2015 Prospects -what to do now?

Go to the top of this board and hit HSBaseballWeb.com and read the recruiting timeline, begin to educate yourself on the process.

You need to be your sons best advocate, you do not need a recruiting service.

After you read and explore this site, let us know what steps you have taken so far.

First thing, get your son on a good travel team for next summer.

You need to make a business plan and start executing it. First your son needs to make an honest assessment of what level of college ball he CAN play, not what level he wishes to play. Then this the conferences at the level he believes he can play. From each conference choose the schools that fit from a baseball, academic, geographic, social and financial standpoint. It's ok to have a list of fifty schools. Some won't be interested in him. Some he will decide he's not interested.

Figure out your budget. Can you afford to pay for an expensive travel team? Or would pinpointing individual showcases and camps be a better financial fit? If he's going to play travel you need to find out the travel teams to get on soon. Most tryouts are anywhere from now to January.

If he's a potential D1 or D2 player he needs to register with the NCAA Clearinghouse online.

Do not rely on just high school coaches. If they can help, great. Your son needs to control his own destiny. He can do that with a business plan and keeping notes on everything that occurs. Don't be afraid to ask questions on this site.

Where do you live? People here can probably suggest travel teams and showcases to check out. How far away from home is your son interested in attending college? What level player (D1, D2, D3) is he? A quality high school and/or summer coach may be able to provide an honest talent assessment.

Relax. You're not behind yet. Summer/fall after junior year is major recruiting time. But you need to track down and tryout for travel teams between now and January. Read the section TPM suggested to get the big picture.

We received the data from the scout league we just finished.  His SPARQ rating was 64.57.  Now he's just 16 and I noticed some of the 17 and 18 wound up with a lower rating then he did.  Do they take into account age as a factor or is that a true representation period at that moment?  I can't find any really concrete numbers that tell me about what this rating really means.  His scout eval rated him as a d2/juco prospect at this time.  

His numbers were 

Height 5'11

Weight 166

GRIP Strength 133.4

Ladder 6.07

30 3.7

60 6.45

20 yd shuttle 4.47

Rotation power ball 38'10"

Vertical 28.7

Broad 8'10"

Inf POP 2.34 (very slow for him...he was trying to place it)

Inf Velo 73 again very slow for him because he was more worried about placement.

Bat exit sped 73

He's got some work to do but what do all these numbers really mean?  When we make our skills video should we add as a PowerPoint. We have our first college prospect day at a D2 college in a week and have no idea what to expect.  He received an email saying that they saw him at the scout leauge and were interested in him attending the prospect camp.  They went on to say that UIL states it has to be open tryouts, but that they were sending out letters to those they were interested in and it was limited to 60 participants.  Is this normal?  It's the first one we have ever received. We are excited to just get this first one out of the way so that we know what to expect form now on.  

A couple things....first, that 60 time, if accurate will get him a lot of attention.  Is he a catcher...or just doing POP time because it was available. 2.34 is average....but a fundamentally good catcher.. that runs a 6.45 60 is VERY HARD to find. The POP time can easily be improved.  Now, if you say he is a left-handed hitter...then you're golden. Even if he's RH, he's still in a pretty good position..again, due to his speed....though I would think that he needs to get the exit velocity up into the low/mid 80's to be in position for D1 offers.  Good luck.  Tell him to just go to the camp....be himself and don't worry so much about the numbers. Once he has one or two under his belt, he'll be fine.  The first one is always the hardest...he'll be nervous...who wouldn't. 

Thank you Green Light...very useful. Do they factor age or is that just rankings based on ability? 

Buckeye no he is not a catcher... 3rd is his preference but can play any position actually hes an amazing utility player that can be moved pretty anywhere.  He use to catch back in little league, but was moved to 3rd and has just stayed there. He's played left, 1st, all MIF and has even pitched a few times just because he's so slow and the timing...but by no means a pitcher...rather a "THROWER" when you need a different pace.  

He is a righty...His POP was SLOW and maybe now he will listen to his dad and I with regards to that...since it's in black and white now...and he's able to compare from the other boys there that there's were much faster then his....so his approach of accuracy over pure power was incorrect.... you just gotta THROW IT. We (his dad and I) are probably more nervous then he is....He just loves to play and looks at it as another opportunity to throw and hit the ball around.  Thank you all for your information.  I will keep you updated on our experience next weekend.  We are excited that it's a D2.

From what little I know at this point, I would say his IF velocity and bat exit velocity are 2 of the biggest things that need improvement.  

Best of luck to you folks at the D2.  It sure sounds as if something good will work out for him at some point.

Never had a definitive answer to that. Been told it is all scores, all ages, reported into Nike...which owns the SPARQ trademark.

My unscientific experience is that 65 is noteworthy for a high schooler seeking to play D1, and 70 is something you can legitimately brag about. (For pitchers it is not always relevant, same for prodigious power hitters) Stanford Camp does SPARQ testing and they give you your rank compared to other players at the camp.

Honestly I wouldn't worry or focus on the Sparq score,  Its important for your son to improve bat and arm speed, to the best of his ability.  A lot of coaches will start by looking at an online video of your son and decide if they want to pursue him any further, so I would say putting a decent video of him would be a start.  If he doesn't gain much arm and  bat speed over the next year, he should consider attending a JC to develop his skills. 

Good luck!

re: Sparq, I am not aware of any baseball program that focuses on finding kids with good sparq scores

I concur wholeheartedly with this!

Bum, Jr. had the highest shuttle-run Sparq score in camp as a h.s. sophomore.  It meant nothing, though, as he was a LHP.  I guess that means he can cover bunts well.

You're not behind, relax.

Update....we finished out the season and made it two rounds into the playoffs.  The team that knocked us out won the state championship.  He received all district and over all had a good season.  We recently did another showcase this week and his numbers increased some.  His 60 time was 6.44 and 6.5.  His bat velo was 90 but his arm velo was still low 76 because he's trying to control it to much.  Coaches told him to just let it rip they care more about speed and less about accuracy at this point in the game.  We are still pecking away.  A lot of great advice.  We are actually getting more track colleges then baseball at this point.  We will hit another showcase in a few weeks and hope to drum up some more interest.  We did do the Complete Showcase and for the most part were happy with the results for the money.  At any rate we are still trying to live the dream and make it a reality for him to be able to play in college somewhere.