Baseball Scout

Applications:

Little League

Fantasy Leagues

Menus:

File

Sort

Print

Registration

Help

ToolBar:

ToolBar Buttons

Spread Sheet:

Column Definitions

Data Entry

Key Commands

Player Ops

Bar Charts:

Graph Averages

Rating

Skills


File Menu

All File Menu commands operate on a players list file. This file contains all the information displayed in the main spread sheet. Menu options are as follows:

New	Close current players list file and start a new player list.

Open	Open an existing file.

Close	Close the current file. The user will be prompted to save if the file has changed since the last save.

Save	Save the current file.

Save As	Save the current file under a different file name.

Exit	Exit the Baseball Scout Application.  The user will be prompted to save if the file has changed since the last save.


Sort Menu

All Sort Menu commands operate on the displayed order of the players in the list. Players within a group (either Team, Eligible, or Drafted) are sorted independently of the players in the other group. Menu options are as follows:

Last Name	Sort the players list based on the player's last name.

Position Rating	Sort the players based on a composite rating computed from a weighting of the fundamental skills.

Set Skill Weights	Opens a dialog which allows the user to set the fundamental skill weighting factors for each position. All weighting factors are entered as a percentage.

Skills	Sort the players based on one of the fundamental skills.


Print Menu

Print Menu options are as follows:

Printer Setup	Perform standard windows printer setup.

Blank Scouting Sheet	Print a blank scouting sheet which resembles the on-screen spread sheet.

Player Scouting Report	Print the current player list including skill and position ratings.


Registration Menu

The Registration menu provides information about Flat Rabbit Software and its products and allows the user to print registration and product order forms for the Baseball Scout and other FRS products. Menu options are as follows:

Warranty	Presents the Baseball Scout Software Warranty Disclaimer.

Registration Info	Presents some general info on Baseball Scout registration.

Registration Form	Prints a combined Baseball Scout registration and other FRS products order Form.

A Little FRS History	Presents a brief history of Flat Rabbit Software.


Help Menu

Help Menu options are as follows:

Contents	Starts the Baseball Scout Help (same thing you are reading now).

About	Presents some basic Baseball Scout version information.


Position Rating Menu
Position Rating Menu (Sort|Position Rating)

Each playing position can be defined as a weighted composite of the individual skills. The user can define these weighting factors for each of the positionslisted below.

Selecting the position will compute the ratings for all players. In other words, Sort|Position_Rating|Pitcher will sort the players on their pitching ability.

The 12 position (including three utility players) are as follows:

Pitcher

Catcher

First Base

Second Base

Third Base

Shortstop

Left Field

Center Field

Right Field

Utility Player 1

Utility Player 2

Utility Player 3


Set Skill Weights Dialog
Set Skill Weights Dialog (Sort|Set Skill Weights)

This dialog is a spread sheet which contains the weighted values of all the individual skills for each playing position; values are expressed as percentages.Data Entry is performed similar to the player list spread sheet.

The equation for each rating is as follows:

( (s1*w1)+(s2*w2)+(s3*w3)+(s4*w4)+(s5*w5)+(s6*w6)+(s7*w7) ) /

( w1 + w2 + w3 + w4 + w5 + w6 + w7 )

where sn is the nth fundamental skill (1 = base running) and wn is the weighting factor for the nth skill.


Keyboard Commands

Key(s)	Function

Up Arrow	Moves the active cell one row up.

Down Arrow 	Moves the active cell one row down.

Right Arrow 	Moves the active cell one column to the right.

Left Arrow 	Moves the active cell one column to the left.

Page Up 	Moves the active cell one page up.

Page Down 	Moves the active cell one page down.

Ctrl-Page Up 	Moves the active cell one page to the left.

Ctrl-Page Down 	Moves the active cell one page to the right.

Home 	Moves the active cell to the first column of the current row.

End 	Moves the active cell to the last column of the current row.

Ctrl-Home 	Moves the active cell to the first row and column.

Ctrl-End 	Moves the active cell to the last row and column.

Tab 	Moves active cell to the right then down.

Shift-Tab 	Moves the active cell to the left then up.

Enter 	Enters an edited value into the spread sheet.

Esc 	If the cell is being edited, the previous value will replace the current value.

F2 	If the cell is being edited, the cell will be cleared.


Skills Menu
Skills Menu (Sort|Skills)

Players may be sorted based on the individual skill values. Selecting one the seven skills from this menu will sort all players based on that skill value.

The 7 fundamental skills are as follows (all skills are expressed as a percentage, 0 to 100, except base running):

Base Running	(expressed in seconds from home to third)

Infielding	(fielding ground balls)

Outfielding	(fielding fly balls)

Batting Power

Batting Average

Throwing Accuracy

Throwing Strength


Spread Sheet Column Definitions

Each column of the player list spread sheet has a purpose, described below:

(unlabeled)	The first column accepts either a 'T', indicating the player has been selected for your team; a 'D', indicating the player has been drafted by another team; or nothing, indicating the player is still eligible to be drafted. The letter 'T' or 'D' can be entered manually, or the Team, Eligible, and Drafted buttons can be used.

All players selected for your team appear highlighted in blue; eligible players are in white; and drafted players are highlighted in red.

Last Name	The player's last name.

First	The player's first name.

Rating	The position rating, if a Position Rating Sort has been selected. A last name or skill sort will blank out this column.

Spd	Base running skill expressed in seconds from home to third base.

Inf	Infielding skill; fielding ground balls, expressed as a percentage from 0 - 100.

Outf	Outfielding skill; fielding fly balls (0-100).

Pow	Batting Power skill; ability to hit the long ball (0-100).

Avg	Batting Average skill; ability to make contact (0-100).

Acc	Throwing Accuracy skill; ability to hit a target (0-100).

Str	Throwing Strength skill; ability to get the ball somewhere in a hurry (0-100).

Notes	Special player notes.


Spread Sheet Data Entry

The spread sheet field highlighted with a thick border is the active cell. Any text or numeric keyboard entry will automatically erase the contents of the active field and replace the contents with the typed data. Data entry mode is exited with an <Enter>, <Tab>, <up arrow>, or <down arrow> key depression.

Moving the cursor to the far left column (player numbers 1 through n), and clicking the left mouse button will display the player's data in the Rating and Skills  bar charts.

Refer to the Spread Sheet Key Commands for more keyboard shortcuts.


Spread Sheet Player Ops
Spread Sheet Players Ops Buttons

There are five buttons in the Player Ops region (lower left) of the main window. The row of the active cell determines which player the buttons will operate on. The five buttons are as follows:

Add	Add a new player to the list.

Del	Del a player from the list. The user will be prompted for deletion acknowledgement. A group of players may be deleted by highlighting the group and then pushing the "Del" button.

Team	Select a player for your team. The player will appear in the blue section of the players list.

Eligible	Mark a player as still eligible for drafting. The player will appear in the white section of the players list.

Drafted	Mark the player as drafted by another team. The player will appear in the red section of the players list.


Bar Chart Graph Averages

There  are two bar charts, the Rating chart and the skills chart. The charts have two sets of data; one set for the selected player and one set for player averages. The individual player data is displayed in red; the average player data is displayed in green.

The Graph Averages selections determine which set of players will be used to calculate the average bars. The Graph Averages options are as follows:

All	All players in the list are used.

Team	Only players selected for your team (all blue highlighted players) are used.

Eligible	Only players that have not been selected (all white highlighted players) are used.

Drafted	Only players drafted by other teams (all red highlighted players) are used.


Position Rating Bar Chart

The Position Rating bar chart is the horizontal chart with one green bar and one red bar. The green bar is the average rating for the group of players specified by the Graph Averages buttons. The red bar is the rating for the selected player.

This bar chart is only meaningful when players are sorted by a position rating. Sort the players by any position rating, then click any players number (leftmost column); this will display two bars in the Position Rating bar chart.


Skills Bar Chart

The Skills bar chart is the chart with vertical bars. There is one set of bars for each of the fundamental skills (7 sets). The green bars represent the average for the selected player group. The red bars represent the data for the selected player (select a player by clicking the player number, leftmost column).

The skills are labeled consistently with the spread sheet column headings as follows:

Spd	Base Running Speed displayed as a percentage, where 0 is the slowest player in the selected group and 100 represents the fastest player in the selected group. Because of this method of averaging, the average Spd is always 50%.

Inf	Grounder fielding ability.

Outf	Fly ball fielding ability.

Pow	Batting power.

Avg	Batting average.

Acc	Throwing accuracy.

Str	Throwing strength.


Baseball Scout for Little Leagues

Baseball Scout was designed for Little League Coaches to help them scout players for pre-season drafts. Coaches can rate player skill levels on a scale from 0 to 100 for fundamental fielding and hitting skills. Base running speed is recorded as seconds from home to third.

Coaches can sort players based on their skill ratings or they can create customized ratings by giving weighting factors to fundamental skills. For example, a first baseman might not need a strong or accurate arm, or a lot of speed, but a power hitter might be nice. A coach could weight the throwing and hitting skills accordingly, and sort all players based on this rating to list the best first baseman either remaining to be drafted, on their team, or on somebody else's team.


Baseball Scout for Fantasy Leagues

Although Baseball Scout was designed for Little League drafts, a little creativity will give excellent results for Fantasy League drafts. Basically, there are two different types of players (I'm sure you could think of more given this example), pitchers and everybody else. Here are a few tips for setting up the fundamental skill values and the position ratings for different pitchers and fielders.

#1 - For starting pitchers, only enter fundamental skill values for Arm Strength: 100 for the best pitcher, 0 for the worst (you could also place values in batting average if you think it will make a difference).

#2 - For relief pitchers, only enter fundamental skill values for Arm Accuracy (and batting average if desired).

#3 - For infielders, including catcher, only enter skill values for Infielding and Batting Average.

#4 - For outfielders, only enter skill values for Outfielding and Batting Average.

#5 - Only enter data for enough players to cover all the teams in your draft (no sense putting those scabs in if you would never draft them anyway).

#6 - Adjust the position weight factors for the four player types above so that the weighting factor is 100 for the fundamental skills you are using for that player type. For example, for starting pitchers, set the weighting factors for Arm Strength and Batting Average to 100, and all other weighting factors to 0. Use the Pitcher composite rating for starting pitchers, the U3 - Utility 3 - rating for relief pitchers, U1 for infielders, and U2 for outfielders.


Toolbar
The Toolbar

The Toolbar is a row of buttons at the top of the main window which represent application commands. Clicking one of the buttons is a quick alternative to choosing a command from the menu.

Button	Action	Menu Equivalent

Sort by last name	Sort|Last Name

Sort by pitcher rating	Sort|Position Rating|Pitcher

Sort by catcher rating	Sort|Position Rating|Catcher

Sort by first base rating	Sort|Position Rating|First Base

Sort by second base rating	Sort|Position Rating|Second Base

Sort by third base rating	Sort|Position Rating|Third Base

Sort by shortstop rating	Sort|Position Rating|Shortstop

Sort by left field rating	Sort|Position Rating|Left Field

Sort by center field rating	Sort|Position Rating|Center Field

Sort by right field rating	Sort|Position Rating|Right Field

Sort by first utility rating	Sort|Position Rating|Utility 1

Sort by second utility rating	Sort|Position Rating|Utility 2

Sort by third utility rating	Sort|Position Rating|Utility 3

Sort by base running skill	Sort|Skills|Base Running

Sort by infielding skill	Sort|Skills|Infielding

Sort by outfielding skill	Sort|Skills|Outfielding

Sort by batting power	Sort|Skills|Batting Power

Sort by batting average	Sort|Skills|Batting Average

Sort by throwing accuracy	Sort|Skills|Throwing Accuracy

Sort by throwing strength	Sort|Skills|Throwing Strength

Display help file contents	Help|Contents