Coach,
I would like to thank you for starting this thread and for providing an opportunity to discuss the issue.
Since my son is done playing, I don't have any personal stake in the the issue.
Even so, I feel your postings have created a discussion of the issue that is second to none for parents and players of the recruiting age.
Here are some things I view as relevant:
1.) Travel baseball is a fact, it is here, it is not going away, and it opens some opportunities for some players.
2.) Programs like that of catchersdad06 and I would bet Coach May involve the very top echelon of players. They don't involve guys like my son. They don't involve most players.
3.) The recruiting process for guys like my son and most players can, and often is, very different than what those with the top travel team experience.
4.) Parents and players need to be able to appreciate and accept and differentiate that not all travel programs and coaches are like those offered by catchersdad06, Coach May, TR, and here in the Bay Area, NorCal. The quality of the player, coaching, exposure, and opportunity created by a top national travel programs can be quite different than what is available for players like our son. The recruiting process/access to college coaches, etc for the vast number of players is different, also.
5.) With that said, if travel programs are going to post the NLI's and take credit of the type described at various places in this thread, then I think they also need to acknowledge the fact that a significant number of players are either not succeeding in, or are leaving, the programs in which they are placed.
6.) On this site and on another message board, there are threads about the large number of DI players transferring out of their DI to JC and DII programs. On our Nor Cal message board, one thread says upwards of 19 DI players transferred this year to one DII program. I believe that is a number that should cause concern as to why. Is it connected to the way college recruiting exists now with travel baseball and if so, in what way?.
I would sure like more information as to the relationship, if any, of the travel/showcase travel/showcase process to a recruiting results where there are lots of publicized NLI's but, seemingly a large number of "failures" within 1-2 years, which don't get any publicity.
I am not saying there is a relationship. I am proposing such a relationship is worthy of consideration and study.
7.) Lastly, as you have proposed, I personally believe there are many players who can get recruited, not necessarily at DI programs, but at top schools where they will be coached by top baseball people, by attending college camps such as the Stanford Camp, but not only that camp.
As an illustration, the high school our son attended is quite small. Most athletes play multiple sports so they can have a sports programs. Since 2004, 5 graduates of that high school have been drafted, 3 received baseball scholarships to Stanford, others played at high quality DI programs, still others attended high quality DIII's with at least one playing in the DIII CWS championship game for JHU. All of them played multiple sports in HS and, to my knowledge, not one of those guys played high level travel baseball.
There are other ways.
It is a bit ironic but in 2006, our son had the great experience to play on the same Milb team with Fungo's son. Their recruiting process out of high school could not have been more opposite.
Their playing levels in college could not have been more opposite.
By 2006, as teammates, they had a profound respect for each other.
Their is one common aspect to their very different journeys.
Fungo identified it.
It was not showcasing and/or travel baseball.