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My son is a 2018 pitcher who has been talking with colleges (with his select coaches as the intermediary) that are well out of our geographic region.  These schools were scheduled to see him in Aug-Sept in national events that he was scheduled to pitch in. However he was recently diagnosed with an irritated growth plate and advised to stop pitching for 2-3 months. The long term prognosis is good but the bad news is that the schools will not see him pitch in the next few months.

He spoke to the schools that he has been speaking with to give them the news and one of them suggested he go to the Perfect Game  pitcher catcher showcase in February to show he was healthy and to give them a read on where he is post injury. They said if he were there they would likely send someone there and if the could not they would get a report on him.

The timing actually works well as our season here starts March 1. Has anyone been to this showcase? is it well attended by colleges? Does anyone know whet the coach meant by "if the could not make it they would get a report on him"?

As rough as this has been there may be some silver linings. My son realizes how fleeting this can be and he is living in the weight room strengthening his core and doing everything he needs to. He has a goal (and it is realistic based on where he is) of touching 90-91 next year. If we can keep the college interest then this becomes a bump in the road. I am hopeful that PG showcase in February will do that. I would love to hear peoples thoughts.

 

 

 

 

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While I don't have any direct knowledge of the Pitcher/Catcher showcase, I will say this to DAD18:

My son is a 2018 RHP and had the exact injury that you speak of in the late summer of his 8th Grade to Freshman year. It killed him to not be able to throw for High School Fall Ball, but he did what the orthopedist said and he was good as new late in the fall.

Good luck!

My 2019 attended last year, it was relatively close to home and inexpensive, so I wanted to get him some showcase experience along with some looks at other players outside his hometown. it was his first and only showcase so far. (outside AC Games tryout, does that count as a showcase?)

It is definitely a "showcase-lite". One day, indoors, a subset of skills tested.  I'm not an expert on identifying scouts vs. PG employees, but I would say there were probably less than a dozen "scout" types and probably 4-8 PG employees.  He got measured for fastball velo, along with some Zepp hitting metrics like bat speed at impact, hand speed and time to impact. They also used a Pocket Radar to measure exit velo. They take some video for free and post it to your players profile as well as Youtube, but of course try to upsell you on more. Funny though, the videographer (who while associated with PG I don't think works for them) was the only one to address all the boys prior to the showcase and explained to them how it would work and gave some advice.

They tweeted live during the event for each pitcher and posted a very nice evaluation after a few weeks. It was his first PG event and he got rated a 7.5 and tagged a "follow". (hopefully his perfomance at the WWBA improves on that!)

He enjoyed it and we were both glad he went. Definitely a good event to "get your feet wet" to the whole showcase thing. Plus you get a PG hat and T-shirt, which I believe may have been his favorite part.

Thanks for all of the feedback. Now my son tells me the coach said the Perfect Game Indoor Showcase in February. He had assumed it was the Pitcher- Catcher showcase but we see that they also have a Perfect Game National Indoor Showcase the following week in February in St. Louis. Is there a difference between the two? Perhaps he just needs to get the write-up and video to show he is healthy and it doesn't matter which one he attends. My head is spinning from all the events they have :-)

One thing to think about, as our 2017 shuts down each winter (and did after 9th grade for growth plate reasons too), will your son be READY to showcase in February?  Mine wouldn't be after not throwing in the winter.  Those PG metrics stay with you...

So if yours can maybe get to 90 but goes in February and throw a low 80s, that may not help.  If a college is interested, then im not sure why they would press you to go throw early in the pre season as a measuring stick.

 

 

 

Last edited by Twoboys

Twoboys - good point. That timing, however fits with the standard timing in our part of the country.  Typically, offseason throwing starts beginning of November and bullpens beginning January  which would give 15 weeks to be ready. Last year he was 83 86 in early March I think this year he will also train at Driveline. 

The above presumes he gets clearance to throw Nov 1 but it sounded like rhe Doctor thought somewhere between Oct1 and Nov 1 was very realistic. 

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