Best Venue to get Metrics, for College Coaches

My advice is to find an inexpensive PBR event in your area and go to that. Once you have done that, forget about metrics and focus on becoming a better player. There are only 2 metrics that will turn a coach’s head. FB velo & 60 time. And even the importance of those is overrated. PG has brainwashed youth baseball America into believing that you need to attend their events in order to move up in the game. You don’t. They have also convinced players and parents that recruiting is done based on metrics. It isn’t. I have been saying this on this board for the past 7 years. PG, PBR, VTool, etc. are money grabs. Nothing more and nothing less.

Thx Adbono!

I’ll second PBR. Much cheaper than PG and you get the data you are looking for.

Not fans of Baseball Factory?

Baseball Factory can serve the same purpose as PBR. Just make sure it’s not an expensive event. In 2016 my youngest son was a HS Soph and I took him to the PG South Showcase in Houston. It rained the entire time. 60 times were recorded as players ran into 20 mph winds and driving rain. The players had to field and throw wet baseballs. OF velo was clocked as players threw into 20 mph winds. BP was in a rainstorm. Notes on players were being made by HS & college age kids that had no idea what they were doing. It was the first and last PG event my son ever attended. Leaving Houston I called an old teammate of mine that is a baseball lifer to express my frustration. Before that call I wasn’t aware that he was involved in Baseball Factory. He advised me to have my son attend the least expensive Baseball Factory event next held in Texas to get verifiable metrics. He said he would be one of the evaluators. He also educated me on how anything beyond the cheapest events were total money grabs and completely unnecessary. After that I developed a plan that avoided all the so called “scouting services.”  The only exception being the Futures Games which was by invitation, featured incredible talent, and was inexpensive. A handful of players that were in that event with my son are already in MLB - including Bobby Witt Jr and Grayson Rodriguez.

Adams;

Do you have a College in your area? Maybe you can request a meeting to discuss your request and to debate the value of metrics. Do you know a Pro Scout?

Bob

Dear Consultant,

We do have a D1 College in our area, but it seems that they have , almost totally, gone over to the Transfer Portal , to get JUCO juniors(instead of high  School grads). One "Pro Scout" did talk to my son a couple of times, but he is also a Real Estate Agent, so I'm no sure how far up the Food Chain, he is.

I know you were heavily involved in the Pro Scouting environment, and any advice you can give me is appreciated. And while I think that my son is pretty darn good , I don't think he's ready to showcase his talents yet( football is taking up most of his time now, but we're are still practicing baseball 3 days a week to "keep the rust off").

Thx!

Adbono,

Thx for your advice-greatly appreciated! Tommy ( my son) did a Baseball Factory showcase last Feb and it was really pretty cheap. They ran a pretty good program. The only "downside" was that they conducted the 60 yard , early in the morning, and the turf was still wet. My son, and alot of others, were slipping and falling. The rest seemed pretty good. I just didn't know if one organization is  viewed more than another, by any colleges?

Adams;

The main objective to a meeting with the pro scout and a College Coach is to learn what, how & when they evaluate players.  To provide knowledge to you and your son, so you can make wise decisions. Call it "gathering info".

When I started the Area Code games, I invited the pro scouts to a dinner to obtain the advantages and disadvantages of placing young HS players on a "stage".

Bob

@Adams Baseball posted:

Not fans of Baseball Factory?

I'm not a big fan of BF. The PBR platform is much easier to navigate. The PBR quality is also pretty similar to PG, where the BF quality isn't really as good, IMO.

These services wouldn't exist without someone footing the bill so yes, for the vast majority of attendees, their money is "footing the bill". But they can and do provide a service. How much your son gets from this service is up to him. If he's got top 10% metrics then it's at least the 3rd-party validation of those metrics that is the service. You will find many differing opinions on this site but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see which one of the services is at the top of the chain. Yes, they have great marketing but more importantly they have a lot of credibility and even better data services. So, for what it's worth, when you think your son is top 10% here is my ranking:

1. Perfect Game (PG)

2. Prep Baseball Report (PBR)

3. Baseball Factory (BF)

Both PG and BF run showcases nationally in a standard format--this is because they are Nationally-run organizations. PBR, on the other hand, is a National organization made up of local franchises. Their showcases can differ by quite a bit. I'm not saying that is necessarily a bad thing--it's just that results can vary. As an example, during my son's recruiting journey we found that PBR collected exit velocity sometimes during BP and others off a tee. They also did not distinguish between wood bat and metal bat exit velo's. I believe this to be the case with BF as well. BF also records positional throwing velocity by having players run-and-gun into a net--no difference between MIF, CIF, OF and catchers. In my opinion, recording positional velocity this way is no way near as accurate.  PG, on the other hand, runs their showcases the same way regardless of the location. The metrics they collect are about as standardized as a service can get and they have collected these metrics for almost two decades.  Most importantly, you can view these on their website regardless of when and where, and who. This is how they are able to use metrics to help with their assessments. While some may think their assessments are terrible, you cannot argue they do not have the best metrics repository in the business.

PG is more expensive, of course, but they do include a games portion to their showcases and a lot of that cost goes toward umpires and evaluators at each game. While PBR may now have some events where games are played they are not part of the usual showcase events. BF does not play games.

Yes, as adbono points out, weather can be a factor so perhaps choosing which showcase you attend can help in this regard (like attending showcases in FL or CA). That being said, the event his son attended in 2016 did have 2 OF's throw 90+ (and an additional 9 threw 85+) and 2 players ran sub-6.6 (another 16 ran sub-8.0). Of course I can easily pull these metrics because PG has this data! You can go on and see which attendees of that event eventually committed to a college (not saying this event had anything to do with it) and what other events these  players attended whether they improved their metrics over time.

Yes, the PBR Futures Games is a great event but generally you have to have attended a PBR showcase somewhere to get an invite. Just like the PG Junior National and the PG National. I'm not saying there have never been players invited to these events without first attending but I'm sure that number is very, very low.

And BF? This org really is a money grab (except for the metrics collection) and is used as a tool to get you to attend their other events. No, I don't mean a generic email inviting you to attend another event but an honest-to-goodness salesman who calls YOU (the parent) on the phone to "discuss" your players results before inviting you to another event which happens to cost several thousand $'s.

Of course I am leaving out a lot of other organizations--like academic oriented Showball and Headfirst, USA Baseball (and all the little qualifiers leading up to an invite to a regional and national event), and of course Bob's Area Code games. The three I list and discuss above are the "mainstream" prep metrics-collectors.

Thx to all-great info!

Juco route if they come to your area... you get your metrics, and you get seen by coaches, and cheaper than PG and PBR.  Win all around.

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth we went to MLB tryout camps. We got timed in the sixty, home to first and throwing velocity.

RLM;

The MLB Scouting Bureau requested my assistance in conducting a one day tryout. We used SSU and over 40 scouts evaluated the players for 6 hour day.

One individual arrived in "knickers" old style Babe Ruth cap and a bat over his shoulder with the glove strapped to the handle.

We all looked for the TV cameras. There were none. The young man took his 3 swings and departed to the "smiles" of the scouts.

"True Story"

Bob

I agree -- a cheap PBR event in February and then stay away.  Get one with live video and put your pocket radar on the shelf, lol. Wishing your son a great spring season!

Thx RHP_Parent ! and a good Spring season for your's, also!