Very excited for our 2017 RHP who will participate in the WWBA 17U Nat. Championship starting later this week. This will be his first PG tournament and we are looking forward to the competition he will face and the opportunity to show his skills. He has been corresponding with his list of college coaches, many who plan to be there, and has sent them his game schedule. Any other advice or must-dos? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
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Try to enjoy it. 2016 is off at school. Wish I could go to that tournament with my son one last time.
Thank you - we are looking forward to it! Have heard and read about PG for a while now, and am glad our son can participate this year. Best to your son in college!
Sometimes (most times) there is only one game a day. Try to take advantage of seeing the area, with or without your player. There is a lot to see and do in Atlanta/Kennesaw area.
One team hotel had a shuttle to the surrounding area. Toward the end of the week the parents sent the kids off bowling for a few hours.
If you don't know about the Georgia red clay, buy some Iron Out. We soaked baseball pants in the bathtub. 
There used to be a thread about good places to eat near East Cobb. Maybe someone should start a thread for the Emerson area, (besides McD's and Chick-fil-a). Cartersville, north of Emerson, is a cute town and I can recommend The City Cellar and Appalachian Grill as good places to eat.
Great ideas. thanks! We have been to Atlanta before for cousin/friends/business visits, and live in nearby NC so we are familiar with North Carolina red clay. Shout usually works with oxi-clean powder, but we may try Iron Out - it sounds intriguing!
We have one game per day except one day where we have 2 games. So will be nice to have some free time.
Thanks for the restaurant recommendations, I will start a list with your suggestions. We are foodies and love finding fun eats in the areas we travel.
Many thanks!
No metal cleats allowed at LakePoint. Pitchers mound is also turf. Some prefer molded cleats and some prefer regular turf shoes. I hope you have good weather and a great trip.
Thank you - son is aware of that and has regular turf shoes he likes. Question - does PG evaluate each pitcher in tournament games or only in showcase events? (may need to start a new thread or research older ones). Thanks again.
Also realize that not all games are at Lakepoint, so make sure he also has his regular cleats. I know PG records every pitch, and each pitchers fastest velocity. They do not grade them ,but I believe all of this goes into their master database for rankings
My son will also be playing in the WWBA. We are fortunate that Lakepoint is 30 miles from the house.
@dadofa17 - yes, we have 3 games at Lakepoint, 3 at HS and one at a college. He is bringing both. Do you know if that pitch info will go into his profile and be available to us?
Good luck to your son later this week - it's almost here!
If your son is a pitcher and will pitch at Lakepoint, I highly recommend he gets a pair of molded cleats. My son pitched there the first year it opened and his turf shoes did not keep him from sliding around. He had molded cleats last year and didn't slip or slide at all. I also recommend buying the molded cleats before arriving as most sporting goods stores around Lakepoint were pretty much sold out of molded cleats.
If he pitches at any PG tournament they'll have someone with guns behind home plate recording his velo for his different types of pitches. A few weeks later he'll have those numbers added to his profile (at least it was a few weeks later when my 2016 pitched in GA).
If/when he attends a showcase they'll show the velo data right away and then a few weeks later he'll have a write up posted and a PG ranking (like 7.5, 8, 8.5, etc). I'm assuming there is more behind the scenes that a college coach could access as part of the scouting report but all that I've seen following tournaments is the numbers - velo by pitch type for pitchers.
@goin_yard - I will look into getting molded cleats or seeing what he & dad think. he wears size 15 or 16 so that may be a challenge so close to the start date. his turf shoes are comfortable and support but I don't like the sound of the possibility of slipping around. Thanks for the suggestion.
@mkbaseballdad - thanks for the info, was not sure how that worked with velo recording. appreciate it.
Check out largefeet.com. My son wears a size 15 and this store is great. It is in downtown Atlanta and they carry athletic shoes size 14 and up. Shaq gets his size 22s there. my son loves having a place where he can try shoes on. ��
I am not sure if they have molded cleats in stock. But if you have a free day, it will be worth the drive. (It is not an impressive store front and you have to walk up to the third floor for the athletic shoes. But they have a great selection.
Son is there now at 14U WWBA. I couldn't go. All games are on Gamechanger. Games at Lakepoint are on Trackman. Every pitch gets velocity, spin rate, axis, horizontal and vertical movement plus more. Every batted ball gets exit velocity, spin, distance and about another 8 data points. Pretty cool. Oh yeah, it also keeps score.
https://connect.baseball.track...oard?Date=2016-06-28
@GO44DAD Thank you! Will check out Trackman. We use Game Changer for our team, but sounds like all games are on that anyway. Will be cool to see the velocity data.
@dadofa17 - thanks for the largefeet link - we will definitely check that store out. Son wears 15 or 16 depending on brand. and yes, trying on shoes will be a bonus. awesome advice!
My son will be there as well. He's from Europe, but joint the ECNE Expos for the summer. He's a SS and RHP. I think this tournament will be a great experience. Good luck to your son.
How fun for him! Good luck to him!
My son flew out today from Chicago with his team. He is so excited. Thanks for the all of the info and heads up about the molded cleats, although he's usually been ok with the turf shoes.
@WSOXFANATIC Good luck to your son! We ended up ordering cleats from newbalance outlet.com and they are being shipped to our hotel. Son was not sure the turf shoes would handle well on the turf mound, so he will have choices in footwear now. We are excited to be here! First game tomorrow @8:15 am so we will have an early wake up call! Best to your son and his team!
My son is there now. First game @ 2pm. I'll be there this evening. He's looking forward to this week of baseball. I'm looking forward to watching, eating some BBQ and another trip to Henry's.
Surprised your team above has THREE games at PG Lakepoint; our team has only one this year, many seem to have 2, but 3 is awesome.
It is tough for the pitchers who pitch elsewhere as they don't get all the data (last year my son pitched off site and they only had the radar on him for one inning, and he is stuck with that number in his PG profile despite going unofficially 3 mph higher on a dad's radar a few innings later).
That's my only whine as it is an awesome tournament. I'm not going this year, but son is playing first game right now. His team travels and stays together, parents superfluous and a pretty sizable extra cost then.
We had a lot of fun last year, played a round of golf at a nice Bobby Jones course, had chicken and waffles, bbq, went to a diner recommended here on HSBW and it was awesome.
@twoboys - Best of luck to your son! Our first game was at Lakepoint today and our team won! Was a great way to start the week. I understand we our team is very fortunate to have three games at LP. The facility exceeded our expectations - loved the instant data on scoreboard, shaded seats and the great level of play all around. There are quite a few teams on buses, and traveling as a group. Ours is with each family, and am glad as this is our first experience with PG and @ LP and possibly our last as our son is a rising senior.
His team doesn't get to play at Lakepoint, only the East Cobb facility. He is pitching tomorrow. So am I hearing not a lot of exposure at the outer facilities?
In our case last year we had college coaches at every game. Lakepoint would have consistently more but we had several no matter where we were.
Son's team won pool. Our playoff game was the first one played at Lakepoint and only game going on in the entire complex. Kid pitching was going to UGA. Had to be 100+coaches and scouts watching our one game. Our lead off guy took kid deep over LCF on second pitch. It was a wild scene.
Good luck to all this week.
My mistake. They play 1 game at Lakepoint. He will be pitching tomorrow at East Cobb. Oh well, he will need to make the best of it for whomever is watching. Would sure be nice to have Trackman to watch his game since I'm unable to go. I will be watching on Game Changer instead.
BackstopDad32 posted:In our case last year we had college coaches at every game. Lakepoint would have consistently more but we had several no matter where we were.
Son's team won pool. Our playoff game was the first one played at Lakepoint and only game going on in the entire complex. Kid pitching was going to UGA. Had to be 100+coaches and scouts watching our one game. Our lead off guy took kid deep over LCF on second pitch. It was a wild scene.
Good luck to all this week.
That had to been so great to see!! I guess I can hope for the playoffs. Thanks for the information Backstop dad..
wsoxfanatic posted:His team doesn't get to play at Lakepoint, only the East Cobb facility. He is pitching tomorrow. So am I hearing not a lot of exposure at the outer facilities?
East Cobb will have plenty of colleges watching. We played at a non-lake Point field at 9:00 this morning. There were plenty of colleges watching. Now, a lot of these recruiters know who they want to see, so depending on who is on the two teams, you could get more or less exposure.
Twoboys posted:Surprised your team above has THREE games at PG Lakepoint; our team has only one this year, many seem to have 2, but 3 is awesome.
It is tough for the pitchers who pitch elsewhere as they don't get all the data (last year my son pitched off site and they only had the radar on him for one inning, and he is stuck with that number in his PG profile despite going unofficially 3 mph higher on a dad's radar a few innings later).
That's my only whine as it is an awesome tournament. I'm not going this year, but son is playing first game right now. His team travels and stays together, parents superfluous and a pretty sizable extra cost then.
We had a lot of fun last year, played a round of golf at a nice Bobby Jones course, had chicken and waffles, bbq, went to a diner recommended here on HSBW and it was awesome.
The only game our team had a Lakepoint last year was when they made it to the championship round. Almost every game was an hour ride from the hotel through Atlanta traffic. At least we didn't have to pay for parking. ;o)
He told me there was a decent number of coaches on hand for his game at East Cobb. Was very impressed with the facility, adding it was better than many college fields he's played at! Got to pitch 3 1/3, w/4K, no walks. Hopeful to get a few more innings next week. His team is 2-0 so having a lot of fun thus far.
