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Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The 2008 Scouting Report, By the Fans, For the Fans
It’s the 6th Annual Fans’ Scouting Report.
Every year, I get a jump in participation, from the first year where I had close to 500 ballots, to last year where it exceeded 2000 ballots. If you’ve enjoyed my blog, appreciated my work, or somehow wondered what you could do in return, this is it. All I ask from you is 5-10 minutes of your time, and we’ll call it even. And, if you have a blog, please, spread the word.
I am extremely grateful to all those who take a few minutes out of their lives to share their observations with the rest of the fans. Your contributions exceed whatever you think it may be worth. As we continue to build upon the past reports, this data now begins to take on historical value.
I know only of gushing reports about the fielding of Paul Blair. Mickey Stanley sounds like some cross between Darin Erstad and Endy Chavez. That is based on the writings of the generation that preceded me. In my generation, I can only attest to the fielding prowess of Gary Pettis. The new generation knows as little about Pettis, as I know of Blair and Stanley. When the next generation comes along, I want to be able to point them to the Fans Scouting Report as the contemporaneous view of the fielding talents of Ichiro and Rolen. And Manny and Dunn. We can breathe life into their fielding accomplishments.
Thank you for your invaluable time.
Tom
UPDATE: For anyone who entered data for any of the following players (see list below) from the start of the poll 2 days ago until now (Aug 20, Wed, 2pm): please re-enter your data for those players only. I found a small bug which I quickly repaired. All other data has been properly recorded and stored. I apologize for this issue. I should have done a better job at quality control. (This only affected the first record of 11 teams.)
NYA Cano, Robinson
NYN Wright, David
OAK Crosby, Bobby
PHI Utley, Chase
PIT McLouth, Nate
SDN Gonzalez, Adrian
SEA Suzuki, Ichiro
SFN Rowand, Aaron
SLN Glaus, Troy
TBA Iwamura, Akinori
TEX Kinsler, Ian
TOR Overbay, Lyle