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Baseball recruiting question

Papa Rox said:
We have discussed that if for some reason JUCO is the only option he’s going to just go to college and not play sports. Bright future is free and he can focus on the diploma if the possibility of playing pro was not reachable.
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Read through briefly and this floored me.. juco is a great option. Any level of college baseball is a great resume boost and I think leads to a better career and better work ethic in whatever path he would decide to take. JUCO, if he has the tools and interest you say he does, opens the door for almost any power program in 1 year or 2 years, flexibility to leave when he wants, early playing time, development, and still open door for MLB if he really explodes and is throwing mid 90s.

Go juco before mid-major. Get playing time and exposure. Especially if his stuff could develop into what you think it could - low-mid 90s from the left side. He'll be able to go wherever he wants. So many good jucos in florida and playing top tier competition. Reach out to Walters State in TN and Delgado in Louisiana. Top tier development at both of those places

Mid majors don't have the resources and the tools that large P5 programs do. Lacking severely in terms of analytics, biomechanics, etc. You run the risk of going mid major and getting injured or buried on the depth chart and getting discouraged and you're stuck there. Florida and all these perennial powers will over recruit.. that's part of it. If you can get an offer from one of them.. go. The resources and coaching will advance him beyond anything he can do mid-major or even USF, UCF, etc. Florida for 1 year and then getting cut or recruited over and heading to juco for a year or 2.. still most likely going to land on your feet at the P4 level.
 
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Papa Rox said:
I sent him a list last night of the schools that could use him the most based on their 24-26 lefty commitments. My suggestion is we focus on 2 of those this summer and work for 90mph.

One more. He has the build for the spot. Do we push 90 or let it happen? What concerns me is these schools filling spots in the meantime but there’s risks involved with pushing velo. Plainly did you all continue to do velo pushes 1-2 months a year?
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The sweet spot for a lefty at the HS level is 87-88 mph coming out of HS. Especially at 6'1+ they'll project 90-93 before the freshman season. Every school in the country will be on him at that velocity. Obviously 90+ is a big deal but it'll come naturally with growth spurts and strength and conditioning.

No need to try to force 90 mph. Find a good throwing program, track 100% of throws and don't over do it. Lift heavy in the lower body, squat, deadlift, power clean, hang clean, etc. and develop core strength and functional strength via plyometrics, yoga, etc. and the 90 will come naturally. It won't come via a throwing program or long toss. These pitching labs (I went to a few down in Tampa and Ft. Lauderdale back in college that were great) are excellent for biomechanics and some velo can come from that via better mechanics, arm angle, etc. but even more so when they test your strength on their tools and prescribe a training routine to balance out your body.. typically core and leg strength.

The most important thing at his age and development will be staying healthy and getting exposure and being on the mound. Make sure he's well conditioned and his arm is healthy. Absolutely no pushing through pain or discomfort. Building in week long or even 2 week long breaks from throwing.. some say as long as 1 month off at times.
 
Bro I appreciate all the advice! It’s crazy how many different opinions we are getting. I’ve heard the same opinion about CC from a few others. What we have been saying (last few years) is if he has to go juco then focus on using the bright future scholarship at a state school and be done. Enjoy college and get a degree. Then we heard about the difference in going D1 and having to wait for 2 years and being able to get drafted in one year from juco. That actual advice was if he gets drafted later than he/we want go to juco and play for a higher draft pick.


Some things we’ve done lately is hire a recruiting guy (we’ll see how that goes but looking good), paid for a PG showcase (did well and was offered a spot at the rising junior national showcase)( same freaking week as the PBR NPI) he’s going to an ex MLB sports trainer 3-4 times a week, pitching one game a week and seeing his actual pitching coach at this point 1 time every 2 weeks.

He turns 16 in a month and a half and as of last week he was 6’3.5” no shoes 180lbs. Last night he topped 87mph. 6 innings, 4 hits 3ER and 7 k’s

There’s literally no more time in his schedule for ANYTHING else which is good.

Big question now PG invite only rising Junior National showcase OR PBR NPI OR try to swing both which are at the same time in Atlanta?
 
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Unless you're a day-one starter as a freshman, P5 is the worst possible option. Those schools are bringing in 40+ kids who were all elite players in high school, and a lot of them end up without a spot in the fall. And those coaches are always scouring the transfer portal to bring in someone better. It's a blood bath. At the JUCO level you get two years of playing time to develop, and it is phenomenal baseball.
 
Papa Rox said:
Nothing about PBR futures games because he hasn’t done a showcase for them but he was invited to PG’s Junior Nationals showcase last night. Huge! His buddy got offered at it last year by FSU who as of last week started following my son too. The list is getting longer! My son told me yours got up to 91 last week. Also huge!
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He’s been 87-90 his first 2 games of the season. What’s even better is he’s throwing strikes at a 67% rate. I think he maybe leading the state in strikeouts with 27. Eli has gotten and invite to the east coast pro tryout in June. That should be really fun for him.

Another thing you may want to prepare yourself for is the agent/advisors contacting you and him. Eli and I have told them that we won’t meet with any of them until he’s throwing 90 consistently in games.
 
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rubycane said:
He’s been 87-90 his first 2 games of the season. What’s even better is he’s throwing strikes at a 67% rate. I think he maybe leading the state in strikeouts with 27. Eli has gotten and invite to the east coast pro tryout in June. That should be really fun for him.

Another thing you may want to prepare yourself for is the agent/advisors contacting you and him. Eli and I have told them that we won’t meet with any of them until he’s throwing 90 consistently in games.
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We have a recruiting guy. We started to get DM’s on X and waited. We know at this point he’s going to get offers but with the way things are now I don’t know how to negotiate $ or scholarship amounts so I ended up hiring the one that’s been around the longest with a set fee. No contract after negotiations with colleges. He has a handful of friends getting NIL $ ( I’m sure you know some of them ) if the guy gets $3000 more than we would’ve it’s a wash.

27 K’s are ridiculous 3 games at this point? Zach’s started 3. He’s allowed 4 hits this season
 
My kids were both elite athletes and students. Neither “made it” in their sports. But they both used their athletic gifts to attend schools that their test scores alone would not have allowed. Both now making big money because of their education. So, what I am saying, if your son has the talent to play mlb, the scouts will find him-even at an Ivy League school. If he doesn’t “make it”, the elite degree will be very, very valuable to him in life. Good luck!
 
TpaBayFlyFisher said:
My kids were both elite athletes and students. Neither “made it” in their sports. But they both used their athletic gifts to attend schools that their test scores alone would not have allowed. Both now making big money because of their education. So, what I am saying, if your son has the talent to play mlb, the scouts will find him-even at an Ivy League school. If he doesn’t “make it”, the elite degree will be very, very valuable to him in life. Good luck!
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Awesome. Being a student athlete with a hard major has to be one of the hardest things. For both of them to be able to do that is amazing!
 
@Papa Rox best advice I can give you is to get him to a PBR tryout in June for a Futures Games Invite. One of my travel players had a chance to go last year and there were 300 college coaches there. His recruitment blew up and he got 25+ calls on Aug 1. It’s the best event for uncommitted high school players IMO
 
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Update:
He did extremely well in his HS season. We hired a recruiting service because he was starting to get major looks and there’s things like NIL out there now and I just didn’t know how to navigate that. Currently 46 D1 schools have contacted the recruiter about him or send weekly camp invites. They can’t offer until August 1st. We broke the schools down to 5 and will be attending prospect camps for hopefully 3 of them depending on scheduling.
The things we looked at were need for his position, coaching, attendance, ease of travel for us to go and watch and facilities.

His dream school is Miami and they’re one of the teams that contacted but they have a ridiculous amount of lefties. I’m personally pushing him not to go there and focus on some of the top teams that are big time programs and have a need for his position.

Some of these schools facilities are ridiculous!!

This is fun for our family. I’m super proud of him. His friend group is funny. At any given weekend we’ll have big time D-1 commits hanging out at the house. It’s like the perfect support group. They all share how they’re being recruited, pros and cons for each, which schools would be best for each of them. Very mature group of like 10 kids.
 
Is Rice still a baseball school?
I know things change, ie Miami goes from being the no.1 baseball program to somewhat of an afterthought nationally.

Schools known for college rankings and P5 baseball juggernauts
Duke
Vanderbilt
Stanford
Rice (I’m probably 10yrs in the past here)
Virginia
Wake Forest
North Carolina

Amazing how many ACC schools. But I’m sure you already known all this.
 
RBradleigh said:
Is Rice still a baseball school?
I know things change, ie Miami goes from being the no.1 baseball program to somewhat of an afterthought nationally.

Schools known for college rankings and P5 baseball juggernauts
Duke
Vanderbilt
Stanford
Rice (I’m probably 10yrs in the past here)
Virginia
Wake Forest
North Carolina

Amazing how many ACC schools. But I’m sure you already known all this.
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In my opinion Rice fell into a similar situation as Miami with their athletic admin and coaching staff without being the national level brand to start with that Miami is thus the drop off of was more precipitous.

They are in a better place than they were two years ago in my mind and trending mildly up but that’s not saying much given what they built up to be and how far they fell.
 
JohnnyYoung said:
In my opinion Rice fell into a similar situation as Miami with their athletic admin and coaching staff without being the national level brand to start with that Miami is thus the drop off of was more precipitous.

They are in a better place than they were two years ago in my mind and trending mildly up but that’s not saying much given what they built up to be and how far they fell.
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Agree, and it's not in a P4 conference which hurts them as well. It's a great school for academics, but if your son prefers a small town atmosphere, Rice is in the middle of the Medical Center in the fourth largest city in the country.
 
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BP Joe said:
Agree, and it's not in a P4 conference which hurts them as well. It's a great school for academics, but if your son prefers a small town atmosphere, Rice is in the middle of the Medical Center in the fourth largest city in the country.
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They’re an interesting case to watch and see how the portal + NIL variables interact there (for the baseball program).

Because it’s both at once (essentially) and they’re not a P4 I do think it will take a few years to see what that program shakes out to become in the new age.
 
Rice I think has the same problem as Miami and Pepperdine. Unless the NCAA changes their scholarship rules for baseball it doesn’t make sense to send your kid there. State schools in Florida are like $7500 a year! Why would anyone that has the ability to play for a Miami choose them over UF or FSU and rack up $250k in debt after scholarships? That’s going to push kids to other schools that are currently better. ECU, Coastal Carolina, big 10 schools that aren’t Michigan (so expensive).

Miami has a huge draw located where it is but so does Pepperdine! Both were powerhouses and are declining. The difference is Miami is still bringing in unreal recruiting classes.

Lots of these cheaper schools have strong NIL programs.

Budget a Florida school.

Bright future state scholarship pays 75% of tuition, baseball scholarship pays the rest, NIL is an actual income.

Miami

$68k plus baseball scholarship of 25% don’t know what they pay in NIL but let’s say a large amount like $25k you’re still $100k in debt when it’s all over.

That’s my math at least and $25k is the upper end of NIL deals I’ve heard about for baseball players we know.
 
Papa Rox said:
Rice I think has the same problem as Miami and Pepperdine. Unless the NCAA changes their scholarship rules for baseball it doesn’t make sense to send your kid there. State schools in Florida are like $7500 a year! Why would anyone that has the ability to play for a Miami choose them over UF or FSU and rack up $250k in debt after scholarships? That’s going to push kids to other schools that are currently better. ECU, Coastal Carolina, big 10 schools that aren’t Michigan (so expensive).

Miami has a huge draw located where it is but so does Pepperdine! Both were powerhouses and are declining. The difference is Miami is still bringing in unreal recruiting classes.

Lots of these cheaper schools have strong NIL programs.

Budget a Florida school.

Bright future state scholarship pays 75% of tuition, baseball scholarship pays the rest, NIL is an actual income.

Miami

$68k plus baseball scholarship of 25% don’t know what they pay in NIL but let’s say a large amount like $25k you’re still $100k in debt when it’s all over.

That’s my math at least and $25k is the upper end of NIL deals I’ve heard about for baseball players we know.
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College Recruiting Rankings
Class of 2024
12492038.46
2181019410.78
31951558.16
42231506.82
52541385.52
So which is it? Nobody wants to play for a private school or they just reeled in yet another top 5 recruiting class?
 
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Pitcher in the Rye said:
College Recruiting Rankings
Class of 2024
12492038.46
2181019410.78
31951558.16
42231506.82
52541385.52
So which is it? Nobody wants to play for a private school or they just reeled in yet another top 5 recruiting class?
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I said Miami class is unreal. If you think what I said is not being talked about amongst recruits you’re wrong. I’ve heard it from lots of these kids and parents. $ owed is everything. All these kids that can play for UM already are in the radar of pro scouts so exposure can be had a Wichita State. Miami requires $ so certain families have lots of that and others don’t. Some do and don’t see the benefit. UF has super high ranked academics. Ivy League schools are even better. These kids have all these options. I’m not ****ting on UM. We have had season tickets since I can remember and multiple family members graduate from there. It was my dream when I played to play there and his also. It just doesn’t make sense. 11 lefties (I think) on their roster, 3 in his class committed, it’s expensive, pitchers have so many pitches and the older they get statistically there’s a drop off. He doesn’t have time to sit and wait. None of these kids do.
 
Papa Rox said:
I said Miami class is unreal. If you think what I said is not being talked about amongst recruits you’re wrong. I’ve heard it from lots of these kids and parents. $ owed is everything. All these kids that can play for UM already are in the radar of pro scouts so exposure can be had a Wichita State. Miami requires $ so certain families have lots of that and others don’t. Some do and don’t see the benefit. UF has super high ranked academics. Ivy League schools are even better. These kids have all these options. I’m not ****ting on UM. We have had season tickets since I can remember and multiple family members graduate from there. It was my dream when I played to play there and his also. It just doesn’t make sense. 11 lefties (I think) on their roster, 3 in his class committed, it’s expensive, pitchers have so many pitches and the older they get statistically there’s a drop off. He doesn’t have time to sit and wait. None of these kids do.
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All private schools that chose to gorge on easy federal loans instead of making their school financially competitive are responsible. As is the federal government.
 
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