Honest question

[YoungBuck]

In some states baseball is played in the Summer locally (think American Legion in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois). Unfortunately some states have very odd high school regulations, Indiana comes to mind, that prevent your high school teams from competing on Summer teams together. Not sure what the point of this is, because it inevitably decreases the number of opportunities for kids to play.

And yes you probably do find better competition at the big tournaments in Colorado and California, but at what cost?

Those Summer baseball teams I mentioned increase opportunities for boys many of whom have no intentions of playing in college... why not create the same atmosphere for girls?

 

[YOCOACH]

Those Summer baseball teams I mentioned increase opportunities for boys many of whom have no intentions of playing in college... why not create the same atmosphere for girls?

It already exists. We call trhem C or B/C tournaments.

 

[Fury_Mike]

Heck why stop there. Let’s just limit our MLB teams to players in a state. Ex: The Chicago Cub’s could only have players from the North Side of Chicago. Everyone could grow up together playing baseball, getting trophy’s, and ice cream after the game…..

 

[radness]

Don't know about Cali but many states such as Ohio don't let the players do both when HS ball is in season. If they get caught in any formal practice setting for TB, they're done for the year in HS ball.

I was commehting that
A vast majority of players go from rec ball
to travel ball
before they even get to high school ball.
In many occasions they have already gotten so much more experience from their travel ball years before they reach high school. Travel can remain the longer term focus.

Travel ball has impacted a lot of players
'a lot more' earlier on because they spend a heck of a lot more time doing travel ball than they do the limited seasons in high school ball.

Has nothing to do with playing games at the same time or not.

That said to your comment of playing...
They can and are on 2 teams at the same time.
Because while the short h.s. season starts they still have a travel team they are commited to.
Which means many players who are involved in travel ball during their High School season still practice with their travel ball teams because they are allowed to do that.
(They just cannot play games in travel ball while they're playing for high school.)

Which also means the players are getting coached/guidance from the travel ball coaches. While they are getting the short-term season guidance from a high school coach.
*Also, often those coaches are doing different things for different reasons.
(H.s. and travel are not always aligning the same in goals or talent levels)

 

[Westwind]

So, I was a spectator at a showcase recently. But I was struck by just how little real talent attends these things. Yes, the girls play well, and they don't. They get strikeouts, they strike out. They catch balls and they drop balls. My question is, what is a scout supposed to see there that is going to make a difference to any one of these girls?

Jeannie, I just reread your first post.

You could say this about pretty much every level of college softball too.

It depends on the day.

It really made me wonder if you were judging your granddaughter and her team too harshly. She might be better than you think and all flowers don’t bloom at the same time.

It might be worth looking at some college games online. It might be worth looking at some college teams stats, especially conference stats. You might be surprised to see how many .200 hitters play every day in college. And yeah, they drop balls and muff grounders.

 

[_MIA_]

Jeannie, I just reread your first post.

You could say this about pretty much every level of college softball too.

It depends on the day.

It really made me wonder if you were judging your granddaughter and her team too harshly. She might be better than you think and all flowers don’t bloom at the same time.

It might be worth looking at some college games online. It might be worth looking at some college teams stats, especially conference stats. You might be surprised to see how many .200 hitters play every day in college. And yeah, they drop balls and muff grounders.

also

My question is, what is a scout supposed to see there that is going to make a difference to any one of these girls?

That is why they are “scouts” and my good friend @Jeannie is not..

 

[Westwind]

That’s true!

And for whatever it’s worth, idk about “scouts” in softball. I know there was a guy who supposedly watched games on behalf of one SEC school but it seemed like the coaches did the looking and took a lot of advice from the org heads. Idk, I suppose college coaches have “friends of the program” they listen to.

Edited to add: I think college coaches are looking into much more than playing ability. Recruiting a superstar that can’t be admitted (this is softball, not men’s bb or men’s fb) gets a coach nowhere. Recruiting a kid that transfers before Thanksgiving gets you nowhere. Recruiting a kid that can‘t get along with team mates gets a coach nowhere.

I have always heard they don’t care if a hitter strikes out, they are looking at the swing and looking at whether the kid comes back from a difficult moment.

 

[YOCOACH]

That’s true!

And for whatever it’s worth, idk about “scouts” in softball.

A majority of scouts nowadays represent recruiting companies and are in it for $. The top 25 college teams have budgets that still allow for a few.

 

[_MIA_]

And for whatever it’s worth, idk about “scouts” in softball.

hence my use of quotations

Edit: off topic and a name drop, but speaking of scouts this guy:

Metsmerized Online

Everything New York Mets

metsmerizedonline.com

grew up in my hometown. We used to throw each other BP when he was in college and I was in HS. I think he started as a local area scout. He was a good college player but never played pro ball. Kind of cool to see him climb the ladder.

 

[Big Daddy Michigan]

A lot of "showcases" are just for parent ego. I can have a whiffleball tournament in my backyard and call it a Platinum Premium College Showcase and people will come running just so they can tell their co-workers that their kid played in a college showcase.

There is a guy who promotes "college showcases" on Facebook in Michigan. They are C level tourneys in a little nowhere town. I always post, "Which colleges with be there scouting?" It pisses him off, but it makes me chuckle. Of course parents and low level coaches line up to to be "showcased." There aren't even DIII coaches there. Literally, zero college coaches show up, but people keep throwing money at him.