We see them all the time - mostly on Twitter. Was taking to a player today and his response on such posts was "Nobody any good gets seen that way. Show me five 2022s or 2021s who are committed because someone saw a video clip of them on Twitter."
This true? Is sharing videos on social media a waste of time?
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I think there are a lot of bored baseball folks right now. It’s always nice if it’s a third party that posts but I think if there was a time to do it, it’s now. I watch tons of videos on twitter and was just thinking it might be a good time to update the YouTube page. Putting velo and raspodo Info helps if you have access.
Any recruiting plan should have a list of target schools that are a possible athletic, academic and financial fit. How does spamming on social media help reach these schools?
Smitty28 posted:Any recruiting plan should have a list of target schools that are a possible athletic, academic and financial fit. How does spamming on social media help reach these schools?
It can help if you have a lot of RCs following you. They know everyone is seeing the same thing. A kid from our state was an unknown in July, now all of this videos have 15-40k views. Someone watches.
baseballhs posted:Smitty28 posted:Any recruiting plan should have a list of target schools that are a possible athletic, academic and financial fit. How does spamming on social media help reach these schools?
It can help if you have a lot of RCs following you. They know everyone is seeing the same thing. A kid from our state was an unknown in July, now all of this videos have 15-40k views. Someone watches.
He has also been clocked at 100 mph. That has a lot more to do with it than anything else.
baseballhs posted:Smitty28 posted:Any recruiting plan should have a list of target schools that are a possible athletic, academic and financial fit. How does spamming on social media help reach these schools?
It can help if you have a lot of RCs following you. They know everyone is seeing the same thing. A kid from our state was an unknown in July, now all of this videos have 15-40k views. Someone watches.
But is that really what you want, "some RCs" following? Are they on your targeted list? Maybe, but why not DM them directly, or email. I agree it won't hurt, but it posting things on social media shouldn't give anyone a sense of progress towards a goal.
Totally agree but he was 94-96 at the end of summer and it has 46k views. He said he was told no one good gets seen... good and getting seen
Smitty28 posted:baseballhs posted:Smitty28 posted:Any recruiting plan should have a list of target schools that are a possible athletic, academic and financial fit. How does spamming on social media help reach these schools?
It can help if you have a lot of RCs following you. They know everyone is seeing the same thing. A kid from our state was an unknown in July, now all of this videos have 15-40k views. Someone watches.
But is that really what you want, "some RCs" following? Are they on your targeted list? Maybe, but why not DM them directly, or email. I agree it won't hurt, but it posting things on social media shouldn't give anyone a sense of progress towards a goal.
Every school that talked to my son during recruitment started following him on Twitter. You don’t want to spam coaches non stop but if they see your videos, you stay on their mind... at least that was our thought process.
baseballhs posted:Totally agree but he was 94-96 at the end of summer and it has 46k views. He said he was told no one good gets seen... good and getting seen
Kids are told a lot of things. Anyone throwing 96 doesn’t need to post on social media to be seen. Videos that are posted on Twitter by a 3rd party carry s lot more weight than anything posted by a player or his parent.
Yes, totally agree. That said, if your son makes good gains and baseball is at a halt, have his coach or club post a video with his updates. I think getting creative right now is about all you can do.
The short answer - I'm sure in a few cases it has done some good, but if we're being honest it doesn't really matter.
They are only useful if flat ground, pbr, pg, etc are retweeting them. If you were to share a video and some random local baseball guy retweeted it - great...now what? Flatground retweets your video and maybe some coaches watch it while they're on the John passing time. Maybe they put your son's name on a list, maybe the keep scrolling, maybe they never see it.
If you want your footage to be seen, create a YouTube account with only baseball videos and include the link in your emails to coaches.
PABaseball posted:The short answer - I'm sure in a few cases it has done some good, but if we're being honest it doesn't really matter.
They are only useful if flat ground, pbr, pg, etc are retweeting them.
Agree with this...I posted some "Dad" videos and they were rarely viewed. PBR posted something about my son at a showcase and his travel coach was getting called about it that night.
In the current economic situation, I'm going to assume that many people will not be able to afford showcases and travel this summer, and next, even assuming summer baseball gets going again. If your business got shut down or you were out of work for 2-3 months, spending $$ for a PBR or PG showcase just may not be in the cards, likewise paying for hotels at tournaments.
Maybe online and social media video are going to become more popular (even if not more credible) because of this? I'd guess that travel organizations (which are already paid for - although I'm sure that's another can of worms) and creditable instructors are going to be pushing video out much more, in addition to 3rd-party like PBR, ProspectWire, and PG.
A few years ago, the (now-former) Yale RC put instructions on how to video someone running a 60 on a football field, said he could time it himself, so no need to put a stopwatch in the frame.
Hi- I'm Rob Friedman/PitchingNinja.
I founded FlatGround.
This is what college coaches have said in just the last couple of days:
https://twitter.com/Flatground...786115565817859?s=20
https://twitter.com/PitchingNi...569166730788864?s=20
https://twitter.com/J_Sudds46/...590845976465409?s=20
Literally hundreds of players have gotten college offers from FlatGround. Well over 40 players have also been picked up by affiliated organizations in the last year too from FlatGround. Don't take my word for it. Do your own searches on Google or Twitter to see.
It's free. I make nothing from it other than the good feeling of helping kids reach their dreams and not fall through the cracks. I hear from College coaches and Pro coaches/scouts all the time re successes.
Not sure why any player wouldn't use this resource. Literally no strings attached, free exposure. Worst thing that happens is no one contacts you. Best thing that happens is you get offers or interest. It takes 5 minutes to put up a good video and relevant information that might interest a coach or scout.
FlatGround posted:Hi- I'm Rob Friedman/PitchingNinja.
I founded FlatGround.
This is what college coaches have said in just the last couple of days:
https://twitter.com/Flatground...786115565817859?s=20
https://twitter.com/PitchingNi...569166730788864?s=20
https://twitter.com/J_Sudds46/...590845976465409?s=20
Literally hundreds of players have gotten college offers from FlatGround. Well over 40 players have also been picked up by affiliated organizations in the last year too from FlatGround. Don't take my word for it. Do your own searches on Google or Twitter to see.
It's free. I make nothing from it other than the good feeling of helping kids reach their dreams and not fall through the cracks. I hear from College coaches and Pro coaches/scouts all the time re successes.
Not sure why any player wouldn't use this resource. Literally no strings attached, free exposure. Worst thing that happens is no one contacts you. Best thing that happens is you get offers or interest. It takes 5 minutes to put up a good video and relevant information that might interest a coach or scout.
I think the issue is that some kids and travel coaches think "Just be good and they will find you. If you hit 7 homerun in your 20 game HS season, people will want to know who you are and will come after you and you don't have to worry about showcases, camps and videos."
[I don't agree with it. Just sharing what I have heard and seen.]
My kids first offer came from flat ground. It works, it’s free, use it.
Francis7 that statement definitely is not true. Players should to take charge of their careers, rather than just hoping to be found...and risk falling through the cracks or settling. Especially with it being both easy and free.
Not sure it's even debatable.
Francis7 posted:I think the issue is that some kids and travel coaches think "Just be good and they will find you. If you hit 7 homerun in your 20 game HS season, people will want to know who you are and will come after you and you don't have to worry about showcases, camps and videos."
[I don't agree with it. Just sharing what I have heard and seen.]
There's one caveat to this. Someone still has to see you and make the phone calls. Son's senior year (2012) a fellow teammate was throwing mid-90's. He was tall (6' 4"), lanky and could really turn it loose. His legion coach had some contacts with the Atlanta Braves and soon various MLB scouts started turning up at games that he pitched. This kid was eventually drafted in the 6th round by the Rays straight out of HS. Without those contacts, I sincerely doubt he would have ever been drafted and the offer made. (He did sign with the Rays.). Prior to that he only had interest from one major university (Liberty) and one JuCo.
The organization I'm a Coach for has signed a player because of what Rob does, and we're looking on there for players regularly.
FlatGround posted:Francis7 that statement definitely is not true. Players should to take charge of their careers, rather than just hoping to be found...and risk falling through the cracks or settling. Especially with it being both easy and free.
Not sure it's even debatable.
The “if you are good enough they will find you” statement is definitely not true. But kids are told this all the time - mostly by HS coaches - and it’s evidence of the huge disconnect between HS baseball and summer travel ball. Over the past 15 years or so the emphasis has shifted from HS to travel ball. Many HS coaches resent this and they flex their muscles in various ways as a response. College recruiting doesn’t go thru the HS HC anymore either the way it used to and many HS coaches don’t like this either. Because of all this most HS HCs don’t do all the things that the really good HS coaches used to do. Like stay late and help a kid after practice or make calls to help a player get recruited That is travel ball stuff now. Some old school HS coaches haven’t accepted the change and hence you get statements from them like “if you are good enough they will find you. I don’t want to hear about you wanting to go to showcases and tournaments in the fall.” Those were the exact words I heard from the HS coach at the first booster club meeting during my son’s Sophomore year. Unbelievable.
Referring to my previous post...... during his “welcome to the program” rant, the same coach also said, “we don’t have any D1 players in this program.” As of today there are 5 players that were sitting in that room that are currently on a D1 roster. Not one or two. Five!
adbono posted:FlatGround posted:Francis7 that statement definitely is not true. Players should to take charge of their careers, rather than just hoping to be found...and risk falling through the cracks or settling. Especially with it being both easy and free.
Not sure it's even debatable.
The “if you are good enough they will find you” statement is definitely not true. But kids are told this all the time - mostly by HS coaches -...
Not only HS coaches...many who have experienced a favorable outcome believe the baseball process to be fair and efficient. Its not. "Taking charge of your own career" is the best advice.
adbono posted:Referring to my previous post...... during his “welcome to the program” rant, the same coach also said, “we don’t have any D1 players in this program.” As of today there are 5 players that were sitting in that room that are currently on a D1 roster. Not one or two. Five!
And the reason there are 5 D-1's is due to strong Travel ball programs! basaballmom's son was that 1 D-1 candidate back in 2005-6, when the recruiting approach was "birthed" from HS coaches to Travel Coaches.
I have a couple of questions for you @FlatGround but first want to thank you for your contributions to baseball across the twitter-verse. From Ninja to flatground + bats. Mega thanks.
1. I see grad years from 2020 - 2024 and sometimes beyond posting. Do you have any metrics (a guess works) for kids that are Sophomore's (2022's) or younger? It feels like it is a great place for 20 & 21's but what & when would you encourage someone to have their 2022 or older post? Do you encourage them to put contact info of their summer/school coaches on the post? I believe that D3 & juco can reach out but no D1 contact directly until maybe 9/1 of Junior year.
2. Can one post pieces of hitting or fielding from a PBR/PG video? Or even the complete video that they do? Do you encourage hittrax exit velo or just video of raw mechanics?
3. Any other things that you have seen that have helped kids get more noticed?
Again. Thank you Rob and thanks to all here at HS web...awesome place with tons of great info!
One caveat: If a lot of recruiting coordinators are following players on Twitter, it's not just for videos, and my not be for things like that at all.
Sometimes they're looking for the opportunity to schmooze a kid they like and keep him in the fold.
Other times, they're lurking, just watching what the kid posts to see if he's mature, etc.
So if you're a player prone to racist posts, posts about weed or alcohol or such, or carping about your playing time, your HS coach or your teammates, the fact that RC's might follow your Twitter feed should lead you to take care what you put out there for everyone to see and learn about you.
But the way it typically works is, kids are careless, kids are undisciplined, and kids don't listen to warnings given by adults about such things. And so, many of them hang themselves without having a clue that they're doing it.
For FlatGround:
1. I definitely don't limit kids of any age posting. Younger players should be posting mostly for advice from MLB players, coaches, etc. who follow FG..and should expect to get some honest feedback. Part of my goal was for kids to get free advice (note: not all advice is good advice 
). I would put whatever the player thinks puts him in the best light. Put yourself in the viewer's shoes. What do you think a coach wants to know about you as a player? What makes you different? How can they rely on what you say? [That's where measurables come into play] No harm in putting their travel/hs coach's info in the post, but it may take up valuable room to put measurables, which is the most important.
2. You can post whatever video you have. PG, PBR, or in your back yard. Whatever helps put you in the best light.
3. To get noticed, post good clean video and measurables. Ideally, with radar gun info, Rapsodo/trackman hitting, Exit velo, 60 time, grades...any and every thing that you think a coach will care about and believe. The more proof you have in the video, the more credibility it will have.
Here are some good examples and helpful hints of what to do and not do (hope this helps!).
PABaseball posted:The short answer - I'm sure in a few cases it has done some good, but if we're being honest it doesn't really matter.
They are only useful if flat ground, pbr, pg, etc are retweeting them. If you were to share a video and some random local baseball guy retweeted it - great...now what? Flatground retweets your video and maybe some coaches watch it while they're on the John passing time. Maybe they put your son's name on a list, maybe the keep scrolling, maybe they never see it.
If you want your footage to be seen, create a YouTube account with only baseball videos and include the link in your emails to coaches.
Do both. My son has. He has gained college coach and RC followers at schools he is interested in from Flatground retweets. Those schools have also communicated with him via email. I think it's just another way for them to keep an eye on him. Can't hurt, might help. And it's free.
adbono posted:The “if you are good enough they will find you” statement is definitely not true. But kids are told this all the time - mostly by HS coaches - and it’s evidence of the huge disconnect between HS baseball and summer travel ball. Over the past 15 years or so the emphasis has shifted from HS to travel ball.
My son's high school coach cares about his kids and wants to help, but his info on how to get recruited by colleges is woefully out of date. When we asked to borrow the field for a few hours to shoot my son's skills video, he rolled his eyes and told us we didn't need one. These days that is just not true, especially if you're looking out of state. And he is coaching what is considered to be one of the "powerhouse" baseball schools in our state.
Sometimes you are just handed a powerhouse.
baseballhs posted:Sometimes you are just handed a powerhouse
That says a lot without saying very much. I have wondered why LT hasn’t done more than they have with the talent that has run thru there in the past 5 years.
baseballhs posted:Sometimes you are just handed a powerhouse
In my son's case, his high school coach has been coaching at this school for many, many years and was not handed anything. He's a well-respected coach and a good man. But, he is also fortunate to coach at a high school in an area full of talented baseball players. His teams generally have multiple P5 DI commits and several DIIIs as well, so I can see why he thinks he knows how college recruiting works. But, I think he has little idea what his players are doing to get to the point where a college coach calls him for his thoughts.
From the College coaches' perspective:
Do you tweet/retweet posts that include link to PG/PBR etc profiles?
Yes. Anything that "markets" the player in the best light with the most information. If that includes a link to a PG/PBR profile, that's fine. Note though that things that cause a Coach to click to another site, rather than see it directly in your tweet (for example a link to a YouTube video vs an embedded video in a tweet) is usually less successful.
You're wrong if you're just posting a video on some social network and expecting it to get thousands of views. For your content to get a lot of likes and become popular, you have to work with it. If you manage to interest the viewer, your video will gain popularity, but it's not that easy. Players' videos also gain millions of views, but to start your blog, I advise you to use various marketing moves. Or buy subscribers. For example, to buy subscribers on Instagram, there is a service https://famoid.com/buy-instagram-followers/ . Many newbies use such services. Any video can get a lot of views if you make it attractive.
@JArnett posted:You're wrong if you're just posting a video on some social network and expecting it to get thousands of views.
Agreed - especially if it was a really bad video. I never understood why people post videos where it's taken from 300 feet away and you can barely make out the player?
Somewhat related and a true and funny story. My son was a 2022. His training facility posted some swing clips on their Instagram. Even though he's already in college, he was included. One of his buddies at the facility is a 2023. He got a call from a coach who said "I saw the [place] video and I really like your swing." Kid was surprised and said thanks. Kid then asked the facility guy about it and he said "That wasn't you. It was [my son]." So...maybe you can get recruited off video...? LOL
This was my 2015's first introduction to what is known as a Business/Marketing plan. There are plenty of ways to get an opportunity to get seen by HC/RC. It depends on what you are marketing and who you are marketing to. There are certain schools that already know the players they are recruiting early and perhaps any introduction you are going to extend to them may not matter.
My 2015 sent a 1 min video of some swings and fielding skills to his top 10 list of schools and the subject line look like: 2015, 6'3, 220lb left hitting Catcher. All 10 responded back because he had something to market.
He also went to the camps where he could be seen by some of the HC/RC of his top 10 schools and made them aware that he was going to be there via an email. About 5 of the coaches acknowledged that they received his email notification of camp attendance as well as his video.
Or thought process was if out of the 10 schools, which were all different divisions, he could not get an offer then baseball was not going to be in his college experience.
Every program has their way of recruiting and depends a lot on their programs budget. This is just another way to get exposure perhaps along with other social media.
Just my opinion and it worked for my 2015.
@Francis7 posted:We see them all the time - mostly on Twitter. Was taking to a player today and his response on such posts was "Nobody any good gets seen that way. Show me five 2022s or 2021s who are committed because someone saw a video clip of them on Twitter."
This true? Is sharing videos on social media a waste of time?
I guess, it depends on what you mean by social media. Twitter/instagram/facebook... probably doesn't help you much if at all. Youtube videos with a link that you can include in an email while reaching out to programs, I believe that has had some influence in my 2024's recruitment.
Will Twitter and Facebook advance someone's recruitment? I don't believe that it will unless something is tweeted from a reputable organization that you can retweet and tag specific coaches that you want to see the video.
Our experience is that videos on twitter etc... won't do much to move the needle with the exception of some specific outstanding performances. For example, my 2024RHP pitched in Jupiter for the WWBA, had a great showing, and PG sent out a tweet/video about his performance. My son retweeted that video to assistant coaches at schools he had targeted, and immediately had four or five coaches start following on twitter. Did that lead to scholarship offers? No, but I wouldn't say that it was totally a waste of time either. I do believe that a kid posting his own high school videos on social media is pointless.
I do however believe that it is helpful to have some video on Youtube. When my son was reaching out to coaches, he would include a link to a YouTube video of him pitching. By looking at the number of views he could see that the coaches that he was sending emails to were watching the video.
It seems to me that there are two kinds of baseball prospects. There are the kids that everyone has already taken notice of such as the kid that was held back a year of school in the 8th grade, and hit all of the major PG showcase and PBR tournaments while posting eye popping statics like, 92 mph fastball in the 10th grade. And then there are the kids like my 2024 who has to put in some effort to even get on a college programs radar. I don't think that you can ever fault a kid for doing all he can to get on someone's recruiting board.
I've been running Flatground since 2018. You'd be amazed at how many people get recruited off of Twitter videos...it's well in the hundreds if not thousands. All for free.
I've also gotten guys signed with major league orgs, pretty regularly, including one last month.
https://redbirdrants.com/2022/...ourney-logan-sawyer/
"Just days after Pitching Ninja’s endorsement, the closer for the Evansville Otters had hundreds of thousands of views of his video. “He has such a passion for the game, especially for guys that don’t get the spotlight,” Sawyer explains about Friedman. “He’s done so much for me, but other guys as well.”
With an endorsement from Pitching Ninja, Sawyer’s life quickly changed. While working at his HVAC job in Knoxville, Sawyer started receiving phone calls from MLB teams. “There was a lot of loud noise in the background,” says Sawyer, “And they go ‘where are you at’ and I said, ‘I work HVAC, I’m up on the roof right now!” The interest had grew to over 20 MLB organizations, 10 independent teams, and multiple international teams– and pretty much all of the attention was a result of Sawyer’s Twitter post from just a few days earlier."
Rob ( @FlatGround / PitchingNinja ) is too modest. He's one of the most influential guys in the baseball Twittersphere right now. His platforms have provided exposure to many thousands of players at all levels.
My son was in the portal a couple years ago, looking to transfer out of a D2, and Flatground retweets gave his videos over 10,000 views. As a result he gained probably a hundred coaches following him, and this led to direct contact with the majority of these coaches, and certainly had an influence on his transfer to a D1 program.
Point being - that his stuff not only benefits the top-level pro caliber guys (who would likely eventually be discovered anyway,) but he is providing tremendous exposure to kids at all levels.
