HSBBW... Exposed!

It may be easy to be seen, but the trick is being seen by the people who can do something about it.. Not sure Twitter is the place for that. Seems to me high school recruiting is a bit more targeted than that.

there are times that HSBBW can make simple tasks very complicated...the truth is typically somewhere in between.

my 2023 is followed by a couple of college coaches on twitter and ig but they were guys he made contact with the traditional way (through his travel coach).  social media posts are a way for the college coach to keep updated with mysson's progress/performances but, with everyone and their mother posting videos, i can't imagine being discovered there.

Agree that it is one of many tools.  In my son's case he was apparently being monitored by some programs without us knowing it.  When PBR tweeted out his very strong 60 time some college coaches reached out to his travel coach and that got the ball rolling on his recruitment.

So my son is mentoring a group of young players ages 8-14. Several of the 8-10 year olds have "baseball" social media accounts where "they" (definitely not their fathers...wink wink) post videos of batting practice, plays in the field, etc. with pithy sayings about hard work and a bunch of tags. Here is a cut and past of the tags from a video of a 9 year old lifting:
#workout #therock #shortstop #gohard #mlbnetwork #baseballlife#baseball #baseballyouth #demarini #hardestworkerintheroom #bryceharper #training #maryland #travelbaseball #mookiebetts #fernandotatisjr #ballislife #dwaynejohnson #baseballism #baseballtraining #9yearsold #baseballplayers #baseballlove #littleleague #beisbol #mlbdominicana #espnbeisbol #beisboldominicano #sandlottotheshow @mlbnetwork

The kid follows and is following over 2500 people on IG. I would argue that the only value is now he's somewhat social media famous but that's not going to help him make his HS team.

IMHO, social media can work if you have something to showcase, if the right individuals agree that you have something to showcase and choose to pick up on it on their accounts and if you don't post everything all the time everywhere. That's just my thoughts on it. I think it can be an unhealthy obsession with kids if they let it.

Funny story, my son was at a big tournament and they were pitching around him with either balls or curveballs...and the strike zone was huge. So he decided the first fast ball he saw, he was going to go for it. The pitcher throws an 86mph fastball eye level. He committed, got a hold of it and sent it into orbit. Objectively a terrible at bat but it went 400+ feet. Plus his coach told him to walk it out because the other team was jawing at him.  LOL The thing won't go away. Someone put it on tic tok (we aren't even on there) and it got nearly a million views. Then barstool picked up like 6 months later and it got another half a million views on twitter. Companies use it on IG compare to other HRs to get people to go to their sites. My poor kid is horrified every time it pops back up because it doesn't represent who he is. So be careful what you put out there (in this case we weren't the originators but still...).

Social media definitely helped my 2022. At first he didn't have a twitter, so the coaches would follow me which I didn't want. When he setup an account they made contact with him. Same on Instagram.

That said besides flatground and PBRretweeting his pitching videos, he wasn't discovered via twitter.

My 2020 also got some early offers from schools he was in contact with because he wasn't yet posting too much on social media and thought he'd attract more attention when he did.

Recruiting can be very confusing. Most kids and parents go thru it one time in their lives. They have no training and no previous experience. Coaches recruit for a living and they are better at the game than the players being recruited. RCs stretch the truth, string guys along, communicate only when it’s to their benefit, over recruit, and on and on. All of those things are out of your control, so what can you (player & parent) do about all that? Well, what you can do is control the things on your end. What I mean by that is get realistic early on about what level of college baseball you can play. Almost every kid with enough talent to play in college thinks he belongs in D1. Almost all of them are wrong. Only a small fraction are actually good enough to play at the schools they aspire to attend. So they start fishing in the wrong pond right from the jump. This adds a lot of confusion to the process - confusion that can be avoided with the injection of some hard reality. With the added complications of Covid it’s even more important that you identify the proper target early on so you don’t waste time and resources shooting at a target that’s unattainable.

My son received over 40 offers and took at 100% tuition + living expenses scholarship being seen ONLY on flatground.  He received offers from powerhouse D1's to NAIA schools. He is not a guy that sits 95+ or a big nasty lefty. That being said, he put together a good series of videos and tweeted them to flatground.

Okay, it sounds like some have had some success with Twitter, but up to this point, I think it's all been pitchers.  Keep 'em coming, but I'd like to see some examples of HS non-pitchers getting offers based mostly off of twitter videos. 

@adbono it's probable worthy of a separate thread, but I was grinning reading your point about kids getting realistic about the right level of college play.  "most every kid with enough talent to play in college thinks he belongs in D1. Almost all of them are wrong."  This is SO spot on.  What's more than spot on?  But then I chat often with the dad of a 2022 whose dream is to play D1.  And this dad is WAY more grounded than most.  Played 4 years of NAIA ball 20 years ago.  He will tell you his kid very likely isn't D1, but wants to support his kid's dream.  Under the idea that parents are supposed to support their kid's dreams; not change them.  And I can't argue with that logic because I do the same thing with my kids!  So anyone's guess is as good as mine as to how you solve for both - support your kid's dream AND get them focused on being realistic.  Anyone with that magic sauce is someone I wanna buddy up with!

Didn’t say it was easy. But it can be done.

My 2021 posted all his very best highlights on Twitter and YouTube. His profile had his stats and GPA. He followed PBR and flat ground. They followed back. After about a month, he had over a dozen great schools following him. (Most likely because he posted his 90mph fastball as a rising Jr.)  He then reached out directly to one of those schools following him, and began conversations with the assistant coach. A month later, he accepted an offer from the head coach from that school, and will join the roster in the fall. Twitter, IG and YouTube are like email for the under 35 year old crowd. That’s how young players and assistant coaches communicate and search for what they’re looking for, I think. It’s become the normal way for the next generation to communicate. There’s no downside to having a social media presence as a player these days.

Twitter, IG and YouTube are like email for the under 35 year old crowd. That’s how young players and assistant coaches communicate and search for what they’re looking for, I think. It’s become the normal way for the next generation to communicate.

This is why a discuss stocks with my 28yo. He’s tuned into things I don’t see. Or I get a tip and use his input as part of the evaluation. In turn. I had to tell my (then) 88yo mother her desired portfolio changes made zero sense. She thought IBM, Xerox and Mobil were the best blue chips she could purchase four years ago.

Bum ... If you can get the toddler to Southern CA on the weekends he could play 2u for the South Bay Bees.

I think Twitter can certainly help get you attention and there are head coaches and recruiting coaches who are pretty active on Twitter. That said, a dad Tweeting is not a good look. A player Tweeting might help. But, a Tweet from a respected travel organization is better and a Tweet by PG or PBR is going to get the most attention.

@RJM posted:

Twitter, IG and YouTube are like email for the under 35 year old crowd. That’s how young players and assistant coaches communicate and search for what they’re looking for, I think. It’s become the normal way for the next generation to communicate.

This is why a discuss stocks with my 28yo. He’s tuned into things I don’t see. Or I get a tip and use his input as part of the evaluation. In turn. I had to tell my (then) 88yo mother her desired portfolio changes made zero sense. She thought IBM, Xerox and Mobil were the best blue chips she could purchase four years ago.

i think this is a fact, talking stocks with my son and some of his guys is a different world. They think I am old and conservative...because I consider earning a fairly critical part of the equation instead of a side note!! Keep in mind I owe tesla, coin base and couple different cryptos...just not enough of them for them to think I am on top of things!

These are the first guys to ever give me the comment of being conservative in investing.

Ok getting off topic but..one of the greatest investors of all time, Peter Lynch of Fidelity.

His basic philosophy was to go to the malls with his kids and see what they were buying.

Then do your research and evaluate the company and stock.

Still works like a charm today folks.

There’s a Tesla dealership in the King of Prussia Mall. But, the few times I’ve been there (don’t live there anymore, kids do) I haven’t seen a kid by one.

Lynch was right at the time. But, the last few years the big money has been in high growth tech stocks. Consumables are nice, safe stocks.

RJM Sorry but I can't resist:

"This is a baseball board. Does anyone really care about my interests outside baseball?"

Recognize it?

When I made the first post about listening to younger people I was wondering how far I want to go in this direction.

Turn around.

My 2018 received contacts from several schools after tweeting him throwing 94 and after a tweet of a clip from a local sports program where they talked about him throwing 92-94. Unfortunately, this was during his senior year after he had already signed his NLI. Many were schools he hadn't been able to get interested during the process but NOW suddenly wanted to know if he had signed an NLI.

@Suds posted:

My son received over 40 offers and took at 100% tuition + living expenses scholarship being seen ONLY on flatground.  He received offers from powerhouse D1's to NAIA schools. He is not a guy that sits 95+ or a big nasty lefty. That being said, he put together a good series of videos and tweeted them to flatground.

To follow up on this, my son went to the Northwoods this summer for 3 weeks as a late season fill-in.  They found him from videos on Twitter.  He pitched outstanding. His team had a Trackman system and when he came home he actually got a job with Trackman.  He pulled his spin rates and movement from the summer and created a video and posted it on Twitter.  It has been up for a week and a half now.

This morning at work, he got a DM on Twitter.  His first his thought was "great another indy ball offer".  This time it wasn't an indy ball coach.  It was the pitching coordinator from his favorite MLB team asking him if he would be interested in signing with them...on Twitter!

He gave them his phone number, his agent's number and he will be signing tonight when he gets home from work!

Two things that are important here.

1.  NEVER EVER give up.  If you have followed any of my posts, you will see his path is one of the most unusual, but his work ethic and belief in himself never stopped.

2.  Twitter works!