Email Coaches?

You email coaches to inform them of your schedule when you have the tools to impress. Have you already contacted coaches expressing interest in the college and their baseball program? Have tou asked them where they will be where you can be seen?  Coaches look for players. Players don’t look for coaches. Does your travel coach have contacts where he can promote you as a player to be seen?

Do you have video and other info (verified measurables) that you can send them....or hopefully, have already sent.     You're a sophomore to be.....unless you have something that interests them, say like 6'2, 190 as a 14 year old     just sending your schedule won't do you any good.  If you have been in contact with coaches in any way, then yes, send them the schedule.....but if not, just sending out a random schedule won't get them to come see you play.  Coaches don't have the time to run around Nashville or Atlanta to check out every kid that sends them a schedule....you have to have a reason (or give them a reason) to want to come see you.

My 2019 has found that even WITH tools, sending emails to coaches is like sending emails into a black hole!  It takes a lot of faith (and time!) to send 25 personalized emails and only get responses back from two or three of them.  He comforts himself by his awareness that they are in the middle of their seasons right now and only can hope that this summer there'll be a few extra eyeballs on him thanks to his efforts.  On a few occasions he has been able to meet coaches in person, even head coaches, and has been gratified when they remember specific details from his emails or recruiting profile (like the high school he plays for, the city he's from, etc.)

It's my opinion that there's no harm in sending emails (with video links) to coaches.  I think it's important though not to read into the likely lack of responses you'll get, especially being a 2021.  There's been no evident pattern, in all the emails my son has sent out, or had sent out for him by his coach in the past 16 months, as to what kind of programs will take the time to respond.  D3 coaches are just as likely to be non-responders as D1 coaches, power conference coaches as likely to respond as forgotten conference coaches.  Those who do respond, though, no matter positively or negatively, we definitely hold in higher esteem.  

If you do send out emails, I think it's very good advice to keep your emails short and to the point.  Make links clear and obvious and format your schedule in a very easy to read way.  Coaches, so my son has been told on several occasions, hate long-winded emails.  Finally, I would note that for my son, the net responses per email sent out when it's sent out by his high school coach rather than he himself has been about double his own efforts.  In other words, if you can tee up some basic talking points highlighting your tools, metrics, and then a list of coach names and emails and then send it to your high school or travel coach for him to draft and send out a nice email to the programs in which you are interested, you may get slightly more purchase.  Coaches are generally eager to build relationships with other coaches.

One last piece of advice, which I would ask for others on the board to respond to with their own thoughts on the matter: Don't be afraid to send a second email at a later date to a program of interest, even if they failed to respond the first time.  My son sent one out to a well-known program at the end of last summer and they failed to respond.  This spring, owing to the fact that it's a school of strong interest and that it appears to be a solid fit for his ballplaying abilities, he sent out a new email with an updated video and got a warm response from the coach.  Second emails, especially immediately before a tournament or showcase where you know the program of interest will be at, would seem to me to be particularly in your interest.  Good luck.

Another question for this thread:  Is a coach more likely to read over a schedule embedded in the email versus a schedule that appears a click or two away on a student-athlete built recruiting webpage?  Or does a schedule, especially a full one, in an email make the email as a whole cumbersome?

And one more question on this topic:  Some coaches have responded by asking my son to fill out their recruiting profile form, most of which can be found on the team's website.  Any harm in filling them out before sending the email?  Hopefully the answers to this will help the 2020s and 2021 just starting the process.

If you send out an email that says "95 mph Pitcher" with documented proof within the email, I bet your response rate would be around 97% within an hour.

It is important to understand just how many extremely talented players there are out there....

I think it is good to send emails with video and updates.  Make sure your first email has your measurables and links to your PG or PBR profile if you have them.  We send everything from my son's youtube channel links.  You can then get an idea of who watches the video you send by going to the youtube analytics and looking at the states (assuming you are sending to more than one state).  You can also then click on the state and it will tell you which video was viewed and how long they watched it.  That gives you a good idea about who to keep sending to.  They won't be able to respond to you outside of a camp invitation now, but you can still gauge interest.  I'm still unsure if they are able to continue to contact coaches and ask you to call, but that used to be an option as well.

3and2Fastball posted:

If you send out an email that says "95 mph Pitcher" with documented proof within the email, I bet your response rate would be around 97% within an hour.

It is important to understand just how many extremely talented players there are out there....

The response would probably be ...

How have you been since we last saw you and talked? 

But, in general, point taken.

I don’t believe there are any 97 mph secrets anymore. Chances are some umpire or opposing coach at one of his games is an associate scout.

Check out these two websites:

https://keepplayingbaseball.org/yearly-checklists/
http://kpbrecruiting101.org/

I can't say enough good things about these guys. Very thorough, and free, information about the recruiting process and timeline. I've found a tremendous amount of value during my 2019's journey. Good luck!

Son was talking to about five schools.  All were set up by the travel coach giving him the Coach's cell phone numbers and "Coach John Doe wants you to call him".  A couple had never seen him play live. They went by PG stats, rank and videos the travel coach sent him.  My opinion the rank was used to pull a list of 100 or so pitchers, then sorted by location.  Not sure the actual number of the rank matters, as long as it is above whatever the schools pull.  Before he calls them, he sends them a 45 sec video with about 6 or 8 pitches, usually his last time pitching he has on video.  By me, from phone.

Travel coaches were the big deal for my son's path.  Pretty sure that's the most common path.  Or they just run into a prospect that interests them at a game where they are watching some other kid.

So Baseball Comes Third, it appears you decided to reclassify after all.  Where did you decide to go next year for school?  

JeffnNYC posted:

One last piece of advice, which I would ask for others on the board to respond to with their own thoughts on the matter: Don't be afraid to send a second email at a later date to a program of interest, even if they failed to respond the first time.  My son sent one out to a well-known program at the end of last summer and they failed to respond.  This spring, owing to the fact that it's a school of strong interest and that it appears to be a solid fit for his ballplaying abilities, he sent out a new email with an updated video and got a warm response from the coach.  Second emails, especially immediately before a tournament or showcase where you know the program of interest will be at, would seem to me to be particularly in your interest.  Good luck.

Sending coaches emails is similar to direct mail. You get maybe a 2% response rate, but if you get the RIGHT response, that's all you need.

Worked for my son, who emailed about 200 coaches, got little response until he started throwing about 90 his junior year and ended up with an offer from his dream school — who responded to nothing until he could send video with that magic number.

Persistence does pay, but talent is required too.

Go44dad posted:

Son was talking to about five schools.  All were set up by the travel coach giving him the Coach's cell phone numbers and "Coach John Doe wants you to call him".  A couple had never seen him play live. They went by PG stats, rank and videos the travel coach sent him.  My opinion the rank was used to pull a list of 100 or so pitchers, then sorted by location.  Not sure the actual number of the rank matters, as long as it is above whatever the schools pull.  Before he calls them, he sends them a 45 sec video with about 6 or 8 pitches, usually his last time pitching he has on video.  By me, from phone.

Travel coaches were the big deal for my son's path.  Pretty sure that's the most common path.  Or they just run into a prospect that interests them at a game where they are watching some other kid.

 

I know where you're coming from about the impact of travel coaches in some situations. Especially for pitchers who can easily show video of the measurables most coaches are looking for. I suspect this may be more common in the larger metro areas but in my son's case this has only small piece given that he is a position player and seeking college options out of our state/region. From what I've seen in our situation, and in others similar, even the name brand travel/summer organizations have a handful of "elite" players they promote heavily. So unless you're one of those, or you're just a stud that everyone is going to find anyway with little effort on your part, there are many facets that have to be accounted for in the recruiting process so I wouldn't rely too heavily on any one...you know, the whole eggs in one basket deal. Of course take this all with a grain of salt since my 2019 hasn't been offered yet! Best of luck!