Maryland Baseball Rankings

I recently sat down with two college coaches, and I thought it was interesting to hear their perspective on how they viewed the recruiting process. Here are my notes.

(1) Grades and conduct matter- Finding out that a baseball player can qualify for an academic scholarship is pure candy for the coaches. My experience is that Maryland baseball players are generally pretty good students, but coaches are dealing with scores of prospects from other areas with real difficulties. Coaching staffs are small and they don’t have the time and bandwidth for dealing with the behavior problems. It’s bad enough to deal with when after you’re on board, but it is a red flag if you’ve got problems before you get there.

(2) “No time for coaches” and their shortcuts. Think coaches have time to see what you’re up to during your high school season? Think again. They are too busy with their own seasons. Think a coach and his staff have bandwidth to digest all the talent in the area? Think again. Coaches rely on shortcuts to tell them whether somebody is good enough to be considered. There is no requirement to play for a state champion, a CM Wright, a Calvert Hall, a Good Counsel, or Athollton. Coaches know that a great deal of talent lies beyond the dominant programs. If you have done well in these big time environments and they have confidence in the coaches that they know, they use it as an indicator that you can succeed at the next level of competition and/or that you’ve been well coached. You’ve made it into the next hopper for consideration. Not a requirement and no guarantee that you’ll get picked up. Just a sign that the coach has to spend a little less time thinking about your resume.

(3) The next Billy Wagner- Anybody can pick up a local paper and see that great high school baseball players come in all shapes and sizes. From the coaches perspective at the next level, they want to see certain frames in certain positions. They all want speed (especially in the outfield), they want tough catchers, and they want their pitchers throwing 90+ and tall. Even if you see yourself as a short stop, the coach may see your tools and see you as an outfielder. You may be the next Billy Wagner or Pedro, but you’ve got to show him that your stuff stands out. In a world where every candidate looks the same on film or on paper, the player’s size stands out. Baseball is like football. If you are a great athlete but unrefined, more than a few coaches will think that they can teach you the right way. Know which bucket you fit in and plan your strategy accordingly.


(4) Be considerate to EVERYONE. For most coaches, not much separates the talent in a list of candidates, and there’s usually only 2-3 degrees of separation between the coach and the prospect. The coach will find someone that played with you in the past five years (in rec ball, for an isolated summer tournament, an all star team). Odds are that he’s not gonna find your best friend. You don’t have to be BFFs to everyone, but you do have to be a good teammate to everyone. Hearing that a candidate has a bad attitude has taken many a candidate out of consideration.

Received a great deal of feedback on this topic. The point of the questions were generally, "okay, so how does this affect what I do in middle school? Should I change leagues or teams?"

I think MM1 said it best- if you are in an environment where your player is being challenged, is receiving excellent coaching and enjoying the reps that he's getting, you are in the right spot. There's a shortage of great coaches, even in high school. If you look at three disciplines of hitting, fielding, and pitching, very few coaching staffs can excel in all three areas. I would be very reluctant to change things if I liked my coaching. If my player were bored (averaging 2Ks/inning on a routine basis), I would ask why he isn't being challenged more. Players should be hitting a wall during a season and challenged to work through it. One of the more interesting things I heard this past year was a coach that admitted that he had reached his limits as a coach. He hadn't figured out how to address the situation, but I gather that he was having to bring in new coaching to help him to continue to develop his talent.

The other question is whether a player is in their natural position. Kids grow in different ways and puberty is the great unequalizer. Some players have started now and others will not hit their stride for another 2-3 years. But even with all this can change, you have a pretty good sense for how the next coach will see the player.

I did speak with one of the coaches last night, and he said that some of the concern stemmed from being 2nd guessed. If you look good on paper (stats or physically), the AD can see that the coach has done his homework. If you have to go to highlight video to see the intangibles and it doesn't pan out, the AD will say, "why isn't he getting the bigger players?" Of course, this approach cedes a big portion of the recruiting field to those coaches not afraid to take on some risk.

Lt.,

I understand that college coaches are busy and have to take short cuts when looking at players. What kind of short cuts did they mention?

Do the coaches or their scouts attend certain showcase events or specific tournaments looking for college perspective players? If so what are they?

Do these coaches look at a specific ranking system for high school players in this area?

You had mention the power baseball teams for high schools in this area and how the coaches have relationships there. What about the schools that are not known for their baseball program. How does a player get recognized other then the local paper?

Just curious about how the recruiting process happens at the college level.

Thanks for any info. MM1

Lotta great questions there but let me answer one to two of them.

College baseball comes packaged in all sorts of varieties. SEC schools like Ole Miss go about things differently than Delaware State. SEC schools can take an approach that looks more like what you expect from the 120 or so D1 college football programs. Send a letter to the Rivals top 250, and if you get a hit, then you can carry on the conversation. That approach only works for a small number of elite baseball schools.

Players cannot take the same approach. You should know where you stand and target schools based on where you fall. Figure that if you reach out to 30 schools, 10 will be a reach, 5 may be gimmes, and everyone else is a big "it depends." They players task then is to hustle for those 30 programs. Within those 30 programs, you will hear a variety of responses. Even if you are the best catching prospect in the state, if you are applying to a school with four catchers ahead of you on the depth charts, there won't be any traction. So, don't take it personally when you hear no from the school whose jersey you've been wearing for 17 years.

As to how kids outside of established programs get traction (and the kids are on the bubble), I've been told that the summer showcase events help players that might be beyond the usual radar screens. The problem with summer showcase events is that you see a team from up north show up for a few games at a single event and expect immediate results. It takes a commitment to get out there and approach summer baseball in the same way that you approach league play. Of course, with summer jobs, the cost, the travel and time required, it is easier said than done.

This is based on conversations into a small corner of college baseball- what works for these coaches might be much different from the rest of college baseball. I'm sure that we'd all benefit from your insights.

Lt.,
Thanks for the info.

A couple of thoughts for perspective players/parents from what I've learned from sports in general. First, the child must love to practice the sport he/she wants to play because you spend more time preparing for the sport then actually playing the game. If you don't like to practice then most likely you will lose interest in the sport especially when you have "hit the wall so to speak" ie. growth spurts or moving up to the next playing field. Also, the child must be self motivated/determined to practice and prepare for the sport. A parent can do things to help support/inspire the child, but ultimately it lies with child to put in the work. Next, the player should be working outside of team practices to learn and improve his game in order to take his game to the next level. Lastly, the child should be having fun playing the sport, when they stop having fun then they give up on the sport. Keys to excelling at a sport: love to practice, self motivation/ determination, a strong work ethic, keeping it fun, and having supportive parents/coaches.