I'm looking for some advice. Like all kids who participate for very long in the travel ball world, my freshman son is inundated with invitations to showcases, camps, and various events. I understand these things have their place, but up to this point have disregarded all of them as something my son was not ready for or didn't need at all. I'm still not ready to drop $600-$700 on a PG Showcase, as my son's measurables are not college ready. I do think it is reasonable to think that he may be good enough to play baseball in college at some level, and it's what he says he wants to do. I wonder if now is a good time to expose him to a camp. I recently received an invitation for my son to attend the Junior Day Baseball Camp at Ft. Lauderdale. I see the potential benefits for him as follows:
-He (and I) can get a good look at the caliber of players that will be competing for college roster spots and hopefully gain some perspective on where he stacks up against them.
-He can interact with and be taught by college level coaches.
-This one is the most important for me. There is a portion of this camp that parents are encouraged to attend where there is a presentation given discussing the college recruiting process. I would hope this would include defining some specific performance numbers colleges are looking for, like 60 times, velocity across the diamond, etc..., the impact grades have on college admittance, and what the schedule demands are for a college student athlete.
Here's a link to the camp: https://fortlauderdale.juniordaybaseball.com/
If it is time to attend a camp, some things about this one make it seem like a good fit. We live in the Naples/Ft. Myers FL area, so this is less than a 2 hour drive. It is highly likely my son will be attending college in FL to avoid the high cost of out-of-state tuition. 4-6 colleges represented here are FL schools, so there is at least a slim possibility he might meet a coach he would eventually play for. And, at $329 for all 3 sessions I'm out roughly half of the money of a PG Showcase.
Is my reasoning solid in leaning more toward a camp than a showcase? Is this a good value for the money? Is it too early to be doing an event like this? Does anyone have any experience with this particular camp?
Thanks in advance.