3and2Fastball posted:GaryMe posted:
You can give PG your $$$, not gonna try to talk you out of it if you feel that works for you, but my mantra stays the same: The same number of colleges were looking for the same number of guys before all the showcase organization came reaching into our wallets, and had no trouble finding them. The only thing that has changed is these organizations are profiting off of the recruiting process.
That is where I will respectfully disagree with you. Before Perfect Game, before PBR, and before Travel Ball became so widespread, in many (most?) parts of the country, prospective recruits' hands were entirely tied by the Legion Ball & High School coaches, who often played tons of mind games and politics with those athletes.
Didn't kiss the behind of the High School/Legion coach? Too bad, you were out of luck. Maybe you were the second best Catcher in your state but the best Catcher happened to play for your high school. Also out of luck. Or maybe you just were unfortunate enough to play for coaches who didn't teach the game, or didn't develop players or didn't help with recruiting. Again, out of luck!
Heck, here in Wisconsin, there is one D1 team in our entire state, and it is a mid major. Before the era of Travel Ball & Perfect Game, it was exceedingly rare for a Wisconsin kid to play D1 or get drafted. Now there are dozens of WI kids each year playing D1 and several in every draft. Kids have any opportunity to be "free agents", they can market themselves at showcases, they can play for various levels of travel teams, they can get seen. They are independent of the inside politics of their small pond. That is a tremendously good thing.
Now I can certainly understand the merits of arguments either way on PBR vs Perfect Game, or Showcases vs Camps vs Tournaments, but things were most decidely not even close to better back in the old days, not around here anyways.
A lot has changed. Players can create their own opportunities now.
3and2,
I think if pre-PG/PBR a player had the chops to play college baseball (in their opinion) but wasn't getting any love from local coaches, they probably needed to do then the same thing they do today - cast a wider net, move to a different club that is going to help the recruiting process. I would also counter-argue that the proliferation of rust-belt players is as much a product of the information age as it is PG and PBR. Back when Johnny drove a 1976 Ford Granada, you either had to be connected to a coach who had connections or you were toast I guess. I would say the same is true today to a degree, however players as you stated are "free agents" and can market their skills over a much broader geographic area.
PBR and PG do provide a service, and that is that they aggregate a large number of college coaches and pro scouts to their higher level tournaments. The showcase aspect of it, to me, is of marginal effect. Hell, if it's just about being able to see verified metrics, I need to start a business going around the country clocking 60's and gunning kids off the mound for far less $$$, because who cares if the kid can hit the broad side of a barn, if he throws 90+ he's on the radar of schools, right?
And I would also say with the regional nature of recruiting we currently see, what has really changed?