2013 advice etc

bothsportsdad,

Here is my two cents....

There are so many ways to answer this question. I tend to look at college baseball recruiting like a puzzle with pieces that must fit to be successful. Those pieces are athletic, academic and financial. Can you share more about your son and his goals, and what he wants to get out of college baseball?

Does your son have the skills, build, projectability to play anywhere? Has someone outside your "current baseball family" evaluated your son's skills? If you know where your son's baseball skills fit, it becomes easier to find a place that wants him. Also, It would be very worthwhile to have him evaluated to know where to spend your recruiting time and money.

There is no doubt in my mind that every college coach is looking for good switch hitting catchers with an excellent pop time. But what is your son looking for in a college program, coach, education? Have you discussed the kind of school your son is interested in, as well as goals his beyond college? When those goals have been identified, then your son should start calling (or email) the profile schools that fit his goals. He'll want to ask about their "camp".....is it a genuine "recruiting camp" or is it an "instruction camp"? Your son will want to target the "recruiting camps" because he will be a senior and he wants to be recruited. Also, he should be attending showcases that fit his profile otherwise it is a waste of time and money IMHO. He needs to make a recruiting impact this Summer and Fall which gives you 5-6 months. Spending your time wisely is very important.

In addition, your son should follow up with the coach on his summer schedule, video, and anything else that will seperate him from other switch hitting good catchers with great pop time such as academics, or extraciriculars. Also, have your son ask all coaches for their summer recruiting schedule. While your son is carrying out these tasks, you may want to touch base with his travel coach to see what his thoughts are as well as his network of baseball contacts. That is where I'd start.

Questions, please let me know. Other folks will no doubt chime in with their valuable perspective. The more perspectives you get the better off you'll be.

Good luck!

Fenway: ty for your response. Let me address some of the points you brought up so you and others can be fully informed;

1)first let me say that I agree with the point you brought up about him being evaulated by a 3rd party... he hasnt had anything but positives from those in his "baseball family". Problem is I do not know anyone who offers such a service. Perhaps someone on here can recommend a respected indivudal in or near NC.

2) first and foremost he wants to go somewhere he is genuinely wanted that has a good baseball program that has a track record of winning and getting kids drafted. He wants to keep the dream alive. He would much rather he go to a D2 program like this than a be the 3rd catcher at a top D1 school. As a wise person once told me: even if a top D1 school thinks hes the next Carlton Fisk; they will be looking for the next Johnny Bench the following year.

3) he wants to major in math so most any school will fit this aspect of where he goes to college

4) hes a good student but not a great student.

If your son is playing for a well know / highly recognized travel team - he may well will get more attention at highly scouted tournaments than at many "camps".

It is my opinion that if you are not primarilly looking for instruction - attending a camp without very personal contact before hand is not likely to be beneficial.

If you have had personal contact with coaches and are otherwise in the recruiting process with said school the value of the camp goes way up.

no we are not looking for instruction.. he goes to a former MLB player for hitting and a former MLB player and a current roving MILB catching instructor for receiving lessons.

You'll need to make the most of the tourneys he goes to. Don't just expect the recruiters to be at every game, especially at East Cobb. They mostly hang out at the main complex. My team had games out in the boonies and the only recruiters that came were a couple that I had sent my schedule and videos to.

I did not do any big $ showcases, I think they have huge mailing lists and are money makers. I did attend some smaller college ones (that had shown interest)in the fall that were all very reasonable and worthwhile.

Also, don't overlook grades, they can open alot of doors. Get prepared for the ACT and SAT (prep books at the library) and work on it! Best of luck.

bothsportsdad - feel free to email me at
cubsnorth83@yahoo.com

I have a son who is a catcher in the 2012
class and I have a great deal of info
about your question.

So, I would guess everyone's experience is different but without attending camps, my son probably wouldn't be playing on next year. He attended several showcase style events with many scouts in attendance, plays on a top travel team which plays at all the right events like East Cobb but as a medium sized infielder he just never stood out in those circumstances. He always played well and contributed but camps gave him the chance to spend some time in front of the coaching staffs and them the time to appreciate what makes him special, the fact that he knows the game so well and does everything, big and little routinely. He isn't physical monster nor a guy with stand out tools but he is a gritty competitor with a nose for the game, every day not just once in a while.

So, I guess what I am saying is it probably depends on what type of player your son is. Some will stand out due to physical build or an amazing arm or speed etc....camps and those that were at least 3 days long were the ticket for my son. He went to three and got three offers after them. He got none from showcases as there was always a more shiny object to admire who may or may not pan out day in and day out if you know what I mean.

1. You should be able to find out from the JC coach and your son's instructors which college level they see him fitting in at. Just tell his instructors you don't want bs, you want helpful info. Your HS/summer coach might even have an opinion or know a pro scout who he could ask on your behalf. You shouldn't have to pay for an evaluation.

2. Are you sure he'd rather go to a D2? In our area the D2s are overwhelmingly loaded with JC and D1 transfers, the freshman and sophmores don't get much playing time if they make the team. If you aim for d2 carefully check the roster of the schools that are interested in your son. Please note I did not say the check the roster of the schools your son is interested in.

3. Identify schools and then sending them letters, e-mails and having scouts talk to the coach didn't work for my son. Going to a camp a local pac 10 school on his own also didn't help (it was not stanford allstar camp).

The simple fact is that he must look projectable when he plays in front of a coach, scout or friend of either one. My son got some interest by playing for a connie mack team, going to area code tryouts and Stanford camp helped a bit. If it doesn't work out, hands down the best exposure my son ever got was from playing JC ball.

Given that you are in NC there shouldn't be any shortage of scouts or coaches watching for projectable players. Do not talk your way onto the team or a tryout, as you stated in your own comments you want a coach that seriously wants your son on his team.



btw its really all about hitting, pop times are meaningless if it doesn't look like he can hit at the next level.

collegeparent: well his catching instructor thought we are selling him a bit short looking at D2 initially but we are trying to be realistic out of the gate. The JC coach has already offered and it is a fine baseball program. I dont feel comfortable asking him about another possibility. I just dont think it is respectfull.

Physically at 6ft1 180 he looks good in a baseball uni but he is not a genetic freak... I know I have seen them at Ft Myers last fall and at east cobb last summer and I understand why they attract attention. I dont ncessarily agree with it b/c there is a lot more to being a good ballplayer than how tall you are but that seems to be the reality.

Cali: its interesting what you say.. last fall in Ft Myers we played a team that had the brother and the son of 2 MLB players. In that game my son had easily the hardest hit ball in the game but the "talk" was all about those two. And I dont recall them doing anything special during the game.

Bottom line is he has a sub 2 pop time with accuracy; is an excellent receiver of the ball and he can hit from both sides of the plate... maybe I am naive in thinking that should be enough.

The JUCO coach s/b an easy question....where do you see me playing? Can I play d1? He must have a vision for your son that goes beyond JC and fits his needs otherwise he wouldn't recruit your son. Most of these guys don't waste their time recruiting players they don't think will fit. Its the JC coaches goal to move your kid to the next level, it shouldn't make anyone uncomfortable to ask him what he thinks about your son's projectability.

The bottom line is that d1 coaches are looking for guys that project to hit college pitching, quick bat, solid contact. Doesn't matter how good he plays, if the bat is slow etc. the catching skills dont' matter.

well what he has told me is how many scouts see their games... I dont know if there is anything to infer from that. As far as his swing I certainly dont believe his bat is slow but I am not sure what a fast bat constitutes either. He hits with some power but he is not the type of hitter to swing from his heals regardless of the count. All I can really guage are his results at the plate last fall and again this spring in HS. I was told by a guy who also scouts for a MLB organization that he has "no holes in his swing".

bothsportsdad,

Thanks for providing more info. I still think you need a third party to evaluate your son's baseball skill set....you need to know where he would best fit. You've provided some info on the academics. So, let's try to create a search strategy based on what you've provided and some tools to help your son start doing some research......and there will be a lot of research that will need to be done. Next step is to determins how far away your son is willing to go to school from home, and make some assumptions. Let's make some assumptions that he is capable of playing D1, D2, D3 and JUCO and he has an interest in math. I would then go to collegeboard.com to create a search profile (click For Students, then create a free account). You can create a personalized profile that will have all the search elements you've been talking about. I would then cross reference that with visits to

http://www.boydsworld.com/ - to get ISR and RPI info for D1, D2, D3, NAIA and JUCO
http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2012/index - review power rankings and Conference Strength

to get an idea of how these schools in the collegeboard.com results stack up in baseball terms. Research each program that interests you to create a list of 50 or so on a spreadsheet. I would review the college attendees for the showcases and camps I've been offered to determine if there is a fit. I would review the specific colleges roster to see what their catching situation is projected to be. I would call the coach (if his season is over), and ask him about his recruiting schedule for the summer and his catching situation. If I didn't reach him by phone, I would email him. Create a status list of the schools you've contacted and how far you are in the process with them including next steps. If your son doesn't hear from the coach call him back in a couple weeks. Recruited = passion + skill + exposure + persistence + luck.

As other posters have pointed out, everybody's path to get there is different. I agree with that 100%. But the methodology to find the path is fairly universal. There are only so many schools, you have to distill & filter the search down to what makes most sense to you. Our experience was very similiar to calisportsfan. My son played on one of the best national travel teams that actually won the 16U PG WWBA. We attended all kinds of top notch baseball showcases & tournaments but he still didn't stand out. We had to adjust our strategy to highlight something else that made him standout, and that was his academics. So we attended baseball academic showcases and top academic camps and that is when things really started to happen. Don't be afraid to fail as you are learning how to do this. Most people do, and we certainly did. But, looking back it really wasn't failure it was learning. Adjust your strategy as you move forward. Once you find an interested coach/school then the questions change. So, don't be afraid to ask those questions here as well or PM me if you have specific questions.

Good luck.

Fenway: thank you so much for the post. I love your formula and may have to add that to my profile!

Do you (or anyone else for that matter)know anyone in NC outside his "baseball family" who could evaluate him? I think a new fresh set of eyes would be best going into the summer and anyone I previoulsy have mentioned has seen him play multiple times.

Pick a college camp or showcase early in the summer that will write him an evaluation and have him create an email relationship with the coach in advance so they pay attention to him.
You will find a college coach will tell you very quickly if he thinks you fit at that level.

I would prefer to pay someone for a one on one session so that it is clear they eyes are there for one reason... surely someone on here can suggest.. thx

bothsportsdad, check your PM

bothsportsdad,

You have a PM.