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Reply to "Summer Collegiate Wooden Bat Leagues-Recruting well underway"

It probably varies from team to team;we're a new team, still building relationships with college coaches, and we'll learn who we can trust and who we can't. College coaches seem to generally shoot pretty straight with us, and as we go on, the college coach's opinion will count for more. Some teams in the Valley League get players from the same schools every year as they've learned they can trust the college coaches. One VBL head coach told me they tell a couple schools to just send them 2-3 guys, and they don't even specify positions, but they know they will get quality players, based upon years of experience. Coming from a "name" school helps some...but the big dog schools also normally go deep into the NCAA tournament, and you may not get those kids until the summer season is half over. For us, the "perfect source school" is a school that has a reputation for being a quality program, but not one that is always in the top 3 in the ACC or SEC. A lot of very good programs don't routinely make it to the World Series. At this point, we go a lot on the coach's opinion, whether a name or no name school, but as time passes, we'll see who we can trust. We've really only been "played" by one school so far. (Offered us a true stud and a young untested but promising guy, we accepted both, and then golly gee whiz, the coach didn't know the stud had agreed to play elsewhere. We still took the untested guy-it wasn't his fault- but we're a little leery of that school now.)

We like young players out of well-regarded programs-especially pitchers. Pitchers that throw lots of spring innings get shut down in the summer. We like younger guys, with good upside talent, that just need mound time to develop. The coach's opinion on those pitchers is very important as we like guys with control, and the kid may not have enough stats for us to get a good read. A rising senior that has put up good numbers is certainly attractive, and as few players repeat (normally maybe 4-6 annually) summers, getting the younger guy, thinking you'll see him for 3 years, really doesn't play out.

Bottom line is we need to have some source upon which to make a judgment call-it could be statistics showing a kid can play, or it could be the coach's opinion, but we need one or the other. We also want guys that will be able to conduct themselves honorably off the field as we are a small sports crazy town, these guys truly will get rock star treatment, and anything a player does off the field will be widely known...and end up in my lap.
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