PG National Showcase

Your son is on his own to warm up for the 60 so he should have a good routine. For position players lower throws read higher velocity. For BP it’s ok to take a pitch or two if you can’t drive it. Also, as much as you want to get a few out it’s also good to show hitting to all fields so don’t be afraid to hit a ball where it is pitched. Don’t stand in groups gossiping while shagging balls (from experience 🤦🏾‍♀️). As always, have fun. It’s a great opportunity to meet some great talent from around the country in his class.

Just curious, how old is he and how did he get invited?  Did he do a bunch of of events?

@PTWood posted:

Your son is on his own to warm up for the 60 so he should have a good routine. For position players lower throws read higher velocity. For BP it’s ok to take a pitch or two if you can’t drive it. Also, as much as you want to get a few out it’s also good to show hitting to all fields so don’t be afraid to hit a ball where it is pitched. Don’t stand in groups gossiping while shagging balls (from experience 🤦🏾‍♀️). As always, have fun. It’s a great opportunity to meet some great talent from around the country in his class.

My son wasn't at this level in HS, but this right here is why this forum is such a great thing! Well worth the price of admission... I've got to go throw a few more bucks at the PayPal account. Thanks @PTWood

Thanks for the info PTWOOD.  Dadof3, he's a 23 grad.   We did receive an invite for it and  he has done PG showcases and events previously.   I honestly don't know what PG's requirements are for the invite.   

@4arms posted:

Thanks for the info PTWOOD.  Dadof3, he's a 23 grad.   We did receive an invite for it and  he has done PG showcases and events previously.   I honestly don't know what PG's requirements are for the invite.   

Sure you do. The ability to pay for it.

Sure.  However there’s a whole lot more people that can afford these events more so than me.  

@adbono posted:

Sure you do. The ability to pay for it.

That’s not true. The PG National is pretty exclusive.  It is mostly top 250 kids. When we were there we had several kids on my sons team drafted. I sat next to a first rounders mom. Not everyone gets an invite and it’s a worthwhile event..

  The overwhelming majority of college baseball players play in their home state or a bordering state. It’s something like 75% or more. I think. The first thing you have to ask is if the appropriate audience of coaches will be at this event. If it’s a bunch of D1 coaches and your son doesn’t have draft talent you would be wasting your time. If your son is a JuCo prospect you would be wasting your time. National Showcase events by PG probably aren’t going to help your son get recruited. My son attended the same event in Houston years ago. It was an absolute joke. Event was conducted in a driving rainstorm. Metrics were recorded by local kids working for minimum wage. Write ups were done by inexperienced PG employees who didn’t possess the knowledge to evaluate players. I could go on. But my son never attended another PG event other than WWBA and that didn’t do anything for him either. For context my son was very good HS player that PBR ranked highly (which also did nothing to help him). He turned into an elite JuCo player (according to Collegiate Baseball). He was committed to a top 20 D1 team when an injury ended his career. He did not have draft talent and most of his offers after tremendous JuCo stats were from really good D2 programs. That’s how tough it was in 2020. It’s even worse now. Especially for HS seniors.
  I suggest that you read the “Transfer Portal” thread carefully and gain a good understanding of what is happening at the higher levels of college baseball. And how that is impacting all the levels below it. It’s more important than ever to be playing in front of the right audience. And it’s more important than ever to figure out who your “right audience” is early on in the HS years.

Just relating my personal experience. As someone  regularly says, your mileage may vary. If your son is a top prospect and MLB scouts are taking to him it may be a good idea for him to go. I just know that the vast majority of people on this board don’t have players that fit that description.

@baseballhs posted:

That’s not true. The PG National is pretty exclusive.  It is mostly top 250 kids. When we were there we had several kids on my sons team drafted. I sat next to a first rounders mom. Not everyone gets an invite and it’s a worthwhile event..

Well, I hope all that is still true. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t. I attended Area Code tryouts in North Texas  a couple weeks ago. There were 185 kids there and half of them didn’t belong. Every event that used to be top tier talent only seems to have gotten really watered down.

I have a question. If these are supposedly 2023 top prospects don't most of them have committments at this point? Are they looking for college opportunities or draft opportunities?

@TPM posted:

I have a question. If these are supposedly 2023 top prospects don't most of them have committments at this point? Are they looking for college opportunities or draft opportunities?

Draft. My son was called with  disapproval  by his future college coach after doing it  I just looked back at the Top prospects and  my sons team from 2020. Lots of draft picks in the 5 round draft.  Definitely top kids. I remember taking some pics as the lined up on the field, knowing some would be household names some day.

@baseballhs posted:

Draft. My son was called with  descent by his future college coach after doing it  I just looked back at the Top prospects and  my sons team from 2020. Lots of draft picks in the 5 round draft.  Definitely top kids. I remember taking some pics as the lined up on the field, knowing some would be household names some day.

How many of the 2020s that attended were drafted? Would you know? Do you feel that a year before a HS players draft was worth the expense keeping in mind that you live in an area and environment where there is much talent.

A year before sons draft they invited the top 50 players in the country to these events and there was usually no costs.

I guess if one can afford it, needs to be seen, go for it.

JMO

Just looking at the top prospect team from 2020 at the PG National, I counted 17, just names I recognized. Not cross referencing. Do I think this was make or break for the draft, no. If you are fringe, it can definitely help.

im sure the number is higher. That said, it was a goal for my son early on to go to the National. He got mono a few days after the event and was fine hit the summer. Then lost his senior year to COVID. Would do it again. Some of the most stressful and amazing 5 minute stints I will look back on. That and a similar 5 minute stint at the Super 60 (that one was one $150). Both totally worth it for me. Sharing those intense moments with your kid are always worth it.

Thanks for the reply. I do get it about sharing those moments.

The big thing for my son was making try outs for team USA. What a great experience. He didn't make the team he was a grade younger than those that did. But it opened doors for him for the next few years. It is much more difficult and involved these days to get to the try outs.

I get it that I’m the voice of dissent in this thread. And the event may be well worth attending for the OP for many reasons. But I looked at the roster of the players registered. I can only speak about a very small sample size. But as for the Texas players listed, there were a couple of names I expected to see and didn’t. And there were at least 2 names that support my earlier comments. Just saying things have changed in 2 years.

Possible things could have changed. We did USA tryouts too and it was also great.  I honestly wouldn’t trade any of it.

The number of events has grown (PG Nationals, Area Code, BF All-American, ECP, MLB PDP, USA Baseball,  MLB Combine…and that’s not even counting the tournaments like Jupiter and UBC). Some guys who have been seen a lot are opting not to do all of the events so you might have a west coast guy who chooses not to go to PG Nationals but does ECP. If we could do it again we probably would have done less—our son was exhausted by the end of the summer. Also, BF, ECP, Area Code, MLB Pipeline and the Combine are largely (or completely) no cost.

@adbono posted:

I get it that I’m the voice of dissent in this thread. And the event may be well worth attending for the OP for many reasons. But I looked at the roster of the players registered. I can only speak about a very small sample size. But as for the Texas players listed, there were a couple of names I expected to see and didn’t. And there were at least 2 names that support my earlier comments. Just saying things have changed in 2 years.

It's OK for everyone to express opinions.

I am still a PG supporter.  I know folks call them a money grab but they have played a big part in helping lots of players to achieve their dreams so its hard to tell folks what to do and not do.

My opinion is that it should be about choosing the right venue for each individual player without breaking the bank.  It's really not a bad idea to attend an event where a player doesnt belong so he/she can find out where they do belong.

BUT, I do agree with you, players are best to stay within their geographical regions because players usually do end up playing close or in their home state or region. Of course that doesn't work for everyone.

I just went down a rabbit hole and pulled up the PG nationals rosters for my son's year.  (He did not participate).

So many familiar names!  Some from travel ball, college, summer, pro and opposing teams along the way.

MANY were drafted out of HS and more out of college.  Some have already made their MLB debut.

But what was noticeable, they all were ranked high.  And many were NOT drafted at all.  Some were drafted and are already out of baseball.

Like I said, my son did not get an invite.  It is just another way to get noticed.  Play ball well enough at your next stop (college), the scouts will find you.

My son went to the 14u PG national 2 years ago.  I honestly regretted it as he really didn't have the metrics to get noticed at that time.  That was our first showcase experience.  My son has been asking about going to a showcase for months bec a lot of the kids he plays with has been going to showcases since 12u or 13u.  I told him that I'll take him to 1 small showcase by summer of 14u so that he can have a taste/experience as I think 15u is the time to start looking at showcases seriously.  We asked his travel coach what local showcase to take him to.  Next thing I know, I got an email from his coach letting us know that he got my son invited to PG National at Ft Myers.  I didn't feel like I can say no at that point, and I don't want to communicate to my son that he doesn't deserve to participate in that kind of event.  I think that experience opened the eyes of my son and we didn't go to another PG showcase till last month (local event this time) where he has metrics actually worth showing.  Since that was his first showcase, he also didn't know about the showcase "tips and tricks" - things that you will not do in an actual game but would help your numbers in a showcase environment.

Another mistake we did was going to a PBR showcase in Jan when it was freezing cold and was not at his top shape yet.  Everyone that attended did horrible.  I don't understand why orgs would hold showcase in the middle of winter.

This is not to say that showcases are of no value at all.  The college that is interested in him right now looked at PBR and PG profile first and circled catchers they are interested in based on their numbers/metrics.  They then went to watch them play in the summer.

So here're my lessons learned:

- Don't go to PBR and PG showcase until you have numbers to actually show.  If you don't know if your son have numbers to show, go to cheap non-PG/PBR events first where the numbers won't be posted to their PG/PBR profile (why?  see second bullet below).  Then compare it to the publicly posted numbers coming out of the PBR/PG showcases to see how your son compares.

- Once you go to your first PBR/PG showcase, it can be gateway drug as your kid will want to keep going to more and more showcases to chase better numbers now that the numbers are in their public profile.

- Unless your boys are elite, for 90% of the HS players out there, a local PG/PBR event is good enough.  Your numbers/metrics are going to be the same whether they attend a showcase locally or in FL.  The scouts and college coaches are going to want to see you play anyway.  Get a good metric/number in a local showcase and the scouts will then watch you play during summer.

- If you are elite, you will probably get invited to the showcases for free as this is one of the ways these organizations market the showcase.   They prey on the feeling of FOMO.

- There are ways to game the numbers by doing things you won't do in a game.  I've since learned to not be as impressed with a kid's metrics in showcases until I see them in a game.  Just bec a kid has good showcase numbers doesn't mean they are a good baseball player.  Sometimes, the metrics aren't even "real" (i.e. kids squeezing more velo by throwing wildly or lower pop times by getting setup ready to throw already while receiving).  I do think there are certain metrics that can't be gamed like exit velo (except you have to look at whether they are using wood or metal, or hitting off a tee).

I’ve heard that kids game exit velo too if it is measure off a tee. That was the one thing my kid refused to do…change his swing for exit velo or to win a HR contest. In his mind it wasn’t worth it.

@PTWood posted:

I’ve heard that kids game exit velo too if it is measure off a tee. That was the one thing my kid refused to do…change his swing for exit velo or to win a HR contest. In his mind it wasn’t worth it.

Good for James! The majority of players game every metric. That’s why I argue that they aren’t as important as most people think. They aren’t real and they aren’t indicative of in game performance. Which is all that really matters.

We will have "robot" umpires next will be "robot" players.

Question: if I stand in front of the batter's box, what will the pitcher throw?

Question: if the pitcher in the bullpen cannot throw his curve for a strike, what will he throw in the game? "REDUCE PITCHES".

Are there "metrics" for the answers?

Bob

My son will be attending PG National this year also. We are at the PDP right now and it seems like most of the kids here are going. I know a bunch of the top ranked players are going so they qualify to make the All American game. But I think most go because it has been tabbed as “the big” PG event with the top players going into senior year.

I just took a look at the kids from our state and I would say 80% of those kids are also on the Area Code team.