Alex Rodriguez or Andruw Jones would have been worthy of such a grade, and if not them, who?
Star-divide
To me, a Grade A+ hitting prospect would be a player with 80 ratings in every traditional scouting category, as well as outstanding plate discipline, terrific makeup factors, and flawless statistics. He would be very young for his levels, and already playing a premium defensive position with present Gold-Glove caliber defense. I have never see a prospect like that.
A Grade A+ pitching prospect would have four plus-plus pitches, exceptional command and control, a great body, perfect mechanics, no injury history, outstanding makeup, and a brilliant performance record. Again, I’ve never seen anyone like that. There is always some flaw somewhere, no matter how minor.
Maybe that is just an impossible standard, but to me an A+ would mean “this player has no discernable problems or issues to work on at all.” A Grade A+ prospect would be a Platonic ideal.
I wonder what he would say about Wayne Gretzky or Magic Johnson? Gretzky would have some “hole” that would you could theoretically expose I guess. But, man, if you simply outright say that it’s a one in a billion shot to be an A+, then your letter grade of A becomes the defacto highest possible grade. And if you do that, I can bet you that there’s some A players that are better than others, and that you’d really want to move some of them to A+.