Interpreting Showcase Eval Scores

Keep in mind that these evaluations are all over the place in terms of criteria and purpose.

However, our experience after attending 5 or 6 of these camps would be:

5-you are very good, we want you!
4-good player, we would definitely consider recruiting you. expect to hear from us.
3-not sure? maybe with some improvement, or if some of our other options don't work out?

At the end of the recruiting process the scores are rather meaningless as anything except an indicaton of that evaluator's interest in the player. As a 2013 playing over the course of last summer you would not have been top of mind for a college coach unless you were the very highest rated. Their focus was primarily the 2012s at that time and a rating for a 2012 that might be slightly lower than that of a 2013 would likely garner the 2012 more interest than the 2013.

Having said that, the real question is whether you like the program and the school, can you make it through academically and socially, and does the coach have an interest in taking your calls or returning your emails.

As a 2013, the rubber will start to hit the road this coming spring. Unless of course you have one of those Stars who are seeing the early interest from the D1s. You would know it if that were the case.

Truthfully, parents get too hung up on these scores.

This will sound flip, but it is the truth. The only things that count are the colleges who contact you with sincere interest and/or the pro teams that show interest as well.

quote:

redsoxfan21 said....Having said that, the real question is whether you like the program and the school, can you make it through academically and socially, and does the coach have an interest in taking your calls or returning your emails.

2013 Parent,

Like justbaseball said, I wouldn't get too hung up on the scores. I agree with redsoxfan21 that at the end of the day, does the school want to consider your son for their 2013 recruiting class is the bottom line question. Have your son thank the coach, and ask him where he needs to be for consideration in that recruiting class. Do your homework to know what they will be looking for in that 2013 class by looking at their current junior and senior class. I would put a lot more weight on what the coach says face to face or email about recruiting your son rather than the feedback scores from a camp or showcase.

One other comment/true story. A kid my son played baseball with at Stanford and who started 2 out of his 3 years there at 2B...ultimately drafted and signed after junior year...he received a Stanford Camp evaluation that basically said, 'You're a D2/D3 player at best.'

Don't get hung up on them.

In addition to all that's been said I say it's very important to keep in mind than any particular showcase eval score is ONLY a snap shot of the performance during that particular period of play. It could be your son's worst performance ever or it could be his best ever. This is why coaches really prefer to repeatedly see a player play in a range of situations/games to get a good handle on just what the player is like as a person, an athlete and a player.

There is a well known poster (oldtimer) on here that has a kid who participated in one of our underclass showcases several years ago.

He ran very well. Looked like a good contact hitter. He showed range and his arm played. Our scouts somehow graded him a "6". I'm pretty sure that dad thought we were stupid. He would have been right! His son ended up signing with a DI college.

Last year, that same player made his Major League debut.

So had we been exact in grading this young player, we would have given him a "10". Then again, I often wonder if that "6" became a driving force for this kid. Maybe our scout that graded him that day is the reason this has happened. Just kidding! Truth is, we were flat wrong.

Since then the dad has become a friend and a big supporter of PG. Others in the same situation might hate us for life.

Anyway, this is why I get irritated when some people say we over rate players. Sometimes we under rate players. But how we, or anyone else, rates a player should never stop a player from working to reach for the stars. Don't let any evaluator dictate your future. They (we) don't know you well enough to do that.

BTW, it works both ways. We've seen "10s" that take it for granted they will be successful, only to fail along the way. Satisfaction is a baseball players enemy!

Thanks everyone, very much. I have started to reply three times today and stopped because each one sounded disagreeable.

We all know it's difficult not to get hung up on the scores, because they're given to our players and we're supposed to use them to help them improve. If they didn't have value at some level they wouldn't provide them. But the point is very well taken - it's one score one day and not every coach looks for the same thing. We'll try to keep our focus on the written comments for improvement and the remarks he has heard from the coaches at the event and in the follow-up emails.

Everyone advises us to enjoy the journey and we are absolutely taking that to heart. This may very well be our last summer of family travel for baseball and it's horribly bittersweet already.

Seventeen years ago we never imagined that we would possibly have a college student-athlete. We're making this up as we go along and gathering really good insight from people who have been there.

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
Satisfaction is a baseball players enemy!

I'm printing that out and putting it on my son's mirror. Spot on PG!

Ditto!