Interesting thread. My biggest takeaways:
1. So glad that we are not in the same boat as football and have the option of travel ball for recruiting purposes. Football is 100% dependent on HS, can I can't imagine being stuck in a HS program with a bad coach.
2. Given that recruiting mostly happens in summer travel ball, I would base my decision almost purely on academics and social/peer group influence of the school.
3. If the school has a bad HS coach or program, then my son can learn just as much (if not more) in terms of character building. The only time I would let the HS coach or team influence my decision is if there is truly bad influence/integrity issues (i.e. alcohol, drugs, cheating, etc.) - which I guess is related to #2 above. I do not consider HS baseball politics, HS coach ineptitude or unfair playing time as a bad influence/integrity issue. I guess even then, if the academics and social influence outside of the baseball team is not an issue, I would still stay in the school and not have my son play baseball for the school (he can play for one of the HS baseball alternative travel league that is becoming more popular around here).