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Me and my family have very little money to put towards showcases. What steps should I be taking to get noticed? I have plus speed in the outfield, and some decent pop in my bat but I don't know how to take that a step further and get acouts to notice me. Thanks!
"Dreams don't come true. Dreams are made true"-Russell Wilson
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Other veterans of these boards will be able to give you a more experienced answer than I can but here are some ideas to consider:

1. Let your coaches know what your goals are and enlist their help in getting noticed.  Ask your coaches what level they believe you can play at and then ask them to give you a recommendation to schools at that level.

2. Make a brief quality video exhibiting your skill set.  Put it on you tube.

3. Email Coaches at school that you want to target.  Introduce yourself and your desire to be a student athlete at their school.  Include a link to your video.

ALl the best

 

Originally Posted by Chaas98:
Me and my family have very little money to put towards showcases. What steps should I be taking to get noticed? I have plus speed in the outfield, and some decent pop in my bat but I don't know how to take that a step further and get acouts to notice me. Thanks!

Do you have plus speed? How do you know? Have you run a timed 60 and looked up comparisons?

 

Here's how I got a pro client signed last year with NO scout coming out to see him (not joking, they signed him based on this alone):

 

He was a pitcher, so I shot video from the side and behind the dish using a stable tripod ($10 from your local Goodwill or TJ Maxx) and a cell phone adapter ($15 for a nice one on Amazon). I put a radar gun in the shot so they could verify every pitch's velocity. I had the pitcher throw to a D1 bound catcher and had him pitch against college-bound hitters. Two weeks later and a med check, he was signed.

 

For position players, it's harder, no question. But you're young and this guy was 26, so you have it easier

 

Take video. No music over it, no ridiculous effects. Time yourself running a LEGITIMATE 60 on a football field with CLEAR marks. Put someone's hand on a stopwatch in the shot 100% of the time to verify. Run 3 heats. Watch is in the shot AT ALL TIMES so the recruiter can verify the time himself.

 

Video of your swing from the open side, from a game and from batting practice. Include 3-5 swings of each.

 

If you can get a radar gun, set it up with a video camera in the shot to measure your OF arm velocity. You can also measure batted ball exit speed.

 

I promise you this - you run a sub-7, hit balls over the fence, have high tee exit velos, and a compact swing, and you'll get workouts. 

 

It's not that hard. It surprises me how few kids and coaches do this... except of course, the real answer - the athletes just aren't that good in the first place

Originally Posted by Chaas98:
I run a 6.8 60 yard dash and have been told that that is pretty good. Just posting the video on YouTube helps? Anywhere else I should post it?

Make the video the way Kyle describes--3 heats on a clearly marked football field with the watch in the field of view the whole time--and you can post it in the video section of HSBaseballWeb.

 

Originally Posted by Swampboy:
Originally Posted by Chaas98:
I run a 6.8 60 yard dash and have been told that that is pretty good. Just posting the video on YouTube helps? Anywhere else I should post it?

Make the video the way Kyle describes--3 heats on a clearly marked football field with the watch in the field of view the whole time--and you can post it in the video section of HSBaseballWeb.

http://community.hsbaseballweb...O----CREATE_DATETIME

Last edited by Bolts-Coach-PR

Talk to your coach. Explain the situation to him. He may have connections to college coaches. If you're good enough to play college ball you're noticeable to other coaches in your conference. Talk to some of the heavyweight coaches in your conference. My son's coach helped with the recruiting of one of the top players in our conference from another team. A coach might approach a travel coach and tell him he knows a kid who should be playing travel who can't afford it. If you're good enough you may get invited to play for a team. 

 

Get a job. Save some money. Then you will have money for camps and showcases. Not all camps and showcases are expensive. Be smart, informed and selective. It may be challenging to attend school, play sports and work. But, how badly do you want college ball? The walls weren't put there to keep you out. They were put there to see how badly you want in.

 

Attend any nearby MLB tryout camps. Pro scouts know college coaches. One may tell a coach about you.

 

What you can't do is be shy. You have to be able to converse with the right people and tell them your objectives. Don't act like anything should be given to you. Act like you're wiling to work for it. 

Originally Posted by rroque:

Go to college camps. They're not so expensive. Make sure when you're there you speak to the coach so he knows who you are.

 

Post videos of you.

Running

Fielding

Hitting

If you choose to attend college camps make sure they are prospect camps and not skills camps.

Originally Posted by PGStaff:

Based on where you live I would contact Baseball Northwest. You should be able to google it. They might be the best people to help you.

Here is the link to Baseball Northwest. http://www.baseballnorthwest.com/

 

Look for a Prospect Evaluation Camp near you this spring. They are about $125. Most players with college aspirations in the Northwest who are not already committed or tied to a high profile travel team will show up at one of the PECs. They are a good way to measure where you are relative to your peers. If you are fast with good pop in your bat chances are you will be invited to play in their showcase tournament in August.

 

Virtually every college in the Northwest will have coaches at that tournament. The tournament is awfully cheap (I remember being $150-$250) for the exposure you will get to local schools.

Originally Posted by Chaas98:
Me and my family have very little money to put towards showcases. What steps should I be taking to get noticed? I have plus speed in the outfield, and some decent pop in my bat but I don't know how to take that a step further and get acouts to notice me. Thanks!

 

An alternate way of getting noticed (and what my son did) is to go to a JuCo (if that is even optional) then transfer to a D1/D2/D3.

 

Like you I could not afford to send my son to any showcases.  His HS coach worked hard at getting a JuCo coach to look at him.  Son signed with the JuCo.  Started as DH his freshman year.  Has a stellar sophomore year at 1B hitting .366 and broke the school record for # of doubles (ranked 2nd nationally).  Had nearly every school in the ODAC (D3's) talking to him by the end of the season plus a couple of D2's.  Ended up getting a nice scholarship offer (70%) from a D2.  So it can be done without going to a showcase, but it's definitely an alternate route.

You have received some good advice, but you need to have a complete plan for college, what are your grades, how much can your family afford to spend to send you to college, what level is your ability (D1, D2, D3 ) are there JC's in your area, what is your interest as far as major(s), what schools have these, what size of school are you interested in, locations, etc? . All of this needs to be worked out with you and your parents and then you can implement a plan. Based on the above make a list of the school that you have interest in, go online and find the recruiting coordinator for each of those schools and send them an email with the video you made with a short profile of yourself and ability. This has to be from your email address but have your parents or someone proof the emails. Make them personal to each school, coach. Keep a list of these schools and the communication. You will likely get back a lot of "come to our camp" reply's but ignore most of these and look for the personal responses.

 

This is what your list should look like.

 

https://docs.google.com/spread...;usp=drive_web#gid=0

 

 

This list is over 4 years old but should give you an idea. Go to www.d3baseball.com and look up all of the D3 schools in the NWest if this is where you want to go to school. There is a group of very competitive schools in your area and Linfield in particular is outstanding. 

 

All of this is a lot of work and I suggest you sit down with your parents and make a plan. All of this does not cost you anything.

 

Good luck. 

 

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