Over the weekend, I learned about spider charts while I listened to the most recent Process the Process podcast hosted by Josh Norris, which featured special guest and founder of MockDraftable.com, Marcus Armstrong.

MockDraftable.com serves as an aggregate for NFL combine and pro-day data. Amongst its many features, MockDraftable.com features spider charts of player measurable data in relation to a particular player’s relative skill (e.g. 40 time) as it relates to the that skill for his position (e.g. a running back’s 40 time compared to other running back 40 times).

That inspired me to create this for minor league prospects tool in baseball:

2015 Prospect Comparison Tool

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All data for this tool has been gathered from the FanGraphs Top 200 Prospect List by Kiley McDaniel. Due to the author’s impatience for tedious work, the tool is limited to the hitters that were listed in the top 100 of the FanGraphs Top 200 Prospect List.

Glossary:

FV: Future Value

Hit (P): Present Hit Tool

Hit (F): Future Hit Tool

Raw Power (P): Present Raw Power

Raw Power (F): Future Raw Power

Game Power (P): Present Game Power

Game Power (F): Future Game Power

Run (P): Present Speed

Run (F): Future Speed

Field (P): Present Glove

Field (F): Future Glove

Throw (P): Present Arm Strength

Throw (F): Future Arm Strength

Each player’s tools are broken out into their present (P) and future (F) value based on the 20 to 80 scale; FV is an a acronym for “future value.”

This interactive table allows one to look at a prospect and illustrate in an accessible way what that player’s inherent strengths and weaknesses are relative to each other (i.e. a player may be a 55 on the 20/80 scale, but this table illuminates that player’s grades individually and why they are a 55 collectively). You may also use this table to compare two prospects together and look at how one player’s relative strengths and weaknesses compare to another player’s abilities and inadequacies.

To use the chart:

1. Click into the area underneath the cell that says “Prospect A” or “Prospect B.”

2. Click the drop down arrow that appears after you click into the cell.

3. Now, select the prospect that you wish to have displayed on the chart. If you only want to view one prospect, you have to make sure one of the cells where a player is listed is blank; if you scroll to the end of the list of players, there is an option that allows you to leave the area blank.

It’s important to know the overall grade of a prospect, but it is also important to know why he has that grade. Please leave feedback on how this tool might be improved, because I hope to build this out as new data comes out on prospects and even make one for pitchers. Also, shoot me tweets @DevinJJordan if you see any discrepancies between listed tool values and numbers that are listed in the original FanGraphs Top 200 Prospect List.

Kris Bryant Photo Credit: Iowa Cubs