Tagged With "Early"
Topic
Getting on Radar as Soph.
Hey everyone. First post here. My son is a high academic kid and is a soph. RHP. Had some terrible travel ball experiences playing on a few elite regional teams. Had an injury during first year with national level travel team, which he seems to have overcome. I know he burnt out this past summer, too. Didn't play last summer and came back to HS ball in spring and really reconnected with the game and had a good year on varsity as soph. despite not playing at all for the year before. We're...
Topic
Good Article on Early Commitment
Thought this was a good one.... http://www.prepbaseballreport.com/news/PBR/Digging-In-Recruiting-Verbal-Commitments-And-Twitter-9725018436
Topic
Early Recruit Signing
I am new to this forum and very appreciative to have found it. My son is a 2020 and will be our first to go through the recruiting process. Both his mother and I played collegiate sports but that was too long ago and it appears the recruiting process has evolved over the years. My question is this; If coaches are not allowed to contact players how are they entering into a verbal commitment with Freshman, Sophomores etc? Do the players initiate and make all of the contact? My son is outgoing...
Topic
Texas Select 14U Tryouts
Professionally coached 14U Texas Select Baseball team is in need of few solid players for the Spring/Early Summer season. This is a tournament only team, we have our own practice field located in Sunnyvale (just East of Dallas). ...
Topic
8th Annual Best of the 757 Baseball Showcase @ Virginia Wesleyan
THE OPPORTUNITY: Top players regionally, as well as state-wide, will be invited to perform and showcase their talents at the 2015 Best of the 757 Baseball Camp & Showcase . In its 8 th year, the event has been modified and will include 2-days of activities, where players will get to play in front of a large contingent of scouts, major college baseball programs, and other baseball decision-makers; participate and be measured in baseball specific athletic tests; and showcase...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
You should get some well-informed replies. You can also do a search here and find a lot of discussion. From what I have seen the pros are that sometimes it works out absolutely great for the kid, and the cons are that sometimes it's a disaster.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
PROS: Kid can relax and play without the pressure of pleasing. Time can be spent cleaning up/improving their game. Money can be saved, limit travel/tournaments/showcases, go to committed to college's camps. Focus on grades, like baseball they can never be too good. Parents get to post on social media. CONS: Staff that recruited player leaves, RC that loves your son takes another job and HC has no idea who you are. HC is fired, resigns or takes another job. You stop working because you "made...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
^^^^^^^+1...in a nutshell. We were talking about this the other day. If it's a dream school, go for it. If not, why take yourself off the market early?
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Advantages: Gives you a strong sense of affirmation (which is no small thing in a sport defined by failure) Gives you something to crow about to others (how much of an advantage this counts as depends on your personality and situation) Relieves one major source of stress -- uncertainty. Which can be a very major source of stress. Disadvantages: It's a one way street. Teams that might otherwise be interested in you, will stop thinking about you as an option. Which may or may not be a big...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Welcome to the site. What position does player play and is this a school at the top of his list? Are we talking power 5 D1? These are a few key variables. I'm sure you will get some great responses but also be aware that you can search existing threads in this forum and there are many on this topic. Generally... Some pro's - assuming school is making significant $ investment, less likely that they will recruit more high profile guys at your position better chance of finding a mutual match -...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
What is early? What is the assumed level of academic achievement? What is the assumed number of college choices at the time of committing early? What position is played? What is the level of baseball talent (use a PG rating as the indicator)?
Reply
Re: Committing Early
To amplify on this a bit. My son played with 2 kids who committed to the same major conference school during their sophomore year of HS. It was a dream school for both. One was a 2016, the other a 2017. Subsequently the recruiting coach moved on. 2016 was given an NLI and played extremely for the team this year as a frosh. 2017 was left dangling and never saw an NLI. Fortunately he found a nice mid-level conference match a month or so ago and signed. Sometimes it works out great. Sometimes...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Just look up top, hit the magnifying glass to do a search...The answer today is the same as it was in 2004...a one way street to nowhere.... Early Commitments http://community.hsbaseballweb...ng=Early+Committment
Reply
Re: Committing Early
I wonder how many kids commit early to their dream school without closely examining if it's the right school baseball wise, academically, geographically, socially and culturally. It can be hard enough for adults to sort this all out. Yet ultimately the kid has to make the decision. Yes, baseball comes first for a top prospect. But a high school sophomore top prospect might not be one by the time he's twenty-one (didn't develop, injury) The other issues matter in the decision. The non...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Yes indeed. My 2021 is not exactly an early recruit but it is funny how he says "wow it'd be so cool to play for Louisville" when he has literally never set foot in the state of Kentucky let alone has any clue about Louisville's curriculum nor any clue as to what he would major in. He wouldn't have even known that the U of Kentucky's home park is an extreme hitters park as compared to Louisville's park if I hadn't told him.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Thanks, so with P's, I think you have sort of another sub-set of pro's and cons. Teams carry lots of P's. So, signing the player early and committing $ won't stop school from recruiting hard for more guys like you or better. P's is where most of the $ goes, although that $ is not unlimited. The race to sign arms is the most aggressive, so things happen earlier and, thus, I think there are more misses. Also, injury is most likely to be a factor with P's. And, if player does not develop quite...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
wow if you look over the threads from 04-08 even later you realize how early is...back them the winter of JR year was consider early and somewhat controversial to discuss! Today you are already being looked at by D'3 by them and have been crossed off by D1 and much of D2...the college coaches sure have gotten better at predicting earlier!! Those dumbass coaches of 10 years were way behind!
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Every trip we make this summer for baseball is being tied in with a campus visit to a school of interest in the area. Get an idea for the kind of campus environment your kid desires. We are trying to meet with the baseball staffs at those schools, a little harder to pull off it appears! Just getting one to answer the phone is a challenge.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Anyone care to give an educated guess (or if you know, even better) how much of the scholarship budget remains by the end of this summer for a major D1's? By class 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020. If anyone knows the same from 10 years ago, that would be a good data point. MLB draft, decommits not withstanding, I will guess zero, zero, 30%, 70%. Anyone?
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Moving on from Heimlich, I thought the question posed by the wonderful and always thoughtful Go44Dad was a great one. Anyone care to postulate intelligentia et scientia?
Reply
Re: Committing Early
My son is a 2020...early commitment has come up often. The trend I am seeing with pitchers is that the super duper OMG this 14 year old is throwing a million miles an hour...those guys are NOT committing early. The 14 year old throwing 85 miles an hour IS committing early. Every now and then it is because it is a local school to them and where they feel comfortable playing. I really can't fault that decision, if that is where they and their parents were always hoping they would go then good...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
"Sounds to me that would be a real good reason to commit early." While all the money may be gone, ironically a bunch of that money is committed twice. Because early comittments are not enforceable, some schools will stockpile comittments and leave the "undeserving" at the proverbial NLI alter. What makes a kid "undeserving?" Coaching change, skills that plateau, draft miscalculations (either for incoming or out going players), grade/score issues, a better player comes along, are a few...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
"What does your kid want out of baseball is the biggest question I would ask." Play at Alex Box stadium. Pitch and bat clean-up.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
From what I've heard, when it comes to Power 5 schools, the earliest a HC/RC will have a true educated guess as to if a player can contribute for them is when they see them as rising Seniors on the biggest Showcase/Tournament diamonds competing against top Power 5 recruits and potential MLB draft picks. Anything earlier than that is mere guesswork and projection. This is an important element that many parents of early commits miss in a huge way. It really depends on the early commit's...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Welcome to the site. You are getting good advice, but often times what is left out, the most important is, ONLY COMMITT WHEN THE PLAYER FEELS IT IS THE RIGHT FIT FOR HIM. Forget about the coaching staff, nowadays that is secondary. Coaches come and go, that's not going to change. This is their livelihood, and they will decide what is best for their future, and as much as parents don't like that, the coach has a right to improve his earning capacity and what is best for his family. Worst...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Thanks for all the great replies. The couple replies that stick out is money left for 2017=0%, 2018=0%, 2019=30%, 2020=70%. The other is pitchers is where the money is spent. So my 2019 RHP looks like it would be best to commit fairly soon.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Leave it to Football: http://bleacherreport.com/arti...m_campaign=editorial
Reply
Re: Committing Early
30%? Plus academic money? I wouldnt take my pitcher off the market for that!!! What people fail to realize is that if a coach wants you, they will always find the money. They just dont want you to know that.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
I can only speak about son's recruitment path. He was a 2015 grad, so fairly recent. We live in very rural south GA. He played on fairly local travel teams until he was "discovered" at an All Star high school game after his sophomore year. It was on the campus of a good kid major program, and the coach brought us in to talk after the game was over. No offer was made, but he wanted us to come back in a few weeks for a visit and offer. We did and son received a good offer. We had no idea what...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
I was literally just told this exact same thing by a Big 10 coach yesterday, when asking for some advice about the risk/reward of taking an offer early. His opinion for my 2019 was to play the invite-only showcases he's already signed up for, be seen by as many coaches as possible and enjoy the process. Then if that early offer still makes the most sense give it more serious consideration.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Great story YG!! I say do it if it makes sense for you but my son did it the fall of his Jr year and de-committed that next summer. We got caught up. I'll take that blame. Everyone we talked to said take it. Waiting is probably the best advice you can heed, early commitment is a one sided deal for the school. As a side note, when my son wanted to decommit...i feared the "stigma" that comes with that. We talked for a long time about that phone call. The last thing i said to him was "You have...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Let's do very simple hypothetical: Total Cost to attend: $30,000. # of total scholarships: 11.7. Total scholarship money out of Baseball budget: (30,000 X 11.7) = $351,000. Attrition and graduation 1 year out = 0 (all $351,000 accounted for with incoming and retained players); 2 years out = 0 (all $351,000 accounted for with incoming and retained players); 3 years out = 30% (70% or $245,700 accounted for with incoming 'committed' and retained players. So at a 3 year out recruiting budget the...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Recently heard of a kid getting a 100% offer in his senior year. Obviously, a special talent but the money was available.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
NTG, Thank you for that lesson. I get it but many dont. A player should never commit because they are afraid there will be no money left. There are other ways to get your education paid for, as you pointed out.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
I put up a hypothetical example in a post earlier in the thread hoping people with more knowledge than I could take a guess as to how a Coach's recruiting budget is shaped at the end of this summer (2017) vs ten years ago. Forget dollars, but just scholarships. Assume the school is a D1 that has a realistic chance of hosting a regional in the next couple of years (maybe 32-36 schools?). That coach has already made some verbal commitments to players, as well as incoming class that has signed...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
As I have said before recruiting is a skill and the best know how to get it right. But i love the speculation on how some have it figured out.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
How would I know that. How would anyone know? Do you know who is on scholarship and who is not? Who got academic and who didn't? Just understand that coaches dont run out of money.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
I'm not smart enough to take a good guess on this one, Go44, ... wouldn't be surprised if your current numbers are pretty close. But I do think there is a tremendous degree of fluidity to those numbers, which sort of offsets the argument a bit. I think some coaches will hold out and keep an emergency stash when they can. And, heck, there have been plenty of recent threads outlining stories of returning players being told their money for next year is going to be used "elsewhere". I know too...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
As cabbagedad stated having just seen all of this go full circle with son finishing his first year in college I would say its about 50/50 for the boys I know well after their first year. You would be surprised how many are unhappy even when they played a bunch. Truthfully to be fair I think several of these could have been avoided but others you simply won't know until you get there. His summer team had four early commits. One drafted and in Padres org. Three others were pitchers. Only my...
Reply
Re: Committing Early
I like the nature of the question. But I think it should have been reworded: For those that had the opportunity to commit early (prior to junior year)..... How many committed early, and are extremely happy they did so? How many committed later and are extremely happy they did so? The pros and cons are a personal thing and unique to each recruit. It is about outcomes. JMO.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
You comment on 4 yr deals . What is the difference with the regular commitments
Reply
Re: Committing Early
The NCAA approved, I believe in 2011, a rules change that allowed schools to offer multi-year scholarships. Traditionally, scholarships are considered year-to-year and are reviewed and often changed or retracted at that time. I am a bit unclear as to what extent D1 baseball programs have put this into effect. Others can address that better than I. You can also search that topic here. It would be interesting to hear from others what is happening recently on that front.
Reply
Re: Committing Early
Heard from an RC of a pretty decent D1 that his recruiting target in out years is generally 6 full time equivalent scholarships per grad class. Higher than I thought. He said attrition usually gave them enough room to commit 6 full time equivalents.