PG
How do you label a kid an Honerable Mention when he is a Junior turning Senior and hasnt even played a on varsity yet...what determines this stuff?
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The website says:
Perfect Game USA announces
Underclassmen Preseason All-American Teams
Annual awards recognize the top Underclass athletes at the high school level
Cedar Rapids, IA. (March 31, 2015) – Perfect Game USA announced today its Preseason All-American Teams to recognize the top underclass high school baseball athletes in the U.S (Class of 2016, 2017, 2018).
The Perfect Game Preseason All American 1st, 2nd and 3rd team recognizes 300 players from the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. Each team consists of 100 players who are currently juniors or sophomores in high school. There is also a high honorable mention and an honorable mention list to identify other potential top underclassmen.
“To receive the Perfect Game Preseason All-American Award is a tremendous achievement for these high school athletes,” said Jerry Ford, President, Perfect Game USA. “We’re proud to recognize their talent as they continue to prepare for their future in baseball.”
5tools22 - we have multiple kids in our local area who have nice PG rankings without having played varsity HS baseball. Two completely different worlds here in So. Cal - our high school programs have upwards of 80 players (40-50 kids get cut every year), and in our league last year (one of the top 5 baseball leagues in CIF) a grand total of two Sophomores played varsity. These programs have 10-15 seniors, and 10-15 juniors -all of whom are solid players. The only way a soph is getting varsity reps is if he is a Team USA type. Frosh play Frosh, Sophs play JV - as do 4-5 developmental Juniors - and then the upperclassmen play varsity. The private schools even have a 4th team - a frosh / soph team for underclass developmental players.
So how do they get PG rankings, or noticed at all? By playing in PG tournaments, attending PG showcases and playing in events like the AZ Sophomore Fall Classic or Underclass tournaments. Our 2018 can say from experience that the competition at the tournaments, Stanford Camp & Fall Classic was superior to anything he has seen in high school ball - so playing well at those means a lot more than playing well against the local high school rival - and with far more exposure to both PG & college scouts than he'd ever see at a HS game on a Tuesday afternoon.
First of all, I would need to know who that player was in order to respond.
Players are selected based on what we have seen. While it would be rare to see a player on that list of upperclassmen that did not play varsity in HS, it could easily happen under certain circumstances. Players are not selected based on high school baseball achievements alone. It would be impossible to see that many HS games.
A couple years ago we named a pitcher "1st team" Preseason All American. Up until that time he had pitched about 4 nonproductive total innings of varsity baseball through his junior year. He then was injured and unable to pitch much in his senior year of HS either. He has since had TJ surgery, after being drafted in the first round.
Also a few years ago we named a player 2nd or 3rd team preseason All American and he didn't play HS baseball. He was drafted also.
Also, it is always possible that we made a mistake. There are a lot of people involved in selecting the players. All it takes is one of our scouts to see something he really likes to make the honorable mention list. Those listed above that are based on much more. If you look at the past years and check the results, you can determine for yourself just how good the list is.
Originally Posted by GoldenSombrero:
5tools22 - we have multiple kids in our local area who have nice PG rankings without having played varsity HS baseball. Two completely different worlds here in So. Cal - our high school programs have upwards of 80 players (40-50 kids get cut every year), and in our league last year (one of the top 5 baseball leagues in CIF) a grand total of two Sophomores played varsity. These programs have 10-15 seniors, and 10-15 juniors -all of whom are solid players. The only way a soph is getting varsity reps is if he is a Team USA type. Frosh play Frosh, Sophs play JV - as do 4-5 developmental Juniors - and then the upperclassmen play varsity. The private schools even have a 4th team - a frosh / soph team for underclass developmental players.
So how do they get PG rankings, or noticed at all? By playing in PG tournaments, attending PG showcases and playing in events like the AZ Sophomore Fall Classic or Underclass tournaments. Our 2018 can say from experience that the competition at the tournaments, Stanford Camp & Fall Classic was superior to anything he has seen in high school ball - so playing well at those means a lot more than playing well against the local high school rival - and with far more exposure to both PG & college scouts than he'd ever see at a HS game on a Tuesday afternoon.
Golden Sombrero's explanation sums it up. HS baseball league in my neck of the woods is considered one of the top in the country. There are studs at the Freshman and JV level simply because of the number of players/depth of talent. I observed several freshman last season that could have more than held their own at the Varsity level, but it just doesn't happen. Talent/age should still be recognized...IMO, I feel PG does a great job at recognizing talent and placing the correct (or nearly correct) grade or classification for nearly all of the players they can scout and/or have knowledge of.