College Recruiting

They've been recruiting for years now, in fact the higher caliber schools are likely finished recruiting position players at this point and are looking to add late blooming pitchers. There are over 100 freshmen that are committed to D1 programs already so the recruiting is happening - Vanderbilt has 20 commits for the class of 2021 right now. 

Exit Velo is fairly irrelevant and 6.9 doesn't stand out as a D1 outfielder for top college coaches and especially pro scouts. At this point if you're asking when schools start recruiting - pro baseball is out of the equation and the question should be is he D1 material? I've never seen him play and the all tournament accolades are meaningless, but either his travel coaches don't think he's good enough to play in the upper half of D1 programs or they can't do a thing for him. Talk to his coach about potential schools he fits in at, if that goes nowhere time do find a new team. If he is as good as he's made out to be it should not be a problem finding a much stronger travel program. 

Thanks for your input. His travelball coach, who is a former MLB scout, told him he was D1 material. Hopefully he'll find a good college fit. His main attribute is he can really hit and the better the competition the better he does. One scout commented that he would be best suited to 1st Base or perhaps pitching at the next level. He doesn't like pitching but he has hit 90 on the few times he's tried. I'm sure Time will sort it all out one way or another.

Aside from his measurables, how are his grades, test scores, character, leadership skills, is he a great teammate, etc.?  

Also, I’m not sure I would be sending that video to coaches, the giggling may not go over well with some coaches.

Thanks for your input. He is a 3.6 GPA student with 1,000+ on SAT. Good all around kid & teammate. Works out 4-5 times a week, and has weekend job to save for college. We have no doubt he will be successful in life has he is a really hard worker who wants to be the best he can be.

Looks like several players from the same program have committed to some impressive D1s.  You should have a candid conversation with your program director about what/when he sees in your grandson’s future.  Is he playing for the top level team? And has he been reaching out to schools?

This past summer as a 16 year old he played on his clubs top 18u team and did extremely well. He has not reached out to any schools as of yet. (Which he probably should have) But he wants to wait until after his Junior year baseball season when he has High School stats and videos to share and he can get his speed down below 6.8 seconds. He's committed to keep working and continues to make good strides towards improvement.

I don't know that playing for an 18U team is the best option.  D1 coaches aren't scouting the 18U teams because all the potential fits should already be committed.  He should play 16U or 17U, the high level D1 schools are at 16U first and maybe 17U to fill in and watch their commits.  18U teams are playing after their senior year and most kids who are committed to D1 teams head to campus that summer, they aren't playing club ball.

I think those numbers are great.  Big kid, elite exit velocity, runs well.  A few things I learned about this from being in your position last year:

• Some schools value the metrics a lot, others not so much.  My 2020 did a PBR deal and didn't think any one noticed or cared, but on his recruiting visit to his mid major D1, the coach spouted them all off from memory.  The exit velocity was the most important one to him.  Other programs yawned and didn't care.
• Mid Majors, D2, NAIA, and JUCO will be recruiting in earnest this summer.  Will be a huge one for him.  I agree with a previous poster- don't play 18U.  17U is where those kind of programs will be.  
• You guys are in a great spot.  Make sure you are playing in front of the kind of coaches/prorgrams you want to play for. 
• There are lots of posts on the recruiting process on this site, but sending messages to coaches plays a role...at least, it did for my kid.  

Good luck to you guys!

My two cents...

Your son is way behind the 8-ball in 2021 college baseball recruiting.   There is much more to college baseball recruiting than showing up at a showcase or tournament.   There is a lot of hardwork that happens outside of the baseball diamond and gym focused on researching colleges, coaches and especially communications.  I'd suggest your grandson & parent get with his travel coach or high school coach and come up with a plan to reach out to as many schools as possible.  It seems like your son is getting some showcase & tournament exposure but not taking advantage of it or following up (email, text, phone call) with the coaches.  Otherwise, he'd probably have some offers or serious interest at this point.   Your grandson has some assets (size & athleticism, GPA, hardworker) that coaches may find interesting but your grandson has to remind them that he is available and looking for the right program.  

This recruiting process is all about numbers.   Find 30 programs that he is a good fit for, reach out to them and see who is interested.   Going back to my earlier statement about involving travel coach or high school coach; your grandson can divide and conquer those 30 programs by dividing up the list among himself and his advocates to reach out to those college coaches.   He has to get on the offensive with this recruiting process.

As always, JMO.  Good luck!

There is D1 and D1, and schools that might be interested in him might not be where he thinks he wants to go.  Sometimes a travel coach happens not to have contacts at a school that would be a good fit otherwise, which is why you have to do some of the work on your own.  That's why, as everyone else said, it's important NOW to sit down with the travel coach to go over a list of colleges - where the coach has contacts and/or could see him fitting, and where he thinks he wants to go.  And make it a fairly large list.

There are plenty of cautionary tales on this board, some playing out right now, of players who were recruited late (i.e. summer after junior year) to D1s without athletic money, showed up to a team with 40-50+ players, and were cut or redshirted after the fall.  For every one reported on this site, there are dozens more such stories out there.

If his best attribute is hitting, then exit velocity is his main measurable, whether coaches like it or not.  But, he has to be seen hitting against 85+ mph pitching, i.e. in good tournaments.  You should know by now where his team will be playing this summer.  NOW (before the college season begins) is the time to email coaches at colleges where he fits with his measurables, video, and high school and summer schedule.

Peach49 posted:

But he wants to wait until after his Junior year baseball season when he has High School stats and videos to share and he can get his speed down below 6.8 seconds.

Sure, but then time is very short.  High school stats won't matter.  Video from games won't matter either, especially if he's not a pitcher; coaches can evaluate his swing from video shot in a cage.  He already has the 100+ EV, and a sub-7 60 time.  That's why contact has to begin now.

Most all of the responses seem to indicate my grandson needs to start contacting schools now. I will encourage him to start doing that ASAP.

Just as a note, almost all the responses say that the first thing is to talk to the travel coach about what schools might fit.  There's not much point in contacting schools unless you have a realistic list; most schools will want to talk to the travel coach anyway, so he needs to be part of the process.

Peach49 posted:

Most all of the responses seem to indicate my grandson needs to start contacting schools now. I will encourage him to start doing that ASAP.

Agree with all of the advice here.

Before you contact schools, make sure your grandson has been identified as  either a D1, D2, D3 etc. player by a reliable person or scouting service. 

Also it's important to understand that the MOST important thing is getting a college education and working hard to get as much money as you can to help pay for it. That should be the goal, not getting drafted, definetly not that!

My grandsons been told by coaches he's a D1 power hitter. At a hitting camp his average Exit Velocity was 92 over hundreds of hits Toping out at 103 with a large number of hits in the 96-98 range. His top Exit Velocity was 10mph faster then a player who is already signed to a D1. Hopefully this translates into him finding a school that's a good fit for baseball and academics.

Has he done any PG showcases?  I know that some people here don't like them, but if he hit 103 at a showcase, he would likely be the top exit Velo for the event and that would get tweeted out  and get some attention. It  would also be solid documentation to send to coaches.  Same with PBR if there is a good program in your state.  If he is a great D1 hitter, either coaches haven't seen him/know about him, or there is a disconnect about where he falls.  Either way, reaching out to coaches is a must.

Peach49 posted:

My grandsons been told by coaches he's a D1 power hitter. At a hitting camp his average Exit Velocity was 92 over hundreds of hits Toping out at 103 with a large number of hits in the 96-98 range. His top Exit Velocity was 10mph faster then a player who is already signed to a D1. Hopefully this translates into him finding a school that's a good fit for baseball and academics.

SOME programs will care about those metrics, ALL programs will care if he can connect with the ball.  Make sure you're getting advice from someone who isn't his hitting coach.  Preferably someone with a proven track record in getting kids PROPERLY (minimal bouncebacks or uncommits) placed with programs.  

He's done both PG and Baseball Factory Showcases and hit 97 and 98 this past summer, he also threw 90mph at an UnderArmour tournament.

There are three levels (my view) of D1. There are the major conferences and other ranked programs. There are the mid majors. Then there are the bottom feeders. If your son fell into major conference/ranked and pro prospect he would likely be committed to a college program already. His travel coach would be telling him about the spro couts asking about him who come to see him play. If he played for the right travel team the coach would have sat down with him fall of soph year to create a business plan to target the right D1’s for exposure. The coach would be preselling/promoting the kid before tournaments.

At this point dad and son need to create that business plan as soon as possible. They need to be realistic about targets. The kid needs to email all of them to find out what events they attend to scout players. 

The ultimate goal is to find a quality baseball, educational, and social environment for college. The big picture is to set him up to graduate prepared to take the first steps of his forty year plan. 

Be focused and real. Don’t rule anything out. There are late bloomers and late discoveries. It’s why some MLB players came from mid major baseball programs. But EDUCATION FIRST.

Good luck.

Fenway nailed it, he is way behind the curve. Your making the mistakes of many, many, many posters who come through here. "Big Johnny hits/throws.runs "fill in the number" he does this better than Bobby who just got a full scholly from Big Time Baseball U." 

Realize for most of our kids/parents/families getting an opportunity to play college baseball is a freaking lot of work. So - "Make a plan and work the plan", which includes:

1.  30-40 programs that fit his profile that include size, academic match, distance from home, cost, THEN baseball. Baseball should include:  stretch, good, easy, in all divisions 1-3. 

2. Get the Princeton, Fiske, US News, etc and start to review them as part of developing a profile list. Sit as a family nightly and develop this list, talk about the costs, desires, wants, needs and then the baseball program. 

3. Get a scout to evaluate the player and as TPM indicated. This needs to be someone who has NO vested interest in the player. 

4. Develop a player profile with links to videos. (look them up they are here on this site) This is what YOUR PLAYER will be emailing to coaches and recruiters.  Add some short video links. Short to the point, no "eye of the tiger" (look up how to do a video here) 

https://docs.google.com/docume...mck/edit?usp=sharing

5. Profile all of the schools he is interested in, with coaches names, contact information, etc. This is ancient but it should look like this. 

https://drive.google.com/open?...KtlKoMYkUReuW7IH_K74

6. Once you get all of this figured out set up a specific email address that your player and family can use to communicate with coaches and programs. Your player should be doing all of this BUT someone needs to proof everything that goes out.

7. Start working on a summer schedule and talk to the programs on where they are planning on going and go to those. As you get close make sure you email his playing schedule.

8. If he has not already done this start visiting the schools on his list so he has a true understanding of his interest in a program. Size, layout, location, etc. 

9. Once you he gets some interest then there is a whole additional things you/him/family should be doing but this should get HIM started (NOT you)  If he is not 100% committed to doing and working on this then stop now because playing college baseball is harder than you, him and his family can imagine. 

10. PS make sure he gets a Pro-scout to invite him to the Area Code games in your area. 

11. Remember programs recruit players not statistics, and they are looking for those that can play, have the right attitude and are interested in THEIR program.

Sorry if this was a bit blunt, but seriously this is going to take 100's of hours to get sorted out and your Grandson will have to drive it not you or Mom/Dad.  

Good luck!