The Valley League started last summer allowing 2 graduated high school seniors. The players are required to be verifiable draft prospects, and approved by the league commissioner. We actually only had 3-4 in the league but our team had 2, one pitcher and one position player. Both were good looking players, committed to Major D-1's (SEC and Big 10), with D-1 coaches verifying draftability, both with high national rankings. Both were good kids. The position player looked like a beast and had a ton of power...but he had not faced the consistent level of pitching that he saw and struggled at the plate all summer long. The pitcher had a live arm, good control, low to mid-90's fastball, and had some good outings but he seemed to have a case of homesickness, had some occasional difficulty with adversity on the mound, and bugged out on us at the end of the season before the playoffs, costing himself a championship ring. My take: No matter how many showcases and elite tournaments a high schooler may have played in, a good summer league, living away from home for 2 months, with tons of comparable talent around, is different. These were good guys that worked hard, but it was a huge step and they struggled. As for our team, we won't experiment with this again. Lesson learned. Until Bryce Harper III comes around. (Harper in the same situation destroyed a summer league and I believe was the league MVP. Truly "elite talent" might be an exception.)