Choosing a High School

NJ Dad - Welcome to the HSBBWEB.  I am sure there are a few posters here that may have been down this road and maybe they can share their story.

First and foremost, grades and academics should be at the top of your list.  Without good grades it wont matter how good the player is. 

Can he get noticed?: Sure, travel ball or a good summer team with good coaches can assist in that area.  Does it take 3 hours a day?: The number of hours/days etc. depends on the player and what they are working on.  But, like anything, baseball takes practice.  The baseball field does not get any smaller, the pitchers do not get slower and the fielders make less mental errors as the kids get older. 

What does your son want to do? And when you say the school has "no baseball program to speak of," do you mean that school doesn't have a team at all, or they're just not very good?

My son's HS focused primarily on academics and performing arts. Because they were so proud of their performing artists, graduation lasted over 3 hours for about 50 grads.  But actually a 3-hour practice sounds pretty normal to me. It probably includes some field maintenance before and after. At least ours did.

Just based on our experience, your son doesn't have to go to a big baseball school to get noticed. A good summer team can do that. If we assume that both schools are equal academically, and you mean that one has baseball and the other doesn't, then to me the issue to me is reps. If your son was a position player and wanted to keep playing, then it seems like a no-brainer to go to the baseball school. Reps are reps, and even if your HS team is not so good, you can get enough to be competitive at a higher level once the summer season starts (assuming you're doing all the extras like lifting and eating right - 2B had his own lifting program that he did outside of practice with a baseball-specific trainer). Plus there is something to be said for the pride of wearing the HS uniform and being a part of all that. But if he's a pitcher, I don't know if it makes a difference, as long as he's on some kind of throwing program and is getting quality instruction and some kind of conditioning between summer baseball seasons. Might even be beneficial in terms of avoiding overuse injuries, but I don't know. What do the pitchers' parents think?

Just curious about their school schedule.. they get out at 5:15; when do they start their day?

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Our kid is a talented pitcher. If he attends this lesser baseball school, can he get noticed? If so, how? Showcases? Travel team? Also, does it take 3 hours/day of conditioning to succeed?

NJ Dad,

My two cents.....The short answer is "yes", but he is going to have to do a lot of things on his own especially the conditioning, drills and reps.  My son also attended a lesser baseball school in our district.  It does present its challenges but it did not hurt my sons chances to play college baseball.  If your son is just as talented, he will be fine.  My son got most of his exposure and experience playing on a national travel team, attending academic showcases and attending specifi camps.  High school baseball ended up being a prelude to the very competitive travel season.  If your son has high academic goals you're in a good spot, but you may need to find some creative ways for him to get his baseball reps and workouts in.  If he is successful in the classroom there will be a lot more baseball options waiting for him when he graduates.  Good luck!

I'll throw my 2 cents in as we are in a similar situation, but it's reversed.  The local HS is far better than a private school in academics.  The private school puts a lot more time into baseball than the local HS.  My son was accepted to the private school so he/we had to make a decision.  He's going to attend the local HS this fall.  As much as I know he loves baseball, academics are what he'll need for his future.  Even if he takes baseball all the way.  I'll supplement his training that the team does with private training and workouts.  He's always worked a lot on his own anyway.

There are a number of excellent summer/fall travel programs in NJ and in the adjoining states.  He should have no problem finding a spot on one of those teams.

My son's pitching coach (a former Major Leaguer) said that for position players, playing High School ball against strong competition could be important. If he's hitting well against quality teams, that indicates he's a hitter. If he's hitting well against poor quality teams, it doesn't mean that he can hit against strong teams and pitchers. A scout can't really tell the quality of a hitter based on one day's performance.

Regarding pitchers, he suggested that the most important thing is to get playing time. If the High School pitcher gets pulled often because there are 10 other quality pitchers in the bullpen, perhaps the better quality team might not be ideal. The objective is to work the core, and thus throw harder. Throwing hard (fast) is apparently critical.

My sense is that the 3 hours/day of practice could be important. The more throws and hits a kid has, the better he'll be. Of course there's always the risk of injury, but without the repetitions, the throws/hits won't be as "automatic".

If the level of competition is your greatest concern then you should probably send him to Gloucester Catholic, as they are a top 50 ranked team.  

Truth is, for most of this country, no matter where he goes to school he will face a variety of competition.  Not all of the schools or players will be at the same level.  The only way you start to approach that type of play is if your son gets on one of the top summer travel teams.  

The ex-MLB player is right.  In a perfect world.  But HS baseball is not all about facing the best talent.  It's about getting an education and progressing as a player so that you can attend college at the highest level possible and hopefully continue to play baseball.

If your really worried about the practice time send him to IMG in Florida for 50K+ a year.  They're out of school sometime after noon and they practice for a few hours a day.

You still haven't answered the question about which of the schools has better academics.  That should be your, and his, greatest concern.  While he is only 13, I have great faith in my son and his ability to play baseball.  The truth is his chance of playing, and succeeding, at a professional level are more difficult then you know.  However, I do know if he translates his academics and baseball to college and completes his degree, he will be successful in life.  No matter which way he goes after school.

If a kid has talent and if he's facing a superior or inferior team a scout will still be able to identify his abilities.  I'm certain there are a few people on here that can back me up on that.

I’ve been following this post with interest because my son is in a similar situation.  We live in SoCal, and the high school he is likely to attend plays in the smallest division (Div 6), but is academically outstanding.  This school does not play anything close to the level of competition found in the largest Div 1 schools in the area, several of which are ranked nationally in the top 10 (good, but not great academics).  The density of talent in the larger, higher quality Div 1 programs draws scouts on a regular basis, so there is lots of exposure.  The coaches are also wired into the scout ball circuit and the top travel/showcase teams and place their players on the top teams for the summer.  I’ve not seen a scout at a Div 6 game, and no players at the Div 6 school play scout ball or on an elite travel team.  It's very tough for these boys to get into situations that can get them on the radar screen.  You should probably check this out for your situation.

It makes sense that if a pitcher throws 90+ he’ll get noticed, but it also makes sense that the measure of a hitter is determined by pitching (and defense) he faces.  Here at least, great hitting against Div 6 pitching doesn’t seem to say as much as good hitting against Div 1 hitting.  Strictly speaking the saying “if he’s good enough they’ll find him” is true, but it’s also true that we make our own luck, and people who improve their odds tend to be luckier.

I'm originally from San Fernando.  You can't compare the baseball environment in SoCal, Florida or Texas to the Northeast.  I can shake a palm tree in Fullerton and more scouts will fall out of the tree then you'll find in NJ.  It's just the way it is.  Now mind you, the best mlb player of 2012 (not the mvp) came from NJ, but I'm pretty sure his HS team wasn't on top of the heap.  He must have done something more than rely on his HS practice.  JMO

My kid is a very good player, but he's no Mike Trout.  Few are.  We'll likely need to apply some clever strategy, hard work and strong academics to see my boy play at the college level.

Few are indeed.  But applying what you mentioned is, I believe, the way to go.  I forget the number, but it's somewhere around 93%+ of HS ballplayers that will not make it to the college level.  Seems like it's a smart idea to have academics in there somewhere.

After reading many of the posts, I looked up Mike Trout on Wikipedia, and clicked on some of the links. Very interesting stuff. It made me wonder how many very talented players from northern states didn't get to utilize their talents because they couldn't get recognized.

It seems like the college and pro scouts flock to the southern states, as suggested on these posts. It put things in perspective.

I guess pitching is different due to the pitching radar gun.

Trout spent his summers with the Tri-State Arsenal, a very good South NJ travel team that got him exposure.  He also spent some time with the NJ Super 17.  From what I understand that is a combination of mostly Tri-State and Diamond Jacks, which is also in NJ.

Funny thing is, from what I have seen, pitchers from the Northeast are more likely to get recruited by Southern schools then position players.  I believe that's partially due to them not having thrown as much.

From what I've seen, for position players from the Northeast you're going to have to be something coaches really want.  Whether that be an outstanding bat, 90+ pitching (and height), or a super glove.  In any case, they're going to want to see you play live and that's probably going to take place down South.  Check into the summer travel teams in NJ, NY and PA.  Some consistently field excellent rosters and they consistently play in the best tournaments down there.  Hopefully your son will have the skills to play on one of those teams.  That's what I am hoping for with my guy.

Mike was a year behind my son however they played in the same summer programs (Arsenal-Super 17), to think he wasn't recognized by college and pro scouts might be a bit of a reach.  Mike was know to be the best position player in NJ by quite a margin.  I believe he also showed very well at the USA trials in Cary and from there I think he was firmly set on everyone's radar. 

In hind sight I'm sure many could say Trout should have been 1-1 in the draft however the fact is he was still a first round draft choice.  I think we would like for all our son's to be recognized like Mike was 

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nydad2017 posted.....Few are indeed.  But applying what you mentioned is, I believe, the way to go.  I forget the number, but it's somewhere around 93%+ of HS ballplayers that will not make it to the college level.  Seems like it's a smart idea to have academics in there somewhere

I couldn't agree more.   For those of us who do not have Mike Trouts one in a billion talent, here are the %'s posted at HSBBWeb http://www.hsbaseballweb.com/probability.htm

1)Less than three in 50, or about 5.6 percent, of high school senior boys interscholastic baseball players will go on to play men's baseball at a NCAA member institution ......what this doesn't say is how many stay to play 4 years of baseball at the school, how many transfer, how many drop the sport or how many lose their scholarships for one reason or anther.

2)Less than eleven in 100, or about 10.5 percent, of NCAA senior male baseball players will get drafted by a Major League Baseball (MLB) team.

3)Approximately one in 200, or approximately 0.5 percent of high school senior boys playing interscholastic baseball will eventually be drafted by an MLB team.