Expectations For a Showcase Team - Positions, PT etc

It’s hard to find a new team this late unless they need pitchers and/or catchers. Any team looking for players at this point is probably in trouble and not a great situation.

From 13u to 17u my son played on teams the end result wouldn’t have been much different pulling any lineup out of a hat. Everyone could play. Playing time was fairly equal. The best lineup was rolled out for the best opponents.

I was the head coach from 13-16u. My son was a shortstop at school. I recruited a better one for the travel team. He only played short when the #1 pitched or sat. He played whatever position the pitcher came from. With three quality lead off hitters they rotated between 1, 2 and 10 (used EH). Once on 17u he was told he was the center fielder. 

I assumed that PT on a reputable showcase team should be pretty much evenly distributed. Was that an incorrect assumption on my part?

2True posted:

I assumed that PT on a reputable showcase team should be pretty much evenly distributed. Was that an incorrect assumption on my part?

Yes, not equally but evenly. There are going to be some guys that are better than others - that is just a fact. You want your best defense out there in a must win and your best batters at the plate in the late innings. But people are also paying, if you don't distribute the playing time fairly then people are going to walk. 

First tournament I wouldn't panic. If it is a problem after the next one I would probably have your son talk to the coach and see where he sees him fitting in. The idea with showcase ball is that you have 15-20 good players and you can rotate them equally because they are all talented and none are a detriment to the team. Last year our team had 30. At any tournament there were probably 25/26 guys there. 10 pitcher onlys, 5 short stops who would rotate between 3rd, SS and 2B, 3 catchers, and 5 OF who would also rotate and 2 corner guys with a few utility guys sprinkled in. Some got less playing time than others, especially the pitchers, but for the most part you could plug anybody in/out and they managed to keep 28-29 of those guys happy for two years so.

I think thats how it should work universally, but anytime a parent is involved it gets a little tricky. Especially if they are consumed with winning more than getting the kids seen. Also do not get travel and showcase ball confused. Travel is traveling to local tournaments without many college coaches where the goal is to win. Showcasing is going with the intent to showcase your players and the wins take care of themselves from the talent. 

T

PABaseball posted:

2True posted:

I assumed that PT on a reputable showcase team should be pretty much evenly distributed. Was that an incorrect assumption on my part?

 Also do not get travel and showcase ball confused. Travel is traveling to local tournaments without many college coaches where the goal is to win. Showcasing is going with the intent to showcase your players and the wins take care of themselves from the talent. 

Thanks for info PAbaseball!

From what I understand, few of the teams that call themselves showcase teams would be considered true showcase teams by most here. Most have rosters filled with players that will end up playing low level D3 or Juco or mostly not at all. This  team is not a high level team. I knew that going in. But they promote themselves as a "Showcase" team and so I assumed playing time would be handled as if it were a showcase team. I did discuss PT and other things with head of Org prior to signing on. Among other things, he said everyone plays. I took that to mean somewhat evenly. We just hoped it would be an opportunity to play some decent level ball over the summer.

Last summer my kid played games with his HS team and was on a travel team that played a couple of PG tournaments as well as some local tournaments. It was coached by a Dad. Cost was something like a few hundred bucks. That team doesn't exist this year and we haven't found anything else like it.

I'm pretty sure that I can't really trust this org at this point. Looks like 3-4 of the kids I saw this weekend were just taken for money. They were much lower level than the rest of the team. Coach told players that next weekend's games were not showcase games so they'll be playing to win and there will  be limited substitutions. Will those 3-4 will be getting less than 2 innings in LF next weekend?  My kid got much more than 2 innings and played prime positions but not nearly as many innings as the kids that have been with him for the past few seasons. My gut tells me this is not going to work out well and I can't justify the hotel and travel expenses to play 7 innings and a few at bats.

Wondering if there's anything I can do. Should I contact head of Org with concerns? does anyone ever get their money back in these situations? I'm guessing we have no leverage as the org wouldn't care if we walked because we've already paid.

How old is your son?

We experienced this several times.  The biggest problem that many travel/showcase teams have is poor coach communication.  Most often what happened (son was part of a large organization) was that the coach would say nothing at the start of the season about playing time.  Some kids went in assuming that they would play every game, got sulky when they didn't, and quit the team mid-season.  Sometimes the coach's son played every inning (even when not the best player) and other kids platooned, that didn't make for happy parents.  Sometimes some kids were almost never played, for reasons that were not obvious at all, and that was wrong.  We saw some unpleasant situations.

In hindsight, we came to realize (although this was never explained by coaches, or the organization), that at 16U and 17U the kids whose measurables were of D1 level were the ones playing all the time, so that they could be seen, even when sometimes they lost games (think a pitcher throwing 90 who walked every batter, hitter with 100 mph exit velo who wasn't hitting).  People whose sons were on the teams but weren't at D1 levels complained that the other kids (the ones college coaches came to watch) were playing more.  It was hard, especially when those D1 kids didn't help the team win.  My guess is that college coaches were asking to see those players, which is why they played more.  If the point is to play in front of college coaches, then at 16U, the ones really needing it are the D1 prospects.

The best experience my son had was when, at a high-profile tournament, the coach explained to the boys (not the parents!) that some kids would play every inning, and the rest of them would platoon evenly.  And they did that.  Everyone was satisfied.  But in 5 years, he was the only coach who ever explained that.

Normally a showcase team will have 20 plus players with about 8 plus pitcher only.  The top level teams will have 2-3 players who will play 95% of the innings normally at ss, second, and cf.  The teams my son played on the last 2 years, 16U and 17U had about that many and the SS/Second traded each game, 1B and 3B were the same and 2 OF's were always playing.  Son pitched the big games and DH'ed when not pitching.  Had 2 catchers and 10 pitcher only guys.  Were top level teams.  There were a few guys who traded in and got a limited number of innings.  They were not happy and parents were less happy.  Every player that started was going P5 and 3 drafted 2 weeks ago from each team (son played on two teams last two years and played similar role on both teams). 

I don't know what you do when you are not happy other than cut your losses.  I don't think organization will give you money back because they use it to buy uniforms, coaches salaries, and entry fees along with their cut.  I would say your best bet is to have your son talk to coach after this weekend if you are still not happy.  If you are looking for a team where your son plays almost every inning, that does not happen unless it is set up that way and they are very top level team and normally not paying at that point.  Those teams have other teams in organization that pays the price for top team to play free.

Thanks all!

Was expecting to play around 50% minimum though. I think some of the problems can be attributed to disorganization. One of the biggest problems is that there are 8 IFs. Coach gave all of them IF time. Some more than others.

Top 17u travel team last summer, made it to the final 16 in the PG WS. We had 19kids...6 POs, 2 two-way guys, 2 catchers, rest position guys. POs usually went 4-3 inns or 5-2 each game, really protected the arms. Position kids played every game, every inning. In blowouts kids moved around. Never heard a gripe from a parent or a kid

I say this somewhat facetiously but with some truth too but if you are not a top 5% player you are mearly a back up singer or filling in to complete the band at most showcases and tournys. Many very good position players get lost among the other very good position players. 

If you are not the pitcher or ss odds are they are not looking at you. On one sons 17 u team the CF was faster, stole better and hit for better power and average then the ss but who got the  scouting coaches notice every game for his speed? The SS. One D1 scout said the CF should have been a SS, if he was we would recruit him.

What i am trying to say is that there are a lot of very good players at a lot of positions but the scouts are usually only focusing on a few "coveted" positions and some positions are sought after than others but the showcases and recruiting teams in general need the other guys to fill in all the positions. Just dont expect to be "Discovered" unless u can stand out really stand out from the crowd. 

Be proactive and research and  contact the programs or have a coach also work on your behalf. Get your name infront if coaches who need your position so they have a reason to look at you

from my experience with u17 showcase teams over 3 years 2015-2017 in high quality regional organization

5 Po's with 3 or so 2 way guys

additional 9 or 10 players who can play various places for a total of 12ish players in the field, we always batted 10. 16 or 17 total.

my oldest was a middle line up guy and played about 90% of time. my youngest was a bottom 1/3 of the roster guy and he played about 50 or so . It varied by event, when we went to larger national events the bottom played less, in true showcase events it was very fair. in most regional events it just didn't matter who played because the guys at the bottom were still quality players. 

Fast forward and the oldest is still playing in college and the youngest decided he wasn't interested and is going to a larger school.