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Can anybody with any knowledge or experience of the Prep Baseball Report Unsigned Senior Showcase inform me what they have thought or heard about this event? It has been fairly highly touted over the last several years with, I believe 60/65 kids committing to play college ball after last years showcase. Any ideas of what level of coaches attend?? D1, D2, D3, NAIA, JUCO? Appreciate all of the help in advance.
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Hi, I think the attendance of coaches will be pretty good as PBR events draw pretty well. Based on the time of year I think most of the coaches attending will probably be JC, D3 or maybe NAIA. Most D1 coaches have targeted their top picks and are working on getting final committments for their top picks. However having said all that depending on where you're at in terms of position and expectations this may be a good place to be seen.
Answer coming in a little late, but PBR does a decent job of getting coaches of all levels coming in. As mentioned earlier, not a whole lot of D1 coaches looking for seniors in October, but some were there and my son did sign with Evansville after being seen at the event. Got interest from a few other D1 schools but they had already filled their quota of RHPs.

PBR brings in regional schools so don't expect South Carolina or Arizona to show up. From the couple events we've gone to there have been coaches from Illinois, Purdue, UIC, Butler, Valpo, Iowa (for examples of D1 schools). They also have lots of Juco and NAIA schools attending.

They have excellent turn-outs for their select showcases (typically juniors) from what I've seen.

Between the fall league and a couple of showcases, it ended up being well worth the money for us.

-CVJ

While I've known those at PBR for many years now (dating back to '05) and currently don't have a good relationship with them based on reasons out of my control, I disagree with the fact that they are all about money. They run a business, they are not a non-profit organization and they promote those who pay for and attend their events as best they can. Their rankings are subjective and if it was based solely on those who contribute the most or play for Top Tier, they would not be as successful as they have become.

 

It is up to the parents to honestly and unbiasedly grade their children in this regard as far as what to expect from a showcase. Know that an invite showcase will draw more attention from college coaches and scouts rather than a cattle auction type event.

 

It's great that parents are often more than willing to spend whatever it takes for their child to get that exposure, but there has to be a point where maybe their child has maxed out their baseball abilities at the HS level.

 

Once parents reach this conclusion and understand the odds of their son becoming a ML player and then being able to honestly evaluate them, it would streamline issues like this.

 

But to the original point, if a college coach/pro scout is persuaded by PBR rankings, they're not doing their job.

 

I view it like this...

 

If there 3 evaluation tools (past results, projected 4 year results, projected 6 year results)

 

PBR would value them as:

 

1) Projected 6 year results (40%)

2) Projected 4 year results (35%)

3) Past results  (25%)

 

This obviously varies with how college and pro scouts ranks players.

Regardless of what you think of PBR or for that matter any scouted event any coach who bases his selection solely on a 60 time 10 swings and fielding a handful of groundballs or flyballs won't be in his position for long.  The best thing I can advise is have your boy on a good travel team that will give him exposure to college coaches, for example TopTier, Sparks, Longshots etc. where coaches can see your boy in a game situation. Combine this with camps where schools you have a genuine interest in sending your son to will be in attendance so that they can get a closer look at your player.  Doing these two things will get your son the most exposure and hopefully a ride to a school.

Agreed, no coach or scout will offer a kid based on that. It does possibly introduce their name so that coach will attend a legion/travel game or in late Spring when you'll some college coaches at games . Any kid can have a good showcase and then fall flat in game situations and it is to them to do their homework and see them several times throughout the Summer to grade a kid. It can be Summer ball, Legion ball, or travel ball and if the kid is good, they'll come to see him. A good travel team will offer the greatest exposure as well, but it is up to the parent and athlete to honestly evaluate their skills. If your son is more geared towards D-III, the locations of where many travel teams go might not be the best, IMO. Many of the elite travel teams in the area spend more weekends out of state at national events than local ones, which helps some but might hurt the ones who are towards the btm of the roster.

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