My son is a RHP, 2018. He's pitched for varsity for two years. His team has never been very good, and this year, there's a good chance they'll be even worse.
Does that matter? How much do college coaches care about win/loss records, versus the stats the pitcher can control like strike outs and speed?
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IMO, yes and no.
No, because he will ultimately be evaluated on his pitching performances.
Yes,because it doesn't hurt to be on a team with lots of other prospects, which COULD provide more exposure. Also, when your team can make it to the semis or finals, sometimes all the recruiters are at one or two games versus all over a particular baseball complex.
I don't think win-loss matters much at all, and to be honest, neither do high school pitching stats. What matters is velocity, control, grades, test scores, and ultimately whether they believe your son can make a meaningful contribution to their program. Exposure through a summer team that competes in key national events, targeted camp attendance, and an independent evaluation through PG can all be critically important. High school ball, not so much.
Being on a bad high school team doesn't matter. Being on a bad travel team does unless you're an all world, gotta see talent (then you wouldn't be on a bad team). In high school his record isn't that important. Even in travel it's more about velocity, movement, mechanics, maturity and poise. Playing on a good travel team with other good players draws college coaches. Playing on a team with a reputation for having quality talent draws coaches. Chances are the travel coaches have contacts.
Iowamom23 posted:My son is a RHP, 2018. He's pitched for varsity for two years. His team has never been very good, and this year, there's a good chance they'll be even worse.
Does that matter? How much do college coaches care about win/loss records, versus the stats the pitcher can control like strike outs and speed?
From what I've observed over many years, college coaches don't really care about win/loss records of a player's team. Though a very good HS team will tend to draw more attention. College coaches do care about individual pitchers performance and will measure that performance against the level of competition pitched against . . . along with focusing on specific attributes of the pitcher/player. While the team the player is on isn't much of a consideration (if any), certainly the level of the competition the players plays against is a factor to them. Stats are only a small measure over all and relative to the competition. So, it's really about the coaches evaluation of the player's skill level and how they see it moving on to help the coach's goals for his team.
It matters if you have a bad attitude. It matters if you appear to be selfish. It matters if you think you are bigger than your team. Use this as an opportunity to become a leader. Wins\Loses and stats don''t matter. You as a person and a player matter.
In High School you can only control what you can control. Most families do not have the option of picking and choosing their high school. College coaches know this. This is why it is important to find the right travel team.
hshuler posted:IMO, yes and no.
No, because he will ultimately be evaluated on his pitching performances.
Yes,because it doesn't hurt to be on a team with lots of other prospects, which COULD provide more exposure. Also, when your team can make it to the semis or finals, sometimes all the recruiters are at one or two games versus all over a particular baseball complex.
Sorry but obviously missed the high school team reference and was clearly thinking travel team.
You really don't have much control over your high school team so he just has to do what he can. Errors and unearned runs won't necessarily count against him but what they will do is drive up pitch count and limit his innings.
In my experience, "no" as it pertains to high school games. We had a handful of college recruiters come to his high school games. A few of the local recruiters had already seen him pitch at regional and national showcases when he was a rising high school junior. Even then, I don't think wins/losses meant much as the college recruiters seemed more interested in velocity, pitch sequencing and repertoire.
High school games were another opportunity to see him play, validate velocity, control and pitch selection and before the travel season was in full swing. I wouldn't worry about wins or losses too much but I would concern myself with the part of the game your son does have control over.
PS...Son was never on a good high school team but was on an excellent travel team.
I agree with the overall tone of the previous posts... usually can't control what HS you go to and most exposure is had via travel/showcase.
However, I will add a few "however"s 
When we got our program turned in the right direction, there were more opportunities for players who wanted to play beyond HS for many reasons... the goal became perceived as more attainable because more went before them, more college coaches did take notice of the program (at least locally), more college coaches who wanted a look at an opposing player would not scratch our game from the potential "go see him" games - they would rather see their guy perform against decent competition if possible, players have more confidence that they are working under HS coaches that can help them get there, etc.
More importantly for your son...
If son is a college prospect, he should have some influence in many ways to help the HS team improve. He will need to have a certain skill level that will help keep his team competing when he is on the mound, regardless of what is going on around him. He will need to have a certain work ethic and composure which is likely to rub off on his HS teammates, eventually helping raise the level of the group. He may be scrutinized by prospective RC's as to how he handles the adversity of playing with a weaker HS team.
There are great opportunities for a young man faced with this scenario. While perhaps not immediately evident, it can be very rewarding.
Older son was on a fairly weak HS team in a fairly weak league. One other future college player on his team. He was relatively tall, played on an elite summer team and threw hard (low 90s). His HS didn't seem to matter, coaches and scouts there routinely, except he probably didn't improve as much as he could have on a better team in a better conference.
Younger son was on a great HS team in a very strong league with lots of future college and pro players. Truman is correct - that attracted a lot of scouts and college coaches. As he was less projectable than the older one (smaller, lower velocity), I don't believe he would have ended up at a big school from the older son's HS. He would have been harder to find for sure, and may not have progressed as well. But he was on the same summer travel team, playing alongside 4 future 1st rounders. He may have been found that way?
My point? The answer may be different for different types of players. Unless you're on a great summer team, in which case I'm not sure it matters much at all.
Everything matters!
Winning matters!
But if you have outstanding talent and you're on a bad team, your demeanor will speak volumes.
If the HS team doesn't produce many opportunities, there are other ways to create interest.
While not on the subject of good/bad HS team, my 2018 had similar story... For what it is worth, my 2018 has yet to throw a single pitch for his high school team, and he currently has a good number of offers in hand (as a RHP). He has played on the varsity team since he was a freshman, but his coach does not see him as a pitcher. So I can say for a fact that at least some colleges don't look at the HS record (since he has no record on the mound).
As a little background, PG has him as hitting 90 this past Oct, so that helped a bit.
Thanks all. This is helpful, particularly the reminder that being on a bad team can give son a chance to demonstrate his maturity and leadership when things out of his control don't go well — and, actually, even when things IN his control don't go well.
My 2 sons' experience as position players it did matter. Although they both played and on regionally known travel teams we heard more than once from local colleges. "if they play at XYZ HS how good can they really be." the feedback from local colleges we got was that if they were any good they would have gone to one of the So Cal privates that excel in sports. That playing at our HS they were not ready for college ball. They did not care about won loss of team but quality of coaching to prepare them for the next level. Those coaches did not know about the travel teams. Out of state colleges HS not a concern and looked at travel, Stanford and Headfirst. Travel team coaches coached college as well and wanted them. (D 3 and NAIA local SO. Cal.) It worked out in that the older one found an academic school where he can run indoor track and play baseball (runs a 6.4 60) Has excelled at Indoor track and D 3 baseball with coaching. Younger one going to JUCO to "prove himself"
Friend"s son a pitcher never got that feed back. All they cared about was velo. colleges didn't care as much about the school in the same way as my boys experienced as position players.
