Shouldnt have to pay to be seen

Haven't you been here before???

Yes. I thought one thing was odd this year my brother had signed up for some TPX top 90 showcases and after that had been invited to like 2 or 3 other TPX top 90 showcases that we never applied for. They said they didnt have enough kids for these particular showcases and had some extra room if he wanted to attend. So I was thinking well maybe they are just inviting anyone that will come and pay the $500 just so they can make some kind of quota.

MLB scouts need to quit whining. Their own showcases they put on charge $20 admission and 25 for an address book at east Coast pro showcase.
players are charges $150 in they stay in the dorms for 5 days
, that includes meals

They make money at that no matter what they might claim.


Area Code Games charges $35 for an address book and last time I saw charged $400 for an address book at Area Code Games plus admission charges

Good point! You don’t HAVE to pay to be seen. You don’t HAVE to go to showcases. This is the choice of the player/parent. Increasing one’s exposure to college coaches and pro scouts by showcasing, which greatly increases one’s odds of being recruited, has always been optional. ....BUT.....If I were you I would exercise that option!
Fungo

Great post Fungo and so true.

(assuming that you have decent talent)

I agree ... you don't have to pay to be seen ...

... of course, this also means that you don't care WHO sees you.

The college of your choice may not ever be where you happen to be playing. Find out WHERE your top-5 colleges go to scout players and then GO THERE. If it's a medium to big D1 school, you will probably come back to paying

There are just so many recruiting hours in the day for the colleges to use. They go where the players are since they are getting the most bang for their bucks. Travel and recruiting budgets can be tight at the mid-level. Use your head. Ask the colleges you are interested in.

If you're an absolute stud, don't worry about it. Everyone talks about the studs, but they are few/far apart.

If your son is Delmon Young you don't have to pay to be seen.

If your son is like the majority where your question is if he's going to be good enough to make it worth being seen then you'll probably have to pay something.

If he's not Delmon Young but it is certainly worth his being seen then you'll probably part with a few bucks quite happily.

If the scouts know they are going to see only bonafide ML prospects then they'll pay for it.

If the scouts and coaches are going to see a lot of kids who aren't quite there yet with one or two diamonds in the rough that they'll have to pick out of the crowd then the participants are most likely going to have to pay.

I'm paying for my son to go to a college camp this weekend. He's too young and not good enough yet for anyone to notice him. Why should he get the experience of playing with older and much better players for free?

Such is life.

I agree with the example of Delmon young except... Would he have been the first pick of the draft had he not attended?

Area Codes
4 or 5 Perfect Game events
The Tournament of Stars
And probably other Showcase type events

If someone is good enough to be drafted #1 overall, why not go out and prove it to everybody.

Truth is, we do know that almost all the early picks each year do attend showcase events. We don't know for sure if they would have been early picks without attending. The only way to know that is if they had not attended any.

Somewhere along the way, comparisons have to be made. When you are one of the very best among a group of the very best... good things will happen! Many of the questions are answered.

PG,
How many of them did he have to pay for? Are there more than nominal fees for the Area Code games?

I'd agree that playing in the top events against other top prospects probably helped him to be the #1 pick.

It is not merely a matter of "paying to be seen"--it is more a matter of being in the right place(s) to be seen.

Where are those right places? The right showcases and right travel team

I'm not sure how many Delmon paid for. I do know that no one paid his travel and lodging to play in Jupiter Florida for two years.

I know his brother Dmitri paid for his PG fee. Dmitri also coached the team in Jupiter along with Jim Morris (The Rookie).

Scott Kazmir, Jeff Allison, Lastings Milledge, BJ Upton, Justin Upton, Chris Lubanski, Zach Greinke, Carl Crawford, Zach Duke, David Wright, Jeff Clement, Alex Gordon, Jeremy Bonderman, Victor Diaz, JJ Hardy, and many many others have all paid (us) to showcase their talents. I don't know if they "needed" to or not, but they did.

I think players should do exactly what they think is best for them. If they can get maximum interest without spending any money... They should do that. There are a few examples of first round picks who never spent a dime showcasing their ability.

Colt Griffin for one! He actually benefited from not being over exposed. However, he is also a bit of a lesson to MLB clubs. They might be more likely to want to see someone pitch against the best the next time. We did see him touch 101 though, that's hard to ignore!

"If you go to a showcase & do GREAT does that make you a #1 pick or a cinch D1 signee? NO

"If you go to a showcase & do AWFUL does that mean you have NO chance to be a #1 pick or a cinch D1 signee? NO

Therefore, what does a showcase really accomplish? Beside saving mileage for scouts & making $$$ for the people putting on the showcase? jmo

I would also add that my son struck out 11 out of 12 in 4 innnings against Norcal and East Cobb, led his team in RBI's and dropped in the rankings (after a real bad review by David Rawlings) and was not ranked in the top 65 in Florida by BA and was drafted in the 8th round. How well do you have to do? Just another point of view.

The showcases were beneficial because it allowed us to calibrate the level of talent in a variety of regional locations and assess progress. We were pleased to see that the degrees of separation were not of any significance.

We found that most parents were concerned about the (proper) exposure the cost...plain and simple.

If your son is a high school senior or an outstanding junior player and your son may be interested in attending one of the 25 D-1 college level camps for high schools then contact the College Baseball Camps at:

http://www.collegebaseballcamps.com/

One of my son's friends who is in his high school senior year, went to the Stanford Baseball Camp and was selected to play summer ball. He said he really had a great time, traveled all over the country and played against the best players. Got great exposure.

My thoughts on showcasing.

Coach Smith needs a catcher for the upcoming season. Last month he was at a showcase and saw a young man that has everything he's looking for in a catcher

Three states west of where this young man lives is another young man, also a catcher. Now this catcher is every bit as talented as the first player. The only real difference is that the coach has never seen him play, and other than perhaps a letter of interest, knows very little about him.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess who will be actively recruited.

It isn't so much about paying to be seen. Its about being in the right place at the right time.

You truly don't have to pay to be seen. Especially if you don't have your heart set on playing half way across the country.

By attending showcases though, you put yourself in the right place at the right time.

Showcasing reminds me of advertising. There's no contract that says going to a showcase will do this or that, but if you don't do it, you'll probably stay right where you are. These events are where things happen for players. Why would college coaches go to 100 highschool games when they can come to one event and see all those 100 players? And baseball is business, for both college and pro teams. They WANT to get players at the lowest possible price.

The more people that want you, the more money you are going to get. If more people see you then more will probably want you, and you'll get more money. Even if it's three schools that want you as opposed to two. That makes a big difference in negotiations. I don't really understand all the complaints against charging money for showcases. Should these guys sleep on a street corner and do them for free? I'd love to get alot of advertising for my movie on cable and in BA, but it costs to get the exposure. Sometimes its worth it, and sometimes not. And alot of it depends on the product.

quote:

players are charges $150 in they stay in the dorms for 5 days, that includes meals

They make money at that no matter what they might claim.

I've got no complaints about $150 bucks to stay for 5 days with food as well as to "hangout" with the scouts in the dorms. Also the $150 was paid to UNC-W not MLB (based on the check I wrote.) Also the admission charge was for the whole week. As for the address book, I would be surprised if any coach who attended has any issue with paying for that information based on the talent level at the event, seems like a good inexpensive investment compared to many other "showcase" events.

Since this website is visited by hundreds of players and parents and this is a question that has repeatedly cropped up over the years perhaps it would be interesting to actually hear from those who never participated in a showcase and were successful in gaining the advantage of playing at the next level. Instead of constantly trying to point out the advantages of going to a showcase(as most of us are aware) let's hear from those that did not.

Catchermom03

My son never attended a major national or regional showcase. We felt his senior year was the time to attend. By the time his senior year arrived we realized it was too late, as he had already made his plans.

Being from Iowa we were able to be very involved with Perfect Game through their more localized scouts leagues.

Early parenthood altered so much of his eventual path so it is really hard for us to say how well that path would have worked for him. In the end he was at the right place at the right time and has been very successful.

However, with hindsight we feel very strongly that not attending a showcase was a mistake on our part and one we will not repeat with our younger son when his time comes.