Note to PG

Catcher09, it is good that your are saying positive things to a very good man. It is not fair, though, that you categorize all PG criticism as "shots"...in a negative manner. PG is a very savvy businessman, his business has a great value in this community. IMO he absolutely honors the game, furthers the players and keeps an outstanding attitude. The name of his company does (or should not imply) that he or his company's assessments are perfect, and he freely admits that. That said...if coke put out a sour batch, they would be held responsible. Yes, there are parents that have not a clue of their players true tools or projection. Also, as true, PG has made errors...I do not know if those errors have ever absolutely adversely affected any players advancement...I doubt it...but people do have the glorious right to question authority. Here, if it is done in the proper manner, they can hopefully resolve issues and move on, without fear of being held guilty of "taking shots" at a beloved, respected member of the HSBBW.
I would like to tell you that I have appreciated the many great contributions you have made here on this site.
For me, personally, sometimes I feel conflicted about PG and similar others...it hints of perhaps too much power (positive or negative) towards the developing player. Especially now that things are becoming intertwined with MLB. JMO, no rancor.

i still wonder how any one charged with making an assesment of a players talent can be wrong. i just don't understand how that can be? is it because a few months or a year later the boy recieved accolades for his talent? or he played college at a higher level than he was projected to? what if the kid was all county, all state and mvp and the next year is out of baseball and working for a living .were they wrong? no because that's what they did,same thing at a showcase that's what they did that day at that age. any thing more is an educated guess, and that is what we go for. imho.

That's funny and I agree! I personally have always felt the "error" was more on the side of "projection"..."making" many more than "breaking". (also imho)

quote:

but people do have the glorious right to question authority. Here, if it is done in the proper manner, they can hopefully resolve issues and move on, without fear of being held guilty of "taking shots"

Nicely said. I think I was set off by the timing of some of the recent comments. End of season, time to get noticed, some guy who was 6 ft is now 5.9, etc. (by the way, my son is 6.4 - he just slumps alot).

I see where you are coming from that PG almost has an almost monopoly in his business with the potential of no true oversight (acountability for mistakes). But I have to believe that one simple phone call or email to PG would go a lot further in correcting a mistake then vague negative comments on a public forum.

I used to work for a monopoly and generally we did a very good job - but we were an easy target for those wishing to take shots at us. Believe it or not but companies like AT&T and Microsoft did some truly outstanding stuff because they attracted top talent and tried to be universal to the customer base. We tried to be Perfect and if that is your goal you WILL fail...it is impossible.

I will get off my high horse now and go to the store to buy "Bubba Burgers" for a cook out tomorow at the Braves/Philly game. If you have never tried Bubba Burgers (especially the vidalia onion ones), when cooked right, they are perfect!

You are absolutely correct about that "simple phone call".
We have our own version of "bubbaburgers" around here...... will have 21st annual bellyflop contest (skinny 12yr old daughter cleans house on that one),
and we finish off with twilight long drive...(we hit from backyard over the lake to 12th hole)...and lots of baseball inbetween! ...almost heaven!

In my opinion PG or any other scouting service will always be faced with the negative comments from either parents or from college and pro baseball. It is the nature of the beast. Normal procedure is for a parent to use Perfect Game to market their players. However, scouting services don’t (or at least they shouldn’t) market a player per se, instead they market their evaluation or “honest opinions” of those players. They have to be honest to maintain credibility with scouts and coaches. But by doing so they are caught up in the awkward position of serving two masters. The parents on one hand and the coaches on the other. Parents tend to have an unrealistic opinion of their son and sometimes they are forced into reality by a PG evaluation. This doesn’t set well with the parent that just paid lots of money for that “bad” evaluation. They don’t like the message so they attack the messenger. They feel as if it is the fault of PG that their son didn’t get that big D-1 scholarship. PG can weather the negative comments from parents because they know they were honest and have the blessings of coaches and scouts. If PG were to give in to the parent with the rose colored glasses and knowingly over-evaluate a player, they would lose the endorsements from scouts and coaches because of their bad evaluations and PG would just become “another” recruiting service. Like it or not PG is a well oiled machine that has cornered the “exposure” business. They are marketing an intangible making it difficult to evaluate the impact they and others like them have had on the success of players during the recruitment time frame. It is obvious that things have changed over the years but the real success story is not HOW you got to the college or professional ball park, but what you did AFTER you got there.
Fungo

I have never put much stock in player eveluations by anyone.
If you rely on the opinions of others you are doomed unless you are a guy who has all the stuff going on that day.
My son was never evaluated and who knows what evaluators might have said. I think that PG is a great organization but we never felt the need.

quote:

My son was never evaluated and who knows what evaluators might have said

Maybe you should pay more attention to the knotholes in the outfield fence. They have eyes!! Your son has been constantly evaluated and you should know what the evaluators said. My son didn't attend a PG event but they still evaluated him and in my opinion were very accurate in their evaluation.

Fungo you are playing on words and you know what I mean.
I never payed for an evaluation. I didn't think I had to spell that out but I guess I was wrong.

Of course I know what you mean and yes I’m playing with your words. Hope you don’t mind. I did it to make a point about evaluations. Evaluations are one of the most important aspects of moving on to the next level. Evaluations are expressed opinions and a coach or a scout has to have an opinion to make a decision about a player. They can get their information from many sources with PG being accepted as one of the most respected. The high profile player is fortunate in that he doesn’t have to seek out the evaluators and pay for evaluations because they are focused on him already and everyone shares their opinions (evaluations) about him. But for every player that is constantly being evaluated and touted as being a high profile player, there are hundreds of other players that have to be more proactive to get their “resumes” out to the college coaches. They have to pay up and stand up at the showcase and show the coaches that they too can play.
Fungo

I agree with your point but I feel too many guys get to reliant on evaluations. They should just go out and play against the best competition they can.
No evalutor is able to project accurately even a high percentage of the time. I know a lot of guys who went to PG and did very well. Most were top level players who were well on the road to success. I think PG helped them but was not neccessary

quote:

By catcher09 It is weird to me how people can take shots at other people and still sleep at night,

You have the moniker of “Perfect Game” which I thinks is great – I’m guessing the name “We Mess Up on a Regular Basis and Don’t Care” was already taken.

I feel for you and your staff for the heat you have taken recently and although we have never met I can tell you are there to promote good kids playing a great game. I don’t have your patience and probably would have spouted off about some of the negative comments you have received – you took the positive approach and I applaud you.

Is my son Pro material – right now I would say no but he would say yes
Is my son major D1 material – right now I would say no but he would say yes
Can he play at the next level whatever that may be – YES

No matter what, I will encourage him to be the best he can be, honor the game and who knows where very good talent and a great attitude can take you

Catcher09,

I appreciate your thoughts.

The Perfect Game thing is just a name and I am glad that we have that name trademarked.

I don’t really think of any of this stuff as heat and most people are very nice to us. Being positive is not exactly correct, I’m always worried that we will somehow screw everything up. I know we are capable of screwing it all up. That is why we can’t feel like we are anything special.

I am positive as much as possible about the players and the game of baseball. Please do not waste anytime feeling sorry for us, we are extremely lucky people.

Best of luck to your son, if we ever meet I’ll tell him he has a very wise dad unless you’re a mom, then I would tell him he has a very wise mom!

PG - I ask to many questions - how on earth could I be a mom. The part that bugs me is that my wife, TPM, SSMOM amd others are so much smarter then us guys. Even when we are right somehow we are wrong.

If you ever need s good scout in Georgia contsct my wife.

If you ever need someone just to drive people around Georgia contact me.

If you ever need a good catcher contact my son.

If you ever need an older guy who couldnt throw a strike to save his life - Im your guy.

By the way, if you all thought I made up Bubba Burgers the following is the web site - Again, they are perfect.

Bubba