Where to focus time and $$

PG events are tuff to beat for exposure if you can handle the cost of the showcases and travel cost associated with the tournaments.

Aside from my son's travel team cost, the other area we focus some money is in college prospect camps. Usually descent competition and a chance for us to get out of the frigid NE and get some winter reps.

For a academic strong student ....would also recommend Headfirst showcase.....

Yes, I had heard good things about PG so we decided to try them locally. It looks like there are several Major League ballplayers that once did PG. The event my son went to was only advertised as having PG staff in attendance and he got an evaluation. I would definitely keep eyes open for a more scouted event. Sometimes you look around at these events and everyone looks like a scout! The showcases I don't know about are the ones that say several college coaches would be in attendance. Wouldn't that seem like an easy way of exposing a player if they were colleges he may be interested in? We moved from the NE to Arizona. Baseball is pretty much year-round!

We invested the bulk of our time and treasure in advanced skill development with high quality instructors that had a complete understanding of the game.

After that it was Travel Ball including all the PG events both metal and wood bat. A PG showcase or two and the rest took care of itself.

As stated by others on this board (and true for us), have your son play on the highest level team that he can get good playing time. Get the best instruction/lessons your budget can provide. Have a good workout/strength and conditioning routine. Then make sure the team plays at events that coaches want to come to.

quote:

Originally posted by Rangerboy:
It looks like there are several Major League ballplayers that once did PG.

Several?

From the PG website:

"2012 MLB Draft
Perfect Game has more talented players in attendance than any other organization. The proof is in the results.
29 of the 31 first round picks of the 2012 MLB Draft had previously attended a Perfect Game event.>
55 of the 60 first and supplemental first round picks had previously attended a Perfect Game event.

All 35 players drafted in the first and supplemental first rounds out of high school had previously attended a Perfect Game event.

88% of the players selected in the first five rounds had previously attended a Perfect Game event.

Carlos Correa became the sixth Perfect Game All-American to be selected No. 1 overall since the game’s inception in 2003.

19 former PG All-Americans were drafted in the first and supplemental first rounds of the 2012 draft, 16 of which played in the 2011 Classic.

31 of the 31 of the 60 players selected in the first and supplemental first rounds had attended the Perfect Game National Showcase, 22 of which did so in 2011.
Five-Year Perfect Game Draft Growth, 2007-2011:

2007: 1,048 of 1,453 (72%)
2008: 1,164 of 1,504 (77%)
2009: 1,191 of 1,521 (78%)
2010: 1,266 of 1,525 (83%)
2011: 1,323 of 1,530 (85%)
Overall: 5,992 of 7,533 (80%)

People sometimes think that Perfect Game is only for those prospects that are going into professional baseball. The number of Perfect Game participants who play at the college level is much, much larger than the draft totals. The number of Perfect Game participants who play at the college level is much, much larger than the draft totals. Perfect Game also has many players who are continuing their baseball careers at Junior Colleges and other Small Colleges.

Note: Often the PG naysayers get upset when we release these figures. However, they are a very important part of our business. We ask, if anyone else could claim these numbers, would they keep it confidential? Please everyone, understand that we are not laying claim for these players getting drafted. Our job is to identify talented players, not to develop them, draft them or recruit them. That is why we use the term "attended PG events" rather than "PG Player". We don't deserve any credit for the vast majority of talented players who attend our events and go on to get College Scholarships or become draft picks. We understand that Justin Upton would have been what he is, with or without PG.

The credit should go to the many coaches, teams, teammates, instructors, parents and most of all, to the individual players themselves. Many of these players play in excellent summer and fall programs. Without those programs PG would miss a lot of talented players. "

Create a business plan. Decide which colleges are the target. Find out where they will be looking for players. Make your plan around getting in front of your choice colleges at those locations.

Thanks, very helpful and sound advice. I am mostly interested in advancing my son as an individual player. He is on a summer team that may play the JO tournaments and maybe a few other tournaments locally, I do not see that being number one priority. The team he plays on was put together locally (talent is very mediocre) and paying alot of money for him to be on the team, coaching is very mediocre and very political. He gets his playtime because he is a solid player but I don't have any control over what tournaments they play in.
Response to "keewart" very impressive statistics, undoubtedly PG is definitely one of the top organizations that do this. The MLB players I was talking about were some of the top names. It's pretty interesting to watch a video of Prince Fielder, David Wright, Ike Turner, Bryce Harper and others performing in these events before they were famous!

quote:

Originally posted by Rangeryboy:

The MLB players I was talking about were some of the top names. It's pretty interesting to watch a video of Prince Fielder, David Wright, Ike Turner, Bryce Harper and others performing in these events before they were famous!

I'm prettyyyyyyy sure Ike Turner was already famous.

Great thread here thus far with some sound advice.

If we had to do it all over again rather than spending money traveling to tournaments all over the place I would concentrate on attending camps at the colleges he was interested in and building a rapport with those coaches.

quote:

At this point in time, where is the best place to focus time and money?

This quesiton will (always) be a matter of opinion because everybodys situation is different. You and your son need to form your own opinion by trying various recruiting strategies and defining what your end goal is. Most everybody on this site has different goals. How they got to those goals and the path they took is buried in these threads (and others)....it is great reading and the advice is priceless.

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/f...6003481/m/2457087626 - Travel team vs camps
http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/f...6003481/m/5727032226 - Tell Your recruiting story
http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/f...481/m/8547062326/p/1 - When is it panic time?


IMHO..The best place to focus YOUR time and money is where your son is wanted and where his academic goals can be met. But that is MY opinion. I think RJM and can-o-corn have given you sound advice as far as a place to start. This process works alot better when you know what you are looking for, rather than trying to search for something that fits across 302 D1 schools, 230 D2 schools, 359 D3 schools, 192 NAIA schools and 381 JUCO schools. The opportunities are endless. But if you start with YOUR goals, it can give you the best to place to start for you. Telling us what your end goal is, can help us help you better. Good luck.

Recruited = Passion + Skill + Exposure + Persistence + Luck.

My kids and I listed the conferences at the level we felt they could play. Then we went through the schools in those conference for those we felt were an academic, athletic, social and geographic fit.

I believe high school sophomores are best served by doing each day the things that will create the most possibilities when they enter their prime recruiting window after their junior year and in their senior year.

Except for the very few truly elite players who get recruited real early, very little meaningful happens on the recruiting front before the end of the junior year.

Most of the recruiting activity initiated by parents and players before then does more to satisfy the urge to "do something" than to increase the likelihood of playing for any particular school. When schools of the right level for your son get around to recruiting players of your son's skill level, coaches will want to move things along fairly quickly. Until then, most of us heard nothing but crickets for longer than we were comfortable. My own experience is that nothing my son and I did to establish contact with schools of his choosing had any effect at all. None of the schools on his initial "target" list made offers. All his offers came from schools that found him and contacted him all by themselves without any help from us.

What should the sophomore player spend his time and money on?
Grades and test prep . . . nutrition and strength . . . speed and skills . . . best competition available now.

What should his parents spend their time and money on?
Tutoring and test prep as needed . . . competent coaches and trainers . . . a solid travel program with a track record of placing players at the level your son projects to be . . . self education on the recruiting process so you are ready when things finally do start moving.

Ignore this advice if your son's "measurables" (height, speed, velocity, etc.) already mark him as a top-level prospect.

Best wishes,

now is the time to bet your name out there and get exposure-----they cannot follow you if they do not know you

"Follow" is over-rated. It's one of those words people toss around without stopping to ask what it means.

What "follow" means in reality is that a school has seen a player and decided he hasn't shown enough size, speed, skill, strength, talent to be recruited now. It means a player created a less-than-overwhelming first impression, which he will have to work harder to overcome.

The only other practical consequence is getting one's name in a database of potential camp customers.

Does anyone know what the situation would be as far as playing for a Junior College? I was told (because I asked) a PG staff member what would be the attraction? The answer was a bit confusing but saying a player is at his prime age to come out of JuCO (Junior) who will get more playtime transferring to D1-2 (not sure about D3. If you're an incoming freshman at D1-2, no way will they play you because the Juniors and Seniors will have those roster spots. My son is an Academically advanced high school (#1 in Arizona) and the thought of him going into a Junior College is ridiculous.The JuCo already has sent him a letter identifying him as an "elite player" in Southern Arizona. Yikes, he's already on their radar! My son's goal (I think) is to get into a good school (not sure if he's D1) and play baseball! Sound familiar??

BTW the PG staff said "playing in JuCo is
considered a hot commodity".

SWAMP

think as uour wish-----I will still do it my way

quote:

Originally posted by Swampboy:
"Follow" is over-rated. It's one of those words people toss around without stopping to ask what it means.

What "follow" means in reality is that a school has seen a player and decided he hasn't shown enough size, speed, skill, strength, talent to be recruited now. It means a player created a less-than-overwhelming first impression, which he will have to work harder to overcome.

The only other practical consequence is getting one's name in a database of potential camp customers.

I agree and disagree. Where I disagree is the soph who shows a lot of athleticism and just needs to put it all together skills wise. Sometimes it's the 5'11", 160 soph who comes back the next year 6'1", 175 and more dominant. In my son' case the "follow" included being asked if he had visited the campus which is a hint they're interested. While I did not spend a lot on exposure after soph year it was a good thing he got some. He was injured the entire junior summer-fall recruiting season.

quote:

Rangerboy posted...My son's goal (I think) is to get into a good school (not sure if he's D1) and play baseball! Sound familiar??

You mentioned your son attends an academically advanced high school (#1 in AZ). For the purposes of further defining your goals and what is needed to accomplish those goals.....is it safe to say that your son enjoys an academically challenging environment while balancing baseball? Or is pro baseball more the end goal? Or put more succintly, what is most important between athletics, baseball or financing college?

If he wants to pursue an academic path with baseball then I agree with Swampboy. You should spend your time and money on test preps, improving grades and competent coaches with a solid travel program. These two things can be done in parallel starting now. Most academically inclined schools will start seriously recruiting you after you've achieved acceptable SATs/ACTS, GPA that meet their criteria. Prior to that, they are simply following you and keeping the communication lines open.

I'd begin to develop a target list of schools. College Navigator is the best tool I've seen to do that based on many factors including location. You can create a seperate baseball list as RJM suggests based upon conferences, etc... From these two lists you can merge them together to get an idea of where to start. There are no guarantees that where you start is where you'll finish but you have to start somewhere. We started with Virginia schools, and that quickly changed into East Coast schools due to my son's requirements and market supply/demand.

Good luck!