Our son is an incoming freshman at a D1 school. He is on a 75% scholarship, basically half athletic and half academic. The baseball coach's plan at this point is to have him play two ways and he expects to play right away (though as we all know that is not a certainty). Here are a few things we learned along the way, and wish we knew earlier:
1. The idea of "if you are good enough, they will find you" is a misnomer. There are an endless amount of high school baseball players willing and good enough to play in college. Parents need to be even more aggressive in the recruiting process than any college coach. Coaches don't spend the entire year recruiting and therefore good players fall through the cracks. Parents can and should help their child market himself 365 days per year.
2. The easiest way to get on a college coach's radar is to network through a high school or travel coach. That is how our son ended up where he is - his travel coach used to work with the college coach and called him. It is much easier to analyze ability than character, so college coaches will rely on the opinions of those they trust to analyze a player beyond his speed and velocity.
3. If you see interest from a top school and there is no immediate offer, consider your son one of their many back-up plans. They may seem like they are interested, and then one day you may never hear from them again. It can be very cold and demoralizing.
4. Do not go "all in" on D1 right away. Consider some D2's and D3's early in the process. Make a list of at least 35 schools, with a third being 'dream' schools, a third being 'reachable' schools and a third 'acceptable' schools.
5. There are 35 spots on a college baseball roster. Most top schools have 20 or more commits per grad class. You do the math. Many of these "commits" will never play a single inning. Only scholarship players who sign the NLI are guaranteed a roster spot.
6. Give your son all the love and support you can. What our son endured matured him beyond our wildest expectations (he had to learn how to market himself, speak to adults and set extremely high goals). He also suffered through experiences that made him feel unwanted, overrated, a disappointment and a failure. A college baseball recruit is only a teenager - and needs to realize how special it is to even be considered by a college coach, no matter what the school.
7. Finally, the most important piece of advice we received from other parents who have children who are college athletes is this: Make sure they have a chance to play right away. Your son more than likely has played every inning of every baseball game of his life. Sitting an entire year would be strange, to say the least, and just gives the coach a chance to recruit or transfer someone who is better.
I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have, just send me a message. This forum was of great help to us, especially during the darker days of the process (and there will be many). So long.