Big Kid trying to be recruited

quote:

Is this kid recruitable?

You paint a very positive picture. Assuming it's all true, I would say, sure he's recruitable.

Question: Is he doing what he should be doing to get noticed?

Has he run down schools within geographic reach who are "at his level" both academically and baseball-wise, and affordable as well? Has he contacted them all and made clear that he is interested? Is he playing for a travel team that gets him in front of those programs' coaches? Has he gone to any of their camps?

Or is he just playing ball and waiting for the phone to ring?

Here's the problem. Without speed he's limited to 1B/DH, maybe some pitching, at the college level. (Unless he could convert to catching, but it may be too late for a departure of that magnitude.) Hitting is great, but to be recruited as a pure 1B/DH type you need to hit the ball out of the park regularly. You say he hits for average, but you did not mention his power performance.

Plenty of kids get recruited with those academic numbers (or lesser ones) and with those baseball numbers (or lesser ones), but the sheer number of big strong guys competing for the limited number of 1B slots available makes it tougher. I do think it's possible to get a slot for himself, but I've also seen kids like this get passed over. In his position, he should leave nothing to chance, he should turn on the after burners and get very pro-active about pursuing an offer.

P.S.

If he's on the bubble, make sure he gives 100% on defense and in all phases of the game as well. It never ceases to amaze me how many kids SAY they want to play college ball, but they just don't put out the effort that it takes on a consistent basis -- they just don't seem to understand what is expected of them at the next level.

You don’t say if he is a L or R thrower, but either way he is not a pitching prospect at the D1 level, & a maybe pitching prospect at the D2 level if he is a Lefty. So essentially this limits him to one field position. This will make his ability to find a place to play more difficult, not impossible but he will have to do lots of homework on finding a program that is needing a 1st basemen. If you think about it each program may carry 1 active FBM with a back up. So a program may only recruit 1 player for this position every other year. His odds are just lower so as Midlo pointed out he will have to work harder at it if this is what he really wants to do.

Your story is virtually the same as my son's 5-years ago. My guy is 6'3" LH 1B; at the time he ran a 7.6 - 60 which got him very few serious looks.

At the beginning of his senior year we put a plan into place to help him find a college that met his personal objectives, where he had a chance to play baseball and if everything went right he could earn a scholarship.

The "light bulb" moment was the realization that with only 66 4-year schools in California that play baseball; we needed to spread our horizons.

We created a list of criteria for schools that he wanted to attend; generated a list of schools all over the country and then hit the road. We made appointments with recruiting directors and head coaches. In visiting them we brought his story to them.

This approach with good follow-up through out the spring earned him to small scholly offers from D1 schools and two very large merit grant offers from D3 schools.

Ultimatly he choose a school where he thought that he would play immediatly, have a good shot at playing in the summer collegiate leagues and most important he would get a good education.

My advice; take the bull by the horns, expand your horizons and make something happen!

6.7 - 60 is slow? Typo?

Typo - 6.7-7.6; big thumbs!

He may also want to consider the JC route. We have such good JC ball here in CA.

As the mom of a 1B, Lefty, we are having some slow recruiting as well. He is just starting to get calls and requests for visits. My advice is get online, check rosters of schools. See who will have a need, and contact those coaches. Get to a PG event if it is in the budget and even a college showcase that you know colleges he is interested in will be there. My son has some speed ( 6.95 in the 60 ) so he can also play OF if needed, being a Lefty (thank goodness he has a big bat) does have some limitations. Keep plugging away and do not let him give up the dream.

quote:

The "light bulb" moment was the realization that with only 66 4-year schools in California that play baseball; we needed to spread our horizons.

ONLY 66...try 3 4-year schools in AZ, 2 very selective Pac 12 schools and 1 D-2, that's why my sons playing in CA.

Good One Dog! GCU I heard will be DI in next 2 years but who knows. If that's the case then it would be 3!

Well, the point is correct-- AZ has noticeably fewer 4 year NCAA or NAIA schools per capita than CA. However, making an apples to apples comparison,

      CA     AZ     MA   WA
D1    26      2      5    4 
D2    13      1      6    3
D3    12      0     34    4
NAIA  16      1      1    1
Total 67      4     46   12

The NAIA numbers include colleges who are qualifying for inclusion.

Arizona has 6.6 million people, and so do Massachusetts and Washington. California has about 37 million people. From these numbers (I don't know if all schools listed actually have baseball, but they do have intercollegiate athletic programs) we can estimate that a resident of MA has the best chance of playing college baseball while staying in state, WA and CA are pretty similar to each other, and AZ is pretty grim.

That's probably why there are some very good JC programs in AZ that, back in the day at least, were schools where one went to get drafted higher or a better offer from a D1.

The other thing to realize about the Northeast is that distances are relatively small compared to CA and a player can go out of state to quite a few different states without traveling anywhere near as far as one would to go from SoCal to NorCal or even from northern LA county to San Diego. CA players who are willing to relocate to the Northeast for school can open up a lot of opportunities for themselves. That doesn't mean they will necessarily fit in there.

3finger - Thanks for the numbers they help with a very valueable point. The numbers work against you in CA. States like MA, OH, PA, NC the number of colleges versus HS students is far more favorable than CA (or AZ).

Also, the reality of being a 1B adds more difficulty in being recruited. Assuming a 35 man college roster; at most you would expect 3 1b's. Also, there is many a college coach that looks as 1b as a position for a hitter that needs to be on the field (this could be a player who's primary postion is other than 1b). Also, in CA many of the schools recruit almost exclusively from the JC ranks.

The reality is there is many a college coach who's recruiting is focused on MInf; CF and Pitching. They believe that they are the best athletes and can fill all the postions from this group. Also, you will find coaches that use the hot hitter at 1b; it may be a catcher, OF or even a pitcher. Hence they may not recruit a 1b.

When it is all said, with 67 4-year schools playing baseball; there may be as few as 15-20 recruitable 1b opportunities in CA for a given year.

Take a pitcher versus a 1b; generally half a roster is filled with pitchers. Using our 35 man roster you would expect 17+ pitchers. Your chances are at least 5-6 times greater in terms of finding an opportunity.


My point is there will be opportunities; they may not be in your back yard. Get out and search them out.

When I went through the process with my son we set our priorities (these were ours and may not be yours).

1. Education first; a school where he would get a good education and prepare for his future.

2. A college experience; for us we wanted him to learn how to stand on his own, make new friends and develope his own life (not just and extension of his HS experience).

3. The opportunity to play baseball; this did not mean walking on and having a shot at making the team. He wanted to play.

In searching out opportunities he ended up with good options; a D1 in SC with a small baseball scholarship, a D3 in OH with a large merit scholarship, a D1 in OR with a small baseball and small merit scholarship and a D3 in TX with a merit scholarship.

If you open your hearts and mind and expand your horizons there will be opportunities. What you can't do is wait for them to come to you.

Outstanding post, ILVBB.