@RJM posted:Woukd you say recruiting services oversell players because they don’t really know their talent, often haven’t seen them play, only know their metrics and not their instincts and don’t have a grasp on the player’s motivation (heart and guts)?
If we are talking only about recruiting services I would say that the bad ones (which is most of them) oversell their players for all of those reasons. They try to be all things to all people and don’t have much expertise. What the good ones (like Play to Win for example) do differently is that they specialize in a niche and really know that segment of the market. They screen their applicants. Part of their interview process is a skills evaluation. They also interview your coaches before taking you on as a client. Then they watch you play as if they were a school scouting you. Then they prepare an action plan that maps out the events to attend. They help develop a list of schools that are a good fit based on academics, baseball, and social fit. They contact the coaches from these schools to notify them of the events you attend and presell you to these coaches. Since HA is a small subset of college baseball they actually do know these coaches and have relationships with them. PTW will actually send their representative to some events along with you. After the event their is a debrief to discuss the results. How you did, who is interested, and who is not. They then initiate discussions with the interested parties, help with analyzing the pros & cons of each offer, assist with the admissions process, and maintain contact with the coaching staff until the school has accepted the player. The downside is that they are expensive. Their service costs in the neighborhood of 10k. But they deliver. If you have a good high academic player and you can afford their fees (plus the travel) they are worth it. Can you do it all yourself? Yes you can - with the exception of tapping into existing Coach relationships. And that’s a big exception. This is not a plug for scouting services. I think most of them sell snake oil. This isn’t a plug for PTW either. It’s just a group that I’m familiar with that is good at what they do. And I chose to use them as a way to respond to your question.