Top 16-18U Tournaments

www.westcoastsummerseries.com This is one of the best tournaments on the West Coast. Twenty Four 18u teams in a wood bat format in San Diego county at the end of July. They hadexcellent quality teams last year from California, Washington, Kansas and Illinois; and I think another state or two. I think this tournament is starting to hit more people's radar screens, and is one to consider. This would not be a tournament to bring a weaker team to, or a younger team unless they are very, very good.

Also, Perfect Game runs a series of excellent tournaments at just about every age and grade level.

The Perfect Game WWBA events are the best we have found by far. Great competition, great coverage by recruiters/scouts and well run.

Impact baseball also puts on on some very good tournaments in the North Carolina area.

Joe Platt in Memphis, TN runs some nice tournaments.

East Cobb (GA) is legendary.

Bayside Yankees (NY) Liberty Tournament is another terrific event.

Good Luck!

Check out the www.worldbaseballfederation.co site.

The top 18-under event is the Osceola County Invitational June 27-July 1 at the Spring Training home of the Houston Astros. We had more than 250 college and professional scouts at the event last summer.

I can be reached at 352-365-6130.

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Top 16-18U Tournaments?

My suggestion is to contact the coaches at the top college programs in the nation and ask them which events are the best. (If that’s what your looking for)

Then contact the highest level (National) MLB scouts and/or baseball people that you might know and ask them which events are the best.

Then check with players who have been drafted or signed with the top colleges and ask them which they attended and which are the best.

Also, if there are specific colleges (any level) you are interested in, contact them and ask them which events they plan to attend.

Finally, contact the top teams in the nation and the top players and ask them which events they attend and which ones are the best.

I think the top 18U event is PG Staff's WWBA event in Marietta, GA July 3-10. Their 17U and 16U events are outstanding as well. That is why the Central Florida Renegades attend all the top PG events.

I think the World Baseball Federation events are outstanding. But there are no better events than the Perfect Game events. Their PG National and WWBA events in Marietta and Jupiter are the mist scouted events in the nation every year.

Baseball Dad-
I am aware of Pasttime Tournaments/ Hoosier Sports Academy that has impressed a friend who ran the STL Diamondkings. That may be the one you were thinking of, as they have Indiana U as their venue.

www.pasttimetournaments.com

trainscout-

I found the Pastime Tournaments website and they are who we were with for a few events last summer at the 18U level. They put on a great tournament and we had 4 of our 5 eligible kids sign with colleges through those events. We may have actually played the St. Louis Diamondkings last year, they were a great ball club, are they around anymore?

The link for their site is actually:

http://www.PastimeTournaments.com

We tried PG in the past but it did not live up to the hype that we were given to be honest. There is no doubt that they are leading the "tournament industry" but I think we played on some average fields with no scouts at the games we played.

I appreciate all of the responses and I think we are looking in to the Osceola event for this year but other than that we are planning on getting over to the Pastime events we available.

BBD you have a PM

Trainscout

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We tried PG in the past but it did not live up to the hype that we were given to be honest. There is no doubt that they are leading the "tournament industry" but I think we played on some average fields with no scouts at the games we played.

Not sure what event you've been to of PG's but I've never been to one of their events (and our club has been to 15+) that wasn't crawling with scouts.

PG is the best in the business hands down. We set our team's schedule around their big events.

I would really be interested in knowing what PG events you tried that did not live up to your expectations. Please post what PG events your team attended.

I'm also very surprised to hear that you were disappointed in anything Perfect Game does. We go to one or two of their tournaments every summer, and I'm always impressed with the organization, quality of competition, attendance by college coaches and scouts, etc.

A couple summers ago, we attended what anyone at PG will tell you was the most frustrating tournament they've every offered. It was the class of 2005/18u in July of 2005. My team landed about 8 hours ahead of Hurricane Dennis making landfall and it was a washed out week. Some people weren't too happy to have flown 2,500 miles to sit in hotels and play on rain soaked fields, but the last time I checked PG still doesn't control the weather. What impressed me more than anything I've seen from PG was how hard they worked to make the best of a very bad situation that was beyond their control. I personally saw them working on fields in the middle of the night (and I mean the Fords themselves), staying up until the wee hours of the morning re-scheduling to get everyone games as they could, working to find even more fields to play during breaks in the weather and finally, I'll never forget them purchasing an entire trailer load of turface to dry the infields. It was a major effort and expense that I doubt anyone else would have bothered to work through.

In my book, PG is hands down the best there is.