How much has recruiting changed?

Different sport but look at Chase Young.  Athleticism is skyrocketing.  Kids throwing 90 are a dime a dozen nowadays.  Sub 7 60’s?  Tons of high school catchers can do that.  

I think the internet age has given that another push. Back in the paper days it probably was possible to miss a guy but nowadays the big showcases like PG have sortable leaderboards so you don't need to drive you cowtown north Dakota to notice a guy playing there.

There is also now the self reporting stuff like flat ground.

I think you almost have to actively hide to not get noticed as a 90+ pitcher.

That is also a reason why mlb teams shrink scouting departments, you still need to see some guys but all the legitimate prospects will be at a handful of big showcases so you don't need to drive out to a small HS to see him.

For the scouting I guess some fun is lost, I have heard old stories about a scout knowing a "secret" prospect in a small school and then trying to hide that he goes there so other teams don't notice him too.

I guess this is over now and if you are a legitimate prospect all the teams will know about you.

I think this is something that gets lost when the early scouting etc are criticised, that is crazy but the competition for the real top talent is also crazy.

When it comes to the fringy roster guys the college is in the driver's seat but if you talk about the aces the competition for them is huge as other colleges as well as mlb scouts are hunting them too.

I think one difference is that now there are a TON of 90+ pitchers.  There are guys throwing 95+ that are trying to get pro looks after college via Twitter. Information is everywhere.  Even as a parent (that looked at a lot of twitter posts), I knew when we played a team who had a guy who just started pitching his senior year (2020 short year) and had hit 93 the week before.  He threw against us and yes there were scouts in attendance.  If you are looking at all, it's hard not to know who is out there.

When I first found this site it was after offers had come and I was looking to see what a "good offer" was. I found some older posts from 08-09 where there were arguments about kids committing too early in spring of the junior year. 10 years ago, kids were committing either the summer heading into their senior year, or their senior year. As the timeline moved along, the superstars were committing in fall of their junior year, then summer heading into junior year. Then Bryce Harper came along.

Now if you're not committed to a P5 by October of your Sophomore year, people tell you to start considering D3 and juco options.

Even in the past 3 years, I think it's accelerated to the point where it's too much too soon. I know where my 2019 was in the process. He had offers post sophomore year summer. Now I see teammates and friends of my 2022 committing and they're nowhere near as good or polished as the older one was at the same age.  It looks like there's a lot more recruiting based on projection which is why I also believe the transfer rate is so high. When they don't develop as projected they move onto the next.

I also think there's a ton of embellishing. Every halfway decent 9th grader has a sub 2.0 pop? Everybody hits the ball 100mph off a tee? Everybody throws 90 across the infield? I don't believe a lot of what I see. People get caught up on tweets and Instagram. I see a money making organization pushing customers to attract new customers. I don't see a scouting service providing accurate assessments. It's unfortunate, but for it happens more often than it doesn't.

I think scouting is more difficult now.  10% is the difference between Mike Trout and the average player.  10% is the difference between the average player and the guy not good enough to make it.  Lots of guys have 10% better tools than average but are not 10% better players than average.  Back in the day anyone could have told you that Mickey Mantle was amazing, but 23 teams didn't think Mike Trout was.

@PABaseball posted:

I see a money making organization pushing customers to attract new customers. I don't see a scouting service providing accurate assessments. It's unfortunate, but  it happens more often than it doesn't.

This is a huge problem.

I think it also contributes to player injuries as kids chase numbers and exposure and not just playing, having fun and getting better. Can’t tell you how often we were pressured for our son to not play basketball so that he wouldn’t “miss a step” with baseball. FWIW, my 2021 did not commit to his P5 until fall of Junior yr and there were guys that committed after him and he had options. One of our junio friends just committed to an ACC school. So please, don’t panic 2023 parents!