I just got down with the book "play their hearts out". I went onto the pbr website to check out a potential showcase for my son. They had a couple, one was for $250 and one was $290! What the heck? That's a ton of money.
IDK.
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@Dadof3 posted:I just got down with the book "play their hearts out". I went onto the pbr website to check out a potential showcase for my son. They had a couple, one was for $250 and one was $290! What the heck? That's a ton of money.
IDK.
PBR is actually one of the affordable showcases. PG upped the cost of their showcases over this past few months. I believe they are up to $769 now.
Baseball Factory is another affordable alternative. I believe their low tier offering is like $100.
I've never signed up my son for a PBR/PG Showcase. Deep down I'm hoping he will find a place at the next level just to tell people that it's possible without supporting the big huge industry that it has become. I plan to sign him up for a Gametime Showcase and directly to the camps of schools.
Seth used to go to these free if he agreed to catch. Yes he is a SS/ pitcher!
PBR-PA does a very good job with their Preseason ID events, adding tech and pushing out a lot on social media. These PBR-PA indoor winter events have attracted more and more players in the 8th-10th grades each year; that said they, they have raised their prices each year for the past three years. My son has attended a couple PBR-PA events - I recommend (if the player is prepared to show well). The good summer travel orgs will partner with PBR-PA to run their own in-house "scout day" for their players, less costly than the retail PBR pricing. PBR is still a fraction of the cost that a PG Showcase costs - my son has never attended a PG showcase.
The advertised point of PG and PBR showcases is to post measurable numbers online, verified by a reputable source. Rule of thumb is "don't showcase until you have something to show" meaning a number (fastball, 60 time, exit velo) that might attract the interest of a college coach, or to verify independently what the travel coach is telling them.
Don't get sucked into the trap of doing these showcases early to "document progress." All colleges care about is where you are when they are recruiting you. If you do them early, you then feel you have to keep doing them to improve the numbers. It's a total trap.
My son, who is at a D3, never did a PG showcase. He did do several PBR showcases, most of which were a waste of money and time. The only one that was useful was the one right after his junior HS season (early May) which had all the local college coaches, juco to D1, attending, which was very useful for 17U recruiting.
@Dadof3 posted:I just got down with the book "play their hearts out". I went onto the pbr website to check out a potential showcase for my son. They had a couple, one was for $250 and one was $290! What the heck? That's a ton of money.
IDK.
Under $300 for a showcase is extremely inexpensive. Thirteen years ago I paid $250 and $700 for two showcases. PG showcases were $700+.
@Momball11 posted:I've never signed up my son for a PBR/PG Showcase. Deep down I'm hoping he will find a place at the next level just to tell people that it's possible without supporting the big huge industry that it has become. I plan to sign him up for a Gametime Showcase and directly to the camps of schools.
What your son and any player needs who isn’t a top shelf, high draft pick stud out of high school needs is an advocate to presell him to college coaches heading into events.
I would credit PBR with a lot of my son’s recruitment. They were great for us. He did one fall of freshman year. The Futures games, and the Super 60. Well worth the money for us. The first one was small but still had multiple RCs. Futures had over 150 coaches on 2 fields, the 60 was full of scouts.
@RJM posted:What your son and any player needs who isn’t a top shelf, high draft pick stud out of high school needs is an advocate to presell him to college coaches heading into events.
Son has someone that is advocating on his behalf. I would imagine advocates are more effective if they've been in the business longer, as they've had more time to demonstrae their "eye" for quality ball players and also build up their network of contacts. Son's current advocate is on the younger side, so son is working to expand his advocates list without having to hire a professional service.
@Momball11 posted:I've never signed up my son for a PBR/PG Showcase. Deep down I'm hoping he will find a place at the next level just to tell people that it's possible without supporting the big huge industry that it has become. I plan to sign him up for a Gametime Showcase and directly to the camps of schools.
What coaches from which schools attend Gametime Showcases?
My son was a 2014, and PBR wasn't on my radar in Houston Texas, but if they were I might have bit at $250. For us it was all PG, we did tournaments so his metrics were captured but I thought the $500+ bucks for a showcase video was too much.
I've watched a lot of the PBR pushed media content selling uncommitted players and the quality has been excellent (the production, not always the content).
Being out of it so long, I'm not sure what the $250-$290 buys you - Is it this playing in front of invited college scouting with captured metrics or do you get some social media content to forward to schools and help with promoting?
I looked back and we did 5 PG tournaments over my kids HS years - the primary reason was that he liked playing in them and he liked seeing his metrics. I will say, I was late to the game in helping my son find a place to play after HS, but every coach I spoke to pulled up his PG page.
Good luck, and have fun!
Interesting. When I looked at the attendees from a year or two ago and where the commits are, I don't see many school names that I recognize. Lots of d3 commits maybe some d2s. Very few d1. Maybe just a fluke. This is PBR - PA
@baseballhs posted:I would credit PBR with a lot of my son’s recruitment. They were great for us. He did one fall of freshman year. The Futures games, and the Super 60. Well worth the money for us. The first one was small but still had multiple RCs. Futures had over 150 coaches on 2 fields, the 60 was full of scouts.
I also credit PBR Texas with getting some of the exposure my son got his freshman year. After doing pretty well at the PG 14u National over the summer before his freshman year, he went and did a PBR event shortly after in the fall They posted a bunch of video of him on their social media platforms. The head guy even started to communicate directly with my son and built a relationship with him. He received a couple of the "this coach wants you to call him" messages from the PBR team shortly after.
I think they have done a great job over the past 4 years of pushing kids and getting them some exposure. My son has also maintained a pretty good relationship with the PBR team.
@Dadof3 posted:Interesting. When I looked at the attendees from a year or two ago and where the commits are, I don't see many school names that I recognize. Lots of d3 commits maybe some d2s. Very few d1. Maybe just a fluke. This is PBR - PA
Attendees from the Futures will be tons of D1.
@ARCEKU21 posted:I also credit PBR Texas with getting some of the exposure my son got his freshman year. After doing pretty well at the PG 14u National over the summer before his freshman year, he went and did a PBR event shortly after in the fall They posted a bunch of video of him on their social media platforms. The head guy even started to communicate directly with my son and built a relationship with him. He received a couple of the "this coach wants you to call him" messages from the PBR team shortly after.
I think they have done a great job over the past 4 years of pushing kids and getting them some exposure. My son has also maintained a pretty good relationship with the PBR team.
good info, ty
@TPM posted:What coaches from which schools attend Gametime Showcases?
I can't speak from personal experience as son has yet to attend one. Reviews seem to be positive and the schools tend to be within range of the location it is held. You can view past locations and schools that attended on their twitter page @GameTimeRecruit
People get caught up in the social media presence PBR has. The more kids they are pushing on their twitter, the more coaches tune it out. If every Joe and John has their 82mph fastball on the twitter feed it essentially becomes another email in their inbox that they breeze past.
The coaches that liked and followed mine on twitter after PBR posted was because they had that tweet passed along to them. No different than a travel coach or a baseball guy advocating on your behalf.
In looking at the social media for PBR in my state, it's almost entirely commitments, rankings, and upcoming events.
If you want to do PBR do it because it's a good, mostly affordable way to get your velocity measured or get some swings on film. Don't do it expecting their tweet to get you an offer.
PBR is not much different than PG. They are just in the earlier stages, give it 4/5 years. Showcases will be in the $600 range.
I just talked to a guy who knows some coaches and he said that they mentioned they used to look at it but more and more coaches don't
When my son did his first PBR, the director introduced himself after. The camp we went to the next week, the coach came over and started talking to my son and told him the PBR director had told him about my son from the week before (not the same state). We got a tour, sat down with the coach, and started weekly calls. Well worth the $250.
BTW, 3 guys at that little PBR event are all at the same P5 school.