"They're looking at the scouting report, " said guard Raymond Felton, whose production has fallen in February.

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Mr. Leffelman said his scouting report alleged that Mr. Lin could be rendered less effective with in-your-face defensive pressure.

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The Dolphins' scouting report on Jensen, Shula said, consisted of Shula's watching a few reels of game film of him.

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Pittsburgh's strategy helped Tebow find confidence in his throwing arm, but it also gave New England a handy scouting report.

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During an in-game interview with ABC's Doris Burke, Battier surmised that the only reason he'd had so much success was because the Thunder had left him off its scouting report.

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Maury Hannigan, who runs a consulting firm called MBA Scouting Report, which identifies promising MBA students for companies but charges less than headhunters, has seen business increase by 40% since the recession began.

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Naturally, subscribing to this theory puts a decision maker in the crosshairs of the traditional scouting model, one that relies on seeing and physically and mentally testing the player, with results in a scouting report to compare with hundreds of others.

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"He is an absolutely amazing story, " said Paul Shaheen, who writes for Amateur Hockey Report, an independent scouting agency.

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Eric Krupka of Amateur Hockey Report, an independent scouting service, questioned whether the caliber of competition that Stolarz faced in the NAHL has prepared him enough for advanced levels of play.

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