how would you rate the strength of the summer college leagues?

Cape League
Alaska league
Valley league
New england collegiate league
Coastal Plain League


keep in mind alot of teams in each leagues have players that are compeletely overmatched and should not be playing in a NCAA league. GM's are often BS from college coaches trying to place their players in summer ball.

If you look at the rosters, over the past two summers, you can't leave the Texas Collegiate League out of the top five.

Be good,
David

According to BaseballAmerica and scouts the caliber of players in Alaska is way down.

Hard to beat the scenery, though.

dibble,i know what you mean on the gm's pacifying the coachs.live by a jayhawk league team and have seen players from jc sitting over a player from a 4yr school that had less talent.i told the gm if it was not about winning i could stay home and watch mlb on the tube.he claimed they had to do this to get players from the bigger 4 schools.i am curious why you rank the valley league as high as you do.i read on a site where the writer said the valley was pretty marginal lately.this is all i know about the league.so i could be wrong.i do believe the texas league has to be in the top 5 also.

Jayhawk and C.I.C.L. are as good as any after Alaska and the Cape.

collegiate league talent can vary alot every year. The talented players obviously have the choice among several leagues and teams.

Can just tell you from my experience in NCAA summer leagues, i went after players that i knew could play, either i saw them play myself or was recommended by MLB scouts to be that i trusted. Unfortunetly if you get BS by some college coach that their guy can play and he sucks you cant send him home.

We had a few times college coaches show up complaining their player was not playing enough that summer. Yes summer league coaches just love whiny college coaches at their games

the problem i have seen and know this because we housed some coaches, is a rookie coach trying to please a bigger school coach thinking it will help him on down the road.sox it is hard for me to believe the jayhawk league rates anymore with some of the ncaa leagues.

There is no real objective way to rate them since the teams never play outside of their respective summer conferences, so it will always remain subjective. The average fan also never gets a chance to visit the "far-off" leagues.

In an attempt to find some method of rating them, I went to the "Summer All American List" put out by Baseball America. If you use their criteria for 1st team and 2nd team, then the following rankings are obtained.

Cape, 8 players
Northwoods, 5 players
Alaska, Texas, Valley & NECBL, 2 players
Jayhawk, Central Illinois, Great Lake & WCCL, 1 player

I have no personal opinion. It was just the only relatively objective method I could think of.

HiHardHeat,

That makes about as much sense as any other criteria. You will also see more draft picks, especially high picks (every year) come out of the Cape League than the others.

The Northwoods League is kind of a secret on the national level, but not to us. It's a good league and seems to get better each year.

My opinion is... If I had to rank the summer leagues.

1. Cape League
The Cape is all by themself. Second best is not real close.

2. Could be any one of several other leagues depending on the year.

There are several real good summer leagues. Most which have been mentioned in this thread.

Cape has become a sophomore league and for some time.

A lot of mileage has been put on the old Buick travelling to Minn, Wisconsin, Canada & others the last couple of years.

Nothing like flying into Minneapolis, and driving to Mankato. Where? Willams would chat about the fishing holes up there in the fall all the time.

I also heard many upper-classman leaving the east coast to play at better fields, bigger crowds, and all the other.

Regards
Bear

I get a chance to watch top college players all season with the schedule ASU plays and then I see 8-10 CCL games a summer. I can't imagine there is a higher level of play anywhere in the summer. The level of pitching is consistently high and the % of players that are drafted is remarkable.

the best rate to rate any collegiate leaguge is what percentage of players in the league move on to pro ball.

Cape league has over 50 %

I think one has to remember that summer baseball is "deveopment" baseball. Yes, the Cape probably has the most talent per team but the Northwoods plays almost 70 games a summer and IMO you have to be on the field to improve your game. The Northwoods league gives a player the potential for more innings, and that's what counts.

Besides playing in front of the biggest college league crowds, the Northwoods league gives a player from the baseball "hotbeds" (South and West) the opportunity to visit the North and enjoy the Nothern summers.

Cape League gives players what every ball player wants very good competition,mlb scouts, not much travel, beaches and of course lots of college girls near and on the beaches. Yeah it is up north too.

70 games is excessive. Good way to end up with dead arm pitchers.
most players after 40 games were dead tired , seeing they already played 60 games in college.

Plus sure chasing girls after games might have had something to do with them being worn out.

every collegiate league serves a purpose, if they get better and improves their draft staus. Things are good. many of players have shot them selves in the foot, by being over matched by the pitching and not able to hit with wood bats

quote:

Originally posted by Dibble:

70 games is excessive. Good way to end up with dead arm pitchers.

Or, managers are smart enough to know they are playing 70 games and have enough pitchers on their staffs to handle that many games.

quote:

Yeah it is up north too.

First of all the Cape is not North it is East. What a ridiculous statement unless you live in a latitude/longitude world.

The college leagues for the most part are geared to get Freshmen, sophomore, and some junior players to get more innings than they got during the college season, or for starters to work on specific skills. Many of the players played behind upper classmen and did not get the game reps that would prepare them to start the next college season.

Not everyone can play at the Cape, and if you look at the stats many players get virtually no playing time because it is geared for a select few to be seen. It is a good league, if you are in the 3% of college players that fit that next years upper draft choice criteria. I don't feel that the Cape is a development league, and they play on fields that would rank at the bottom of the college leagues. That in itself tells you where the Cape priorities are.

As far as games played. The Northwoods carries enough pitchers and to keep that inning count down. At the same time there are 8 other positions on the field. Maybe with so many games the infielders are getting to many ground balls hit to them, or the outfielders are getting to many at-bats. I would bet that players that played in leagues other than the Cape go back to school a higher percent improved than thier Cape counterparts.

So many armchair coaches look at the summer leagues through top-round colored glasses. That is not what summer college baseball is about

the top northwood pitchers pitched as much as 87 innings,most around 65 innings
top Cape league pitchers 64 inning as was the most
most around 45 innings in 2004.


2005 College Summer All-America Team
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/050825ssas.html



Cape cod is in the NORTHEAST last time i checked

Rz,
For me the cape is North!

All kidding aside, I do believe that the Cape is more a showcase league. It is more of a sophomore league, for various reasons. Juniors are not asked if they are expected to be drafted that June. And many of their players go to Omaha, and join late and are tired from the long post season. One parent told me they love having an Omaha player on the team, but it seems to hurt in the beginning more than help.

It is unusual for a freshman to go play at the cape. I do know of one freshman pitcher who was having some confidance issues and returned from the cape a different pitcher. Also, quite a few lower round drafted players head there before they finish negotiating their contracts, for the chance for a bit more $$.
Many who go to the cape don't need instruction, but to work on stuff they didn't get to during the year in real game situations. Or if they do, the college coach will let the coach know what needs to be worked on and will also let them know how much work they want their pitcher to put in. If mine had gone as planned he would have put in 30 innings max.
Position players are sent so scouts can see how they adjust to the wood for the draft. Many scouts also put in requests to see certain players at the cape.
It doesn't have the greatest facilities, but the cape is what it is, and that's the mystic that sets it apart from others.
JMO.

TPM,
I'd never argue with a Tiger mom .......but, I'll take at bats over mystic any day if I'm out to improve my game.

Dibble,
Excluding the way the field is set up, and the rotation of the game, the world does evolve around pitchers. The Cape showcases pitchers, it's a stage where player development is not the main reason for it's existence.

If this thread were to rate the best player development college leagues IMO the Cape would not be in the top 4.

rz,
Oops, meant mystique..lol. And mine doesn't have to worry about at bats.

Not here to argue,I agreed with you, not so much a development league but a showcase league for pitchers, with the best college hitters to see if they can get a fairly good BA from them. I do believe that is why some coaches send some there and others go elsewhere.

We were asked to rate the strength of the summer leagues, some ranked it by players drafted, summer all americans, which is ok. Did not ask about the best developmental. An indication where top freshamn go to play in the summer might be a good criteria (as stated it usually is not the cape) for that. The most important thing is that a player is getting in time he needs, whether at bats or innings, anywhere.

I like HHH's response, don't know how they rate because they never played against each other.

updates?

In my opinion the best league depends on your player. 

What is your player trying to get out of the experience?

 

Every year this question comes up so their are many more threads about this. Many times the question is moot. Most players go where their coach sends them. I would hope that the coach has the players best interest in mind and sends them where they will get the best opportunity to play. 

 

The answer to the question is going to be different depending on the player. 

Son played in the Northwoods league and really enjoyed the experience, outside of the Cape Cod league it's right up there with the best of them. They had kids on his team from the Big 12, SEC the Pac 12 and just about every league in between. One good thing for us was that since he plays college ball in Florida and we live in Wisconsin we could actually watch him play. 😊

Northwoods is legit, just an insanely long season. Cape is obviously the best but a lot of leagues are catching up. Many of the leagues have too many teams in them, diluting the talent. The West Coast League has a few teams that have serious talent, and a handful of teams that are a total joke. It is what it is.