The Proper College Playing Level

Larry Bird was the last player I can think of who went to a school below his proper level.

Son's teammate had more than a few D1 offers, not P5 but some very good mid majors. Went to a HA D3.

@Smitty28 posted:

Larry Bird was the last player I can think of who went to a school below his proper level.

Larry Bird started at Indiana University with Bobby Knight. He transferred out shortly after he arrived

A great pitcher my son played with did this.  Stepped down from D2 to D3 and is a D1-level guy and, in my opinion, always was.  Got a great education at Babson and will have a great Masters from Northeastern.  He prob would play 4 more years and get a PHD if allowed!

1st year Freshman year - SNHU DII

2nd thru 4th year - Sophomore thru Senior - Babson DIII

5th & soon 6th year - Graduate years 1 & 2 - Northeastern D1

This past summer, cape league to a .49 ERA

Probably happens more than we know.

Happy 20th bday to my son today, too - no more teenagers in my home (or baseball players......)

I talked to several HA D3 freshman parents last weekend. A lot of them had D1 (not P5) offers and chose to go HA D3.

TBH, I'm not sure that is a good comparison though. Those kids are choosing academics over baseball. If you take the HA part out of the equation I imagine the results would be a little different.

There are typically a couple or a few D3 players drafted every year.  NAIA too.  I guess you could say they played too low, or maybe they were late developers, or maybe they cared about academics more than athletics.

@Smitty28 posted:

Larry Bird was the last player I can think of who went to a school below his proper level.

Bird started at Indiana. He left after a few weeks. He was intimidated feeling all the kids were rich. It was relative to how poor he was. He was also homesick.

I know kids who chose competitive HA D3’s over academically mediocre mid majors for academic reasons. They knew college baseball was going to be the last stop.

One was drafted and two signed as free agents. The two pitchers were at 92+ senior year. The catcher hit over .400 his last two years and had a cannon for an arm. The kid drafted in the 20’s made it to AAA. The UDFA’s were released after two years. They were late sign roster filler.

I think prepandemic midmajors talent are now becoming D3 talent due to new transfer rules.

@2022NYC posted:

I think prepandemic midmajors talent are now becoming D3 talent due to new transfer rules.

Mid Major is too broad of a term for baseball, it applies more to basketball and football where there are the P5 schools and everyone else. Mid Major in baseball can mean East Carolina or Iona. Two completely different worlds.

I think the talent you typically may have seen go to Patriot League and American East schools will end up at D3s. Those fringe D1 players. But jucos and competitive D2s are where you'll see the guys who could have been playing at competitive D1 programs end up.

@2022NYC posted:

I think prepandemic midmajors talent are now becoming D3 talent due to new transfer rules.

In a few weeks 2023 rosters will be out. So one can see who transferred where.

I tend to agree with PABaseball, lots of differences between D1 programs.  Geographics usually determines that.

JMO

I think you see it prevalently now.  Guys transferring from mid majors to P5.  I could start naming but maybe most well known was Sonny D

@PitchingFan posted:

I think you see it prevalently now.  Guys transferring from mid majors to P5.  I could start naming but maybe most well known was Sonny D

Agree PF.

It's an opportunity that D1 players never had but it really is all about positioning yourself for a better draft opportunity.

Go for it!

It happens. Most or all of the D3 All Americans could be playing D2 and some of them could be playing D1

In my son's class of 7 recruits, 3 could have played at P5 schools - and each turned down scholarship offers to those schools. One is now playing MLB, one made it to AAA, and my son was drafted out of HS and again as a bargain senior.

All 3 chose a HA D1.

Each knowingly gave up a chance to play in the CWS. That was all the baseball they gave up; in return, the two who have entered the real world post-proball (the third is still playing) have nice upwardly mobile jobs.  Each graduated - 2 on time, the other - because he signed - took one more semester.

Apart from the CWS, a player gives up no professional baseball chances by choosing any particular school, in any league, in any division, JUCO, or NAIA. Every player displaying a single MLB tool will be found - an entire industry is designed to find those players.

There is no professional baseball reason or advantage conferred for choosing a particular school.

I have a HS age son. We take him to see college games of all levels when we can. He's a position player and has now faced Juco arms for four games. He's commented that he has concerns about playing at the right level. His concerns about too low a level are that he could lose some interest in the game if not challenged adequately and that he might be limiting his potential for growth. There is a great variety of pitching at the Juco level. If I were to ask him which team he enjoyed playing against the most, he'd say without a doubt, the one that had the best arms.

RJM and Goosegg both make great points.  College baseball will be the end for most and if a player desires to play beyond they can create opportunity to get in front of scouts. Most players will get employment using their education before their on field baseball skills !  My 2015 had aspirations to be in professional baseball and his education and baseball experience at a HA D1 got him there......just not as a player!

IMO choosing a school is not just a 4 year decision but rather a lifetime decision.  The level (D1, D2, D3, NAIA or Juco) sometimes chooses the player but no matter which level consider playing college baseball as great accomplishment since only aprox. 6.7% of all high school players will move on to any one of the divisions!

@JABMK There are so many jobs in baseball, other than playing.

Kudos to your son. I hope that he is enjoying living his dream.

Just remember, for players wanting to advance to the pros from college, players gets scouted just as much if not more in the summer than in the spring.  Especially for position players, scouts want to see you hit with wood against great pitching.

And every summer D3 and D2 players “sneak” their way into the top 4 or 5 summer leagues and get scouted.

The other thing to remember is: Nobody gets scouted from the bench.

Allow me to repeat that:  Nobody gets scouted from the bench!  Don’t pick a level where you are never gonna play.

As far as the high school kid who thinks he’d get “bored” at too low a level: don’t worry, Baseball has a way of humbling every single player who ever steps in the batters box.

Just wait till he’s facing one of the top D3 pitchers with a 78 mph slider that moves 3 feet and a curve ball that looks like it’s coming at his head but drops right into the strike zone.  He’ll look silly enough then, walking back to the dugout wondering what just happened.

Or if he’s a pitcher, just wait till he faces one of the seemingly endless amount of great D3 hitters who ran 7.3 or 7.4 in high school but barrel up everything, especially with a big barrel BBCOR bat.