When to start social media stuff as a HS Freshman?

Colleges coaches don’t recruit off statistics. They look at metrics. Then they want to see if the player has the skill set and baseball IQ to back up the metrics.

A player is better off having a coach or instructor promote/presell him to college coaches rather than trying to sell himself hoping to be discovered.

I think it’s when other people are tweeting about you. I’ve never been a fan of posting your own stuff. I ran My sons twitter account because he hates social media. I would only retweet what organizations or his school tweeted. And of course things that were tweeted about his teammates. Most coaches use it now even if it’s just to show you they are interested.

If it’s not varsity it doesn’t matter.  My philosophy.  You send emails but leave social media to mom, dad, coaches and scouts.  

I agree with @PitchingFan, anything sub-varsity is irrelevant. I also agree with @baseballhs that retweets of other people’s posts carry much more weight than your own. Personally I think the whole social media promotion thing is way out of control. I roll my eyes when I see an 8th grader posting video of “getting some work in today.” Literally nobody cares. It just screams, “ I want some attention.” I have quoted this before but I will again because I think it’s one of the more accurate statements I have heard about social media and the youth of today. It was said by the RC of HCU as he was speaking to a Houston area travel ball team about recruiting. He said, “today’s young players care more about getting likes and follows on their social media than they care about what actual decision makers, that can impact the course of their lives, think.” Now you would think a statement like that would have an impact. But it hasn’t seemed to - as I believe he is 100% correct.

Thanks for all the replies.  It was mostly a feeling of  ‘man, do I need to do all of this at this stage!!’   I’m thankful for the wisdom shared.  I think travel teams promote this mentality  - partially for the player to get a feel for doing it but mostly for promotion of the organization itself.  I wasn’t really interested in participating until my kid has something to truly promote.  Otherwise, I feel like it’s similar to publicly posting on Facebook.  No one cares and the ones that do would rather have a personal email or message sent directly to them.  Thanks again!  

If you are playing for an organization that promotes it find a new organization.  That is their job not the players.  

IMHO, KISS Method, focus on training, playing and being part of a team.

Here is a good website to help you plan out your son's and family's journey

https://keepplayingbaseball.org/

Agree with the others.   No reason to post as a freshman in a HS game.....unless maybe you are posting a video of him throwing 85+.  HS stats at any level, other than maybe HR's are meaningless to a college coach, even if it was on the Varsity team.  Coaches want to "see" the kid, which will in all likelihood happen in the summer as colleges are in the middle of their seasons right now.  No college coach has time to scroll thru social media looking for HS stats....especially 2026's that they have never heard of.

One of those - if a tree falls and doesn't make a sound type questions

Even if he posts it - who's watching it?

Saw the greatest example of bad social media this morning.  I normally do not click on twitter posts by HS guys but realized a major college friend had commented so I looked.

Kid posted had a pop time of 1.87 today.  Let's Goooo.

Posted video.

My coach friend replied.  I timed your video and that is more like 2.3.

The kid replied.  Oh that was not the video of the 1.87 but just a casual throw to second.

Bad social media hurts a lot more than good social media.  I'm sure this kid got written off a lot of lists.

Talked to my son for a long time on Sunday. He said "the more I see it the more I think social media comes with far more negatives than positives because people believe too much of what's out there and a lot of it is created to tell a story." His point wasn't necessarily to ignore it but to remember to take a lot of what's out there with a grain of salt.

We did not start using twitter/IG until our kids were really engaged in recruiting. From a sports perspective, our involvement was to like or share content generated by someone else.

All just personal opinion here...as I've only been through this once and with a kid who decided to play college ball really late, but these were pieces of advice I received.

Honestly, I think social media is a great tool... for a good laugh.  I still don't think you can beat a directed email with a 30 second video of your swing, your pitches or your fielding mechanics, sent during non-blackout period, to a specific list of coaches/schools you want to playfor/attend.   That way you can stay in control of what is seen and by whom.  And that target list should include schools at all levels. 

Coaches are busy, don't send them 4 innings of game footage.  30 seconds per skill is more than enough for a coach to determine project-ability, fielding skills, and if you can barrel up a ball, to spark interest and potential visit for an in person look-see.

And like others have said,  nobody, especially coaches, care one iota about High School, travel or any other stats.  Maybe, maybe... a stat line saying you went 3-4 against the #4 pitcher in the country, or shut down a team with x,y and z D1 P5 commits/pro prospects ...but otherwise there is no comparison that would mean anything to a coach like stats mean in MLB.

I had a hitting coach tell my son if someone can't hit .400+ in HS ball (d1 level), they basically can't hit.  So sending hitting stats is probably a "who cares" at best and a "warning sign" at worst.

Advocacy by respected coaches, trainers, etc that can provide insight into your ability, work ethic and personality is much more effective.

My take on when to start, For 90% of people it starts summer after sophomore year of high school.  kids who are getting recruited before that are the 1%'ers.

I built my son's baseball twitter account when he was 13 playing 15U summer tournaments. I did so because all the tournament sites we had to register on were asking for social media account information (PG, PBR, FiveTool). I posted a few things and the tournament organizers linked highlights to his page. Looking back the videos are pretty funny. He was maybe 5ft tall and it seemed like all the other player towered over him. LOL Not much was posted till HS ball started. Have been posting highlights since then, along with retweeting stuff posted by tournament organizers.

Last summer we started following college recruiting coordinators on twitter (for the schools he had interest in) and received a number of follows back.  Shortly after some of the follow backs, his travel coach was contacted from two schools asking questions about son. The calls were followed up with emails to the coaches with additional information and video's.

So, social media can start a conversation in some cases.

My son has a Twitter account and I think the only tweet he ever posted was when he committed. He does retweet others but is super cautious about who he chooses to retweet. He has started to post TikTok videos of bullpens and so forth. He focused on emails to coaches — i've said this before, he but he always rode home with us from games after pitching because he spent the whole trip emailing every coach he had a relationship with (not a group email, but individualized to each coach), telling them about his start, what went well, what went wrong and what he planned to work on after the outing. Coaches soon realized that he was a pitcher who was working just as hard on the mental side of the game as he was on the field.

The danger with social media is someone can get a picture of the player doing something a coach wouldn't like (drinking, smoking a joint) and tag it to their account.

A friend, a lawyer fought the suspension handed down by. a school district on behalf of a committed college athlete. Someone who didn’t like the athlete tagged the athlete’s social media page with a fake picture of the athlete holding a beer. The athlete was at the party. But she wasn’t drinking alcohol.

The issue got back to the future college coach. The athlete had to explain legal proceedings had started to get reinstated. Sometimes, even if the athlete has done nothing wrong, as in this case a coach may not want to be bothered and move on.

By the time it was all over it was front page news and a warning to all prospective college athletes.

@PitchingFan posted:

Saw the greatest example of bad social media this morning.  I normally do not click on twitter posts by HS guys but realized a major college friend had commented so I looked.

Kid posted had a pop time of 1.87 today.  Let's Goooo.

Posted video.

My coach friend replied.  I timed your video and that is more like 2.3.

The kid replied.  Oh that was not the video of the 1.87 but just a casual throw to second.

Bad social media hurts a lot more than good social media.  I'm sure this kid got written off a lot of lists.

Pop time numbers are out of control. Everyone has a 1.9 now....

@BaseballGhostMom posted:

Pop time numbers are out of control. Everyone has a 1.9 now....

Lol....right and their velo is 73mph.  Simple math says that doesn't work

Yup, I think players are better off posting videos of in game CSs. If a coach wants to know the time they will pull out a stopwatch and time it for themselves (not a coach just my opinion).

@Buckeye 2015 posted:

Lol....right and their velo is 73mph.  Simple math says that doesn't work

If you are using the small field

@BaseballGhostMom posted:

Pop time numbers are out of control. Everyone has a 1.9 now....

Q. What’s the easiest way to increase pop time?

A. Post it online.

@TexasLefty posted:

I have a HS freshman that is a borderline showcase kid.  I’d say he’s not there yet but that’s why I’m asking.  The question is, when do you start feeding the social media beast?  I see all kinds of posts from his tournament friends and rivals, but think they are early as well. Maybe I’m wrong but definitely curious.  

The type of stuff I see through scrimmage games are posts like 2IP, 1BB, 2Ks, 0R with video clips.  Or things like that.  My kid has comparable or better numbers through his scrimmages.  And probably will in the regular season.  Without velo, are those even compelling as freshman stats, so why even post them?

Is it good to start a presence online?  I’m also thinking even if no one is looking or really caring in the scouting world, it might make for good habits of posting in the long term?  Thoughts?

Just my opinion, and it's based upon our experience as a family through the baseball recruiting process.   I believe that social media presence can be important, but it has to be factual and it has to be targeted.   I don't think that any kid does himself any favors by sending out tweets tagging coaches and schools from a high school game/scrimmage/showcase etc... unless it is really outstanding, or is something verifiable.

First, I think that you need to have something worth bragging about.   If your son went 4-4 with two bombs then absolutely brag about it and tag some assistant coaches.   If your son pitched five innings of no hits and no walks and 10 k's then it's worth sending out a brag.   However, posting stuff from practice, or stats from an inner-squad game is ridiculous.   Also, stuff I see such as "pitched two innings with 2BB and 2K's" is pointless to send out, yet I see it all the time.   

Second, if there is a post made by a reputable organization that has something verifiable then it's worth sending out a brag.  So, if your son was at a PG showcase and FB reached 90mph, and PG put out a tweet about the performance, then absolutely retweet and tag some schools.  In my opinion, those things get noticed.   

I think that most coaches are smart enough to see through all of the fluff.  If your son post that his fastball is siting 93-95 in a practice game at his middle school then most people are going to see that for what it is.   

I had a guy time his son's pop time with the player starting with the ball in his glove and throwing down.  He literally was starting the clock as the ball was leaving the kid's hand.  I had a hard time helping him understand that was not close to reality.  His first showcase made it real for him.  2.5 rather than 1.9.   He actually had one 3.1 in that showcase.

Just one man’s humble opinion. I always taught my son, “Don’t talk about yourself. If you are good enough, others will do that for you”. I realize I’m old school and will get crushed for my opinion. That’s ok, I’ve got thick skin. Just work harder than everyone else. The cream always rises to the top.

@younggun posted:

Just one man’s humble opinion. I always taught my son, “Don’t talk about yourself. If you are good enough, others will do that for you”. I realize I’m old school and will get crushed for my opinion. That’s ok, I’ve got thick skin. Just work harder than everyone else. The cream always rises to the top.

I've seen some really bad social media posts lately.  I want so bad to say don't show me anything until you have something to show me.  One kid even put not a good start but it will start falling.  He went on to say 0-10 will get better.  I'm like are you serious.  I'm telling anyone that I'm 0-10 hitting.  Another said not my best day on the mound but there is tomorrow.  Then posted the video of the team getting beat 14-0.  What are we doing?  Show me 95 but not 75.  Show me 15 K's not 15 walks or hits.

@PitchingFan posted:

I've seen some really bad social media posts lately.  I want so bad to say don't show me anything until you have something to show me.  One kid even put not a good start but it will start falling.  He went on to say 0-10 will get better.  I'm like are you serious.  I'm telling anyone that I'm 0-10 hitting.  Another said not my best day on the mound but there is tomorrow.  Then posted the video of the team getting beat 14-0.  What are we doing?  Show me 95 but not 75.  Show me 15 K's not 15 walks or hits.

I agree and have seen the same. I don’t think most kids care if they post bad content or something that’s not productive to their cause. All the care about is posting something. Look at me! Look!! Me!!! Me!!!!

@adbono posted:

I agree and have seen the same. I don’t think most kids care if they post bad content or something that’s not productive to their cause. All the care about is posting something. Look at me! Look!! Me!!! Me!!!!

Most of the post that are being made are pointless for a kids recruitment.   In my opinion there are a couple of important details about using social media to help recruiting.   Keep in mind that this is only my opinion.

1) Every post needs to have a purpose.  Coaches that you want to specifically see what you have accomplished need to be tagged directly.  Just putting out info to put out info is a waste of time.   Coaches look at the post that they get notifications about an nothing else.

2) The post needs to have impressive content.  Posting that you went 2 for 4 at the plate in a high school game, or pitched two innings with 3 K's and 1 walk is pointless.    Post when you hit a walk off HR.  Post when you went 5 innings on the mound with 9 K's, 0 BB, and 1 H.   

3) If you are including a measurable then the measurable needs to be verified with a reputable organization.   A post that says, "Had a good game.  Pitched 3 innings giving up no runs with a FB topping at 91."   Is no good.   If there is a FBVelo or Exit Velo that you are going to brag about then it needs to be a retweet from PBR, Perfect Game etc...   

Re-tweets from someone else are always better than your own content.   As mentioned before, no one cares that you are self reporting a FB Velo of 91 because your dad using his pocket radar picked up an exit velocity off a kid that just made contact on your fastball.   But what needs to be Re-Tweeted is if your state PBR representative showed up to your high school game against a quality opponent and that PBR Rep sends out video of your pitching with the caption, " X dominated on the mound going 5 innings 0H, 0BB, with 9 K's.  FB sitting 86-89 (T90).   That type of post needs to be re-tweeted and tagged to the assistant coaches at the schools you have interest in.   That type of post is generated from someone else, has quality brag information, and has a third party verified measurable.   

Why not post the good and the bad?  Everyone always preaches about ending up in the right pond.  So if you post your 4-4 games, but the next week you go 0-4 and don't post, are you really presenting a good picture of yourself?  What happens when the coach looks up stats and sees those duds?  Or worse yet, you get to campus in the fall and go 0-8 in your first two scrimmages and never see the field again?

Be who you are.  It will serve you better in the long run.  Coaches will see the real you and the ones that reach out are the ones that will love you no matter what you do in your first game.

I agree that a re-tweet of someone else is better, but PBR isn't coming to everyone's games.  Engage the booster club to tweet out highlights for individual performances and a summarized box score, then re-tweet that.  Post your season stat-lines on a regular basis. It shows character and an understanding of the game that has so many ups and downs.

Using smoke and mirrors to get to a place you don't belong won't end well.

@2020txcatch posted:

Why not post the good and the bad?  Everyone always preaches about ending up in the right pond.  So if you post your 4-4 games, but the next week you go 0-4 and don't post, are you really presenting a good picture of yourself?  What happens when the coach looks up stats and sees those duds?  Or worse yet, you get to campus in the fall and go 0-8 in your first two scrimmages and never see the field again?

Be who you are.  It will serve you better in the long run.  Coaches will see the real you and the ones that reach out are the ones that will love you no matter what you do in your first game.

I agree that a re-tweet of someone else is better, but PBR isn't coming to everyone's games.  Engage the booster club to tweet out highlights for individual performances and a summarized box score, then re-tweet that.  Post your season stat-lines on a regular basis. It shows character and an understanding of the game that has so many ups and downs.

Using smoke and mirrors to get to a place you don't belong won't end well.

You can’t use smoke & mirrors to get to a place you don’t belong. Not on scholarship anyway. I completely disagree with the premise of your post. IMO posts with bad content (either poor performance and/or bad behavior) can only accomplish one thing. They can hurt you - in many ways. And there is no possibility that they help you. Everyone knows that baseball is full of failure. There is no need to advertise it.

Have I been trolled by @IAmThatGuy?

Social media is good for announcing commitment. If a player has something worth talking about (posting) his coach should be preselling it to college coaches.

@RJM posted:

Social media is good for announcing commitment. If a player has something worth talking about (posting) his coach should be preselling it to college coaches.

IMHO, announcing a verbal commitment makes no sense.

Announcing that you've signed National Letter of Intent removes doubt.

@adbono posted:

You can’t use smoke & mirrors to get to a place you don’t belong. Not on scholarship anyway. I completely disagree with the premise of your post. IMO posts with bad content (either poor performance and/or bad behavior) can only accomplish one thing. They can hurt you - in many ways. And there is no possibility that they help you. Everyone knows that baseball is full of failure. There is no need to advertise it.

I can go find you hundreds of guys from each HS class with nothing but highlights in their tweets that didn't find any place to play after HS.  I can also reference the 1000+  kids who show up at the wrong campus every Fall and are packing up their room by Christmas break.  You bring it all the time.  How did they get there?  If you don't want to call it smoke & mirrors that is fine, but obviously the coach had a perception of the player that turned out not to be true.

As far as scholarships...Are you getting 25% from a D1 based on smoke & mirrrors?  No.  Are you getting 25% from a D1 based on highlights from Twitter?  No.  Those coaches are doing more digging than what they see Twitter. As for our beloved JUCOs, will a coach spend $500 on a housing scholarship for the semester and have the player pay full tuition when he isn't 100% sure what he is getting?  Absolutely.  We both see it every year.   They are recruiting based on the throw 50-60 players against the wall and keep the 35 who stick method.

The truth is out there and easily found.  My point is when you post something on Twitter, you get follows from new coaches, not offers.  Staying top of mind with coaches who covet the type of player you actually are is ONE WAY to end up at the place you belong and have a chance of playing.

There are no absolutes in the actual game of baseball or the recruiting game of baseball.  If you are doing the same thing the other 400,000 HS baseball players are doing, what makes you stand out?  Are you going to squeeze your way onto the back end of a Fall roster because you posted a video of your 3rd HR of the year and the coach thinks you are a power hitter?  Or is it better in the long run to show you are a .300 hitter (who fails 7 out of 10 times at the plate and thus has nothing to post for those 7 at bats in your world)  that plays good defense with occasional pop at the plate that fills a need the coach is looking for?   What happened to all those posts about "We want to see how he handles failure"?

50%+ of players who make it to college ball end up moving to another school...until the transfer portal that was because they were at the wrong place.   I guess what I am suggesting is that just because everyone has always done it a certain way doesn't make it the best method if 50% of those people "fail" at their initial school.

We only did re-tweets BUT we sent an email every week of the past week to a group of 15 coaches for spring, summer, and fall.  I know several read them because in the process they commented on them.  It was short and to the point.  What he did last week, with anything special and his schedule next week.  Never had a coach come watch in person that I know of that we were sending them to during school ball but got a lot of responses during summer and coaches thanking us for sending emails so they knew his schedule.  Normally the email was 3 sentences.

I don't think the premise of any publicity is better than no publicity.  If you strike out four times in a game it better be to a major league guy if you are going to post it.  I just think the social media craze has gone wild.  I've talked to plenty of coaches and they laugh like I do when they see this stuff.  You don't get on their radar by posting your own stuff.  Keep that private.  You get on their radar by having someone else post it and your own booster club is not a reputable re-tweet because I'm going to assume you are the booster club.  Also don't tweet gamechanger report because it is not reputable.  If no one is coming to watch you play, it may speak to the level of play.  We had plenty of recruiting organizations come watch sons play just not college coaches.

A sophomore student of mine jumped from 78 last year to 87 first game and got tweeted about by our state recruiting organization and everything blew up for him.  It was not him putting it out there but when they bragged on him it was real.  Even had one coach call me and want to know what he did to make the jump to see if he could make another one.

@2020txcatch, I guess my point is this: you get recruited by standing out as a result of your play on the field during baseball games. Not by standing out differently on social media. I completely agree with @PitchingFan comments about coach reactions to social media posts. And a follow from a coach doesn’t mean all that much in terms of interest.

@CollegebaseballInsights posted:

IMHO, announcing a verbal commitment makes no sense.

Announcing that you've signed National Letter of Intent removes doubt.

True.  Keep in mind some recruits across the spectrum of college divisions don't get athletic scholarships (sign NLI).  I'm not a fan of social media (it puts more more pressure on the recruit) and my son avoided it like the plague because that is his style.

I understand a recruit wanting to share their success among friends, family, and supporters.  For those that aren't getting athletic scholarships (signing NLIs), my advice would be to share on social media only after receiving an acceptance letter.   

JMO.

@fenwaysouth posted:

True.  Keep in mind some recruits across the spectrum of college divisions don't get athletic scholarships (sign NLI).  I'm not a fan of social media (it puts more more pressure on the recruit) and my son avoided it like the plague because that is his style.

I understand a recruit wanting to share their success among friends, family, and supporters.  For those that aren't getting athletic scholarships (signing NLIs), my advice would be to share on social media only after receiving an acceptance letter.   

JMO.

Understood.  then state that you've received an acceptance letter, commitment only is too vague.

For my son, those in his circle knew, there was no need to blast on social media.

What does one do when there's no PBR or PG in your area to retweet? HS team twitter account only retweets for favored individuals. The boosters/gamechanger is not necessarily a reliable source as mentioned above.

In theory someone can even video record a "60-yard" run with a running stopwatch embedded in the video, but a lot of the footage I've seen could have easily been 58-yards and most video observers would be none the wiser.

We've had minimal viewing activity on links sent directly to coaches, but much more viewing activity on tweeted video. Now the majority of those viewing on twitter might not be coaches, but when coaches that one has never reached out to have started following on twitter I imagine it's because they happened to of viewed to footage that was tweeted and liked what they saw.

I'm not a fan of having to utilize social media, but it seems to of become a component of recruiting.

Is it doable for you to travel for one showcase/year? This is what we try to do with my high schooler. It will most likely provide a professionally filmed bp for your son to retweet. I've noticed that some of the bigger recruits in our area will retweet highlights from a showcase or a mention in a tourney tweet....but they'll also retweet videos of their teammates. This seems to give an idea of the kind of teammate your kid is on and off the field and helps to add a little content to their profile page. It's really cool to see the high schoolers building up their friends. My son and his friends do this on instagram as well (add a teammate's post to their story).