mace
02-06-2011, 03:17 PM
Every year at this time, discussion crops up about whether we should extend the prospect poll beyond 40. There's always some sentiment in that direction, but not enough traction to get it done. I think most of us agree that, this year, the pool is the deepest we've dealt with. In that light, might I suggest an expedient way to take the list to 50?
Rather than have 10 more separate polls, which could become laborious (we're already losing voters), what if we did it in one fell swoop? We list a slate of candidates and have everybody vote for them on a 1-10 basis, 10 votes per person. Then we tally them (10 points for 1st, 9 for 2nd, etc.) and in one poll we complete #41-50. (It might yield a truer reading if we had everybody vote 1-15, but still stopped at #50. That way, it credits candidates that we still favor more than others.)
I don't know how to construct the poll, although it wouldn't be terribly difficult to simply have everybody post their list and then hand-tally them. A more techy type could probably come up with a better method.
I figure that the pool of candidates should include around 25-30 players. As a point of reference, it might look something like this (presuming that the final three of the top 40, as indicated by last poll, will be Humberto Valor, Matt Fairel and Jordan Hotchkiss):
Pitchers:
Matt Klinker
Scott Carroll
Josh Ravin
Tanner Robles
Daniel Tuttle
Wes Mugarian
Luis Gonzalez
J.C. Sulbaran
Mark Serrano
Evan Hildenbrandt
Chase Ware
Justin Freeman
Mace Thurman
Blaine Howell
El'Hajj Muhammad
Nathan Driessen
Jerry Gil
Jose Amezcua
Tyler Cline
Catchers:
Kevin Coddington
Infielders:
David Vidal
Miguel Rojas
Samuel Diaz
Devin Lohman
Carlos Sanchez
Chris Richburg
Outfielders:
Robert Maddox
Jaren Matthews
Juan Silva
Sean Henry
Theo Bowe
Kurtis Muller
Josh Fellhauer
Are there 10 guys on that list you'd like to vote for? That's what it comes down to.
Rather than have 10 more separate polls, which could become laborious (we're already losing voters), what if we did it in one fell swoop? We list a slate of candidates and have everybody vote for them on a 1-10 basis, 10 votes per person. Then we tally them (10 points for 1st, 9 for 2nd, etc.) and in one poll we complete #41-50. (It might yield a truer reading if we had everybody vote 1-15, but still stopped at #50. That way, it credits candidates that we still favor more than others.)
I don't know how to construct the poll, although it wouldn't be terribly difficult to simply have everybody post their list and then hand-tally them. A more techy type could probably come up with a better method.
I figure that the pool of candidates should include around 25-30 players. As a point of reference, it might look something like this (presuming that the final three of the top 40, as indicated by last poll, will be Humberto Valor, Matt Fairel and Jordan Hotchkiss):
Pitchers:
Matt Klinker
Scott Carroll
Josh Ravin
Tanner Robles
Daniel Tuttle
Wes Mugarian
Luis Gonzalez
J.C. Sulbaran
Mark Serrano
Evan Hildenbrandt
Chase Ware
Justin Freeman
Mace Thurman
Blaine Howell
El'Hajj Muhammad
Nathan Driessen
Jerry Gil
Jose Amezcua
Tyler Cline
Catchers:
Kevin Coddington
Infielders:
David Vidal
Miguel Rojas
Samuel Diaz
Devin Lohman
Carlos Sanchez
Chris Richburg
Outfielders:
Robert Maddox
Jaren Matthews
Juan Silva
Sean Henry
Theo Bowe
Kurtis Muller
Josh Fellhauer
Are there 10 guys on that list you'd like to vote for? That's what it comes down to.