The real question is "What's the next step??"
Recruiting for college and scouting for the draft has evolved over the years and will continue to do so. What is the next logical step in this continuing development process?
Examples:
Years ago, High School and Legion ball was all that was necessary. Of course the draft seemed to last a week and colleges were secondary in consideration.
AAU (and similar) organizations began making in-roads into the player market and people discovered that it was convenient to bring the top talent to a single location for scouting.
Touraments sprang up under multiple umbrella organizations, attracting players from different sections of the country.
"Showcasing", based on the pro-tryout model began to occur and scouting organizations began to flourish (at least the ones who were good at what they did).
The emphasis was brought back on wood in order to provide the pro scouts with a look at the complete player (helping the college recruiter at the same time).
The situation now:
More and more players have discovered the benefits of "showcasing". Teams are beginning to flock to the "big events" (i.e. WWBA, etc) in order to establish themselves and lend themselves an air of legitimacy. Soon, it may become difficult to find the trees in the forest, so another "level" will be introduced in the ever ongoing effort to winnow the prospects down to a manageable number.
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What comes next?? A National Wood Bat summer conference with a limited # of teams/state (maybe 1 team per 3,000,000 population or some such formula)????? MLB sponsorship on a state-by-state basis of limited summer teams with tryouts, etc????
Why ask? A lot of "models" are going to be tried out over the next few years with varying degrees of success based on the financial commitment, resources and reputation of the organizations attempting them. Just wondered (for the sake of the 2008/2009's and beyond) what to look for down the road.
Any ideas?
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