HS Baseball "Politics" & the MLB Draft

I'm thinking for the draft, they are spending a lot of money, so politics isn't an issue.  A friend of ours was the Gatorade player of the year and didn't really do showcases (was in the AC games).  Played for an average travel team and was drafted 12th overall out of HS.

@knownothingdad posted:

Maybe it's due to Covid, but I've been really surprised by how little time and money college baseball programs spend on recruiting.  It seems like the industry has passed the burden of identifying talent on to the PBRs, PGs, travel ball programs, and recruiting advisory consultants (Sportsforce, Elite Sports Advising, et al).

Unfortunately, that also passes the financial burden of recruitment from the college baseball program to the players and their families.  Showcases, tournaments, travel teams, and consultants aren't cheap. Good luck getting noticed if you play for a lower level high school program and can't afford anything else.

As an example of the shifting landscape, this respected D1 head coach recently quit to become a recruiting advisory consultant.

https://twitter.com/CoachAllen_37?s=20

Could you explain what you mean by your statement of baseball programs not spending enough time or money on recruiting?

Yes, there are instances of politics in high school baseball. But it’s not nearly as much as some parents would lead you to believe. A majority of the accusations are by parents of players who don’t start and shouldn’t start. Or they may be equally talented as another player the coach chose to start. Those reasons could involve practice, grades and/or behavior.

High school politics isn’t going to prevent a player from getting to the next level whether it’s any level of college ball or pro ball. There are too many ways to go around the high school coach. Besides, with the exception of a small percentage of coaches (the Kenny May’s of the high school coaching world) their input doesn’t carry that much weight with college coaches and professional scouts.

I don’t know much about PBR. It wasn’t that relevant twelve years ago when my son was sixteen. PG does rank players who don’t do PG events. I don’t know of anyone who became a Gatorade Player of the Year who wasn’t playing travel. I don’t recollect anyone saying “so and so wasn’t at the Area Code tryouts.”

Politics isn’t why an average or above average player doesn’t get to the top. It takes a lot of talent to get to the top. Only the parents see politics when an average or above average player isn’t invited to tryout over much more talented players.

There are scouts everywhere. The coach of the opposing team or one of the umpires might be an associate scout. Or there may be associate scouts just watching. Sometimes it’s just a coach asking a former player to drop by, watch and pass on an evaluation as to whether the player is worth evaluating by the coaching staff.

The stud everyone knows of can wait to be approached. Everyone else needs to go through steps (whatever they may be) to get themselves in front of the right people.

My son’s travel coach made pre showcase and tournament calls to coaches my son wanted to be seen by. The travel coach made the call because he had the contacts, credibility and believed my son was a potentially viable fit.

The high school coach offered assistance. The only calls he took were about character, citizenship and maintaining academics during the season.

One thing I will say is when the major newspaper sports editor made the top ten college prospects to watch at each position (twenty for outfield and pitchers) it was obvious he polled the top five travel coaches. Maybe all the top high school players were on these travel teams. I’m sure most were. But regardless, a newspaper article is nothing more than a advertising. It’s not make or break.

@knownothingdad posted:

Maybe it's due to Covid, but I've been really surprised by how little time and money college baseball programs spend on recruiting.  It seems like the industry has passed the burden of identifying talent on to the PBRs, PGs, travel ball programs, and recruiting advisory consultants (Sportsforce, Elite Sports Advising, et al).

Unfortunately, that also passes the financial burden of recruitment from the college baseball program to the players and their families.  Showcases, tournaments, travel teams, and consultants aren't cheap. Good luck getting noticed if you play for a lower level high school program and can't afford anything else.

As an example of the shifting landscape, this respected D1 head coach recently quit to become a recruiting advisory consultant.

https://twitter.com/CoachAllen_37?s=20

You chose a good screen name

Politics are what some parents worry about in high school. Professional baseball at the root of it is about nothing but what can produce the highest possible return on investment. Therefore, professional scouts don't give a r*t's a*s about "politics."

@Prepster posted:

Politics are what some parents worry about in high school. Professional baseball at the root of it is about nothing but what can produce the highest possible return on investment. Therefore, professional scouts don't give a r*t's a*s about "politics."

I agree.  I see now that the original poster’s question was about MLB scouting and not college scouting.  My replies with comments about college scouting were off topic.

@knownothingdad posted:

I agree.  I see now that the original poster’s question was about MLB scouting and not college scouting.  My replies with comments about college scouting were off topic.

I see that you took out your original post but asking if you can explain the question I asked?

I don’t know what went wrong with your son’s recruiting but you are so far off base. I know where my son is at the head coach watched him at least 12 times all over the southeast and Midwest and many times he was the only one he was there to watch. He flew multiple flights, paid entrance fees, paid motel rooms, and spent his time recruiting my son.  Several other power five schools did the same for my youngest and middle son. They spend hours watching video and getting information on players. I would say the pandemic kept them from traveling but it did not reduce, maybe even multiplied the amount of time that they spent on recruiting. You will hear on here thousands of times know what pond to fish in and you will save a lot of money. I spent very little money for my sons to play on travel teams and yet they both played 20+ perfect game tournament, never went to a perfect game showcase with either one. If you don’t know what pond you should be fishing in you can spend thousands of dollars finding the pond and thousands of dollars fishing in ponds that you have no business fishing in.  I will say it again unless you are a D1 Player you probably have no business going to perfect game or PBR showcases or tournaments unless they are at a school that you were interested in and they are interested in you.  Every family makes a choice as to how much they will spend on being recruited and scouted but I will also say most families spend way too much in the wrong places. But that is why there are way too many travel ball teams even at young ages when guys and gals should be playing rec ball, and too many showcase teams when most of those players will never play college ball.   Parents are willing to spend the money for the dream. I can promise you from my son and his schools’ point of view, he knows what tournaments to go to for the players he is looking for and they spend thousands of dollars at a juco  for him to see players.  But he also has players show up for his camps, showcases, and tournaments that will never play in college on any level.  
Most coaches I know would be more than willing to be honest with parents if they would ask and not respond with my kid is the 1in a million.  

@TPM posted:

I see that you took out your original post but asking if you can explain the question I asked?

@TPM, I would be happy to explain my reasoning.  Again, my son went through the college recruiting process during a pandemic so my perspective may be skewed by that experience.

I believe that if colleges spent more time and money on scouting and recruiting, there probably would not be a need for PG/PBR-type organizations and there definitely would not be a need for recruiting advisory consultants.

It seems like college baseball programs are outsourcing more and more of their recruiting, and players/families are bearing the financial burden. When college baseball programs spend less time and money collecting information on players, PG/PBR-type organizations crop up to fill the void and collect information on players.  When college baseball programs spend less time and money doing outreach to players, recruiting advisory consultants step in to broker the connections. 

If college baseball programs spent more time and money on recruiting and PG/PBR-type organizations and recruiting advisory consultants didn't exist, most of the financial burden of recruiting would be on the college baseball program.  But they do exist, and players and their families bear the majority of the financial burden for PG/PBR-type organizations and 100% of the cost of the recruiting advisory consultants.

I think PG/PBR and recruiting advisory consultants provide valuable services to players and their families, and they are excellent business models under the current recruiting climate.  However, in a perfect world those talented people working for those organizations would work for the college baseball programs instead.

My 2021 never attended a Perfect Game showcase but played in many PG tournaments.

He got ranked by Perfect Game the day after he committed to a college program.

@knownothingdad

Having a son who is a mid D1 Coach, PitchingFan's post to you  was 100% correct.

I also would like to point out that so was adbono's.

Thread on this topic from 2006 (hint: nothing has changed):

https://community.hsbaseballwe...ing-recruited?page=1

Our travel coaches were our "recruiting consultants", which I think is how it should be, kills two birds with one stone, since kids have to play baseball in the summers anyway.  And of course, hsbbw added a lot.

@TPM posted:

knownothingdad

Having a son who is a mid D1 Coach, PitchingFan's post to your reply to me was 100% correct.

I also would like to point out that so was adbono's.

@TPM and @adbono, I chose the name for good reason.  I'm aware that my knowledge of baseball and baseball recruiting is limited, and I don't mind saying it.  The hsbaseballweb site has helped, but only a little.

----------

@PitchingFan, "I don’t know what went wrong with your son’s recruiting"

Nothing went wrong with my son's recruiting.  We are all very happy with where he ended up, and we didn't pay for any showcases or recruiting consultant services.

-----------------

I appreciate everyone's perspective on this.  It sounds like college baseball programs do spend a lot more time and money on independently recruiting and reaching out than my family experienced during the pandemic restrictions.  Seeing a player 12 times across multiple states is impressive.

I guess I didn't realize how much the 15-month long Covid restrictions limited the college coaches.   Under the pandemic restrictions, PG/PBR, video, and consultants were all the coaches had to rely on, and the competing baseball programs weren't waiting around.  That was probably as frustrating for the college coaches as it was for the players.

@IKETBD posted:

So if you're a "stud" but aren't with the right organization to get an invite, let alone make a team, how does that affect your position in the draft?

This year will be the first I will watch the draft with interest to see if any of the above is even discussed (ranking, event attendance, etc.) and if there are any correlations.

If you are 'stud' in HS, the 'right organizations' will have invited you to play, maybe even as a guest.  Only the stud-iest HS studs are on the radar for the MLB draft, and they will find you, especially if you are pitcher.   

My kids story and "politics"....started in Little League, when they wanted my son to change teams so the All Star team would be stacked.  He didn't.

When he tried out for a very "elite" HS travel team, he didn't even get a look because his few at bats were with in the same rotation as a stud who came in twirling a wood bat and smashed it out of the stadium.  All eyes were on him (bat-twirler was drafted out of HS but flamed out after a few years).

For college recruiting, everyone wanted to go to "Big Baseball U" in our state, for good reason.  They recruited a "stud", very fast baseball/football player, one county over, that played on that very same "elite" travel team.  I had to have a very hard conversation with my son:  do you want to play behind "stud" for 3-4 years in college?  So, we crossed off the Big U before they could cross off my son. 

All of this looked like "politics"...making and playing for the elite team, getting recruited in to Big U (and also a stint trying out for USA baseball to get to Cary NC, but I won't get in to that here) .....but it wasn't politics when you look back.  The player that was was recruited to Big U got limited playing time during his 4+ years in college and was not drafted.  Keewartson was offered by ONE school, an instate mid-major D1, (and we felt very lucky to have that!) and was drafted as a junior in the 5th round, and by the grace of God is still playing.

I am writing this not to sing my son's praises, but you do need to play in the right pond.  Repeat....need to play.  Maybe several years from now, you will see it was not really "politics",  but I do get where you may be coming from.

(btw - PG never gave my son a "score" since he never attended a showcase, but he was ranked.  Looking back 7-8 years to those ranking is, um, interesting to see where they are now).

@knownothingdad posted:

I guess I didn't realize how much the 15-month long Covid restrictions limited the college coaches.   Under the pandemic restrictions, PG/PBR, video, and consultants were all the coaches had to rely on, and the competing baseball programs weren't waiting around.  That was probably as frustrating for the college coaches as it was for the players.

There was a lot going on last summer on the east coast.

Teams were out playing and if coaches wanted to check on a player, they had to pay individual teams to watch individual games on zoom.

Also there was, Quarantine Coaches, a great series by Josh Rudd. This basically gave players an opportunity to get to hear coaching philosophies.  And schools did videos showing their facilities. It was a great effort in a difficult situation for all involved, IMO. Not only that, coaches did zoom calls with their players a few times a week, plus phone calls and emails with new recruits. 

@knownothingdad your experience is unique as is everyone else’s. But some of your comments are way off base. First of all, there is no need for PG, PBR and other similar organizations. They exist because they have brainwashed the uneducated public into believing that they are critical to the recruiting process. They aren’t. What they have done is figure out a way to monetize a boy’s dream and fleece the parents all in the name of “exposure” that (in most instances) does nothing for the kid that he couldn’t have done without them. Furthermore they (PG, PBR, etc.) have convinced players and parents that participating in showcases, posting metrics, and being ranked is essential to being recruited - and it isn’t. More kids play D3 baseball than any other level and my suspicion is that the majority of members on this board with kids playing college ball are playing D3. So, what is my point? Well, my point is that you don’t have to showcase, post metrics, play big PG events, try to get an invite to Area Code tryouts, and gallivant around the country to get recruited to play D3 baseball. You have to be a good player, but if you are you don’t need to do all that. Most people think you do - but you don’t. The PG showcase model benefits a very small percentage of the players that spend the money and the time to go thru the process. The benefit is much greater to the schools because they can see a lot of players at the same place at the same time. But t they are still going to see those players again individually just like they would if PG didn’t exist. I get it that travel ball is fun. I coached more than 20 seasons of it and would do it again. But it can be done on the cheap and expensive travel is not at all necessary. And I can promise you that college coaches don’t care one bit about a players ranking. They recruit based on what they see with their own eyes - and the kids they go watch play in games are not determined by the metrics that were posted at a showcase - with the exception of FB velo for a pitcher. Colleges take advantage of PG, PBR, etc. because it makes their job easier but they absolutely don’t rely on those organizations for anything.

I believe that if colleges spent more time and money on scouting and recruiting, there probably would not be a need for PG/PBR-type organizations and there definitely would not be a need for recruiting advisory consultants.

Does it make sense to attempt to see hundreds of prospects one by one or go where they congregate for tournaments? The key is going to the correct tournaments based on your talent.

There is no need for recruiting advisory consultants.

@adbono posted:

…And I can promise you that college coaches don’t care one bit about a players ranking. They recruit based on what they see with their own eyes - and the kids they go watch play in games are not determined by the metrics that were posted at a showcase - with the exception of FB velo for a pitcher. Colleges take advantage of PG, PBR, etc. because it makes their job easier but they absolutely don’t rely on those organizations for anything.

I want to believe that college baseball programs don’t care about PG rankings, but sometimes they act like they do.

https://twitter.com/uclabaseba...000719539515396?s=21

Perfect Game & PBR go hand in hand with the expanding travel ball industry.  Out here in flyover country, where high school coaches used to rule with an iron hand, forcing kids to play Legion Ball and playing politics with a kid’s future, the travel industry has given opportunities to a generation of players who even just 10 years ago would have been denied (if they didn’t jump through enough of the gatekeeper high school coach’s hoops)

@knownothingdad posted:

I want to believe that college baseball programs don’t care about PG rankings, but sometimes they act like they do.

https://twitter.com/uclabaseba...000719539515396?s=21

That is a profile on a signing announcement.  If you look at any college roster, it includes a profile and highlights accomplishments, rankings, etc.  When those players were actually recruited, it was because a RC watched the player and saw a skill set that he thought would likely succeed at the given level and fit a need in the program (as well as analysis of fit academically, personally, financially, etc).  The player wasn't recruited because he was ranked X in the PG database.  Do they often go hand-in-hand?  Of course they do.  College RC's are usually very good at recognizing good players and skill sets.  So are the better showcase organizations.

The ranking may or may not be one of many data points in evaluating a player but it is never the primary reason a player is recruited.  One of the reasons college coaches include profiles on rosters is to help establish that they are getting top players in their program - not as the reason they were recruited.  The same applies to signing announcements like the link.

One of my sons is a college coach and attends many recruiting events.  We speak often on the process.  I have never heard him say anything resembling "we're looking at this kid because he is the #x ranked player in the state..."

I’ve only read a handful of these posts, but a couple things; adbono is right.... PG exists because there are enough people out there willing to shell out money because they think it will help them. It’s a printing press for money. Also, for pro scouting, I wouldn’t call it politics, but several scouts I know personally ding kids because they are terrible kids and teammates. As far as colleges spending money on recruiting, where do you suggest they pull this money from?

@knownothingdad posted:

I want to believe that college baseball programs don’t care about PG rankings, but sometimes they act like they do.

https://twitter.com/uclabaseba...000719539515396?s=21

Is this your player?

@TPM posted:

Is this your player?

No

When my son was in HS the big thing was going to play small tournaments on college baseball fields with the coaches always in attendance.  Perfect Game was in its infant stages.  About 60 teams were at Jupiter and we thought that was a lot!  I think it's out of control.

Coaches get rosters and locations then do their homework before they attend.  That's why it is REALLY important for players to make contact wayyyy before an event.  This is how coaches recruit.  If the PLAYER doesn't do their part, the coach won't either.

As mentioned, the player and his parents  need to understand the best fit.  Players get sucked into high profile teams as extras and never play then parents get upset.

I know you all know this but posted for the new folks reading.

Do your homework!!!!

@knownothingdad posted:

I want to believe that college baseball programs don’t care about PG rankings, but sometimes they act like they do.

https://twitter.com/uclabaseba...000719539515396?s=21

They care about this from a marketing standpoint. They didn't recruit him based on his PG ranking. Does it help their recruiting going forward if they can say they have a highly ranked class coming in? Yes.

Agree with TPM.  We always sent about 30 emails each week during recruiting telling coaches what son did last week, where he was playing this week, and when he was pitching.  Every email also included his entire summer and fall schedule so they could plan where he was going to be.  if pitching got changed, which was very rare except during rain changes, we would send the same emails out to let coaches know of change.  I know it worked because we would always have coaches thank him for letting them know when and where he was pitching.  It was a lot of work because those emails were always individual emails for those coaches and their program.  He was always thanking them in the emails for coming.  Recruiting is work but it does not take a lot of money other than your time is equivalent to money.  30 plus emails a week for entire school and summer and fall season for 3 years is a lot of time and energy.  But it gets results.  If you are not truly the stud, you have to work really hard in all areas to get where you want to be.

This has been an informative discussion.  I'll try to summarize for posterity.

During my son's pandemic recruiting process I saw the following things:

*Several college coaches mentioned my son's PG ranking while recruiting him

*a P5 program tweeted their signees' PG ranks

*a PG/PBR representative called my son's high school coach to ask him to pressure my son to sign up for an expensive showcase event

*a P5 coach left the coaching profession to become a recruiting advisor

*many programs extended verbal offers to players during the pandemic without seeing them play.

I came to three initial conclusions:

1. PG/PBR-type organizations and college recruiting advisors are becoming increasingly necessary for recruiting.

@RJM,  @anotherparent, & @adbono - being a good player and having a good travel coach is all you need for exposure

@PitchingFan - players can perform the same function as PG/PBR and recruiting advisors by reaching out to college programs themselves

2. These organizations and advisors are becoming increasingly necessary because colleges are outsourcing recruiting and outreach to them.

@PitchingFan - college coaches actually spend a lot of time and money on recruiting during non-covid years

@adbono, @cabbagedad, @TerribleBPthrower, @TPM, @nycdad - PG/PBR reports and rankings are not influential in the college recruiting process, but parents and players think they are

@RJM - PG/PBR events exist to create efficiency by putting all of the kids in one place for the college coaches to see. Recruiting advisory consultants are unnecessary

@3and2Fastball - PG/PBR help kids by preventing the high school coaches from being the sole gatekeepers to college baseball

3. This is turning college baseball into a rich kids' sport.

@3and2Fastball and @keewart said their kids did not attend a PG showcase but were ranked by PG.  Both of their kids attended PG tournaments

@knownothingdad posted:

I believe that if colleges spent more time and money on scouting and recruiting, there probably would not be a need for PG/PBR-type organizations and there definitely would not be a need for recruiting advisory consultants...

If PG and PBR can identify some of the better talent, why would colleges spend more time and money doing so? Even if it were to happen where those orgs didn't exist, how do you want colleges to identify your son?

I think people are severely mistaken if they think that college coaches sit down and look at the rankings and start circling uncommitted players to offer.

Coaches hear about players from connections they have or guys that catch their eyes at events. Then they follow until they have to make a decision. These players are often playing at PG events because that is better baseball than the local legion league. I'm not sure what the point is. If it's that we spend too much money on baseball then you're probably right and it's unfortunate. But these schools already operate at a loss with limited budgets, why they would add to that issue makes little sense to me.

@knownothingdad posted:

@3and2Fastball and @keewart said their kids did not attend a PG showcase but were ranked after attending a (cheaper) PG tournament

incorrect, I didn’t say that.  My son was never ranked after playing in PG Tournaments.  He got ranked the day after committing to a college team.

@adbono posted:

@knownothingdad your experience is unique as is everyone else’s. But some of your comments are way off base. First of all, there is no need for PG, PBR and other similar organizations. They exist because they have brainwashed the uneducated public into believing that they are critical to the recruiting process. They aren’t. What they have done is figure out a way to monetize a boy’s dream and fleece the parents all in the name of “exposure” that (in most instances) does nothing for the kid that he couldn’t have done without them. Furthermore they (PG, PBR, etc.) have convinced players and parents that participating in showcases, posting metrics, and being ranked is essential to being recruited - and it isn’t. More kids play D3 baseball than any other level and my suspicion is that the majority of members on this board with kids playing college ball are playing D3. So, what is my point? Well, my point is that you don’t have to showcase, post metrics, play big PG events, try to get an invite to Area Code tryouts, and gallivant around the country to get recruited to play D3 baseball. You have to be a good player, but if you are you don’t need to do all that. Most people think you do - but you don’t. The PG showcase model benefits a very small percentage of the players that spend the money and the time to go thru the process. The benefit is much greater to the schools because they can see a lot of players at the same place at the same time. But t they are still going to see those players again individually just like they would if PG didn’t exist. I get it that travel ball is fun. I coached more than 20 seasons of it and would do it again. But it can be done on the cheap and expensive travel is not at all necessary. And I can promise you that college coaches don’t care one bit about a players ranking. They recruit based on what they see with their own eyes - and the kids they go watch play in games are not determined by the metrics that were posted at a showcase - with the exception of FB velo for a pitcher. Colleges take advantage of PG, PBR, etc. because it makes their job easier but they absolutely don’t rely on those organizations for anything.

My 2021 didn't play on a travel team, and only sent coaches his PBR video and grades. (As well as some pitching videos he shot himself.) From just those video assets, he received two mid-D1 offers and three D3-HA offers. So the PBR event worked for us. But he's a pitcher and I suspect they care most about a kid's size and velo. But it was our crazy Covid year, so who knows.

@3and2Fastball posted:

incorrect, I didn’t say that.  My son was never ranked after playing in PG Tournaments.  He got ranked the day after committing to a college team.

@3and2Fastball, my apologies.  I edited my post

@PABaseball wrote, “ coaches hear about players from connections they have or guys that catch their eyes at events.”

This is spot on and how the recruiting process begins for most players. I was scouting a player in a college summer league game a few weeks ago and sat with the PC from a D1 mid major in Texas. We talked about players the entire game. Some that were in the game and many that weren’t. The only metric that was ever discussed was FB velo when discussing pitchers - and player rankings were not mentioned at all. The conversation was about who could play, how well they could do it, who was recruiting who, and what we had seen with our own eyes.

@RHPitcherparent posted:

My 2021 didn't play on a travel team, and only sent coaches his PBR video and grades. (As well as some pitching videos he shot himself.) From just those video assets, he received two mid-D1 offers and three D3-HA offers. So the PBR event worked for us. But he's a pitcher and I suspect they care most about a kid's size and velo. But it was our crazy Covid year, so who knows.

I’m not saying PBR events can’t be helpful. They absolutely can. I’m saying they aren’t as necessary to be recruited as most people believe. D1 & D2 schools don’t rely on PBR & PG to identify prospects as was suggested earlier in this thread. That statement may not be as valid regarding D3 - especially schools with limited recruiting budgets.

From my experience D3 coaches do not rely on PBR & PG to identify prospects, however, they do rely on  PBR & HF (among others) to concentrate potential prospects in one place for easy viewing.

Out here in flyover country, we saw dozens of kids whose family literally spent $1500-$4000 on PBR & Perfect Game showcases over the course of 4 years, and ended up in the exact same D3 conference, (or a very similar D3 conference in the same region of the Country) as my son. (We spent $0 on PBR & PG Showcases).

One kid’s family spent $15,000+ on Showcases (not an exaggeration, the Dad shared the totals with me) & camps, including hotels and gas etc.  Where did the kid end up?  Yep, the same D3 conference.  15k is close to a full year’s tuition at the school he ended up at!!!

@3and2Fastball posted:

Out here in flyover country, we saw dozens of kids whose family literally spent $1500-$4000 on PBR & Perfect Game showcases over the course of 4 years, and ended up in the exact same D3 conference, (or a very similar D3 conference in the same region of the Country) as my son. (We spent $0 on PBR & PG Showcases).

One kid’s family spent $15,000+ on Showcases (not an exaggeration, the Dad shared the totals with me) & camps, including hotels and gas etc.  Where did the kid end up?  Yep, the same D3 conference.  15k is close to a full year’s tuition at the school he ended up at!!!

Perfect case in point.

I like the rating system, not so much the ranking. It gives you a direction and an idea of where your player stands within his age group. 

No, HS politics only play a role for fringe roster player. All parents their coach is biased against their son and preferring other kids due to politics but reality is coaches need to win to keep their job and you don't win by not playing a stud.

Politics might cause the 10th best player starting over the 9th best or cutting the 24th best instead of the 26th best player but a true stud is going to play.

Travel and showcase it is the same. Politics play a role but every showcase wants to have the true studs because they are a great advertisement for the program and what causes parents of the average to slightly above average kids wanting to pay to play there.