I wonder what happens with the draft. Harvard-Westlake canceled its season today - there are two slot picks playing there.
College picks who were already known will be as ok as possible; HS kids and late blooming college kids are really impacted.
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Perhaps ad hoc travel teams and tourneys will pop up to provide baseball for kids who are suddenly without a season?
2020 LHP Son starting to get scouted. Pitching well . . I'm fearful this will severely limit his chances because he has been a bit of late bloomer with his velo. Fortunately, he has a P5 commitment to fall back on . .. we are grateful for that.
I'm confident that if seasons are cancelled, scouts will hold private workouts continually over the next few months. It won't be the same, but they will do what they can to get good looks at kids. It really stinks. My son was gaining momentum and I'm now concerned that his senior year of ball may be cut short...possibly very short. I just hope they will do things like limit fan attendance, etc. before they shut down.
Big 10 announced yesterday that season will continue but only key members of the team, credentialed media and immediate family members will be allowed to attend. I'm wondering which category scouts will fall under because I'm pretty confident they will get into the games somehow.
@LeftyDadP9 and @baseballhs I've been thinking about your boys and hoping they landed well. I know there have been a lot of threads on draft vs. college in previous years and most land on college for tons of great reasons. I would love to hear people's thoughts on how/if the COVID reality (talent crunch in college, shortened draft, shrinking MiLB, insecure HS seasons, smaller athletic budgets) changes the college vs. draft decision. Or do the decision points essentially stay the same?
I think it absolutely did. Conversations of “what if” we’re big on both sides of the fence. My son was off to a great start. 12 inning, 26k, 1BB, 2H, 0ERA. He had mono last summer so this was really the first good look scouts got. He had 15+ scouts at both games. When everything shut down, he trained continually for a private bullpen that PBR set up. He metrics were really good and topped 95. We had several in home visits. My son set his number very high because he really did want to go to school. His college roster is very crowded and 8 returning seniors. That’s a concern. If you are drafted, you sit for another 8-10 months. That’s a concern. What if the draft stays small? Another concern. What if we lose more seasons or you have an injury?
Most scouts said they had only seen him twice (crosscheckers hadn’t seen him) and it would be tough to get them to the number. In the end, he could have gone if he was willing to come down on his number, and he wasn’t. Ultimately, he said he wasn’t ready. He has two friends who have shared with him how hard it is. Add in the isolation and watching his friends leave would have been tough. We dropped him off at school two weeks ago and he is lifting and throwing and experiencing a tiny bit of normal even though it’s far from normal. Did he make the right choice? Time will tell. He is at complete peace with it, so I am as well.
"Scouting Combines"
There has always been "informal" combines in Regional areas.
Now you may plan for the NFL type "combines" to include HS and College players. During my years with the Area Code games, I included JC players in the California tryouts.
Bob
@PTWood posted:@LeftyDadP9 and @baseballhs I've been thinking about your boys and hoping they landed well. I know there have been a lot of threads on draft vs. college in previous years and most land on college for tons of great reasons. I would love to hear people's thoughts on how/if the COVID reality (talent crunch in college, shortened draft, shrinking MiLB, insecure HS seasons, smaller athletic budgets) changes the college vs. draft decision. Or do the decision points essentially stay the same?
The draft is very far away, so my suggestion is to wait to see how things will be next spring. In the meantime, everyone, HS and college players included, need to be diligent and work hard to be ready to play.
I think Bob has brought up a good point, and I know that before the draft last year there was some talk of having some type of combine, but it never came to be a reality.
Just heard that CUSA moved soccer and volleyball to the spring, except football.
The virus will make the determination as to when things will get back to normal, unless a vaccine rolls out, which I doubt. JMO
