Yes, of course we do! If fairness to Xanders, I do think he does more than just watches these kids play (and I think he spends quite a bit of time watching high school lacrosse) - he listens to college, club and high school coaches and gets their opinions as well. My guess is that for the most part lacrosse is a pretty small community and once the word goes out that someone is pretty good, that knowledge spreads pretty fast.
I am guessing there is probably universal feelings about a lot of these five star kids. But everyone who does this sort of scouting for a reason struggles, I have no idea what a Mel Kiper's success rate is, but it can't be that good. Someone on LaxPower a while back looked at how many Power 100 kids ended up being All American and I can't remember exactly the results but it was from a majority. Players flop, or get better for all sorts of reasons, but for fans the offseason business of transfers and recruiting is fun to follow, so we buy into it. Plus, without Xanders we would just have ourselves to go off of.
As for Mercado, I wonder if he is rated with no stars because Xanders hasn't evaluated him yet? Austin, TX isn't exactly a hot bed. That said, regardless of where Inside Lacrosse rank him, I'll take a recommendation from Dom Finn and Luke Cometti any day of the week.
