Individual Prospect Camps vs Showcase Team

Since your son is a rising Sophomore, I'd lean toward the best showcase team available to him this Fall; where "best" means a combination of skills development, competitive level, and recruiter visibility by traveling to high level tournaments.

Meanwhile, you might also look into 1 or 2 carefully selected college camps in December over the holidays. Limited to 1 or 2 days, they tend not to break the budget, give him some early exposure to the coaching staffs there, and should further his development.

Best of luck to him!

First, let's all agree that a player's skill set will dictate the degree of success the player will have in the recruiting environment. There isn't an showcase organization on the face of the planet that can help if the skill set is not at the level of the desired school programs.

Second, you have to work backwards, i.e., identify the desired collegiate levels (power D1, mid level D1, D2/D3, JUCO, etc.), and within those levels, the targeted schools. YOU HAVE TO BE REALISTIC!!! Don't think son is power D1 material...KNOW that your son is power D1 material.

Knowing your target segments (3 segments: wish schools, probable schools, back up schools), you can then intelligently select the right path.

Your selection of a showcase organization relies on two factors: track record as well as their network. Some showcase organizations can assist with any level of school. Others can help with mid-level D1s. And there are organizations that can act as a reference to supplement your own efforts (just as your HS coach would). Here's what you need to know: a good showcase organization will put your son in front of the right recruiting coordinators in the right environments, where "right" is defined as target segment.

Now should you bypass the showcase organization and go directly to camps, if you know the desired schools? Consider this: UVA's Coach O'Connor often says that 40% of his roster comes from his camps. That's great, but what does that really mean? Specifically, take a look at his 2016 commitments, and ask: how many of these commitments do NOT participate in a showcase organization? Did Coach O'Connor see and work with any of these commitments at his camps? Probably. But have he and his staff seen these players in showcase tournaments, and have spoke to the showcase organizations about those players? Yes.

So your answer is that it's a mix of possibly three elements AFTER you've targeted your schools:

1) the showcase organization

2) the college camp

3) the individual showcases, e.g., PerfectGame, Dynamic in May of each year, PBR, Headfirst, etc.

Do you need all three? Probably not (joemktgson went to one college camp, and in retrospect it was a mistake). Can you get away with only one? Probably, but your degree of success will be self-marginalized.

No one program, product, company strategy, investment strategy, etc., etc. can achieve a high level of probable success reliant on only one tactic.

joemktg: One of the best comments ever on this board.  

First, let's all agree that a player's skill set will dictate the degree of success the player will have in the recruiting environment. There isn't an showcase organization on the face of the planet that can help if the skill set is not at the level of the desired school programs.

Unfortunately, it isn't until thousands of dollars later that most families realize this.

During our 17 years of operating the Area Code games, we received numerous requests to include "travel teams".

Actually in our 1st year, I also organized the Chicago Cubs Area Code team. We played 20 games before the August event in Lodi.

This Cubs team included 14 players, who later played in the Major Leagues. All from Northern California.

There was no charge for the player's participation.

Today, the Summer baseball "landscape" is very confusing. It is very difficult for players and parents to determine the best route.

Question: can you teach the 6th Tool and can you teach a player to "read the bat".

Bob Williams

<www.goodwillseries.org>

"There was no charge for the player's participation. 

Today, the Summer baseball "landscape" is very confusing. It is very difficult for players and parents to determine the best route."

I don't find the landscape confusing? In fact the route is very simple, If you can pay you can play. If you can pay more, you can play more. If you can pay even more, you can play every week at the Gatekeepers Castle that has been inserted between high school and college prospects.

Very simple. Pay up. Or try your best to do it on a budget and hope.

I wish every player with limited funds and budget the best of luck. You are going to need it. The For Profit Gatekeepers have subverted the process and stacked the deck against you.

As I mentioned on a few posts this past week, if you are looking for an exposure team make sure they truly are an exposure team.  There are many teams out there saying they get the kids exposure but they do not.  Just playing in some local tourneys that claim to get the kids exposure and then playing in a PG event at the end of the year does not make a team an exposure team.  I know of a few teams in our part that claim to be an exposure team.  They play in a few tourneys that market themselves as exposure tourneys.  In reality these tourneys attract 2 or 3 local small school coaches.  They then play in a PG event at the end of the year.  This is the only true exposure event they play in.  

Instead of rehashing everything, here is a link to a thread discussing this...

http://community.hsbaseballweb...xposure-teams?page=1

The other thread is good but still ignores what joemktg said early on - which is that a player's skill set will determine the degree of success they have in the recruiting environment and that there is no showcase organization out there that can help if the players skill set does not meet the needs of the desired school's program.  Most of the D1 signees from the Richmond area have been no brianers - clearly the cream of the crop - regardless of the "Showcase" organization they played for.  There may have been a handful of "late bloomers" or surprises - but for the most part it was pretty clear cut. The coaches I speak with (mid-level D1's - D3's - where the majority of players go) tell me that nothing is better than their own prospect camps - because they know the players attending are at least somewhat interested in their programs, thus the chances of a successful recruitment go up significantly. I understand that this may not be true for the Major D1's, but most of those guys are probably done recruiting their '17 & '18 classes by now anyway.  

Beyond this, what I do know is that of the 10 scholarship D1 kids from our three local high schools in the last 2 years  - only one has left the Commonwealth of Virginia - and 8 of the remaining 9 are attending a school within 2 hours of home.  

To sum this up, it is my opinion that a majority of kids/families who are paying large sums of money (cost to be a member of the team, gas, food, lodging, time off of work, etc.) to play on "showcase" teams could be better served by playing competitive baseball more locally, and attending camps at schools where they: 1) match academically 2) are interested in attending 3) can show that they are a good fit for the school's program.