Perfect game vs PBR

Perfect Game was the pinnacle for my sons.  That was where they saw the most coaches over a long period.  The only PBR event that is close to PG's big events, IMO, is the PBR Futures Game.  The futures game may be the best event  out there for getting young players seen, especially if you are fortunate enough to go younger than the target audience.  My son was blessed to go twice.  Easiest way to be seen by everyone and lots of RC's and HC's there.

PG seems to have better reach, draw and respect. Depends on your location as PBR are franchises. PBR NY PA really good, I hear. Very well run and Dan C is awesome.

PBR TX doesn’t compare to the others , in my and others’ experience. PG seems to be better organized and better run. 

I would  rather attend attend a PG event if there was a choice. Way more variety and reach of scouts at PG events. 

Plenty of reviews online here to see what others have said

A player has to determine his talent level and target schools before looking at PG v. PBR. Plenty of kids have wasted a lot of money attending PG events. I can’t comment on PBR. It’s become bigger since my son played.

Unless you’re the “I’m a high in the draft prospect stud, come get me” player don’t thrown spaghetti off the wall to see what sticks. Figure out what schools you want to target. Find out where they go to look at talent. Build communication with the school and let them know when you will be where they are. Get your travel coach to presell you to the coach before the event. 

The best events are the ones where you are seen by the schools you target.

Sounds like you mean showcases, rather than tournaments?

Both PG and PBR post metrics and comments online, which stay there until you do another one.  Advice we were given (but only after son had done one PBR) was, don't do any showcase until your numbers are what they need to be to be recruited, because having uninspiring numbers posted online is worse than having none, and guarantees that you're going to spend more money to do it again.  You can measure your numbers (60-time, FB velo, etc.) yourself, before you decide whether to go.

In our state, the PBR invite-only spring showcase gets all the in-state schools and many from neighboring states.  Lots of recruiting activity in spring after junior year, at all levels.

One thing to note too at the PG showcases, They do the exact same thing. So no need to travel far and wide to get to a destination showcase unless a target school confirms they'll be there (check NCAA Calendar). 

The only outcome at a showcase is a PG grade and a write up. That's it for the $600-800. If he isn't drafting, it really isn't necessary, if you're able to make various PG events.

PBR Tx showcases were a joke. See what others have posted.  Son is a PO, 10 "Hurry up" pitches and done.

Their guns were off and they documented the wrong pitches.  I had video, of my Stalker Pro and their stalker pro and their display at an event and they still didn't update his profile with "their speed" or what Hunter tweeted about quoting their speed.

PBR futures seemed to be a cool event, if you're able to get an invite, but again, in TX it was a mess.

To put the both in perspective. (I'm not bragging here, just showing the difference). 

My son is ranked by PG #94 prospect, #23 RHP in the country, #8 Prospect and #2 RHP in TX, Broke 90 mph at Univ of Texas showcase, 90 at WWBA Ft Meyers, 91 at WWBA Jupiter (GT pitching coach clocked him at 92). Threw a perfect game at Jupiter as a Junior (ended up a "no hitter" with the 2nd to last out error from 3B to 1B, but he threw a "perfect game). He also was the only 2021 to get on the ELITE Pitching All Tourney Team (out of 12 pitchers across all Jupiter). Last week he Just got PG Rawlings 2020 1st Team All-American, yet is a "Bubble guy" at PBR. Didn't make top 100 or top pitcher list in Texas. 

I mention that because PBR had him earlier in the summer at 86, 88 at UH tourney and tweeted about it, yet it didn't make it into his profile. Even with video of their gun, their display.... They also grab information from other sites, as exemplified in people's notes/write ups, but wouldn't include or update the profile.   

Where would I spend my money and travel to...Perfect Game events, period.

I will agree with Eokerholm.  Since PBR is not a national organization per se but an individual who owns the rights to that state, the information does not transfer some times and is not updated.  My son was top 10 in two states for a year when we moved.  PBR in some states change their rankings not by the numbers but by the level of school committed to.  The local SEC or ACC school will get a higher ranking than others.  Again, the greatest part of PBR is the Futures Game.  Never did a PG showcase and that may have affected son's ranking by PG.  He did a ton of tournaments but never a showcase.  I'm a fan of PG tournaments and some are very cheap if your child has an attribute that others want. 

Both were huge for my son.  If you have a high profile travel team, they aren't as important.  If you don't, they are big.  Perfect Game has been the leader, but I see PBR taking over.  They have partnered with all the best tech (trackman, blast, driveline, visual edge)they are now running Lake Pointe, I just see them being the go to over the next several years.  They are positioning themselves to be the leader in providing independent stat info.  Futures Games is the big underclass event for PBR and the Super 60 for seniors, the Underclass National and the National, and the All American games are the biggest showcase events for PG.

I don't concur with Eokerholm about TX PBR, but all of our events were done when Toby Bicknell ran it.  That said, Phil Haig has done a good job getting out to see prospects outside of showcases and reporting on them. PG will never come report your high school game, PBR will if you are a top prospect.   Our first event with PBR TX was son's sophomore year in October.  There were 4-5 RC/PCs there.  PBR gave him a write up and talked to him a bit, he is also a PO.  The next weekend we went to an LSU camp.  No idea how they even knew we were going, but when we got there, the pitching coach pulled my son over and had him throw, talked to him, put him in first in the scrimmage and then had him come get me to tour and sit down to talk.  We found out that PBR had told them about my son before we got there.  To me that's worth the $195 entry fee at a PBR showcase.  We had zero connection to anyone at PBR.  That was the only PBR showcase we did, and he was invited to the Futures Games and the Super 60.  With both organizations, if you haven't done an event, you will likely not get invites to the big ones, and likely will not be on the radar for rankings.

We're partial to PG because we live 30 minutes from LakePoint in GA, and my son grew up playing PG tournaments / having FB velo tracked playing PG tournaments. (He's a PP, who has a lot of fun pitching . His first PG showcase was in August before his Junior year, and he actually went to KY for that due to scheduling (there was not another weekend that summer due to travel team commitments) and his grandparents live in that area.  For us, the value was not the PG grade or rank, as mentioned above, but the numbers and videos from the showcase.  It made it very easy for him to email college coaches the link to his PG profile (showing his measurables at the time, videos and history of playing in PG tournaments).  Maybe PBR has something similar? 

The last sentence of baseballhs is completely true.  They will typically or maybe always make you do a showcase to get invited to PBR Futures.  We were told the first year that they wanted son to go to Futures Game but he had to do a showcase.  It was a great investment also. 

As others have said PBR are local franchises.  In my state that means that the guys who run it have ties to the established baseball system, and so kids from traditional powerhouses (HS and travel) seem to get overrated.  In my opinion PG is more accurate and less biased, which you would expect from people who watch the players without having connections to their HS or travel coaches.

FYI and to be fair, we participated in the last few events before Toby left and moved to take the Head Coach or whatever job in NC last summer. He definitely had "short timers" syndrome. 

We wrote down the wrong pitches for my son and they really rushed him at the South TX showcase, in order to get an invite to the Futures tryout at A&M which we got. The people they chose for Futures was extremely odd to say the least. 

PG is better than PBR in every single way with the exception of social media presence and cost. I have found PG to be more honest when it comes to player evaluations and rankings. As far as showcasing I have never sent mine to either, it wasn't necessary at all - their travel coach could do way more than PG or PBR could do for him and he was already included in the price of the team. 

PBR seems to be more of a who you know, PG more of a what can you do. 

We live two hours from the place where PG was founded, but never did a showcase and did just two tournaments after son had committed to a P5.

Quite simply, our checkbook wasn't that big.

We did one or two PBR showcases per year. One came with the travel team enrollment and came toward the end of the season. The other we paid for and did it early in the year.

That way son had a gauge of where he was coming into the season and what improvement he made over the season. It also gave him third party stats to share with coaches, which he took care of getting out to coaches at schools he was interested in himself.

It all depends on your talent and schools you are looking at (we had a pretty specific list), what you want out of the events you attend; and how much you can afford to spend.

Between my years accompanying my son and our years with the Va. Cardinals, I've been to at least one of the WWBA summer weeks in GA every year since 2004.  But it's not on our schedule this year.

The reasons:

1.  Over the winter, there was a great deal of uncertainty over whether the WWBA's would still happen, or if so, where, and in what form.  This confusion was forced upon PG by the financial collapse of the original LakePoint complex's structure and the delay in LP getting reorganized for summer 2020.  As of right now, it appears that PG is now planning to do 15u through 18u WWBA weeks in Marietta, with the East Cobb complex serving as the base of operations, like back in the old days.  But all the LP fields are out this year, which means that if they get the same number of teams they've had in recent years, pretty much all your game locations will be at the far-flung HS fields.  The ever-increasing field of teams and the resulting increasing use of far-flung fields has made what was once the event's main selling point -- concentrated game locations so as to enhance scouting -- a distant memory.  Without the large LP complex to give each team at least a few scout magnet games, I don't know how this works.  Not to mention, the AstroTurf at LP meant that at least some of the rainouts could be avoided or rescheduled.  Any week that sees substantial rain this year is totally screwed.

Note also that the 14u WWBA event is in Hoover, AL at the SEC complex.  I had thought that all WWBA nationals might end up there, but apparently not. 

With all this confusion, I think the WWBA is going to suffer a ton of scouting attrition this summer, and as a result, I think you'll see far fewer teams there as well.  I know we're not going.  That's not a slam at PG, as we'll continue to attend some of their events, but this one was just too up in the air to commit to this year.  When the dust settles on this summer, we'll look into next year's event.

2.  Because of the LP financial structure, PG's hotels requirements had become absurdly onerous, both in terms of the amount of dollars and in terms of the extraordinary headache of dealing with the booking systems, which were both complex and ever-changing.  I was amazed that teams just kept signing up in droves, no matter what the cost.  I think it'll go differently this year, but exactly how, I couldn't hazard a guess.

3. We have done PBR events and we plan on doing more.  They are working more like PG used to, with key events limited both in number and in "invitation only" setups.  PBR has LakePoint for some events this summer and we have elected to go that route instead of PG/WWBA.  I do think you'll see many teams make that choice, so the WWBA field may be bereft of some of the stronger programs this time around.  Whether that persists into 2021, I can't say.  But PBR is doing a great job of delivering quality exposure on a more cost-conscious basis right now, so ... you can't expect the way things were 15 years ago to remain the same forever.

P.S.  I just hope there are games to be played when we get to June/July.  Fingers crossed.

Some great posts already here. 

I think the comparison between PG and PBR has some differing values based on your son's talent and school targets as well as some geography. If your son is seeking a low D1/D2/D3/JUCO, then PBR may be more advantageous as it seems to have a more regional following. If your son is a top-500ish nationally ranked prospect, then PG is probably worth the added cost. 

Worth reiterating... don't go until your son has measurables desired by your target schools. Otherwise, as anotherparent said earlier, your son will constantly be looking to update those older, less impressive numbers (and costing more money to register and travel). And do NOT go to any showcases if your son is playing through an injury or soreness that would impact performance and/or measurables.

My son ended up at a low/mid-D1 and had by his rising senior summer the measures typical of players at such schools. While there is *some* projection involved in showcase evals, it's probably less than one might think. For example, while my son had developed desirable measurables by his rising senior summer, he was too projectable in his rising soph and junior summers to draw legit recruiting interest early. 

Also, if your targets are high academic schools, then go beyond PG and PBR to look at Showball and Headfirst showcases. Probably not worth doing though any earlier than the rising junior summer, and as a pitcher, maybe even the rising senior summer.

This:

TRS: Also, if your targets are high academic schools, then go beyond PG and PBR to look at Showball and Headfirst showcases. Probably not worth doing though any earlier than the rising junior summer, and as a pitcher, maybe even the rising senior summer.

There is some trickiness here. I don't think you want to put all your eggs in one showcase basket, or even one season of baskets.  That's why I suggest  going no later than fall jr. year to one of the Showball or HF events to get on coaches radars. Makes the connections that need to be made in the following summer easier to manage.

Also, if you are very enthusiastic about one or two or a few schools then don't ignore those schools camps.  my "19 got all of his offers after being seen at a showcase and then attending a variety of schools' camps.  Not everyone does it this way; heck, we didn't do it this way with our '17.  But it is a method that can work, especially when your list of options is narrow.

Quick note re: East Cobb fields

PG put some serious coin into them and they are now turf fields as I recall. So while there isn’t the same quantity as LakePoint, there is the ability to survive the summer showers....

Actually, for the reasons stated above, I think you may see more upper level scouting at PBR's events at LakePoint this summer, than at the scattered WWBA games that will be taking place at the same time.  I don't envy the scouts trying to cover all those bases at once, but I suppose that, other than having to monitor two different web sites instead of just one, it won't be too much unlike the recent years of WWBA events.

But again, that's only relevant if the events happen.  Fingers crossed.

In Florida PBR spends a lot of time conducting summer tryouts for HS level travel ball teams or travel ball team work out days. The travel ball coaches invite PBR to these team tryouts (with all the technology, etc) and charge parents between $200 - $300 per player. If the travel coaches did not have PBR present, I am sure the tryout fee would be $50 or less. In the end, I am sure PBR Florida is getting a cut of the tryout fee times a hundred or two hundred kids. As a result they beholden to the travel ball coaches, because the travel ball coaches allow them to participate in the team events. As a result, I've seen write ups of the coaches kid or "friends of the coach" all the time. This is not objective analysis, but instead a clear conflict of interest. Last year I went to a team tryout and witnessed "a friend of the coach" not run or throw, but roll over on five ground balls and was highlighted on the website for an outstanding tryout. I was amazed but not surprised. In addition, I remember seeing a kid ranked in the mid 70's earlier this year, then he committed to a P5 school, and in the next ranking release move to the mid 20's. Did the P5 influence PBR's decisions? How could they have ranked him so low and then move him up 50 notches in one rankings release? Was PBR out to lunch when they evaluated him? People pay these people at PBR a lot of money for objective unbias analysis and I see a lot of games being played out there. I am not sure about PG, but it has to better than PBR

Scouts and college coaches miss on projections. One of the best and most respected coaches in the country said one of my son’s travel teammates would likely turn out to be his best recruit ever. A high level PG person told me the kid was the “real deal.”

I coached the kid from 13u to 16u. I watched most of his 17u games on the same team as my son. I knew the kid’s mental and emotional makeup. I was mostly sure he would fail at the P5, ranked level of college ball.

He was handed a starting position three straight years. All three years he was on the bench by the start of conference play. One of the all time great recruits wasn’t even drafted.

While you may have seen a kid have a bad day chances are the scouts pushing the reports have seen these players excel many times.

The coach of a rival high school was mocked by parents for playing daddyball. Both his kids made varsity and started as freshman. They were ordinary as freshmen. But the coach knew what he had. Soph year both kids were all conference and on their way to becoming D1 ball players.

I'm not a big fan of PBR Florida either. They are much better in GA. Prospect Select also runs tryouts for a lot of travel programs in FL. While I think their coverage is also a little biased, they are more organized and don't pump kids with little or no skills.

In our area, we effectively have one travel org at the high school level.  That's largely a product of HS coaches here hanging on to Legion ball with a death grip, but that's another story for a another time.  At any rate, there have been some conflicts of interest.  Some of the state PBR guys here have coached (fall ball) for the travel org.  It should be no surprise that the kids who play for that org end up getting extra love/attention/rankings/etc versus kids who don't.  Most of the best kids play for the travel org, so it's not a huge deal, but it is a factor.  And included in their fall ball fees is a "PBR Day," which is a truncated version of a regular PBR showcase.  They grab every kid's metrics, but don't shoot video.

In terms of the rankings, its business as usual when kids shoot up the PBR rankings after committing.  It's laughable.  Amazingly, PBR here has perfectly ranked every D1 commit in our state.  You could have been ranked 70th, 50th or 30th, but should you commit to a D1 at any point, you get to jump to the front of the line!  I'm not sure how else you'd do it, but what it does guarantee, is PBR being "perfectly right" by the time it's all said and done with.  Amazing!  My kid (Juco freshman) was initially ranked 25th.  Worked his way up 5 spots to 20th over the course of a year, but ended up 23rd.  Why?  Because 3 more kids in his class committed to D1 schools.  Can't have a Juco kid ranked higher than any D1 kid, right?!

This is not about top players having a bad day at a tryout / work out day or the PBR Rep missing on a player. In fact, PBR Florida are knowledgeable "baseball" people and know the game and have coached and played the game. Generally speaking the top 10% -15% or so of the rankings are mostly the best players. My concern lies when PBR marries up to the travel ball coaches, because it is implied or there is a perception they owe them something as a result of being invited to team events that generate thousands of dollars for PBR or a travel team with ranked players exclusively playing PBR events. Just like anything in life, there are good and bad travel ball coaches. Like most people, I've seen a few bad ones. The bad travel ball coaches seem to play favorites, money grab, are deceptive, and control freaks, etc.  Providing unbiased / objective analysis without the perception of doing favors to travel ball coaches, i.e. pushing "his" players should be core to an their business.

i'm not familiar with the other regions but pbrnorcal seems to do a good enough job.  There's always the shenanigans with the rankings and such, but their events are well run, in various locations around the region (bay area/norcal is a pretty big place so having events in different locations is important) and their social media game is on point.

i like that they're always improving their player pages with new metrics (sometimes too much number crunching but at least i'll give them an a for effort) and that you can see the player's past season numbers vs pg where you have to dig to see a kid's progression.

at the end of the day, we've done one pbr event a year, just to get his numbers verified.  we did a pg event last year in the area (sort of...100 miles away is hardly "nearby"), just to say we did it (and it was the same price as the pbr events are, probably since it was the first norcal showcase they'd run in a long time).  the price has since gone up to the same as the other areas so we probably won't be doing any more of those.

I haven’t seen a FL PBR Showcase, but their tournaments are the worst run I’ve seen. Most of the parents I talk to agree.

My kid is a college freshman now at a D3. Looking back, neither perfect game or PBR played a significant role in the multiple offers he got to play at D3 schools.

The most significant thing helping his Recruiting was, actually, his GPA. In terms of baseball, a very good recruiting video from a well respected travel program as well as the recommendations of former Pros and college coaches/players from that program made the difference.  And of course he needed to step up and perform when the college coaches saw him play.

in terms of PBR and PG, it depends on the region.  I can say that PG in Iowa is completely awesome.  If you are a legit D1 prospect and can put up the measureables required for D1 consideration and perform in games when you are being watched, both can help.

As others have mentioned in this thread and on the board, PBR is very region specific. Our region (Northeast) does a very good job. My 2022's commitment originated from a PBR event, and they watched him at Future Games, and another. My 2020 got lots of interest and an offer after playing our state games.

I think PG is catching up locally. They realize they need to provide more coverage for players that aren't the top 100 ranked.

@nycdad posted:

I think PG is catching up locally. They realize they need to provide more coverage for players that aren't the top 100 ranked.

"need to provide more coverage" - hm, perhaps you mean, "they stand to make more money if they provide..."  And, in fact, PG does provide coverage of all the many thousands of players who play in their tournaments, even though, except for pitchers, there aren't usually measurables provided.

They may "need" to provide this, but I'm not sure that those many thousands of non-D1 players need to pay for it.

And, is there a "need" for two ranking systems in the same state?  Need, for what?

@Baller1010 posted:

In addition, I remember seeing a kid ranked in the mid 70's earlier this year, then he committed to a P5 school, and in the next ranking release move to the mid 20's. Did the P5 influence PBR's decisions? How could they have ranked him so low and then move him up 50 notches in one rankings release?

If a player commits to a P5 school, that means that the school is seeing something really good.  So I don't see why you would be surprised about a P5 commit who moves up in the rankings.  PBR is surely assuming that if a P5 likes the player, he must have improved since they originally saw him.

I've found PBR in our region to be very politically influenced.  They shun kids from one particular travel program (unless the kid participates (cough cough pays) in multiple showcases for them).   So we avoid them entirely.  Don't think 2023 needs either PG or PBR based on where I think he'll end up.  2025 will do PG when he hits certain measurables. 

@anotherparent posted:

"need to provide more coverage" - hm, perhaps you mean, "they stand to make more money if they provide..."  And, in fact, PG does provide coverage of all the many thousands of players who play in their tournaments, even though, except for pitchers, there aren't usually measurables provided.

They may "need" to provide this, but I'm not sure that those many thousands of non-D1 players need to pay for it.

And, is there a "need" for two ranking systems in the same state?  Need, for what?

Actually by coverage I was thinking social media. PBR by me is very good with that, PG wasn't, and this past summer they definitely started posting more video, etc.

FWIW, I don't think my son's rankings moved on either after he committed back in March.

@nycdad posted:

Actually by coverage I was thinking social media. PBR by me is very good with that, PG wasn't, and this past summer they definitely started posting more video, etc.

FWIW, I don't think my son's rankings moved on either after he committed back in March.

I think a lot of people have a strong need to feel like all the $ spent on showcases, PG, PBR, and excessive travel accomplished something relative to their kid getting an opportunity to play college baseball. In reality (in like 80% of the cases) the $ spent were good for the experience of the player and his family but did very little towards getting their kid into the D3, NAIA, or JuCo program that he ends up in. I know I felt that way and I did everything on the cheap as I saw this system as a money grab a long time ago.

@anotherparent posted:

If a player commits to a P5 school, that means that the school is seeing something really good.  So I don't see why you would be surprised about a P5 commit who moves up in the rankings.  PBR is surely assuming that if a P5 likes the player, he must have improved since they originally saw him.

I don't know.  Does a P5 school seeing something really good mean a whole lot?  That necessitates increasing a kid's ranking?  How many P5 commits end up getting cut/not making it/entering the portal and playing at a low level D1 or D2, D3, NAIA or Juco?  Lots, right?   Yes, PBR is absolutely assuming a player has improved since they last saw them.  They're taking someone else's opinion as scripture.  In some larger hotbed areas, that may not be a horrible practice, but it's using someone else's "data" and/or opinion to alter YOUR rankings.  If your work is good enough (and you want to package and sell it at a premium), you shouldn't need to wait to see what others say about a prospect.

A former teammate of my son's is a 2022 catcher.  He got exactly one D1 offer and it was from a P5.  Happened in August so late for for D1; especially P5.  No other D1 interest.  But the kid had a huge weekend at one higher profile tourney that P5 program was at.  One weekend and the kid went from $1000ish Juco interest/offers to a P5 offer?  What's more likely?  That one P5 stole a horribly undervalued kid?  Or is it more likely the P5 was present for an isolated peak performance and his multiple Juco program offers already fairly assessed his value in the market?  If only one D1 saw something really good in the kid, how really good was it?  P5's likely miss less than some other programs, but they absolutely miss.  Relying on what someone else saw to influence "your" rankings is usually going to come off as lazy to me.  Especially when you're claiming to be an expert of sorts and charging a premium for your services.

@adbono posted:

I think a lot of people have a strong need to feel like all the $ spent on showcases, PG, PBR, and excessive travel accomplished something relative to their kid getting an opportunity to play college baseball. In reality (in like 80% of the cases) the $ spent were good for the experience of the player and his family but did very little towards getting their kid into the D3, NAIA, or JuCo program that he ends up in. I know I felt that way and I did everything on the cheap as I saw this system as a money grab a long time ago.

I totally agree with the summary of money spent however i don't know that it makes it a bad thing. I think it is a matter of understanding and being honest with oneself.

For my oldest under this definition we wasted a tremendous amount on unnecessary travel for him to get where he is, for my youngest we wasted every dollar spent on his baseball career...that being said I regret none of it, we enjoyed the ride, the time spend, the travels we took (very different paths) and would be fine doing it all over again.

The kids learn and grow, it helped shaped both of them and I am very happy with where they both are. Money well spent IMO.

Maybe you didn’t see where I said “the $ spent were good for the experience of the player and his family”

I’m a fan of both doing what they do.  They are about putting kids in a position to be seen.  Never did a PBR tournament and only one showcase to qualify for PBR futures. Anyone who has not been to futures does not understand power of PBR.  Biggest recruiting event, youngest son played twice, I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to most.  Sons played in 20 plus PG tournaments each.  If you play in right tournaments enough you don’t need showcases.  

Unfortunately son was in Futures in summer 2020, so there was just a NorthEast one. Probably for the best, he got lit up ;-).

Anyway I can say that the school he's committed to first saw him via PBR's social media stream, watched hime in the state games, and then future games.

@PitchingFan posted:

I’m a fan of both doing what they do.  They are about putting kids in a position to be seen.  Never did a PBR tournament and only one showcase to qualify for PBR futures. Anyone who has not been to futures does not understand power of PBR.  Biggest recruiting event, youngest son played twice, I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to most.  Sons played in 20 plus PG tournaments each.  If you play in right tournaments enough you don’t need showcases.  

With all due respect, while it's not inaccurate to say PBR/PG are about putting kids in a position to be seen, I think that's a VERY generous and one dimensional way of describing them.  At best, that's simply one aspect of what they're trying to do.  Cars are about getting us from one place to another, but show up for a board meeting at Ford or GM and the topic of getting people from one place to another likely won't come up much, if at all.

I have no doubt that the PBR Futures Games are a powerful vehicle for players.  For the EXTREME few that get invited.  My state PBR sends 3-4 kids to it each year, so understanding its power (let alone actually wielding it) is something much closer to unicorn poop than it is a tool available to the masses.  And frankly, how many of those getting invites to the Futures Games are struggling to be seen?

I am not hell bent on bagging on PBR.  It was of at least some value to my son.  Geographic location is a huge factor in the equation.  My son attended 3 PBR showcases here back to back that were all basically his junior year of HS.  An outdoor one in August, and indoor ones in October and February.  I was at all 3 of them.  There wasn't a single college coach at any one of the 3, so the "being seen" bit is going to feel over-inflated to me.

I understand but the main intent of a car is to get you from place to place.  You can do that with a Chevette or a Corvette. Same with PG or PBR.  I’m not a fan of showcases and do not encourage them.  The problem is they are not needed for everyone.  Big showcases and big tournaments are not for those who are not D1 in my opinion.  People are not good at knowing what level they are.  If you are good enough you don’t need them and if you are not D1 you don’t need them because lower level coaches won’t be there.