What Kind of Travel Team is best

One that gets you in front of and has contacts with the kinds of college programs you have the potential to play at. It doesn't matter how many studs are on the team if a college sees you play and likes you. Those studs also draw a lot of college coaches to watch your team/son play. If it's a name travel team just being on that team provides some cred (the kid must be good to play for them).

The other issue is knowing your potential. If your potential is to be a NESCAC or Centennial League star (for example) you don't need to be on a team that goes south and plays PG events. You're better off doing Northeast and Mid Atlantic events and Head First.

I mentored and coached a kid that played baseball with my son from LL, high school and 16u. They went their separate ways for showcase ball due to two different levels of talent. The kid got on a travel team that went south for PG events. I told the parents they were wasting money playing on the team. They felt they needed to do PG to play college ball. It's what a paid consultant told them (another waste of money). They came back from East Cobb complaining no college coaches came to see the kid play. I told them it's what happens when you go to PG with a bunch of D3 talent. The kid ended up at an academic D3 Centennial League college. He was discovered at a showcase he could have biked to from his house.

Playing time and development (IMHO) should be the primary factors in determining which travel team to go with.  Cost for many families is a big issue, so this may be the #1 consideration for many.   Also, just where you live affects that cost as well as which choice might be best as those in high density areas (e.g. Los Angeles) may not have a strong "need" for getting into the "best" travel team.   

Because there are so many level at which one might play in the travel team business, it's good to use them to challenge your player by selecting a team that plays competitively AND do it with your player playing in most of the games.  It doesn't do much good to be on a team where the player is watching from the bench.  If a player finds himself there on a regular basis, then it'd be time to find a team where he can get much more competitive game time.  If the player is a regular player on a team that may not be playing at a higher lever, that player might want to find a team that plays at a higher level and still get a respectable amount of playing time.  Keep raising the bar to see just how high one can go.

Another important thing to look for in a "best" travel team is one that provides development workouts/practices.  A travel team that just shows up to play in tournaments isn't one that's going to provide much value and be a "best" travel team.   The emphasis for the travel team and the organization that the team belongs to should be on DEVELOPMENT, no mater what level they may play at.  Otherwise, one might as well save some money and play with other organizations like Little League, Pony League, American Legion, etc.

I assume you're asking the question for exposure purposes.....so I'm basing my answer on 15U-17U.  You need a couple things....and it can vary depending on where you live.  Here in the Midwest it's important to be on a "recognized" program.....for a couple reasons.  1) tourney entries are somewhat limited...the best teams get in.  For the past 3 or 4 summers, there is an event called the Midwest Scout League.  8 teams 16U and 17U from the top organizations in Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana.  They play round robin type events 4 or 5 weekends during the summer.  Scouts showed up like I had never seen because they could see so many kids in one weekend.  There was no "champion" so pitching rotations were set ahead of time so coaches knew who was throwing when.  No having to show up and worry if the "closer" would throw....as again, winning the weekend wasn't the goal, though they were our most competitive games of the summer.  Another easy way to get some input in your araea is talk to someone whose son has gone thru this and is now a committed senior or playing in college, talk to him and see what they did.  Good luck

IMHO, for the majority of players, development is the most important factor.  I concur with Truman.

For these players, their opportunity to play in college is determined by being seen by the colleges on their vetted lists at showcases and camps, not travel team tournaments.  The majority of players don't have the "wow factor" to stand out at those tournaments.  The majority need a targeted approach to be seen by the schools they care about.  They can have the opportunity to individually showcase their skills and speak with coaches at camps and showcases that their schools are attending. 

And every player needs to develop their skills in games and team practices.  For the majority, that should happen on their travel team and hopefully their high school team too. 

Having had my son commit D1 as a junior a few months ago, in hindsight I would say that for sure the number one thing is development including strength, speed, skill, etc..  Assuming for sake of argument that all travel teams you are looking at are equal in this regard, I'd say to go to an organization that is well connected with the colleges your son may be interested in, and that supplies the best team that your son can start on.  if your team goes far at a PG tourney it gets more eyeballs, though if you're sitting on the bench that obviously defeats the purpose.  My son's team made the Sweet 16 at WWBA and Ft. Myers and were tons of scouts there for all their games.

Otherwise I generally agree with the above posts.

Always amazes me when I hear that kids from major population areas don't need to attend showcases or play on travel teams.  Truth is almost all of the very best players actually do those two things.  Almost all of them are in fact on national level travel teams.

Atlanta, LA, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Miami, etc., etc. The best players are playing travel baseball.  Most all of the best young players in the Big Leagues played travel baseball.  Who knows if they really had to, they just did.  The Cubs just won the World Series, Fowler, Heyward, Russell, Rizzo, Bryant, Schwarber, Almora, Baez, etc., all went to PG Showcases and played in PG WWBA tournaments.  Fowler, Heyward, Russell, Bryant, Baez and Almora all played in the PG All American Classic.

Also, there are players that standout more in showcases and players that standout more in tournaments.  College recruiters like to see both showcase and tournament performance.  Sometimes the player with so so tools can be the best player on the field in a tournament.  Sometimes the player that has a bad tournament shows his tools in a showcase.  It is all important.

Also, a team playing in one of the better tournaments is scouted by our staff at every game.  Our opinions are relayed to college coaches and MLB scouts throughout the event.  After all, our job is to find talent!  Every team is assigned to play pool games, every pool has 2 or 3 teams that absolutely draws interest.  So even a bad team with no talent is going to have recruiters and scouts at their games because of the team they are playing against.  It is almost impossible to play 6 games without being seen.  However it is possible to play a hundred games and not draw any interest.

The past several years we have been getting many small colleges to attend.  I think they have found out they can see more kids that can really play in one week than they see elsewhere in a month or more.  There simply isn't enough DI roster spots for all those players, even if they have DI ability.  That makes it a gold mine for colleges below DI.  More and more small college coaches are figuring that out.

The best travel team in order to be seen is one of the following...

A team that has some serious talent or a team that plays against teams that have some serious talent. 

The best events in order to be seen.

Those that have the most talent.

With regard to development, I would say that's a huge factor at the younger ages, but lets be realistic, once you hit 15U and up there really is no development time unless you're playing on a "local" type travel team. At 15U-16U we didn't have a facility for winter and almost every kid was a basketball player so winter workouts would basically have been 4 or 5 kids at a time if we were lucky.  Just no way to schedule workouts with kids coming from 7 or 8 different HS's in 2 states.   My son played 17U on a team made up of kids from all over Ohio so there was really no "winter training".  They had a facility available and a few kids went, but it was 2 and a half hours away.  My son worked out with his HS team over the winter.  Once HS started, you can't work out with any other teams and once HS ended, the summer season started the next weekend. 

PGSTAFF, 

I agree with all that you said above, BUT . . .

You can be on a great team with the most talent and that participates in the "best events", but if the player is not one of the "most talented" and is sitting on the bench 95% of the time at the games that player player is going to be seen much, if at all.  I don't know how common this might be, but I've witnessed it on more than one occasion and it saddened me to see what it did to the player and to the player's family's interest in baseball.

"What Kind of Travel Team is best"

IMHO it is extremely relative to the player.  The best travel team gets the kid recruited to the kind of college he wants to play for regardless of the level.  So, that would mean the coach has a network of college coaches he is familiar with, and is playing the venues that are appropriate for the recruit and the team.  My oldest son played at the highest levels of travel baseball ( team won 16U PG WWBA in 2008..he pitched the semi-final CG) and it did very little for him in terms of the right exposure because many of the schools he was most interested were not at the big venues.  We eventually realized a different approach could have yielded far better results.

Lesson learned:  pick the travel team that is going to best help you get recruited to the school you want to go to.

Also depends on position.  If you're a pitcher, even a couple of innings on the mound on a top team in a big PG tourney gets you a ton of looks.  If you're a position player stuck behind someone and you only get a handful of ABs that may not be enough to be seen.

My S was a PO.

He played local travel until HS, then would play an occasional local game when a team needed a pitcher - except for scout ball which he played during the fall of sophomore, junior and senior years. Summer after junior year, he played on a collegiate team as PO but the team had roughly 40 pitchers (seven games a week for the summer) who would go an inning or two each week.  Occasionally, the local D1 (where he had been a bat boy until HS) would need a pitcher to plug in when it hosted HS tournaments.  He never traveled more than five hours by car.

In his case, his personal PC would bring college coaches in to see pitchers who were ready. So, his exposure was through scout ball, camps (HF and Stanford), HS ball (local coaches and scouts came to see a team which could barely field 9 playing against similar teams), personal outreach by his personal PC, and the summer collegiate team.  PO's, however, are a bit different from position players.

There are lots of ways to skin this cat, but it comes down finally to two factors (to me): exposure and playing. Go wherever you can do both within your budget.

Truman posted:

.  Otherwise, one might as well save some money and play with other organizations like Little League, Pony League, American Legion, etc.

Agreed with post until last sentence. Would not group A.L with Little league and Pony League. Depends on area and state--some American Legion Programs and states achieve what good travel teams do--if exposure and D1 offers are ultimate "prize." As for MLB, I would imagine the better Legion players showcase as well.

As for OP, weigh cost, exposure, playing time and competition. Where the four align the best is the right program for your son.

IMO, up until a kid is ready to start showcasing, they should be playing on the team that offers the best opportunities for development and playing time against appropriate level teams.  What I mean is that a kid should be working with a team that provides coaching and development both during the season and off season.  In addition the kid should be seeing more playing time then bench time during games and games should be against teams that challenge the kids teams, but don't over power them.  This team is different for every kid.  Some kids should be playing on the top travel teams, others should stay in rec ball.  The thing is development is the only thing that mattes up until a kid is ready to showcase.  In many instances the lower level players who work hard at development will pass up the studs who kicked back during the younger years.  You won't know if a kid "has a chance" until they hit puberty and start playing HS ball.

Once they reach 15U I would start looking for a program that is designed to get the kids in front of the college coaches at the level they want/can to play.  PGStaff is right, you will need to showcase and play in the right tournaments to be seen.  Many of these showcase teams do not play in the normal local tourneys but instead work to get the kids the exposure they need to be seen.  In our area there are maybe 3 to 5  teams that know how to get the kids recruited.  These are not always the programs winning the local tourneys and known as the area power team.  I've posted this before, many of these teams will sacrifice winning in place of getting kids on the field to be seen.  For instance there is a local "closed" league in our area that most travel players don't even know exists.  Its for the top programs only and is consisted of these 5 teams that all work to get their kids noticed.  The league plays all summer long and against each other, so every weekend your pretty much playing the same teams.  The games are generally played at the same set of fields every weekend.  The league posts a schedule to the college and pro guys they work with showing who is playing where.  Its not unusual to have 15 to 20 colleges attending the games along with a few MLB guys every weekend.  The games are competitive and teams want to win, but most teams rotate their players in every other inning.  They will not hesitate to pull a hot pitcher for another pitcher to put him in front of certain colleges.  I've seen them swap players between teams because another team is short.  They have extended games past 7 innings to get kids more exposure time as the colleges were still there.  They have cut games short during very very hot weather as kids were dehydrating.  Its not your normal tourney ball, but this is where the best kids are playing.  Most of these programs end their season playing at PG events.  In addition they hold private showcases for the teams and leagues which are very well attended by the HCs and RCs.   The majority of these teams do not play in local tourneys at the older levels.

When your son is 15 get a real assessment of his talent and abilities. This will lead you to the level(s) of college that you will likely be able to play .  Always pick a travel team that is going to Ft. Myers or Jupiter or Atlanta ( lake Point)

Target schools that are at his level and schools that he wants to graduate from. I mean after all the that's the most important part.  

It's a process,  it's fluid, but over time you will get there.  One thing I have learned  when 2013 was going through the recruiting back in 2011-12  it is much different than it is now for 2018.... 

You know I am sort of relieved I do not have to go through the recruiting anymore.

Thanks for all the responses to this post so far (and a few great PMs).  Really great stuff. 

Truman posted:

PGSTAFF, 

I agree with all that you said above, BUT . . .

You can be on a great team with the most talent and that participates in the "best events", but if the player is not one of the "most talented" and is sitting on the bench 95% of the time at the games that player player is going to be seen much, if at all.  I don't know how common this might be, but I've witnessed it on more than one occasion and it saddened me to see what it did to the player and to the player's family's interest in baseball.

I've noticed in the Atlanta area that several of the "top" teams may carry 25+ players.  It may be great to have that name on your hat and on your shirt but if you only play a couple of innings every 3 or 4 games..it makes me wonder how much good "that name" is doing for the kid.

CaCO3Girl posted:

Truman posted:

PGSTAFF, 

I agree with all that you said above, BUT . . .

You can be on a great team with the most talent and that participates in the "best events", but if the player is not one of the "most talented" and is sitting on the bench 95% of the time at the games that player player is going to be seen much, if at all.  I don't know how common this might be, but I've witnessed it on more than one occasion and it saddened me to see what it did to the player and to the player's family's interest in baseball.

I've noticed in the Atlanta area that several of the "top" teams may carry 25+ players.  It may be great to have that name on your hat and on your shirt but if you only play a couple of innings every 3 or 4 games..it makes me wonder how much good "that name" is doing for the kid.

It could be the number of POs they are carrying.  If they do not have any two way players and they play a lot of games close together that number may not be so out of wack as it seems.

Is the name on the name on the shirt important...... depends..... on the player..... my son plays for one of the Atlanta teams, Team Elite Prime.... they  have 20-22 guys on the roster, not all can make each event.... sometimes he threw 6 innings sometimes 2-3 innings. 

being with like talent, playing against like talent, going further in major events... is worth it.

CaCO3Girl, to tack on to my earlier post...Teams tend to carry more players at the older levels.  In addition to most of the showcase teams having a lot of POs the kids are very distracted at this age.  As focused as some of them are on baseball other things will pop and its not unusual to be missing a few kids or to need to work around the kids schedules.  Girls are the biggest distraction, but so are college visits (majority of them are non-baseball related), and other school/sport events.

My son played for the 16u East Cobb Astros.  Had 35 players or so on the roster.  Also had 11 players who threw 90 mph or higher.  Nearly every game was heavily followed by colleges, because they knew they'd see top talent.   Due to the roster size, no one was over pitched.  And, 2-3 innings was enough to be seen.  Son committed to a high D1/power 5 largely due to his work and that exposure.  So, again, big rosters don't mean lack of exposure.  He could have had much more innings on another team (and more chance of overuse) and less exposure 

I see we have members here that have sons playing for teams like East Cobb Astros and Team Elite.  These are National level teams and among the best at that level.  A very large number of players on these rosters end up at high level DI colleges and/or get drafted.

Typically these type teams play in big events, sometimes lasting a week, where they could end up playing 10 or more games.  This requires a larger roster and a ton of pitching.  It's not unusual to see teams bring 12-16 pitchers to our Jupiter tournament in October.  On these type teams, even the players on the bench are often good DI prospects.  And when they get seen, they are seen by a very large number of the top colleges and pro scouts.  Our number two ranked player in the 2017 class played on one of these type teams  (Canes) last year.  He would hit last in their lineup and he spent his time on the bench, too.  Not so much this year, though.

A common misconception is that all these players end up at the SEC, ACC, or other top conferences.  Truth is the Ivy League recruiters are their watching them too.  Especially those players with great academic achievement.  Even the top Jucos are there, because some of the best players can't qualify for the 4 year colleges.

If a player has enough ability to play on one of these National level teams, he should definitely do that.  Typically there is at least one of them in most every state.  In certain hotbeds there can be many of them.  Without much research anyone can figure out who they are.  Hint: look for the teams that participate in the biggest scouting events.  Or look at the top DI rosters and research where their players played travel ball.  Or check the draft or MLB players and see who they played for when they were younger.  Those are the top teams.

Of course, not everyone can be on one of those type teams.  So if exposure is a big concern, get on the best team you can that plays against those type teams.  That can and has paid big dividends for many young players.  

Over the last couple years we have seen a big spike in the number of small colleges attending the bigger tournaments.  In some cases it is the only big recruiting trip they make, because they don't all have big recruiting budgets.  So they can go to a small regional or local tournament and see players.  Or they can see a thousand players that could be borderline DI or DII recruits, but there simply isn't enough room for them to all go DI.  There are around 300 DI schools.  Some of these large tournaments will have more than 5,000 players.  If every single DI college successfully recruited 10  players from that one event, how many other players are left?  And here is the kicker, almost all of the players not drawing DI interest are very good.  

If I were still a small college coach these days, I could build a powerful program by spending a couple weeks at these events.  I'm glad that some coaches have figured that out.  They spend some of their time watching the teams from their area play against top teams from other parts of the country.  It takes effort on their part, but without effort what do you have?

We also know of some small college coaches that work those events long distance.  They follow what is going on and subscribe to our scouting service. 

I totally agree that it is most important to play.  Sitting on the bench can be very frustrating and not very productive from an exposure standpoint.  But, there are certain rosters that automatically put you in a certain class of player.  In those cases only, it can actually be more beneficial in being a parttime player than being a play every game guy on a team playing in an event that nobody is scouting.

BTW, all the above is about older age divisions.  And it isn't so much about development as it is exposure.  When kids are 9-12 years old my suggestion is to play on a team that will help you develop your skills, learn the game, and most importantly where you can have the most enjoyment. For some that would be the local rec league, for others it might be more serious, and yet for others, it might be a National level travel team.  To me they are all just fine, if that is what provides the most enjoyment for the kids that are playing the game.  Unfortunately, some kids are just doing it because that is what mom and dad enjoy the most.  There isn't much that is more important than cultivating a real love for the game at the younger ages. That might be the most important thing of all when we talk about development.  It should probably be the first thing to consider when your son shows some interest in baseball.

With regard to rosters.....the numbers are bigger at older ages, but that doesn't always mean less playing time, especially when a lot of the kids are PO's.  My son's team at 17U had 22-24, but 12-14 were pitchers.  A few were 2-way kids.  4 of our weekends were in a "scout league".  We played to win, but pitching was scheduled at the beginning of the week so college coaches knew when a kid was going to pitch.  We typically threw 2-3 pitchers a game so in a 5-game weekend we would use 10-15 pitchers.  Some kids couldn't make it every weekend, so there were weekends when kids would get more innings.  At that age, the kids wanted to win but they also understood that the point was getting exposure to colleges, not collecting trophies

PGStaff posted:

 There isn't much that is more important than cultivating a real love for the game at the younger ages. That might be the most important thing of all when we talk about development.  It should probably be the first thing to consider when your son shows some interest in baseball.

+1

mcloven posted:

My son played for the 16u East Cobb Astros.  Had 35 players or so on the roster.  Also had 11 players who threw 90 mph or higher.  Nearly every game was heavily followed by colleges, because they knew they'd see top talent.   Due to the roster size, no one was over pitched.  And, 2-3 innings was enough to be seen.  Son committed to a high D1/power 5 largely due to his work and that exposure.  So, again, big rosters don't mean lack of exposure.  He could have had much more innings on another team (and more chance of overuse) and less exposure 

Thanks for posting I was in fact thinking about the 17u Astros.  I know a kid who is on there and he plays a couple innings every few games.

I guess a huge part of what team should you play on is what do you want from the team?  Exposure, playing time, contacts, distance from home, development...lots of variables and lots of choices.  In my sons case playing is the most important to him. In my friends son case he is trying to leverage baseball to get into a college he wouldn't normally get into, so he's fine wearing the Astros shirt and barely playing.

Yep--agreed.  Tons of variables! And, at some point in development, the player should probably understand that if he wants to play at a top D1 school (where players are all good),  he's going to need to work hard to earn playing time over other really good players (not 11U ball, but more like 15-17u).  For some, playing on a top team provides extra motivation to work hard because (1) they are around like-minded players (also can learn from teammates' work habits/playing style), (2) they constantly see their opponent's best and are playing for championships, and (3) they need to put in the effort on and off the field to make sure they earn playing time.  But, I think the importance of playing on a team like that is a sliding scale based on age.  Development/playing time is more important at younger ages, with the understanding that you're also trying to develop a solid work ethic to earn that playing time.  There's really no one right way to do any of this. 

No need to get on an expensive Travel Team that travels far & wide until you get to be an age where you are ready for and seriously considering being recruited.   Otherwise it is a waste of money

There are a ton of travel programs getting wealthy off of the dreams of parents of 10-14 year olds.  

Actually another good source of picking a Travel Team is to look at the PG Rankings for travel teams for your son's age group.

MCPH.. this was precisely why I asked the question--because if you base it off of PG ranking alone you MIGHT end up on the wrong team.  I live in the Midwest and while we have 2-3 teams consistently ranked in the PG  top 100 that are options, there's a wide variance in the level of team from the #80 to the #30 to the one that's had top 10s  because of smaller concentration of of D1 players coming out of our state.  They also don't carry 35 players because of logistics.  

Maybe the answer is I need to move?  

Hmmmm.......interesting.  My son had interest in West Coast Schools, too so he actually played for a team from there to get exposure.  That said, it's always more fun to play with kids from your region of the country.  

Anyway, I'd try out for any of your regional teams that are good and see how you'd fit on the team, your feel of how you like the coaches, and their training program.  As long as you like the training and focus of the program, and know that your son would get regular playing time, that's how I would pick it.

Thanks at what age did he focus on a school in the region he wanted to play?  17U or before that? 

Hi,

16u was when he started  getting  offers.  He got 5 offers total and liked one school so much he committed.  

Major questions for the player.

Will I learn the game? Is the Coach a "teacher" or a "promoter"? What are my goals? Can I improve my skills? What is my family's budget? Do they have a track coach to improve my speed and quickness. Will I have "fun"?

Find a local pro scout or college players to honestly evaluate my skills.

Bob