Early Recruiting timeline for NON pitchers?

Of the players with early commits that we know or know about here in NorCal, I think that the ratio of pitchers to position players is about half and half.  So fairly similar to how a roster would break down.

I would have thought your observations were accurate, but the commitment numbers on perfectgame.org don't support that. Three of five 2017s in GA are position players.  SS and C seem to make up the majority of the position players when I look at 2017s.

 

You did say "offers" in your post, not commitments. I suppose it's possible that the pitchers are getting the majority of the offers but most aren't committing that early.

 

What's YOUR definition of early commit?  Pre-high school?  Freshman/Sophomore?

 

I have a 2017 who has a few offers from major D1's who is a position player.  He hasn't committed, but certainly could have a few months ago.

 

By my definition, that would be an early commit.  Pretty much anyone who commits after having only played their freshman season or sooner is early in my book.

 

To MidAtlanticDad's point, I know a few of the 2017 commits.  Pretty much split between position and PO.  I don't see any high trend either way.

My definition of an early offer is prior to 11th grade having a college coach offer a baseball player a spot on their college roster with or without athletic money being involved.

 

It just seems to me, and I'm totally new to this, that I can understand extending an offer to a 15 year old sophomore pitcher who is touching 85...he is likely to get to 90 in the next 2 years, and has a special arm...but why are the position players being offered? 

 

I mean the stud 10th grade short stop may grow another 5 inches in 2 years and be completely off balance; or the catcher with a 1.80 pop time in 10th grade may grow and be unable to move his body any faster than a 2.1...why offer so early for those kinds of kids?  The growth of each kid has to factor in here somehow...some are late bloomers, some are early bloomers, how do these college coaches even extend an offer with so many variables in play?  Or is it the lower baseball end of the spectrum colleges extending these offers trying to lock in a kid that MIGHT be talented before he realizes he could be a D1 prospect?

Sadly, some big programs commit early then change their mind later if the player doesn't develop as they had hoped.  I've seen it happen several times - which is unfortunately cause the player has taken themselves "off the market" due to the good faith commitment.  I've seen this primarily is the BIG schools. 

You must realize the best teams want the best players. As it stands right now, the schools hold all the power. If a kid verbals as a freshman or sophomore in high school, he better continue to develop or he will loose the offer. I know it is said that schools will honor the offer. But, if your kid was offered as a young high school player then did not turn out what the school expected 2-3 years later, the school may honor the offer but tell the kid you will NEVER see the field. Who would want to go into that situation?  If you go and see coach is true to his word, then you have to deal with all that comes with transferring. I personally would never recommend my son to verbal at that age. If you are truly talented enough to warrant a top D1 offer at 15, that talent doesn't go away. You will have choices. The biggest problem I see is everyone gets so bent out of shape that all the opportunities are gonna go away. I've never heard of a truly talented kid not having an opportunity, usually multiple ones. Until schools are required to provide 4 year guarantees, they will continue to hold all the cards.

This is our experience, too. I'd just add that sometimes it's the player who stresses, thinking, wrongly, that teams are filling rosters with verbals, so he'd better get locked in.

 

Interestingly, the 4-year guarantees are now the law of the land, so we'll see how that impacts this, if at all.

Yes JP, I was referring to the player and or parents stressing.  Remember also that there could be players verbally committing that have $0 scholarship (athletic).

So a baseball program could potentially have say, 2 scholarships, to offer in any one year?

 

For the most part, these recruiters know what they're doing. The stud 10th grade SS who gets on offer from a top D1 is usually a can't miss. They've looked at more than his film. They've looked at his parents. They've looked at his athleticism. In many cases they have years of experience watching kids develop from 14 to 18, and they know what to look for.

 

And as younggun says, the harsh reality is that the school is risking very little with their offer. Just look at the numbers of committed 2015 grads for a few Top 20 schools. In most cases, more commits than roster spots available.

 

And I think I can answer the "why offer so early?" question for most schools... If we don't, someone else will.

Mid Atlantic dad sums it up. One of the coaches at the school my son committed to admitted to me that they hate offering kids prior to the junior year in high school, but if they don't do it they are gonna get left behind. (And by junior year he was talking the summer AFTER junior year was completed)

The early bird gets the worm! College recruiting is extremely competitive.  Waiting for the leftovers doesn't cut it at the highest levels.  

 

Colleges have little to lose and much to gain by getting potential impact players to verbally commit early.  

 

Pitchers are always in great demand, but so is any player with a lot of talent.

 

Every year there are many players that end up decommitting.  Sometimes this is because the player has changed his mind and sometimes it is a result of the college coach changing his mind.  

 

Players that commit early are doing so because of baseball.  So when the college coach changes his mind and tells that kid he will never see the field, what are you going to do? Most everyone starts looking elsewhere. Who wants to play for a coach that no longer wants you and might make life miserable if you are there.

 

This is very common, most early commits do end up at the college, after all they are considered the cream of the crop in many cases.  But it also gives colleges a way of filtering out players and taking some chances.

 

You are the player we hoped for... Great we have you locked in.

 

You are not the player we hoped for... We no longer want you.

 

Once again... Early bird gets the worm... If he don't like it, he spits it out!

 

I'm not one that is against early commitments.  I've just seen how devastated kids and parents are when things change.  Maybe it happens, but the early commits that we know about are all based on scholarship money.  Not sure why anyone would commit early if there were no money involved.  BTW, sometimes that money changes too.

 

Guess, the main thing is be careful.  Understand that things could backfire.  

I hope this doesn't come off too flippant and I will apologize in advance for the length. We have very recently finished the process, so it is very fresh on my mind. Recruiting is very similar to dating. Obviously everyone wants to date / marry the best they can. The problem is, everyone doesn't see things the same way. I may look at a young lady and have an emotional response and decide I would like to court her, but if she doesn't feel the same way, it's not going to happen. Yes she could change her mind over time if I persist. Recruiting, at least for us was very similar. My son had ONE school that he LOVED. We still followed a lot of the advice given on this site. We figured out the level we felt like he could play, made a list of target schools. We visited several of those schools to get a feel for their campus. Son played on a national travel team the fall prior to and the summer after his junior year. He was given opportunities in front of a lot of coaches and scouts. He made the most of the opportunities afforded him. He received and accepted an offer from his dream school. He turned down a full ride (academic + athletic) to a very good ACC school that would have been much closer to home and more convenient for dad. He liked the school, but he didn't love it. He wasn't offered a full ride at his dream school, but it was an amount that he and I had discussed would be appropriate, and if they offered that level I would cover the rest. Yes we are VERY fortunate and blessed. Just so it's clear, my son was not a highly followed kid early in his young career. Nobody had ever heard of my son prior to the summer after his sophomore year. We had always played with local area travel team. I am not sharing his story to boast. I just want to help others that are about to start this journey. It is a LOT easier to see once you are on this side of the fence. But know this, son now has to deal with this all over again with pro interest and the draft. It doesn't get easier. You just have to develop a plan and then stick to that plan as long as it is working. Try to block out what everyone else is doing it saying. There are so many valuable posters on this site. Some of them get a bad rap as being short or abrupt. Take the information in the message and look past the delivery. I wish that every kid had an opportunity to live out their dream, but that is not reality.  By the way, there was stress involved with the process. Son's school was the last offer he received. He had multiple offers and the schools were applying some levels of pressure for a decision. Obviously he didn't want to tell the others no until he received the offer from dream school. It's not always easy, but it's also not rocket science.

I just did a little checking on Perfect Game's site.

 

The two teams who played for the national championship in 2014 each have 11 commitments from the class of 2016.  One of them has 6 pitchers, the other has 8 pitchers.  All 22 players are ranked among the top 500 players in the country with the majority being among the top 200 players.  

 

Then I checked some mid majors within a few hours of where I live.  One mid major that played in an NCAA regional last spring has no 2016 commitments.  Two others--one played in a regional in 2013, the other played in a regional in 2014--have four commitments each.  These players are mostly ranked in the 500-1000 range.  

 

Then I checked a couple bottom tier D1's including the one my son plays at.  None of them has any 2016 commitments.

 

The trend seems to be that early commitments are most likely to happen between players and programs that are identified early as elite and likely to stay that way.  

 

Less elite programs and less elite players are a harder to project and harder to sort, so they take a little longer to find their level.

 

One of them more descriptive and accurate statements I have seen regarding early commits!

I will state again, I do believe a lot of early commits are from players of alumni. That doesnt mean they are the cream of the crop, but that they want to play at mom or dads college too. BTW, I do believe that their is separate money available in many programs for alumni children or grandchildren.  Thats why many programs have full time people working on fund raising, to supplement the athletic programs.

 

PG is right though, these top programs have identified the top talent early, position or pitcher, that's what they do, and they are going to get them to commit before anyone else gets them. I see that a lot here between the 3 big D1 programs.