PG - National Academic or National Showcase?

1.. The PG National Showcase is invite only.  Suggest you call PG, you "may" be able to secure invite.

2.  PG Academic: if he has the minimum grades, he'll get an invite, and if he has the grades with 88-90 FB velo, he'll likely get attention.

Also, both events are being held the same weekend at the same location, college scouts walk around the corner and they're at either PG National Showcase or the PG National Academic.  So, lots of college coaches and scouts everywhere.

Showball Showcase would be an alternative to PG Academic.  

But most importantly, what are his interests, college fits, Ivy league, academic big conference (ND, NW, Duke)?  You need to find out where his motivations and your budget are.

My advice would be to go to the showcases where your son can separate himself from other recruits, and where he will be in demand by college baseball recruiters.  As you've described your post, it appears to me that he would be better served attending a showcase with a high 80's fastball with an upside to 90, good grades and a good ACT score.  While my son got some attention at PG World Wood Bat Nationals, he got far more traction at HeadFirst and specific prospect camps as a follow up to HeadFirst.  We learned there are vastly more kids that throw 90 mph than there are that throw 90 and have good grades and SAT scores.  Your mileage may vary depending on those grades and ACT scores.

Good luck and let me know if I can help further.

Just to clarify...he did get invite for PG Academic but we did not request invite to national showcase. Like your comment regarding 90 guys with good grades Fenway. I did look at headfirst camp as well but was surprised they don't do some type of grade verification.

fenwaysouth posted:

My advice would be to go to the showcases where your son can separate himself from other recruits, and where he will be in demand by college baseball recruiters.  As you've described your post, it appears to me that he would be better served attending a showcase with a high 80's fastball with an upside to 90, good grades and a good ACT score.  While my son got some attention at PG World Wood Bat Nationals, he got far more traction at HeadFirst and specific prospect camps as a follow up to HeadFirst.  We learned there are vastly more kids that throw 90 mph than there are that throw 90 and have good grades and SAT scores.  Your mileage may vary depending on those grades and ACT scores.

Good luck and let me know if I can help further.

Do you know if it makes a difference which headfirst showcase a player attends? We are in CO, so the CA location makes more sense but am willing to go back east if it is a better option. We have family on both coasts.

 If you have that kind of flexibility, I would pick the headfirst event that has the most schools your son is interested in. 

True...no grade verification but if your kid does not have good grades and test scores then you are wasting $995. At the event the coaches will ask GPA and ACT/SAT. Although the event is high academic there is quite a gap in what you would need for admissions to each one. Look up the average GPA and scores at each school, whether you need AP/Honors courses, see where your son fits, and target those schools/coaches. Ideally email them baseball and school info prior to the event. Some coaches have pull with admissions, if your son is under the average, but we found out many do not!  

As far as east vs west coast....Sacramento is HOT but not humid. I believe there have been posters on here that reported the east coast events sometimes get rained out which would not be an issue in CA!

Louise posted:

True...no grade verification but if your kid does not have good grades and test scores then you are wasting $995.

Louise brings up an excellent point, and it was a point I hedged on in my earlier post.   "Good grades and ACT scores" are relative as beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  You've got to do some homework on the admissions requirements for some of these schools as the showcase registration fee is pretty stiff.  With reward comes risk.

Just as the OP noted his son's fastball MPH, the same needs to be done for academic metrics.  Pick a dozen or so schools that will be at the targeted showcase.  Go to College Navigator (https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/) and do a quick database search on the specific school and note their published average admission requirements.    There is a section for ACT and SAT with 25% and 75% percentile ranges.   Split the difference to get 50%.   This should give the parent/recruit a sense of what the schools are looking for admitting the general population.  Depending on the school their can be a slight discount in these numbers for recruited athletes.  The Showcase Operator is going to be a little more lenient with the general academic numbers. 

Good luck!

It does not matter which HF you attend.  The key is making sure the coach's at the schools that he is targeting (yes, he has to target them as much as they target him...he has to market himself in crowded marketplace) (a) will be there, (b) are aware that your son will be there, and (c) are reminded via email or text during the event when he will be throwing.  The games at HF are primarily for Ps and Cs to be seen.  Coaches, in my (perhaps biased) experience, decide which games to watch largely based on who is on the mound and/or catching...unless, of course, they are assigned as a "coach" on one of th of the fields.

Agree with what you guys have said, and now that we've been to a few big academic camps like Stanford, AZ Fall Classic, and Headfirst... we've learned it's mostly about the P's and C's!  Coaches are trying to build a recruiting roster around these guys first, then they'll get to the position players.  

Knowing this and given my son is a SS, I would have managed the showcases and camps a bit differently.  I would have incorporated more individual camps the rising junior summer prior to going to the HF Jupiter Camp in November.  

If I had an 8th or 9th grader, I'd be focused on the best travel team possible where I can start and ensuring that the travel team plays at a few of the big tournaments where college coaches like to attend (PG World Series, PG WWBA, PG BCS, Nashville Music City).

The majority of players attending the PG National are already committed.  More Pro scouts than college RC's at that event.  The National follows the Jr. National where there are a TON of college RC's.  Most of them move on as soon as the Jr. National is over.  If there are any high profile guys that aren't committed that will be at the National on the first day, then a few may stick around.

I mention that to suggest that you may have more of your target audience at the PG Academic.

My oldest attended PG's national academic and HF. There are a number of threads on this topic that you can search on this site. 

I recommend a player go where schools on his vetted list will be. My one caveat to that is  for PG showcases and D1 talent. PG doesn't publish the list of schools attending like HF. But PG provides a third party assessment and grade that can be shared with college coaches and is valued by them. 

They don't verify your grades when you sign up for HF but I remember providing them and the coaches do have what you submit on their list of players and then ask for grades/sat/act scores when players speak to them onsite.  Remember that there is a wide range of "academic" schools attending HF camps and that not all of them have the same requirements as Harvard.  A player with "good" grades and ACT scores and who throws 88mph should garner a lot of interest at HF.

I'm not sure who is telling you that your son is on the bubble for playing D1 - I'm assuming it's someone who has seen him pitch and is not just going by the numbers.  A RHP who hits 88 and sits mid-80s can certainly find a spot at a D1 here in the northeast.  Our HS has had RHPs the last two seasons with those sort of numbers and both secured D1 spots the summer between their Jr and Sr years (one much earlier than the other and he topped out at 87 mph).     

Thanks for all of the replies so far. Also appreciate the comments in regards to D1. Both my son and I have been told by numerous people that 90 is the magic number....even if it is just touching 90 and sitting mid to upper 80's. My son pitched last Wed. The team he played had senior pitcher going to Wichita St. who has touched 91 at a local PBR event but touched 89 and sat 86-87 during the game so I do see that it is possible. Thanks.

I have watched quite a bit of Oregon and Oregon state baseball this year and have seen probably 25 pitchers. No more than 5 or 6 were 90. Most were mid to upper 80's.  So is "90 the magic number" inaccurate or are pitchers losing velocity when they get to college because I can tell you the majority of D1 pitchers I have seendto not hit 90.

being able to throw 90 doesn't mean those pitchers throw 90 in college.  many pitchers are much more effective when they dial down velocity.

Baseball-Dad posted:

I have watched quite a bit of Oregon and Oregon state baseball this year and have seen probably 25 pitchers. No more than 5 or 6 were 90. Most were mid to upper 80's.  So is "90 the magic number" inaccurate or are pitchers losing velocity when they get to college because I can tell you the majority of D1 pitchers I have seendto not hit 90.

It's also getting later in the season and I've noticed a lot of college pitchers who are down on velocity a few mph. College pitching is a grind.

Have invites to Nationals gone out? I know Jr. National invites go out pretty early (late January or so). Just wondered about Nationals.

Actually, I see National Showcase invites started going out last night. Anyone here?

Yes, saw the same, few Midwest kids

It looks like all of the invites so far have gone out to players who made 1-3rd team PG pre-season A/A. Don't know if that's where they stop or if it's just the beginning.

2018 just got his National invite.