Cost-Effective Showcasing

About three years ago, i was at a local batting cage, with my son. I happened to notice a kid that had a real nice swing, looked like an advanced HS player. Anyway my son was very young, but he did his thing.
Before we left the young man apporached my son and asked him how old he was, that he looked good, and to keep working hard.
He then went on to tell him to just keep playing and not to get to caught up in showcasing. He said to many of the players he knew just went from showcase to showcase, rather then focusing on just playing.
After we talked for awhile, I asked him about himself. He said he was going to be attending Vanderbilt in the Fall and his name was Pedro.

MidloDad I think this a very good post because every player on the HSBBW either has showcased or has thought about showcasing. I have given this topic a lot of thought over the years. While I think showcasing can be a good tool I think it is being proclaimed as the cure all to college recruiting and I don’t think that is the case at all. First I think “how to get your son well showcased” may be misleading and reflect the showcase mentality that is consuming many parents. I would rather think the goal would be to get your son prepared for the next level and sufficiently “exposed” instead of having a “well showcased” son as a goal.
Secondly I wonder if more money is spent on showcases in the US than is being paid out in baseball athletic scholarships by colleges?? I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case.
Thirdly I think the player’s talent and the parents’ budget should be a major factor in determine how they go about getting sufficent exposure. Showcases $$ are not always necessary.

If I were to make a baseball budget designed to get my son to the next level (which I did) I would start with quality instructions at the age we recognized he had above average talent (about 8-10 years old in our case). Next I would make sure he had quality equipment. --- Top of the line bats and gloves buckets of balls and a soft toss or access to a pitching machine. Next I would make sure he played with and against the best competition within reason. (He started playing up at 11 and played with the best until he started college). I would subscribe to Baseball America to see who the recognized studs were and how he stacked up against them (he played against most of them on his summer team). Only then I would think about showcases as a means to promote my son if I felt he needed promoting.

He did do some showcasing and going to pro tryouts at age 14 with the purpose of comparing his talent against others. The pro tryouts were free and the showcases were small and of the “pay to participate” type. He only went to two showcases ----- (Griffey International and Midwest prospects) both were what I would call low budget showcases. We did attend the East Coast Pro showcase (combine) which was a no charge event. He was invited to attend many “high profile” showcases and national events but I felt they would be redundant exposure from his summer team and an unnecessary expense. My son was surrounded by quality baseball people from 10 years old --- either as coaches or instructors. As I look back I know now he didn’t need to showcase at all. He had been seen and evaluated by every MLB club and many colleges by the time it came time to even seriously consider a showcase for exposure. I admit if my son was considered to be a 1st or 2nd rounder I would showcase him at all the big name showcases if for nothing more than to see his name in Baseball America and to bask in the hype surrounding the events. If he were a 4th to a 10th rounder (which he was) I would save my showcase money if his reputation and his summer team were generating sufficient interest from his target colleges (which they were). However if he was getting limited interest from colleges I would be concerned and would showcase him, not at the big named national events but on a more local basis, hoping to draw interest from more regional colleges. I wasn’t going to spend thousands trying to force a square peg into a round hole --- or is it a round peg into a square hole?
Fungo

Nice post Fungo.

The comment about where more money is spent, by parents on showcases or by schools on scholarships, got me to chuckle.

One thing I see more and more of is the kid whose parents have more money than sense. The kid says he wants it soooo bad, so mom & dad keep running him from event to event, seeking someone who will appreciate his many talents. The problem is, the kid wants it in the sense of craving the recognition; he doesn't WANT IT in the sense that he's willing to work his fanny off. Scouts see through the baloney and pass; the parents keep looking for the magic event that'll finally get their kid noticed the way they are sure he ultimately will be.

No amount of showcasing can make up for lack of heart or lack of skills, and if anything, you might want to save your money until you're confident you've got something to showcase. But fools and their money are soon parted.

But, let's steer back to the question of how a legit kid with more typical resources can do what he needs to do, but know when to stop, and thus not break the bank. I have my own thoughts but I'd really like to see if we can draw out others' experiences and wisdom.

Ok, since my son is a soph and we're at the stage of trying to figure this question out for ourselves, I'll take a stab at this one.

The goal of the showcase circuit is to provide exposure and hopefully more opportunities and greater options for the next level (or so I tell my wife when I hand her the bills afterward). My take is if you're assessed (by yourself or others) as state-wide or regional talent, then local showcases combined with smart target marketing to specific appropriate level college camps should achieve a cost effective return on your investment. However, if your talent is national in scope then the big buck spending on the big national PG showcases makes some sense. JFK in assessing political ascendency said, "If you look up and there's blue sky, go for it." That advice could also work for parents trying to figure out what showcaes fit their son's talent level.

The state-wide, regional vs. national differentiation is based on looking at the rosters of the various D1 programs across the country. The vast majority have an in-state or regional bias. Therefore if you have some talent the local schools are going to know you very well and national exposure type showcases are not necessary in most cases. However some top schools do recruit nationally and if you have that level of talent it would make sense to get on that radar screen too.

I don't equate the national PG tournaments with showcases however. I believe strongly in competing against the best competition so the investments in East Cobb, Jupiter, etc while maybe not always necessary, are always good ones imo (and enjoyable too).

Of course there is always the niche-market to consider; the academic showcases that bring in the top D1-D3 academic schools. I've heard good things about some of these showcases so for the right student-athlete, these showcases have a good ROI too.

ps. I do agree with luvthisgame and Pedro A. that there's a species of baseball players who are showcase-centric. The "tools" (showcase) vs "performance" (games) mindset has the the potential of turning the high school game into an AAU-basketball mindset. Not good. Witnessing it first hand, I call it prima-donna baseball.

Allot of younger players are going by what older players have done in the past. With us, we did extensive travel ball up until 14. After that we did the Perfect game events but not showcases. We had the privlage of playing on a travel team that was coached by ( at the time an ex mlb mgr) . By plugging his brain over 4 yrs we found that allot of pro scouts like to see the players in a full game mode. Allot of showcases can yeild only a couple of bats and a couple of innings pitched. The Perfect games such as the wood bat series gets the scouts a better look at what a player will do over the length of a full game and not a couple of innings. We have only been to one showcase and that was the underclass in Cincy last summer. With that being said the summers at the Perfect gaem events got our son not only noticed but into a nice D1. Iv'e heard horror stories on how much some people are spending and it is very suprising on where they are getting their info. I think that more and more of these showcases pop up it will get harder and harder for the younger parents that have not been there before to make the right choices. This web site has allot of great people with a ton of info. The down fall is that allot of posters players have already left this part of their sons past and don't need to wory about the newer shocases. That will not allow them to post on a certain showcase that just started and to let everone know if they are good or not.

Cost effective Showcases---to me those are that get you maximumum exposure to the level of coaches/scouts you feel you are at---it will also give you a feel as to your true ability level---it will get you seen and the coaches who like what they see will attend your travel games/tournaments-- they will track you---very rarely does it happen that a one day appearance will get a player a scholarship

Some food for thought:

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6616002781/m/4211058562

Midlo's last post is so true. Now you are seeing "Showcase" teams forming where the coaches are parents of some of the players. They think that if they give their kids the same opportunities of the other kids someone will see them and like them. What ends up happening is the guy putting on the showcase is more than happy to take the check and put them in the tourney. They end up being the Washington Generals vs the Globe Trotters in every game they play. The kids basically get embarrassed game in and game out. Now there are several of these teams in our area. The college coaches are getting upset that half the field at the showcase tourneys are made up of teams of this caliber.

What you end up with are college coaches calling and saying put those teams in one pool and put the quality teams in the other or we are not coming. So these people spend thousands of dollars traveling across the state to play oneanother and the coaches are not even at the games.

Its the same thing at the showcase Pro Style Tryouts. If there are 100 kids at the event there will be around 10-15 that the coaches will even want to see. The rest are paying the bills for the showcase director's. If your son is not even one of the best or best players on his hs team why do you think he is going to get anything out of a showcase event?

Spend your time on working on getting better. Spend your time busting your butt first and making yourself the type of player that needs to showcase. Everyone is not a showcase player. Everyone does not need to go to a pro style tryout. Dont put cart ahead of the horse so to speak.

Honestly there are alot of people making alot of money off people who have no fn idea what is going on. And then there are the people who do it the right way. Everything I have heard about college select is first class. And PG does it right. The players that travel and pay their event cost are usually the best from their area's.

If your an average hs player you are not a showcase player. If your a good hs player you are a borderline showcase player. If your a very good hs player then do some showcase events. How do you know? Come on you know. You just have to be willing to be honest with yourself.