Old Timers Recruiting

Interesting tread tr where instead of opinions and hear-say there's a chance to put out the recruiting facts of players/families who went through the process for others to see. The back side is that things change, and what worked yesterday may not be the best today. But it does provide "food for thought". I hope others follow your lead.

Son played Little League, Babe Ruth, and Legion for the same organization ages 6-17. LL All-Stars but no travel team

Played freshman baseball in 9th grade and Varsity 10-12th

Marketed himself with a personal website and with the help from his HS coach's connections/knowledge looking for the best college fit

1 TeamOne showcase (2002)
1 PG pre-draft showcase (2003)

Played about 30 games total in 2 Fall seasons with a Milw select travel team pitching a fraction of those games. Great team and great coach but not needed for recruiting in his case. However, it did raise the level of his game and reaffirmed to him that he could play at an advanced level.

Signed Letter of Intent during early signing period

WI Gatorade and Coaches Association Player of year in 2003

Drafted by Milw out of HS, didn't sign

Played NBC baseball the summer before college

In the end it was not about maximizing exposure, it was about limited quality exposure, playing for the passion for the game, and buying into the fact that if you have the talent you will be found if you believe. A risky road to follow, probably. However, I think players in our area have to live with lower expectations, and a sense of reality, because the resources are not available 12 months a year, and down time, is down time. If you left the ball outside in Oct you might not find it until March As a result you have to make the most with that limited exposure and really rely on your own personal conviction to succeed.

For the 3 years in HS before son signed senior fall in 2003 the following where for college recruiting exposure.

USA Youth Trials in Jupiter sophmore year
2 PG showcases junior year
1 PG WWBA in Jupiter junior year
Senior summer travel with the Florida Pokers (Connie Mack).

Everything else was for playing experience and had nothing to do with college recruiting and included playing other positions or DH.

Undrafted out of HS.

Good topic TRHit. It should show the differences in how it's done. As my son said -- "No two journeys are alike".

My son now 23 and in pro ball started as a rec player on our local Dixie youth teams. He moved to a local 13u travel team when he was eleven. At 12-13 he was playing for the Memphis Tigers a nationally recognized organization and the strongest around here. At 14 he was with the Tennessee Orioles a new travel team out of Memphis formed and coached by former MLB pitcher Charlie Lea. At 15 he was back playing in our home town with a local 17u travel team coached by Union University’s head baseball coach Andy Rushing. At 16 he went back to Memphis to play with Tim Dulin and the 18u Dulin’s Dodgers and did so for the next three years.

He did his first showcase when he was a freshman in HS --- Joe Barth’s “Griffey International” at a JUCO in Mississippi.

Attended Mid West Prospects showcase in Waco TX as a sophomore.

Attended East Coast Professional Showcase as a junior.

Attended two college camps --- University of Alabama and Mississippi State as a sophomore.

Adttended a few small camp/showcase at Dulin’s Sports Academy in Memphis.

Attended a few “open” workouts held locally by professional scouts.

Drafted in the 5th round out of high school but did not sign. He honored his NLI and attended Auburn University.

Played at Auburn University for 3 years and was drafted in the 6th round after his third year of college.

As you can tell I didn’t showcase my son in the larger showcases like Perfect Game which I had initially planned to do. I started his showcasing on a small scale as a freshman primarily to get him accustomed to showcasing and to establish talent benchmarks---- earlier than most at that time. It became obvious that his name was well known by SEC coaches (where he wanted to play) from his summer teams so I eliminated our future plans for showcases. With the recent introduction of “early showcasing” by the major players in the showcase industry, I probably would have sent my son to a couple of those instead of Joe Barth’s or Mid-West Prospects. At the time they were not recruiting younger players so that was not an option at that time. By the time Area Code and PG recruited him I had already satisfied his exposure needs. East Coast Pro was not a planned showcase. While it is a great venue for exposure, and an honor to be selected, it was not crucial in his recruitment --- the ball was already rolling.
Fungo

Son played 1 year of travel ball, between 9th & 10th grade. Otherwise just rec ball and HS summer league...no legion either. So basically, no one knew of him.

Attended TPX top 96 showcase

Attended Southeastern Baseball Showcase, was named their #1 prospect

Attended PG WWBA Championship in Jupiter

Attended Michigan State baseball camp (waste of time/money)

Attended Notre Dame Baseball Camp (waste of time/money)

Of the three showcases...
TPX was no help
Southeastern did a great job of getting his name out. He went from a couple of interested schools to dozens almost overnight.
WWBA is where everyone came to scout him once his name was out, and that's where he met his current college coach.

Didn't sign early signing period.

You can probably tell that I don't have much love for college camps. I think the only purpose they serve is to line the coaches pockets. The showcase game can get expensive quickly, but for my son, was the route to signing.

Here's my son's timeline:

Locally, played little league through Babe Ruth and then on H.S. summer league team summer after 8th grade.

Freshman H.S. year played freshman ball and then varsity after that.

Sophomore H.S.year, H.S. team made it to state (but were eliminated in semis) H.S. Coach recommended him for Junior Olympics team for that summer.

J.O. team took third and lead to some invites for a few different summer league teams for the next year.

Started getting some recruiting letters and invitations to showcases, etc. in Junior H.S. year.

Summer after junior H.S. year, played on Arizona Sunbelt team. Then only played on H.S. summer league team: passed on traveling teams that summer as dad was ill and he wanted to stay close to home.

Senior H.S. year, went to one PG showcase. Continued to hear from some colleges, but signed a NLI with a JUCO and was then drafted out of H.S. as a DNF (the last year of that), and went unsigned. Took one official visit at end of year.

Post senior year H.S., played on traveling team in our state.

Freshman year, attended JUCO. Signed a NLI for a D1, but intended to return to JUCO for soph year.

Redrafted after freshman year, very late round. .Was not signed.

Played collegiate summer league team out of state following freshman JUCO year.

Decided late in that summer to head on to D1 for soph year.

He is now in that program (PAC 10), on scholarship.

No area code games, no MLB scouting camps, one official visit only. Considering some input that passing on traveling team and tournament exposure summer after Junior H.S. year could be a costly mistake, all has turned out well.

Hope this is helpful to some who are earlier in the process. The timeline on HSBBW is very helpful in terms of what family's can do, but the process unfolds how it is supposed to beyond that.