The 20-80 Scouting Scale: What Type Of Prospect Are You?
As a high level prospect you have most likely become accustomed to playing in front of a sea of scouts. You no longer take notice of the wave of radar guns that are raised as you begin your delivery or the click of stop watches as you speed down the baseline. But do you know “what” they are actually looking for or “how” they determine if they think you will be a future all-star worthy of a 1st round selection?
Spring is the time when a scout’s “follow list” transforms into a preference, or “pref list”. Scouts are no longer just roughly projecting what category a player falls into, they are now writing detailed reports on each player they are submitting for draft consideration, and then putting those players into a preferential order within those categories.
The typical scouting report utilizes the traditional 20-80 scouting scale.
Kiley McDaniel of Fan Graphs has written a comprehensive guide explaining every part of of the 20-80 scouting scale. We have provided an excerpt below and encourage you to read the full article.
Background
The invention of the scale is credited to Branch Rickey and whether he intended it or not, it mirrors various scientific scales. 50 is major league average, then each 10 point increment represents a standard deviation better or worse than average. In a normal distribution, three standard deviations in either direction should include 99.7% of your sample, so that’s why the scale is 20 to 80 rather than 0 and 100. That said, the distribution of tools isn’t a normal curve for every tool, but is somewhere close to that for most.
The Basics
You’ve probably heard people call athletic hitters a “five-tool prospect.” While that is an overused and misunderstood term, they are referring to the 20-80 scouting scale. The five tools for position players are 1) Hitting 2) Power 3) Running 4) Fielding and 5) Throwing. The general use of the “five-tool” term is when all five are at least average (which is more rare than you’d think) and I generally only use it when all five are above average. It’s a shockingly small list of players over the history of baseball that have five plus tools, but if you ask around, scouts will tell you Bo Knows.
For hitters, these are the only five tools, despite many questions from readers about why we can’t expand it. Throwing accuracy is folded into the throwing tool grade (which is mostly arm strength since accuracy problems are often fixable) while fielding range, hands, instincts and all the components of defense are folded into the fielding grade. Base running skill and good jumps out of the batter’s box are also folded into the run grade. Many organizations and I will split power into game power (predicting big league power stats) and raw power (how far he can hit the ball in batting practice) but they are often the same and it’s simply a way with numbers to better explain the components of power (and also comment on the hit tool). The hit tool includes plate discipline (the most commonly asked-for sixth tool by the internet) but I’ll get more into why that is and how we can still project contact and on-base skill with one number in the article about the hit tool.
Though some teams have scouts grade each of these components, it’s the five core scouting grades that are paid attention to universally. It’s common practice in scouting reports for scouts to explain in the comments when, say a 55 fielding grade includes some 60 or higher components and some 50 or lower components, but often a 55 means a number of average to above skills and doesn’t merit much explanation. Scouts also use present and future grades for each tool. Present grades often are 20’s for high school players while, in the upper levels of the minors, the gap between present and future grades is very small. A present 20 and future 50 grade on a tool is noted as 20/50.
For pitchers, it is much more straightforward. Scouts grade each of their pitches (fastball, curveball, slider, changeup, splitter, cutter being the most common) on the 20-80 scale, then either grade the command of each pitch separately or have one overall command grade. Some teams will do grade for components of command (throwing quality strikes) with control (throwing it in the strike zone, usually closely following walk rate), pitchability (feel to sequence pitches, keep hitters off balance, etc.) and other similar things. Some clubs go so far as to have scouts grade deception, arm action (how clean/efficient/loose the arm swing is in back) and other components that the industry feels predict health. That said, the three core pitches (fastball, changeup, best breaking ball) and command are the four core grades that scouts use to make decisions and that inform the overall grade.
