Recruits who need the most Help

That is one reason grades are so important. There are several players on my sons school roster every year that fit that description. My sons school does most of their recruiting regionally. They go far for somebrecruits but most are within  a hour drive, many quite a bit closer. If you have the grades many schools become affordable and therefore there are many more fits.

cabbagedad,

 

I think I understand where you are going with this, and I'm not sure how to best answer.  My first reaction is that most people don't aspire to be the second half of a college roster nor do they truly understand how competitive playing time is at all levels of college baseball.. In my observations about 15-16 college players get the bulk of the innings on a college roster.  "Grinders" are at all levels. 

 

Personally, I can only think of a few baseball "grinders" that I've known who have gone on to make a major impact to a college program. I'm familiar with their recruiting experiences, and the only thing they have in common is that they did not broadly consider all options and possibilities.  Some had excellent grades but did not want to be far from home.  If they had posted here, I'm not sure how someone could have helped them better.  As someone who has posted here a few times over the years, we don't always get all the posted information needed from the recruit or their parent nor are they typically referred to as "grinders",  

 

I agree with BLD that grades are SO important and can open many doors.  Grinding is not limited to baseball as I've seen many academic grinders too.  Academics give you more options, and the recruit's situation is only as good as his options.

 

JMO

I agree with BLD and fenway, the keys to the kingdom are grades, as RJM corrects me on all the time there is 100X more money for academics than there is for athletics. As BLD points out, the options open up significantly the higher the grades/test scores.

 

 I think one of the problems is that, without really understanding the talent and commitment required, players (and parents) think that "I am going to play D1 baseball" and not really focusing on anything below this until it is too late in the process.(This includes legit D1 ball players) At the DIII level, the top teams made up of a lot of D1 players, but there are a lot of teams not much better than a good HS team.

 

The other harsh reality is that only 5% of high school baseball players are going to play in college. This means most will play their final school sponsored ball at the HS level, which mean that many that come through here will not make it to college ball.  There is no better place than here to learn the ins and outs of the recruiting process, but many, like myself, find it a little late in the process. This is one of the reasons I think it is good when 12-14YO parents show up here. 

I have the answer, just have Obama start managing this board....everything will work out fine for everyone. Remember the woman who was so happy after the election, she would get help with her mortgage and wouldnt have to pay her bills any longer?

 

Unfortunately, most players fit the middle classification and i wouldl submit to yo that even if you are good enough to play college ( as my son is fortunate enought to do next year) it was a boat load of work, money and hours and hours or networking to land him in front of the right people. By the way, we were that middle kid until this spring and everything changed with his improvement in strength, velocity and command/presence on the mound.

 

Hard work off the field pays off.

 

 

That's why I showed up here...when my son was 6 it was adorable that he wanted to play baseball for his "job" when he grew up....but since now he is in 7th grade and STILL saying that I felt it was time to dig in and see what steps he needed to take to even remotely have that possibility.  For all I know he could stop growing tomorrow, and I know there is a less than 1% chance he will go MLB....but if you don't know about showcases and recruiters and even the rules of recruiting then how do you help your child get in front of people that could get him to that 1%?

 

Thank you to all who give their time to this site, it helps us clueless parents sleep easier at night knowing we haven't missed anything yet, and we are still on track to help our kids realize their dream, whether it happens or not.

My wife always says, "People afford what they WANT to afford."  Although that is not always the case, many of us have sacrificed what we want for the good of our talented boys.  There were many times that I asked parents if their kid was playing summer ball, and they would answer that it took up too much of THEIR time.  They wanted to go camping, traveling, or whatever they wanted to do.  It takes sacrifice to put your kids first, and many times we do without so that our son has more opportunities. A lot of folks aren't willing to do that...

I would suggest that the so-called "bottom half" of players use a site like NCSA and perhaps others to help them in their efforts, in addition to exploiting the collective wisdom of this site.  NCSA has, for example, a "matching" algorithm that is based on their evaluation of your skills video and any game video you care to submit,  your stated preferences and profile along lots of parameters -- including  your GPA, test scores, geographic preferences.   It takes all that input and spits out as   outputs a match % from 0 - 100% for every baseball school in the country.  The interface makes  it easy to contact coaches,  It lets you know who has viewed your profile, when, and how many times, let's you know who is "following" you (and so will receive a notice every time you update your profile..  All in all,   it's a pretty sweet use of technology to put at your finger tip pretty focused and realistic information.  They also have all sorts of chats, the possibility of setting up a one-on-one strategy session with your personal recruiting coordinator, etc.  So while this site definitely has its benefits, I think it  can't really match that -- especially for players who aren't the top dog studs recruited by everybody in creation.   I think of this site as a supplement to things like NCSA not a replacement.  

Sites like the NCSA are what freaked me out as a parent, and thank goodness I found this site!

 

Direct quote from the NCSA website "Ideally, you should begin thinking about athletic recruiting in the seventh or eighth grade, and by the beginning of freshman year you should have a good understanding of the NCAA rules and core course requirements."

 

 

Well, yeah, that's a bit much.  But still the use of technology, the ability to tailor a search to your particular profile, without having to manually search all possible schools,  their link to Zinch -- that allows you to have a one-on-one chat with an admission counselor from the relevant schools --are all to the good.  Our school uses Naviance Family Connnection for similar purposes and will Naviance has features that NCSA doesn't duplicate, it really is a pretty nice and useful interface.  IMHO.   Again, I think you need both and, not either/or.    

The top tier payer will get opportunities and do not need much help with recruiting.  I am a believer if your son has talent he will get noticed!

At any level of baseball there will only be a handful of top tier kids on any one team.  It is up to the parent(s) and player to put themselves in front of the right audience to fill the rest of the team. Seeking the right “venue” to display talent is just as important as choosing the right school for academic and athletic ability. The process that one chooses is where one needs to be HONEST with themselves.

If you are a showcase player with the lighting 60, 90+ fastball or 1.85 pop then your venue  is going to be different then the  “grinder”  who has the high baseball IQ, or has average skills but is the “gamer”.   Choosing the showcase or tournament that is attended by the schools that fit the player profile academically, athletically and geographical location should be important.

I know many kids who were “grinders” that have been admitted to a reach Ivy or have gotten a spot on a Top 10 ranked program just by putting themselves in the right place and taking advantage of their strengths.

A big issue, and major source of confusion, as I see it is this... A kid consistently outperforms other kids, but these other kids out project the top peformer.

 

You kind of have to throw away what you see in regards to performance which is hard. Start with size, speed, athleticism and velocity. Then, add in performance. No, it's not always like that, but, it's a simple way to think about things in a different light.

 

Or look at this way. We all have seen an undersized offensive lineman just wear out bigger kids at the high school level. Not very tall or heavy, but just destroys bigger kids. Will these kids play O line at a D1 school. No, never. Regardless of how good they were in high school.

 

My son is one of these kids.  He's what someone above referred to as a "gamer".  He has always been overlooked as too slow, too small, too whatever.  However, when the lights are on he usually gets the job done.

 

He really wanted to play baseball in college but had limited (one) option.  He did not want to go the JC route as his grades where very high and he wanted a 4 year college experience.  The only reason he received a tryout is because a scout we know made a phone call for him.  Coach had him tryout and said he could come try to make the team.

 

Right now he is sweating it out to find out if he made the team or not.  Actually I think that I am sweating it more than he is.  If he doesn't make the team he will change schools and probably hang up the spikes.  There are many kids like this out there but I don't know that you can change the system anyway.  I'm not sure I'd advocate changing the system either.

 

This is a great life lesson for my son and one he will remember.  I did not want him 20 years later wishing what if and now he won't.