Things I love about Feraligatr: It has a very cool design, is one of my favorite typings ever (Water) , has a great ability in Sheer Force (Torrent is horrid though lol) , has great stats & has a pretty good movepool to top it all off. As well, the reason Feraligatr made it this high is because it stands out to me as being the starter I used back in Soul Silver, so just has sentimental value to me over the others.
For me personally, that would have been Typhlosion, but I know a lot of people love Feraligatr, so I can see how it got to 8th. One of the big turn-offs I had with Feraligatr though was the fact that "Water" moves were all Special and in a physically-based Pokemon, STAB was a fail in the game Feraligatr was introduced in lol