Beast of the East

Poor............very few college turnout except for locals. Wasted our money on this one.

I was there also last year-very good if you are interested in West Virginia schools. It is put on by a small DII West Virginia college that uses it to recruit to there school. A few Div I West Virginia schools are there and some "private" recruiting firms that try extract a lot of money from you for recruiting your kid (like $$1200-2000!!) I feel our time was wasted there because we are from Georgia and my son wanted to stay in the south.

Our son's team went there 3 yrs in a row. It seems it depends on what field you get play on as to what scouts you see. I have scouts and coaches from Kent St.,Ohio St., Akron U., Cleveland St. and many D-III colleges from Ohio and Kentucky. I heard there were some pro scouts there also, Blue Jays, Reds, Indians, Pirates.
Poor weather has hampered 2 of the 3 tourneys we went to and they don't make up games. We got screwed twice. Also very bad umpiring in general, i.e. not consistent with rules from one field to another.

I had my son in there showcase in 2005,there was more scouts there than what we expected, We was sitting under the tent with them because it was so hot & humid that day they said we could go in there and stay cool, just in chatting with them we found out who they were, scouts told us where they was from the Blue Jays, Reds, Indians, Pirates, baltimore, chicago, indians and the phillies, as for colleges ohio state,north carolina,indiana. We thought they told us a few more, but I cannot remember them all, Those guys was very nice to us. They like watching the older boys games that impress them from the showcase, As far as the tournament goes we notice scouts on the first 2 days of playing, then they just go to the final games of the best teams. If you do the showcase try to do the early one before it gets to hot. We liked the tournament but some of the field are not worth a darn! They get some good teams that can really play ball too!

I know this thread is kind of dead, but does anyone else have an opinion or review for this tourney? My team has interest in it. thanx

My Brother has done the Beast, We seen alot of scouts at the games and the showcase, alot of them was the from the Pros. People have mixed feelings about this one, some like it alot and some do not like the fields, Some of the fields are pretty bad, but some are really good. My brother wants to go back! He was noticed from some of the scouts there. And we seen sometimes as many as 10 or more scouts at most of his games charting certain boys. At one of the fields they was there all day for the 16 thru 18 years olds that was playing there! If your good and stand out they will follow your games! We liked it and thought that it was run well! Consider how far you have to drive to get there and would it be worth it for you as a player to be seen!

For various reasons, this is not a tournament I would recommend.

Reasons:
Fields are spread out all over. Making it hard for the scouts. Games can be up to 50 miles away from each other.
Showcase is a cattle-call with approx. 100 kids per (3) show...Ran by National Scouting Report.
Ages: U14, U16, U18 all together.
Very tough to find lodging unless you reserve very early (and prices are jacked up).
Competition: OK. Similar to (and including) summer league teams at home.

There has to be better tourneys.

Also, there is a rule about rain outs.

If your game is rained out, it is not made up. (I am almost sure).

If your team goes 3 - 1 (with a rain out) and another team goes 4-1 (no rain out), 4-1 wins.
Sorry your team had the bad luck of being rained out.

Also, regardless of record, you continue to play through Sunday. They take all of the first teams from 8 pools and have them play off, then all second teams ....., all the way down to the last place teams in each pool. If you are playing for positions 57 - 64, it's tough to be motivated on Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m and knowing that if you keep winning on Sunday in a low bracket, you may not get on the road home until very late.

Fans also have to pay at each field (that they are able to gate). So you may have two gate fees in one day.

We went to the Beast three times. Showcase is a waste. Games are competitive and last year they did a better job of cutting down drive time, but on Sunday, we had to drive 60 minutes to get to our field. Good tournament in which to play a lot of games and face good competition, but hard to gague if many scouts were really there.