Well, I had a variation of this conversation with Superball (and a rather long PM conversation with another old-timer) earlier; generally, if a kid can play, he will get noticed by the folks that evaluate players for a living. More often than not, the "hype" is spot on, in part because there are a fairly large number of "fact-checkers" at most games.
That said, if I had it to do over, I would have been a little more savvy with this PR stuff with my older boy and his fellow hs players. In our group, probably only one of them is going on to play in college and I think that is a shame. I firmly believe that, for most kids with an interest, there is a college team for them to at least roster on.
Don't get me wrong, I am not sure even if the PR is that valuable in and of itself; I do think that it has become a cottage industry and a ballplayer has to do it almost in self-defense. Also, one must consider that the college coaches have limited resources and have to get their information when and where they can, so there is a little value there. Still, it gets to be a bit much when you have the opportunity to watch a game and see a detailed after game "report" that make a 1 for 3 night with a walk sound like the 5th game of the NLDS =).