Wave -
I'm surprised you are from California starting this thread. There are good and bad baseball coaches everywhere. There are also different sizes of high school baseball programs and all different types of students.
I do know from our experience in Texas that baseball was a major plus for my "high achieving" athlete and academic son. If he had chosen another sport, I also think he would have competed with other high achieving athletes and students for a spot. In our area with large high schools, every sport has high achievers that have gone on to play at many prestigious academic schools.
Not only did he learn baseball skills, he also learned time management and people skills. Learning to get along with all different types of people and coaches. Many of the baseball skills he learned from pitching coaches and select ball coaches as well as from different high school coaches.
Why don't you go see some college games in your area - Stanford, Pepperdine, UC Irvine, etc. and look at their rosters to see where these high achievers went to school?
We're looking forward to following Rice, Texas, & Texas A&M in the regionals and following the high achieving athletes that we have know from our area.