Prepster ... put on your thinking cap.

Conventional wisdom about college recruiting (what has worked over the past few years) seems to be changing with the institution of the new guidelines for Quiet Periods and Dead Periods.

Given:
1. D1 coaches won't be leaving their schools for showcases during quiet or dead periods.

2. They will still hear about players that attend "quiet/dead" period showcases from their buddies (the pro scout).

3. There is an apparent explosion in winter camps at colleges and universities so that the coaching staff can continue to have a venue for evaluating and speaking to talented players.

What do these changes do to the potential college bound player?

Here are my concerns:
1. You still need down-time each year in order to work on your heavy strength training, particularly pitchers. Also micro-tears and other minor, nagging injuries need time to heal.

2. Throwing 12 months out of the year can lead to injuries and symptoms of over-use.

3. Going to a camp when you are in less than optimum condition has always been a bad idea.

4. It doesn't seem to effect the fall showcase teams. The quiet time doesn't kick in until early November.

5. Perfect Game (and other) showcase events (such as Fort Myers in early January) will not have the college participation that was present in previous years.

6. Attending multiple college camps is only financially beneficial to the college head coach, who gets to (more or less) charge you for evaluating your talent.

7. It is difficult for a player and his parents (except in exceptional situations) to appropriately target the level of college camp to participate in.

8. Especially for position players, you don't know if there is a need when you will be graduating for your position at a particular college.

Conclusion:

The new system has a complex web of issues that will take a few years to unravel. From your experience, what would you suggest as being an appropriate course of action for the potential college-bound player?

 

NCBBALLFAN,

You make some great points. Question to add to this (at least I would like to have it answered).

What is the best way to get a kid "seen" by the college coaches? Showcases are very expensive. Are videos a good venue? Do college coaches acutally watch them? What needs to be on them? Just wondering.

From NCBBallFan: I changed your message to lowercase but left it intact ... it's a little easier for my old eyes to read this way.

 

The best way to be seen is to attend a showcase or camp at the school you wish to attend. Prior to this, it never hurts to place a call to the school you are interested in and let them know of your interest. Keep in mind that most coaching staffs only have three guys that go on the road and recruit and in the spring, they have their own 56 game schedule to go along with that, so you do the math on what the chances are that they will make it to many games.

Videos are better than nothing and can be helpful if done right. If you are a infielder, make sure the video shows the person hitting the ball. If it is only the fielder, for all the coach knows, his grandmother is rolling him the balls. Try to really show your range on these tapes as well. Pitchers need to be taped from behind the mound, behind the plate, and from the side. (Gun readings are also nice.) Hitters are a little different. You only need to tape from the side at about a 45 degree angle and from behind. Most DII, DIII, and JUCO will watch these tapes, but keep in mind, nothing beats being seen in person.

 

It's a given that you are going to be seen more on your summer and fall team by colleges than you ever will in high school.

 

To NCBBallFan's musings:

My overwhelming reaction:
"Don't let the tail wag the dog."

This applies especially to pitchers, but could also apply to position players who restrict their baseball-related activities to conditioning during the winter months. If your body (and/or your physical therapist) is telling you to "shut it down" for awhile, you need to "shut it down;" regardless of what camp or showcase looms over the holiday break. Meanwhile, take solace in the fact that there are plenty of summer and fall opportunities to show your "stuff." Related to this, if you're not in playing shape, you probably should think twice before attending a holiday camp or showcase.

Obviously, the holiday camp decision is a highly individual thing; and, therfore, is the sort of thing that will fit some players' cirumstances and won't, others'. In our case, holiday camps felt okay in my son's 9th grade-junior years, but we bypassed a major showcase during January of his senior year because it didn't fit his off-season conditioning schedule.


To catamount36:

GoingYard's response is terrific. The only thing I'd add is the observation that most D1 coaches are notoriously bad at watching unsolicited videos.

To your observation that showcases and camps cost money: They sure do! For that reason, players and their famlies owe it to themselves to be highly selective in choosing them. This calls for in-depth research of what each showcase and camp offers. It also requires a realistic assessment of a player's appropriate level of play.

Many high school players who play in the Carolinas want to play their college ball in this area. I'd counsel the majority of them to consider two of the following three (in alphabetical order):

Best in Virginia (Camp/Showcase)
Blue-Grey (Wake Forest)
Impact Baseball

All three of these attract a large number of area college recruiters (some out-of-area, too). They also tend to attract a wide cross-section of collegiate levels of play.

The same can be said of the North Carolina State Games. Players are nominated to try out for their region's team by their high school coaches.

If a player is solidly in the "major" D1 or draft status categories, he wouldn't be out of place at any of the four already mentioned, but he might consider substituting one of them with TeamOne-South and/or East Coast Professional (invitation only).

 

Seems like the new rules will load more of the DI recruiting into the early period. The interesting thing to see is how active the other division schools will be during the quiet period, since their presence will no longer be overshadowed by the D I schools.
One obvious advantage for non-DI's will be in finding and recruiting the "late-bloomer".

 

Prepster:

From my sources I have heard that the Blue-Grey Showcase @ Coastal Carolina is very good now as well. There were just about as many college scouts that attended the Blue-Grey @ Coastal as attended the Blue-Grey @ Wake Forest this past August.

 

I agree with many of the points listed above and would like to add one about video tapes. Too many times I have heard college coaches say that they rarely look at unsolicited tapes, they either throw them away, or use them to copy over and save themselves money.

Don't just send out mass mailings of tapes, make sure the coaches know they are coming and that they are, in fact somewhat interested (at least enough to actually look at the tapes).

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

I agree with coachevans26 on the unsolicated video tapes. Don't send a video to a college coach unless he has asked for it or if you have checked with him first.

Many of the college coaches will ask for a video if they have not been able to get out and see a particular player because of their own busy college baseball season but have heard that a particular player may help fill a roster spot that they are looking for from other college scouts at some point so...have that video ready just in case!!!

And as Going Yard indicated, videos are better than nothing and can be helpful if done right. If the coach can not get to the player, send the player to the coach but, ONLY if soliciated.

 

Interesting thread