Any interset in Player Video?

Jim,
As the father of a former baseball player that played at all levels up to pro ball --- AND ---- the owner of a video company --- AND --- a moderator on the High School Baseball Web maybe I can give a few pointers.

First, as a moderator: The high school baseball web we cannot allow every person that decides to "highjack" all threads as you have for the sole purpose of promoting a product. If you wish to advertise please contact the site administrator.

Secondly as the owner of a video company: I think most parents can (or know someone that can) provide sufficient video footage to accomplish their goal of relaying information to prospective coaches if they so desire. Venues such as youtube, while low in quality, do provide a method of sharing information. Parents may be blown away by the high quality you offer but coaches are NOT looking for high quality video but TALENT! Youtube, or a home video, can provide that portion of "exposure" if a parent feels that some video footage is needed. I have thousands of hours of footage showing my son demonstrating his baseball skills and I never sent one frame of him to any college.

Thirdly as a parent: I had X number of dollars allocated to helping my son get to the next level. I was inundated with people offering a "can't miss" way to (or product) to get him to the next level. I realized a long time ago that it would be talent that procured a roster spot for my son and not how much money I could spend. I'm sorry but parental budgets are limited and the "exposure" market is expanding much more rapidly than those parents' budget. I expect to see the competition for the parents' $$$ get more fierce as the exposure market increases and the economy decreases.
Fungo

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Marino:
I would like some feed back on what and how other video companies charge, what you get for the $. I have seen what other companies charge and the quality of the video. I have a distinct advantage and experience in this field. I was the video coordinator for the New York Yankees in Tampa, Fl. I now want to start my own video company focusing on amateur baseball players. I am hedging this all on the quality of the video, not price.
Any suggestions?

Jim,

Welcome to HSBBW. Based on your earlier posts, it seems that you adapted your entry here from soliciting business to soliciting opinions and information. Apparently a moderator felt you had crossed the line and thus deleted or modified your posts.

A lot of us here get all excited when we feel we are being used to help someone's business opportunity profit. Obviously, financially supporting this site would quickly change a few minds. Since we are often skeptical of newcomers hawking their goods and services, it can be tricky establishing oneself here with any amount of creditability. Thanks for being up front about your business. I wish you well.

That said, your recent inquiry seems to toe the line, but in my mind is somewhat reasonable. That's because I have no idea how much parents are paying for this type of service. Nor do I know about the quality of the various services and whether that makes an appreciable difference. I'm curious what is being paid for this and if it is beneficial. I suspect there are more than a few threads on this topic already.

quote:

A lot of us here get all excited when we feel we are being used to help someone's business opportunity profit. Obviously, financially supporting this site would quickly change a few mind

Actually its more complicated than that. First off I'm not "excited" at all and I'm the moderator that deleted and/or modified the post. There are people/companies that pay for advertisement on the High School Baseball Web to support the site and to target their customer base (the viewers). Suddenly one day someone like Jim Marino without warning or authorization decides to target the same customer base (members) as the paid advertisers and floods the threads with his product. 11 posts in this case. (I deleted some without an indicator that I had done so.)

It's not fair to many people. It would be akin to me purchasing a billboard from ABC company advertising my cars and then have another car dealership come in one night and place a billboard in front of or beside mine and ABC Company ignore the "trespasser". If the trespasser (Jim Marino) wants to advertise it has to under the guidance of the administrator and it has to conform to the integrity of the HSBBW.

Fungo,

First of all I think you do a great job with this moderating stuff. The more I read the more I understand that you are a businessman.

quote:

There are people/companies that pay for advertisement on the High School Baseball Web to support the site and to target their customer base (the viewers).

Please contact Julie and ask her if "all" advertisers on here are interested in "targeting" the viewers in order to increase business.

It was an honest mistake and I would like to contribute to the advertising fees. I totally understand how this could upset paying people, I would be upset too. So, when you can forward me the necessary info for advertising.

We never sent any video clips out during the recruiting process, and no coaches ever asked for it.

Here's my question - and I'd be very interested to hear from coaches and/or scouts (and anyone else with expertise in analyzing baseball talent):

What can you determine from watching video? Are you looking for swing mechanics? Can you get an idea of bat speed? For defense - can a few grounders and throws across the diamond give you a good idea of speed and hands? For catchers, can video tell you what you need to know about throw down and receiving? For pitchers, can you determine something about mechinics and velocity. Is it routine to show a radar gun reading in the foreground of the video?

I've always wondered just how useful video is for recruiting. Since no coach ever asked us for any, my sense was it is not that useful.

Thanks Jim. No doubt you can be an asset to many people that frequent this site. Take a look at the link and then you can contact Julie. Thanks. at:http://www.hsbaseballweb.com/advertise.htm

The price I have paid for video is zero.

I would not pay to have someone do something as simple as video tape a player from a few different angles. I was reading where coaches do not want to see some professional looking video because they feel that it is a parent's way of over-rating and over-selling their kid.

I have not had any requests yet for video.

PGStaff said,

quote:

Please contact Julie and ask her if "all" advertisers on here are interested in "targeting" the viewers in order to increase business.

PGStaff, Maybe I didn't explain it very well. "Targeting viewers" and "increasing business" can be miles apart. I do assume you want to "target" viewers with your banners. Did I indicate advertisers were trying to increase business by doing so? Yes, I understand there are many reasons to "target" a customer base and increasing business may or may not be one --- I don't think I indicated it was. One could "target" a customer base to improve reputation or possibly increase name recognition or who knows why. I have no idea what one's motivation might be for targeting the readership of the HSBBW but a banner is designed to "target" and I think they do a good job.

re: Coaches asking for video.

HaverSon only attended one national showcase, and none of the schools who made contact directly from that showcase ever requested a skills video.

However, my impression is that video is a great tool for gaining the attention of a coach/program who will not otherwise be in contact with you.

For example, you can only attend one or two "local" showcases, but seek a specific coach's attention (thousands of miles away).

Also, for those who want to increase "their looks" from specific coaches at a specific showcases (say Headfirst and Stanford), a pre-showcase skills video link can't hurt.

In our situation, two partial scholly offers came very late, (one each... from a D1 and D2) from schools that had previously shown zero interest, but had received an unsolicited skills video, six months earlier.

I never asked for or even wanted any banner. As far as I know we never even designed or produced an ad for this site. Always wanted to contribute without any advertising or anything else in return. We contribute because we want to help not for the purpose of advertising or targeting anything. I have no idea what an ad even costs. We did the same thing without any ad when Bob had the site.

The reason we didn't want an ad was because I feared some would think we are targeting viewers or involved in marketing ourselves rather than just contributing (unknown) for other more worthwhile reasons.

Unfortunately it appears I was right about that.

Rob K I relied almost exclusively on video to market my son. A coach who knows what to look for can pick up all he needs to know especially if it shows game action. It is more than taking a few angles etc as you stated. I believe that you shouldn't cherry pick and it should not be like a home movie or a professionally produced movie but rather a live action sound and all type of production.
I provided hours of edited clips that were explained by a cover sheet . The cover sheet told how long the clip was and what level the talent was. The coach could decide what he wanted to look at and some coaches looked at all of the clips and asked for more. Some coaches wanted to see my son in action and wanted him to attend camps other like JCs said they would meet with us anytime we could get there.
The beauty of a CD/DVD was that the coach could open the disk and see all the clips plus a cover letter.
The other point about never being asked for a video. We were asked by several that we didn't send one to inadvance.
A great video is extrmely important if you are looking at colleges that are not local.

I'm not sure that a single video can get you a spot on a team (but it just might). However, worse case scenario is that a Coach might see some skills and talent good enough to invite your son to a special tryout and/or showcase.

It is helpful.

The college my son is at never saw him unjtil he arrived on campus in August 3 years ago. We didn't showcase except 1 when son was 15. That showcase was put on by his elite team.

University of Oregon has no direct email to coaches, they ask for you to download a video on youtube and then email baseball email with all pertinent info. I think a video can spark interest. PG I am sending you a PM.

I think it's only fair that I tell you I did produce a video and was prepared to mail it but the recruiting interest exceeded my expectation and I shelved the video.

When I saw the PG banners I just always assumed it was because PG wanted everyone to know they supported the site.

As far as the video I have been asked several times over the years to have certain players send in video. These were schools that did not have the resources to send someone out to actually see the player. Once they got the video if they liked what they saw they then sent someone out to see the player actually play.

I do believe it can be a good tool for some players. I am sure there are people that could benefit from it.

Son was at a camp this weekend. During a Q&A at the end, with kids and parents, one of the coaches said that videos are a good way to get the attention of a coach. YouTube link or homemade video can be looked at quickly. They can access a swing pitcher's movement. If the coach sees something he likes he will take the next step. It was a "from the horse's mouth" moment for me that confirmed what has been stated numerous times on HSBBW.

edit:
"They can access a swing OR a pitcher's movement."

Here is my take, if your son is well known "Blue Chipper" they know about them, have seen them, etc, etc. If your son is not of the correct size, and has been passed over, a video will help. I know one parent who's son in college was of small frame, 5ft 10inches and looked every bit of 16 years old. He did the U Tube thing and son got recruited to big school. It didn't work out for the young man, but at least he did get recruited.

For us, no one has asked for video, but I am considering doing a home made DVD just in case.

How hard is it for a parent to set up a tripod and record video. I used to set it up and only start and stop the video recording between innings. I then downloaded it and used free Movie Maker to chop out wasted footage. I enjoyed making the videos and used it to keep my son on track mechanically. At 1st he was embarrased when I did it but after his teammates asked if I would video them he was comfotable with it.
Once I had enough video I placed them in 2 files . 1 for DVD and 1 for CDs. I then transfered the contents of the files to both medias using Nero. I never used Rocky type music or any video enhancement but left the edited video with all its sounjd in tact, You are not only showing mechanics but showing that the player has game and can handel tough situations. For a pitcher you show his pick off move, abil;ity to field and even handel a hard come backer. You are condensing real BB action into a viewable video and if you do it properly the coaches will actually enjoy it. E had several offers from the video and yes there were some that wanted to see him in real. The video opened the door to some very high prophile schools.

I taped my son at last year's PG National Underclass Showcase (both the skills portion and games) and then edited it very similar to BobbleheadDoll. Final product was just under 5 minutes. Probably received requests for and sent out a dozen copies on DVD. These were mostly to schools out of the area that didn't have a chance to see him play. Costs very little if you already have a video camera and do it yourself.

How often do scouts bring a video camera?

I did see several of the college scouts at last years PG showcase at East Cobb running video cameras. I will have to say, though, they were specifically targeting one pitcher at a time and would turn it off when he came off the mound.

Infield look at Draft tracker if you think they don't video prospects.
It is also hardly comparable
You live in left out and I hear that is a highly recruited area.

quote:

Originally posted by infidel_08:
How often do scouts bring a video camera?

Very often. Bunches of them have those teenie tiny palm size cameras.

I saw the MLB Scouting Bureau using video at the Area Code games.

MLB SB also has a combo Stalker/Video device that I saw at son's games last year.

quote:

How often do scouts bring a video camera?

Not sure exactly how often, but I have seen several who do.