Freddy Suggs Player Evaluations

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You're dead on Freddy. I think most everyone is willing to pay for quality and honesty from a reliable source. I do feel many events in showcase and related events are way over priced.

My son has been to many football camps and a good number of showcase/evaluation events. Football will run you approximately 250.00 and you get meals and lodging for that. You get put through drills, timed and watched and coached for 3 days. Some baseball events charge twice that much for less feedback, no meals and no lodging.

I think what you are doing can be a great service. Coming from someone that knows the game is a big difference.

 

I think what

Freddy is talking about is kids who take advantage of your free coaching , clinics , workouts and then come and play on your team without paying a dime. They are too taxed financially to pay anything to play for you. So out of the goodness of your heart and because you believe every kid deserves a chance you allow them to play on your team. But all of a sudden they can come up with the cash (549.00) to attend a showcase.

 

Exactly...

Or how about this. A family calls him asking if there was any way they could send their oldest son to his Prospect Clinic. He knew they were struggling financially and agreed to allow the son to come...for free.

Come to find out the youngest went to another Showcase for $300 (or whatever it was.) The man gets taken advantage of all the time. You wonder why he is getting out of Showcase ?

 

Thanks but i got that much and agree with both of you. But I was refering to another matter.

 

Braves, you do raise an interesting point however. Your post above says, more or less, "ever wonder why he is getting out of showcase?"

Who created showcase? It wasn't the parents. It wasn't the players. And I'm definitely not saying it was Freddy. But what drives this behavior? Greed? Selfish?

 

Showcase baseball is fine. I love the opportunities it presents. But what has changed is two things:

- Saturation of diluted talent
- Parents believing if they don't have their son attend X tournament that he will not be noticed.

Coach May has said this many times. If you are wanting to spend some money, invest it on instructions and workouts....basically, get better and work harder. There are too many venues to choose from to get lost in the shuffle, but if you are going to showcase your skills be the best player you can be.

 

Agreed. that message has been consistant. Just interesting how behaviors change.

 

So true...but how do you break it to Mom and Dad, who are very good people and have a great son...to please not waste their $300 on a showcase event when their son is an average high school player?

 

I guess the better question is "Who is going to tell the parent that?" I don't know if it is out of fear or arrogance, but most parents don't seem to want to know. The business of amateur baseball feeds off that. It has since the advent of AAU vs Rec ball....try to play with the best to see where you fit in.