PG WWBA Georgia

send us some report!

After some careful thought, I'm ready to post my pre-tournament predictions.

- It will be unbearably hot! (90+ and humid)
- There will be lots of people! (about 250 teams. Avg of 15 players per team = 3,750 players. Estimate 2 spectators per player, called mom and dad, plus coaches plus college and pro scouts and we around a million crazy baseball fans!)
- Many parents will realize that their kid and their kids teams are not the best in the country! (Sorry moms and dads. Your kids are still good, just not the best.)
- 1 team will be the best in the country! (My prediction is it will be the team that wins the most games)
- Most importantly, a lot of people will have a lot of fun. I know I will!

I'll try to give some real feedback during the event.

Rich
www.playinschool.com

East Cobb brings together a lot of different types of teams.

There are the local teams who've stayed together on into high school.

There are teams who are pretty much a high school team playing together over the summer.

There are teams who draw from an area including several schools.

There are teams drawn from/sponsored by baseball instructional facilities.

And there are teams who reach out and recruit the top players from across the country, and who play to be the very best in the U.S. every year simply by assembling an all star team of national caliber.

I predict that the tournament will ultimately be won by one of the latter teams!

For the other 215 teams there, make sure you take care of business. Hustle all the time, make your absolute best impression on scouts, and communicate with scouts to try to get them to come to your games and see you in person. Win, lose or draw, you can get a lot of recruiting done and THAT is why you are there!

PIS,

Good predictions. Yes, WWBA is humbling!

Please let me know if somebody hits a bomb that lands on the roof of that house at the complex! I'll never forget my son and I casually watching a game to see this lefty kid absolutely crush a pitch with a wood bat to hit that house's roof in right field. I can still see it! Bombs away.

Not sure what other teams made it down there from VA this past week but several Prospect Stars teams were there competing in the 18U tourney. 2011's won their bracket but lost in the opening round of knock-out 9-8. The 2012's finished second in their bracket going 3-1-1 and losing only to the bracket winner 4-1 in the last game.

A few weeks ago the 14U 2014/2015 Braves National team went 4-1 for the week. Losing 1-0 in the round of 16 to The Future from Chicago. They were the #3 overall seed after allowing 1 run in pool play and a total of 3 for the week. With a bit more timely hitting they could have made a deep run in the tournament.

He certainly is bringing it. I believe that's the same number that I heard a month ago or so when he pitched against the Canes 2012 North at VT. As hard as he is throwing it though it was his change-up that was un-hittable down at Coastal. The kid is something to watch on the mound and is an even better kid off of it...

The first day at East Cobb saw wins from several Va based teams. Off the top of my head Va Cardinals, RBA West Elite, Patriots National, Patriots of Nova, Canes, Braves 2013's all started 1 and 0. I'm sure I missed some. Sorry.

I spent the day at the main complex. At 9:30am there was probably already 100 colleges there!

I will stress that while that is impressive these guys are not looking for needles in hay stacks. They have a plan in place to view specific players on specific teams. Probably a waste of time to come if your coach and the individual players has not been doing their due diligence prior to coming. This morning at breakfast 3 D 1 coaches were going over their lists to plan their day. They told me their is no time for just randomly watching games of teams/players they dont know.

If you want to follow all the action go to the PG website. Game Changer is being used to keep live scores of all games online. Very cool technology. I followed games from other sits on my iPad live!

Rich
www.playinschool.com

If I have correctly identified all of the Virginia teams at the 17u WWB, the Virginia teams went 8-2 on Saturday.

Canes Baseball defeated the Illinois Sparks, 8-2, pounding out 11 hits. Josh Henderson, Suffolk, went 2-3. Cole Irvin pitched the complete game for the Canes.

Canes Prospects defeated America’s Future Prospects, 10-2 in a run-rule shortened game. Tyler Best, (Hickory HS), went 2-4 at the plate. Josh Wright pitched the complete game for the win.

Orioles Scout Team defeated the NJ Super 17 National, 7-3 on only 4 hits. Tyler Ramirez (Cape Henry Collegiate, Va Beach), Sean Trenchard (West Potomac), Garrett Brooks (Western Branch, Chesapeake), and Kyle McPherson (Western Branch) each had 1 of the hits with Garrett’s being a double and Kyle’s being a home run. Sean Poppen (Cape Henry Collegiate) pitched the first 4 innings for the win.

Patriots of Nova defeated Tri-State Arsenal 2013 National, 3-1. Scott Halsey pitched 6 innings, allowing 1 hit, to pick up the win and Carter Siweck picked up the save, allowing no hits. The Patriots play Del Mar Va Canes today.

Patriots National 17u scored 2 in the bottom of the last inning to defeat NJ Twins, 7-6. The winning pitcher was Parker Johnson who pitched the last 2 innings.

Richmond Braves 17u lost to the Windward Braves Red , 7-4. At the end of 3 innings, the game was tied, 3-3. WBR took the lead in the 4th and added 2 runs in the 6th. LP was Dylan Cheely (Walsingham Academy, Williamsburg.) RB managed only 4 hits to the WB’s 10 but did walk 5 times. Cheely contributed 1 of the hits and 2 of the runs while James Tavenner (Midlothian HS) went 2-2 and Alex Amory (Lanexa) was 1-2 with a run and a BB.

Richmond Braves National 2012 lost to the East Cobb Indians 9-8 in an up and down game, with East Cobb scoring the winning run in the top of the last inning. Matt Matthews (Greenbrier Christian Academy, Chesapeake) took the loss. Matthews and Austin Joseph (Midlothian HS) both went 2-3 at the plate.

Richmond Braves National 2013 defeated the NJ Marlins, 9-2. Ryan Lauria, Roanoke, pitched a complete game for the win. Bryce Harmon (LC Bird HS in Chesterfield) went 2-3 in a game where the Braves outhit their opponent 10-5.

Virginia Cardinals defeated the East Coast Gray South 3-0 while recording 0 hits. Kit Scheetz (James River HS) pitched the first 5 innings for the win, Tyler Carrico (James River HS) pitched the last 2 for the save.

Virginia Diamonds 17u defeated Lefty’s Lightning 8-0 in a run-rule shortened game. Aaron O’Neil , (Gloucester) pitched all 5 innings for the win.

I count 12 teams based out of VA playing in GA this week with the state going 9-3.

WB has the details, but I have the following teams as being from VA:

Wins went to the VA Cardinals, Canes Prospects, Canes Baseball, Patriots of NOVA, Richmond Braves 2013 National, Virginia Diamonds 17u, Patiots Nationals 17u, RBA West Elite, and the Orioles Scout Team.

Tough losses of 3 or fewer runs went to the Richmond Braves 2012, Richmond Braves 17u and Prospect Stars 17u Blue.

Here's to a successful day 2.

RBA West Elite won 2-1. Michael Boyle (deep run), Luke Bolka (Atlee), and Cam Maxey (Atlee) were the pitching stars. Patrick Gardner had the go ahead hit/RBI.

If someone knows how to change the name of this thread to 17u WWBA pleas do it.

Also if you tweet, most people are using #17WWBA or #WWBA

Rich
www.playinschool.com

Sorry, I missed RBA West Elite. So Virginia teams went 9-2.

RBA West Elite defeated Garden State Elite, 2-1, on 5 hits, 1 each by 5 players. The winning run was scored in the top of the 7th. Andrew Kizner (Hanover HS) and Michael Sims (The Steward School) each had a hit and scored a run. Patrick Gardner (Deep Run) drove in the winning run with a hit. It appears that Luke Bolka (Atlee HS) was the winning pitcher with Cam Maxey (Atlee HS) getting the save.

As PIS mentioned, the new Game Changer feature from Perfect Game is great to follow games and the performances of teams and individuals. Perfect Game is not only producing box scores of each game, but also making available live play.

Quad AAAA, Sorry, did not recognize the Prospects Stars Blue as being from Virginia.

PIS, I believe this works to change the name of the thread which only you or a moderator can do. Go to your first entry of the thread. Hit edit (second icon at the bottom right (with an eraser) when you are logged on.) Change the heading. Great for correcting typos!

quote:

Probably a waste of time to come if your coach and the individual players has not been doing their due diligence prior to coming. This morning at breakfast 3 D 1 coaches were going over their lists to plan their day. They told me their is no time for just randomly watching games of teams/players they dont know.

This is a lesson so many insist on learning the hard way. I was watching another game after ours got pushed back by overnight rain and there were ZERO scouts there until ONE showed up about halfway through. At our game later on, despite its being rescheduled during the day and also being a 30 minute drive from the main complex, we had 17 schools represented and it's always possible there were more who lurked in the back where I couldn't see them.

To be clear, some of those scouts came at the request of players on the opposing team, but it just shows what can happen when both teams do their homework prior to game time. The guys we brought saw the other team, and the guys they brought saw our team too, many for the first time.

I sometimes hear people whining about how they don't get any games at the main complex. At the main complex, you might pick up the casual viewer who's between games that he cares about. The odds of that turning into something for one of your players are very long indeed, unless you are bringing the 90+ pitcher no one has ever seen before (ha!).

But if your players actively identify schools of interest and then pro-actively contact those schools to express their interest, the scouts come out. They are human, and one thing they like is when someone is interested in THEM. It means they don't have to sell their school so much, they can just evaluate the player with their own eyes and see if they are interested in him.

And they are willing to drive 30-40 minutes between games to do it.

BTW if you are there and no one was at your first game, it's not too late. Get your players on their computers or the hotel's business center computer and get some e-mails out. The coaches will get them on their blackberries and laptops and you still have time for 5 more games as scouting opportunities.

A waste of time???

Anyone that stands out in any game will create interest. There's just too much information being passed around for that not to happen.

Most of the teams that draw the most scouts and college coaches are here to win. Those teams usually have at least one player or pitcher that draws the crowd.

It's good to notify recruiters when and where you're playing, but there are a ton of very good players here in every time slot. Most important is to play hard and help your team win games.IMO

PG -

The event is not a waste of time. This is the single best event I've ever seen!

Coaches have come with plans in place of who to see and when to see them. If a player/team has not done their work ahead of time then THEY have wasted their time.

And 90% of all my comments on here relate to the 95% of what I would consider normal players. Everyone knows the guys that throw 90. But lots of college and pro pitchers don't throw 90.

Rich
www.playinschool.com

quote:

Originally posted by PIS:
I will stress that while that is impressive these guys are not looking for needles in hay stacks. They have a plan in place to view specific players on specific teams. Probably a waste of time to come if your coach and the individual players has not been doing their due diligence prior to coming. This morning at breakfast 3 D 1 coaches were going over their lists to plan their day. They told me their is no time for just randomly watching games of teams/players they dont know.


Rich
www.playinschool.com

Scouts cannot be everywhere and that's why we kept our 10-Team FireCracker Tourney on one field because one scout could not be a two fields at any given time.

So I get what Rich is saying.

We were thinking about expanded out tournament and running on multiple fields and got feedback that it was easier to scout it the one field, so we kept our tourney to 1-field so the scouts had equal opportunity to see everyone on 1 field over 4-5 day period that featured 23 games.

Our last year of running our FireCracker, we had 19 scouts (considering it was the last week of June) come in and scout along with the Seattle Mariners and got very much positive feedback.

PG is right that "waste of time" is not right, too strong perhaps.

But not communicating to get people out to your games is an opportunity squandered. You may not waste your time, but you are not taking full advantage of the opportunity presented if you don't do everything you can do to help your target schools find you and come see you. After all, that's why THEY come to GA. They WANT to know about you and come see you. Help 'em out a little!