I tend to side more with the view of SGV and TRHit, but then, I too run a ccllege development baseball program, so I have a bias in my views. Where I think that Coach Milburn is somewhat over-simplifying things is that most people have no idea how much communication goes on behind the scenes at top level programs with college coaches regarding their players. The fact is, the top development clubs are watched closely by many college coaches and if you've built a repore and reputation with college coaches over time, it will greatly benefit any player in your program who has the skills necessary to play at the collegiate level. As an example, our team was watched by approximately 30 different coaches over 3 days at the Jr. Fall Classic. Would you have wanted your son on the field at that showcase tournament? Getting noticed is what is important, and to get noticed, you have to play on a team that people want to scout. Players do not get recruited sight unseen. They have to be seen playing against good competition, and not every team can provide that for an aspiring player.
As for cost, it varies wildly from program to program, and from what I understand we're at the lower end of the spectrum. That said, this kind of baseball is still very expensive. Most of that expense is eaten up in air or ground travel, hotel expenses, restaurants, and other things like showcase entry fees and such. I imagine that many of the families who have young men playing in our program spend $3,000+ per summer, with approximately 2/3 or more of that on travel related costs. On the other hand, about 10-12 of our players annually end up with college baseball opportunities, so some of the parents think it is worth the expense, and the memories they get to build with their sons along the way are important too.
In closing, I'll say that today was a nice day. I was looking through Baseball America's D1 pre-season top 25, with projected starting lineups posted. I was gratified to find four of the young men who used to play on our teams in those lineups. Three of them are freshmen.