Not going to pick on McDaniel because I read and enjoy him..but he's a young guy, has left three teams already as former employers, and now is a blogger. Is this moving up in the world?
You cited Oneri Fleita as an example of BA source. Who knows if that's true or not, but Craig used to call it FleitaGush here. EVERYBODY knew the guy was a BS artist. To equate Fleita to all the managers, scouts, and coaches that BA talks to when doing their top 20 lists--to support your position--is let's say a very bad stretch. You are better than that. Try harder.
There are a lot of reasons that people leave employers, especially in baseball. Being young has zero influence on how well somebody does there job.
Which do you think is going to get a better response from a team? McDaniel who sends them a list and asks for feedback, am I too high or too low on somebody with scouting notes or BA who goes please send me a list with scouting notes? McDaniel has talked about this very issue on podcasts. He gets better responses from his higher placed sources when it is done the first way.
A team may have a vested interest in hiding a prospect, say a pitcher with a fastball velocity jump that is Rule eligible. No team is going to say hey this guy is really good, come draft him. McDaniel may miss him as well he at least has a chance by going to games. Say the Cubs want to trade Vogelbach, they would have a vested interest in getting him rated highly and maybe getting a team to question that they missed something. If your just a scribe for a team these types of things happen. BA has there place, but to put them on some high ground because they talk to minor league managers is silly. There are better sources out there.
Everybody knew Onri was a BS artist, but BA still took his word on Cubs prospects.
People are way too low Underwood and it is from scouting the stat line of an A ball pitcher that had things to work on that depressed his strike out numbers. He is the best chance at a TORP in the system. Cease shouldn't be viewed as much more than a lottery ticket at this point. A very talented lottery ticket with TORP, but with way too many questions.