Baseball showcase set for this weekend

PRO-DAY Baseball is holding a prospect and high school showcase Sat.-Mon. at Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater. There will be several college scouts attending. For more information go to PRODAYBASEBALL.COM or call (727) 251-9829 or (251) 980-2300.

-- BOB PUTNAM

Comments

Beware of average Joe's who run these events. This is a franchise, may not be the real deal

[Baseball Dad]

Pro-Day is legitimate. My son was invited to a tournament hosted by Pro-Day last August in Alabama. Played three games and went through a pro style evaluation. Similar to Baseball Factory which is another recruting assistance company. They will get your son's name out to colleges. Of course, the more you pay the more you get.

1:16-did your son get a scholarship from that Pro-day? If so, was it as much as you paid for this? I looked at this and the only names going to this is a trainer and a Dr. No coaches listed (oh yeah, there is no such thing as a college scouts, just coaches)

Yeah, if you go to the website, at the bottom it says "for franchise opportunities....". Anyone can put one together to make money.

[wellswood]

Who cares about this showcase, they'll be getting the second tier kids anyway. All the great baseball players are playing for their summer teams. An all them summer teams will be at the PERFECT GAME tournament down in Fort Myers this weekend.

WASTE OF TIME FOR GOOD PLAYERS

[Baseball Dad]

To clarify. I'm not recommending that anybody should send their son to this showcase. The initial post stated "may not be the real deal". I was just stating that in our experience it was similar to other showcases my son attended, both in talent level and presentation. To each their own. I agree that summer ball tournaments have the best collection of talent. Not all players are on summer ball teams though and these showcases along with camps run by schools give kids an opportunity for exposure.

Camps run by schools give great exposure to that school. It seems to be hit or miss on tournaments like this. If all the good players are in Ft Myers, likely all the good coaches are too. BTW-the NCAA is still playing this weekend, so how many of those coaches could possibly be at these 2 events? The good D-1 schools going to the CWS are playing until late June, so it seems logical those coaches won't be around 'till after that.

[RAH]

Two things

1) Its summer baseball, scounts teams are attending PRO-DAY Baseball - there is 16 & Under and 18 & Under games all weekend plus they run the 60 hit a little all good.

2) Perfect game is next weekend for 17U so again all good

Also there are college scouts in the form of local baseball people that relay valuable player info to various colleges

It's unreal the emotion these blogs generate about anything

There can be 16u teams & 18u teams playing all weekend over at Pro-Day. They just picked a bad weekend to hold it on. Scouts are either gonna be at Perfect Games in Fort Myers, or at the
FACA All-Star game in Sebring. They will not be in Clearwater. Not when there is alot more talent at these two events. Perfect Game has the 18u Florida qualifier this weekend, that goes for 16 year olds,17 year olds,and 18 year olds. It's not just for 18 year olds.

What is a college scout? There are pro scouts, and college coaches, but no college scouts.

From what RAH says here,I guess a college scout must be someone who writes up some nice stuff about you(for a price) to send to colleges so they might look at you in the future

[wellswood]

Now we're getting to technical with this college scout. O.K., a college coach and/or his staff is coming to scout a player. Is that better? The question is,what does RAH mean by local baseball people? I don't see high school coaches going to a showcase just to relay info to colleges, and I hope he's not meaning regular old dads in the stands.

From the info I have gathered, it IS regular old dads in the stands.

[wellswood]

So do you think RAH is saying it's the dads that pass this info to colleges. I hope not.

It is a combination-parents and a "service" that you pay for. The service just send out email blast to blanket a large group of schools in hopes that a coach will look at something and contact the kid. Most D-I schools don't mess with that. This is how 2nd tier schools find kids because they just don't have the budget to go look themselves (besides the fact that it's early in the summer for most).

Guess what guys. There are only less than a handful of D1 caliber prospects in any given county. Contrary to popular belief, most families want a scholarship to help pay for SCHOOL. Not to get to MLB. If this tournament exposes a non D1 prospect to, oh, I don't know...Stetson, Eckerd, Nova, Rollins, SPC, or where ever, that family may get a shot for their kid to attend a top academic school that they may not be able to afford otherwise.

I've worked for Perfect Game...The personnell were classless during that tournament. Everything ran out of Safety Harbor Spa...not the fields.

There are decent scout teams playing this weekend. Pro-Day website lists the teams.

For what it's worth, Tori Hunter and Dimitri Young came through Pro-Day.

Maybe in a normal tournament situation this would be good, but the teams playing this year are bad. 2 Prospect teams (that were a step below JV) and they have been calling around offering free to any team who could show up so they had enough to play. In other locations this is probably OK, this one won't be

For what it's worth, Stetson is D-1. How many parents know there is very little scholarship money in college? D-1 gets 11 3/4 full, which means they split it up among all the kids. I think D-2 is 8. Some schools only have 1 or 2. Sadly, D-1 football is the only money sport in college

If you didn't make it, you didn't miss anything. It has been a fiasco since the beginning

[coach who knows]

Had a team in this so called tournament and it was a joke. Had a coaches meeting at 7:45 in the morning on Sat. and the guy running the whole thing didn't show up until 8:30. The teams where told they where going to hit on the field on Sat. they hit in the cages. Only two colleges even there and that was because they were coaching there own teams. No college or pro scouts there. To all the people who paid for this event, we should all get some money back. Worst so called showcase I have been a part of.

Saw that coming from a mile away (Coaches post above). Suprised more haven't chimed in

That's because a "regular old dad" was running it.

SPC = a top academic school?

Yes, as I said before, this is a "franchise" so anyone can run it. Regular dad picked up on that and got this going, maybe in hopes his son would get spotted by the scouts(?) which never showed up (at least not in the area's I was at)

"SPC = a top academic school?"

I realized that as soon as I hit send. Ooops. My point was simply that maybe a marginal athelete can get an opportunity for an education that otherwise may not be available. Except for exceptionally focused and mature players, D1 athletic scholarships in major sports are not designed for the athlete to graduate...they are designed for 4 years of eligiblity. Then only a tiny percent of those have any kind of pro atletic career.