Frequently Asked Questions

• Who provides the ProRank services?

• What can I do with the information that I receive?

• How long does it take to do the testing and get feedback?

• What tests are used, and will I need special equipment?

• How accurate are the tests, and what will they tell me about my potential?

• What are the unique features of the ProRank fantasy & rotisserie services?

Who provides the ProRank services?

Our talent identification, talent development, and fantasy/rotisserie services are provided by a team of coaches, sport scientists, and performance analysts  with one thing in common - baseball fever.  We have decades of experience in all facets of the game; from playing, coaching, and scouting to team management, program development/administration, and statistical forecasting.  We have also worked at numerous levels from local Pony Leagues to Major League organizations like the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Baltimore Orioles.  In brief, we are an organization that knows what it takes to progress from one level to the next in this game; knows how to identify and develop baseball talent; and knows how to evaluate current performance as well as future potential.

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What can I do with the information that I receive?

It depends on who you are and what services you purchase.   If you are a baseball coach, then you can use our talent identification service to help you screen large groups of players in a short period of time.  This is particularly useful for camp situations where you might see many players in a few days but don't get to see some players as much as you'd like.  Coaches can also use our talent identification feedback to build their own rank-ordered database of players so that potential recruits can be evaluated against players with whom they are familiar.

If you are a baseball player, then you can use our talent development service to get detailed information about the current strengths and weaknesses of your tools package.  This information will help you to establish priorities and set goals for personal development within the physical and/or mental aspects of your game.   If you repeat the tests at a later point in time, you will also be able to monitor progress and, if necessary, make adjustments to your training program.

If you are a fantasy or rotisserie team owner, then you can use our comprehensive positional rankings to accurately evaluate Major League players for trades, roster cuts, draft preparation, and in-season team management.   You can also use our MLE-based rankings of AAA players to evaluate prospects for inclusion in your reserve squads.  All of our lists are generated using eligibility rules and scoring categories from your league as the basis for the rankings, and they include summary stats in the scoring categories as well as league-specific rotisserie dollar values and additional diagnostic stats.  With this information in hand, you will be in a commanding position within your league from the preseason to the playoffs.

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How long does it take to do the testing and get feedback?

Not very long at all.  We know that coaches and players are busy people, so we have streamlined our testing procedures to get maximum information in the shortest possible time.

If you are a coach who is screening a group of players, it should take you about 30 minutes to set  up the testing stations according to the instructions in our manual and then about 1 hour for every 25 players to conduct the tests.  If you prefer to space the tests over several days rather than do them all at once, it should only take 15-20 minutes per day for about 5 days.

If you are a player who is self-administering the tests for personal development purposes, it will probably take you about an hour to complete the battery of field tests.  The mental skills assessment would take about another 30 minutes.

Once you send us the test results for processing and make your final payment, we will do our best to email our report to you within 72 hours.  It sometimes takes us a little longer if there are a lot of players involved, but we make every effort to give you a 3-day turnaround.

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What tests are used, and will I need special equipment?

Our physical tools test battery consists of a few passive measures (height, weight, etc.) and 4 field tests.  The field tests measure foot speed, arm strength, and power potential.  All of these tests are very brief, and most of them can be administered with a clipboard, a stop watch, and a measuring tape.  The only test that requires specialized equipment is the arm strength test, which requires a radar gun.  If you cannot get access to a radar gun, we can still estimate arm strength on the basis of performance on the other tests, but that is obviously less accurate than having the actual radar gun readings.

Questionnaires are used for the mental skills assessment.  These questionnaires include measures of traits and abilities that sport psychologists have found to be associated with high-level performance in baseball and other sports.

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How accurate are the tests, and what will they tell me about my potential?

Our tests are extremely accurate.  The current test battery is the result of more than a decade of development, evaluation, and refinement.  We have examined many protocols for assessing baseball  talent, but we've only kept measures that satisfy scientific criteria and relate to performance outcomes.  From a scientific perspective, all of our physical tools tests have short-term, test-retest  reliabilities that exceed .85.  Put simply, that means if you administered these tests to the same players twice in the same week, you'd get essentially the same scores both times.

More importantly, we know that scores on these tests have a strong relationship to the level at which a player competes, the extent to which he is able to attract scholarship money, and the degree to which he is viewed as a professional prospect by Major League organizations.  These relationships can be illustrated using test results from a group of 60 Junior College and NCAA Division I players who we tested in late 1997.   The following table shows that the overall ProRank Index was much higher for Division I players (most of whom were on scholarship) than for Junior College players (most of whom were not on scholarship).

At the same time, we tested 15 players who had either been drafted by Major League teams in the past or who were subsequently drafted in June of 1998.  The second table shows that the overall ProRank Index was also much higher for players who were drafted than for players who were not drafted.

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Baseball
Video
Series
(13 tapes)

Softball Video Series
(8 tapes)

Sports
Speed
(2nd ed.)

Complete Conditioning for Baseball

What are the unique features of the ProRank fantasy and rotisserie services?

First, we customize all of our fantasy and rotisserie products according to the way your league is structured.  Because we do that, our player rankings are adjusted according to the factors that produce success in your competition.  It doesn't matter if you participate in a standard 4 x 4 league, a standard 5 x 5 league, or a hybrid league that uses non-standard categories; our rankings will reflect what matters to you rather than what matters to other people.

Second, in addition to summary statistics in your scoring categories, we provide you with multiple ranking indices and important diagnostic stats.  The ranking indices consist of our own ProRank Index and league-specific rotisserie dollar values.  These indices allow you to make extremely accurate comparisons among players when trimming your roster, constructing draft lists, bidding on free agents, evaluating trade possibilities, and monitoring in-season performance.  And, because they are standardized across all positions, you can use them to make direct comparisons between hitters and pitchers.  The diagnostic stats have been carefully chosen on the basis of extensive first-hand experience with on-field player evaluation as well as a solid knowledge of  sabermetrics.  They are extremely useful for projecting performance stability/change, and they allow you to make informed decisions about players with similar overall rankings.

Finally, we provide rankings for AAA players based on Major League equivalents (MLEs) so that you can identify and track prospects before they establish themselves at the Major League level.  If your league allows you to maintain a reserve list, this information will help you to stock it with players who have the best chance of future success.  Even if your league doesn't allow reserve lists, our MLE rankings will help you to determine how much of an impact a minor league player is likely to have if/when he is called up.

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