Collegiate Summer Leagues

Welcome to the site.  BTW, you can use the search box and find quite a few threads regarding college summer ball and leagues.  There is no single answer to most of your questions except "it depends".  The more established leagues have plenty of clout and, generally, kids are fortunate to be placed.  Trust relationships are built between college coaches and those programs.  Kids generally have to be recommended to a team by the college coach.  There are definitely more kids interested in playing than there are good leagues, just as there are more kids interested in playing college ball than there are roster spots.  Yes, in most cases communication between summer coach and college coach matters but probably not down to the finite level.  Summer college games are meant to get players competitive reps but are certainly played with a fairly strong emphasis on winning.  There are usually players who sit plenty.  I've heard mostly good stories about host families but plenty of exceptions.

Your "paid" question runs the gamut.  Others can better answer to the more established leagues but I believe the GM's are often full time while others are not.  In our area alone, we have teams in established leagues that have offices, GM's, Ops guys, paid gates with good attendance and promotion, etc. We have teams that are aspiring to do so but on a shoestring budget.  We have teams that are primarily extensions of local JC's and we even have teams that are put together by some college-playing kids looking for a place to play competitively for the summer where they play an assortment of the teams above.  In the last two examples, no GM's, Ops, offices, etc. but I've seen these teams beat up on the more established once in a while. 

So what is your scenario and what are you struggling with?

Cabbage--thank you so much for your input. Really appreciate it.

Probably not a good idea to put this out there, but oh well. My son is freshman at D1 Power 5 school. Fortunate to start as freshman. Made all Freshman, All Conference and 2 All American Freshman teams. Very blessed. His summer team is an expansion program. He played 53 college games and is worn out. Showed up to this team and got off to poor start. Bad fields, coach is VERY young, etc. He admittedly isn't "fired up" about this team and league but after 9 games the GM calls HIS COLLEGE HC TO COMPLAIN ABOUT HIM. Nine games and 30 AB's. After being All-American as a freshman in 225 AB's. Just a bad league and new guys gripping or are these summer teams cutthroat like this? Never heard of this type of thing anywhere and he has played high level travel ball since he was 8.

hardgame,

In the experience of our son both as a player and coach in top Summer Leagues, there could be some real issues.  From your posting, it comes across like your son is doing this team a "favor." Probably wrong approach.

There is no way to provide answers to all your questions. Your son should be talking with his Summer league coach, the GM and his college coach. Some of the Summer league teams are for profit. Some are non-profit. Some are very well run and extremely polished, whether for profit or non-profit, some, perhaps, not so much.

What I think you and your son might be missing is many of these GM's and their staffs work 10 months out of the year to provide your son and other son's with 2 months and 40-60 games of great baseball. I can tell you the teams our son played for in the NECBL and coached in the Cape played to win.  They expected guys to show up and compete, not rely on what they did in the college season. BTW, both the Cape and NECBL are non-profits. The Northwoods for instance is a for profit.

From what you have posted, it seems like your son could be with a newer team with very high expectations. If the group which organized, invested and runs that team spent 10 months of hard work for the opportunity created for your son, that needs to be understood on your side and that of your son. Stated differently, if your son is with a for profit team, they have many reasons to "expect" your son to compete every day, every game and every inning. Those "expectations" can be pretty high with the investment made by the ownership group.

If your son is with a non-profit where the people worked for 10 months for the 60 days your son will be there, they also will expect the best your son has to offer. Many will provide a playing experience and Summer which is second to none. 

There could be other gradations.  Sounds to me, from what you have posted. like there is a huge gap.

Generally speaking, college summer teams tend to offer positive experiences. However, there are a bunch of summer leagues and a good bit of variety among them.

New leagues/teams, unfortunately, are among the riskiest; in part because they haven't had enough time to iron out the many day-to-day elements. Very sorry to hear that your son's experience doesn't sound like it fits the typical profile.

One of the reasons that college summer experiences tend to be positive is that college coaches tend to have a fair amount of say in placing their players. They know the characteristics of each team/league, and can usually come up with pretty good matches between their players and the teams receiving them. If your son's experience this summer is subpar, I'd place a portion of the blame at some sort of disconnect in this matching process.

At this point, I'd make the following recommendations:

(1) Your son needs to suck it up and make the very best of his current situation; regardless of how he might feel about it. Part of being a team player and the sort of leader expected of a Freshman All-American is finding the best possible way through a challenging situation. If he's drafted in 2 more years, does he expect all of the minor league posts to which he's assigned to be Nirvana-like? If so, he needs to start talking with minor league players about their playing and living conditions.

(2) Related to #1 above: Do everything he can to repair his relations with his summer GM and coaches. Leaving a summer assignment on bad terms is a half-step short of burning a bridge; and burned bridges in the baseball world are undesirable.

(3) Looking ahead to next summer, start talking with his college coaches about next year's assignment. As they talk about possibilities, do some research. This website, for example, is full of information about what it's like to play in various leagues and for specific teams.

Hope he can make a positive influence on the balance of his summer circumstances and set himself up for a better experience in the summers to come!

Hardgame,

You have just connected with two EXCELLENT resources.  I hope you are able to utilize their experience to the fullest.  I'm sure they will be happy to also help you via private message if you need to get into more detail that shouldn't be stated on an open forum. Let us know if you need help navigating that communication avenue here. 

hardgame - if he isn't fired up, he should quit the team.  If I were the coach, I would be upset too.  I want guys who will play in any condition, at any time, and no matter how they are personally feeling.  Freshman all-American, top D1 power program, high-level travel teams do not entitle you to anything.  His personal resume means nothing to what is happening on the field today. 

Summer league games are scouted by the pros and you would never want to display an "entitled" or "I am not fired up attitude"  I am reading between the lines here, but it sounds like his attitude stems from the fact there are other All-Americans playing in higher level leagues.  So what about that?  Not something you can control.  All he can control is attitude and effort.  If a pro scout were to ask about your son right now, how do you think the coach might respond?  Help your son change his attitude/effort from entitlement to max-effort guy and everything will take care of itself.