Episode Transcript
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[00:01:10] Speaker B: welcome to this week's edition of the Dugout Dish podcast. I'm Andy Kirakidis, joined by my Wonderful Co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How we doing, sir? Great. How are you? Good.
Today on this episode of the Dugout Dish podcast, we are going to kind of walk through the timeline of a 2028 and some of the things that we think are very important to consider over the next 12 to 15 months.
It's a little bit of a kind of peek behind the veil of some of the conversations we have and some of the things that we think about in terms of making sure that, you know, the guys that we work with are on a track to, to get recruited.
You know, I think in general, we've talked about this most 2028, their window will likely be, you know, next spring and next summer.
Obviously, there's people who are going to fall in a different category. I'm, you know, there's room for that conversation, I guess. But I think what we really want to focus on is how do we plan out the next 12 to 15 months? What type of conversations do we have, and how does that lead to good decisions on the back end of this in terms of scheduling and development and, and all that kind of good stuff that I think it's A, you know, August 1st is coming up. I think this is a good conversation. I think it's worthwhile for the, the 28s that are out there that are trying to do this, to kind of hear some things and maybe give them some food for thought on and some of the things they need to consider as they kind of enter their, their prime recruiting Window here, the next next 12 to 15 months. So where do you want to start here, Coach?
[00:03:04] Speaker A: I don't know.
Wherever you want to. There's a lot to cover here, so.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: All right, August 1st, we don't get any phone calls. Vast majority of kids aren't going to get any phone calls.
I think the next question, not even the next question. I think the next thing that needs to get done is there needs to be a good, open, honest conversation about where are you right now physically from a baseball perspective and a targeted conversation on what you are trying to get out of this process.
And I think it's a little, for me, it's a little bit less about baseball right now, but more about the academics.
Geographic, I think, is a really important conversation to have because I think we'll get to this later. But I think that that helps drive some decision making for what your summer schedule is going to look like and camps that you might want to target.
And then I do think that there needs to be a conversation around the financial piece and how that fits in, because I think ultimately when you put those three things together, plus an honest assessment of where somebody is at physically, you can start to pull together.
Here's where you kind of fit right now, and here are the schools that we need to be thinking about or be considering.
The next part for me is what's the development plan look like for the next 12 months in terms of where are our deficiencies and how are we going to close that gap?
Where are our strengths and how are we going to make sure that we continue to elevate those and what does the next three to five months look like? Like, that would be.
That's where I think the conversation starts. Are you going to be playing fall ball?
If so, what's your fall ball schedule look like?
Is there opportunity to potentially get out to some camps at schools that might be a little bit of a reach for you right now, but we can go, we can get some really good feedback to kind of crowdsource what the baseball world thinks of you.
I know you feel like. I know you feel this way, so I am going to speak for you here. But like, we don't just operate in a vacuum when we talk about kids and evaluate kids. We love to get information from other coaches to make sure that we're on the right track or if we get a differing opinion.
I think that's really important information and I know it's something that you're constantly on the phone talking to coaches and figuring out, hey, what do you Think of this guy, where does he fit? You know, what does he need to get better at? What does he do? Well, I think that's important information to get and one of the best ways to do it is to go to a camp at a school where you know you're going to walk away from that camp with some legitimate insight into where you stand, either with that program or feedback that's going to give you a better idea of how the baseball world views you.
Because I think that's, that's the evidence you need to really figure out, like, all right, well, what do I need to really work on? And it's, you could simply say, well, you need to get bigger, faster, stronger. Well, that's great, but can we get some more detailed information? Where are our deficiencies and what do we need to do? And what do we do well, and how do we make sure that we maintain that and try to elevate those skills? So that's where my head goes, like in the early stages here.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Sure.
You know, I think when it comes to fall scheduling and you know, we, we did a short on it, but like, what, what else are you doing?
Where are you at body wise, where are you at health wise, where are you at from a straight development standpoint? Like, do you need to get in the weight room? Do you need to, you know, do you need to take time off? How many innings did you throw this spring and summer? There's a lot that goes into these types of conversations. But I also think that, you know, the timeline has become so much slower and there is an opportunity to be able to get out and get seen by coaches in the fall.
But the reality is that, you know, there's not a whole hell of a lot of coaches that are getting out in the fall anymore. Like, will you see them out? Yeah, you will. And depends kind of on where you are, what tournaments you're going to, where you're going to be at, excuse me, as to whether or not they're going to be there. Right. Like, if you're going to Diamond Nation for four straight weeks, like the likelihood of you being seen by some college coaches is probably pretty high.
But if you're just going to one off random tournaments, like chances of you being seen, you know, kind of like the summer, but even less, it's probably pretty low, you know. So is your time better suited saving that money and investing that in yourself with the weight room and with nutrition and sleep and getting bigger, faster, stronger, those types of things that will move the needle for you and getting A little bit of a head start on, you know, some of your, the guys you're competing with, you know, the other is, are you playing football? Are you playing soccer? Are you playing volleyball? Are you playing, you know, another sport in which it might make it a little bit more difficult for you to play? Fall baseball.
Some places don't really want you to play multiple sports.
I'm talking at the travel level, whereas at the college level we love guys who are multiple sport athletes. And it's a good time to get away. Right. Like you've been playing baseball since March.
It's August, you're going to play through August. So March, April, May, June, July, you know, six months, that's half the year that you're playing baseball. It's sometimes it's a good time to kind of hit the reset button, get away and go play a different sport for two months and reset yourself and, you know, maybe do some baseball stuff on the side, but get in the weight room and go play football and fly around the field and hit some people and score some touchdowns, you know, or play soccer and, you know, score some goals, whatever it might be, maybe be a goalie, save them all, you know. But there, there's, I think it depends on where you're at, but I think you have to have an honest conversation with yourself about where, where you're at and what you need to get out of the recruiting process so that you can put yourself in the best position possible come March, which is another six months away.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: Like, what can you do over the course of the next six months if you're not going to play fall? And let's be honest, the, the window, you know, what is it, a four week window in the fall now? I mean, I know it's longer, but realistically, the Division 1 guys can go out, you know, for four weeks.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it's basically a month where they're active. Right.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: And the reality is there's a lot of Division 2 and 3 schools that aren't even really going to go out a whole lot in the fall because, you know, at Division three level you can only go four days a week and you're going to use two of those days more than likely on the weekends.
So, you know, the chances of you getting out in that time frame is pretty slim because you want to be with your team and coach that team up and you're, you know, you're moving, you know, you're still trying to finish up the 27 class. You're not really worried about the 28 class.
You know, so the reality is, you know, especially if you're slotting into a Division 3 or a high academic Division 3, the likelihood of these guys being getting out and seeing you at any of these tournaments is pretty low. You're going to have to go to them, and, you know, we'll probably get into that a little bit later, but, like, you know, you're going to have to go to them. And if that's the case, then, you know, why play football? Because you're probably going to end up missing a week or two, if not more. Scheduling some camps of getting in front of guys that you want to be in, be seen by, which would probably be way more beneficial for you in the long run, because then you can get some feedback at least and have an idea as to whether or not you could potentially play there or, hey, these are the things we think you're good at. This is what you're deficient at. These where we want to see you get better at and go from there.
But again, it goes back to where you're at, you know, if you have to shut down. And you probably would do yourself a disservice if you throw in a ton of innings. And not only are you running the risk of injury, but, you know, if you go in and you're, you know, say you're 81 to 83 and you're super tired and throwing a ton of innings and you show up on campus and you're 77 to 79, you know, that's not going to move the needle a whole hell of a lot for these guys. It's going to be like, it's just a 77 to 79 mile an hour arm, you know, Whereas if you, you know, shut it down and show them some video of what you were capable of doing the summer and be like, hey, it's been a long summer. I've thrown a ton of innings. I'm going to shut it down and give my body a chance to rest and recoup and recover. And I'm going to get in the weight room and, you know, get a longer ramp up so that I'm healthy next year. Like, you know, that actually shows a little bit more maturity than you might actually think of. Like, all right, this kid knows what it is. Like, we got plenty of time to get out and see him next spring and summer, and his video looks good enough. That's a guy that we should circle and try to get to see next summer and spring, or spring and summer. Excuse me. You know, so this is Very nuanced. You know, I think that this is a conversation that every family should probably have as to whether or not playing football is something that you should do or shouldn't do.
And this is more specifically obviously targeted at the 28 and younger, you know, so if you're 29 or 30, like no one's going to, no one's recruiting you. Like, you don't have to go pay thousands of dollars to play four or five weeks in the fall.
Like, despite what your coaches are going to tell you, no one's showing up to watch those kids play. Like, not even close. We're a full year away from those kids even being able to be called and a good portion of guys aren't even getting into the 28 class right now. So 29s 30s, like save your money, invest in yourself, get better, go play a different sport, do something like that.
But for 28, it's a conversation you should have as a family as to whether or not it's going to be worth it for you to do this. And what, and like what do you want out of it? Right? Like what, what, what do you want out of your recruitment process? Where are you looking to go?
And you know, again, if you're targeting the higher academic school and Division 3, you know, it's going to be hard for those guys to really get out and see you play in the fall outside of maybe some of the big showcase camps that you see in the fall because they're, you know, their fall is probably done at that point and they have the opportunity to get out and you know, go work those camps and see those kids, you know, but if you're not, you're not capable of going to it, don't worry about it, you know, get video, get to their on campus camp if you can, and if not, circle back and you know, get to work in the off season and go see them play in the, you know, have them come see you play in the spring and the summer next year.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: Yeah, well said. I think once we get past the fall, like you get into that whether you played fall ball or not, right? You get into that like mid October window.
Well, the lowest hanging fruit for every single high school kid. No matter what level you're at, whether you're a kid who commits to LSU on August 15th or you're the right handed pitcher who's 75 to 77, that needs to add velocity and get bigger and stronger this offseason. What you do between the middle of October in March 1st for most kids is Going to be the difference maker in how recruitable you are come spring and summer.
Can you add the weight? Can you get physical enough? Can you get faster? Can you move better?
Can you make some swing adjustments? Can you improve some mechanics? Like that window, when nobody's out recruiting, nobody's out evaluating, what can you do when nobody's watching so that you can put yourself in a position next spring and next summer to get recruited?
And the guys who just put their heads down and go to work, it's pretty, it's pretty simple. It tends to work out for those guys.
And what you do in that window, how hard do you want to work, how dedicated are, are, are you to getting better and getting more physical? And that's the difference maker for most kids.
There's a lot of good ballplayers running around in the 27 class right now, and there's a lot of kids that are skilled enough but are getting overlooked because they're not physical enough.
And what you do in that window is, is a, is just a massive, it's a massive piece of this puzzle. For any 28 who goes into the off season uncommitted. And for the guys who are committed, it's just as important because now you're working towards trying to stay committed and then getting yourself ready to go on college campus and all that good stuff.
So I cannot stress how important that is. And it doesn't look like, hey, I'm going to go to the gym a couple days a week and go work out with my buddies. And it doesn't mean that you have to go to some super slick fancy workout where they put you on, you know, all kinds of technology to figure out, you know, what your pounds per square inch on your left foot jump is or whatever the hell they're doing. You don't need that. You don't necessarily need that either. What you need is consistency in effort and good nutrition and really putting in the time and effort that is there. Like when you get out of the gym, you should feel like you got after it, not that you just went through the motions. And there's a big difference between showing up and versus putting in the work. First step is showing up, but actually being there and busting your butt and really getting after it is.
The guys who do that are the ones who really separate themselves in this window. They're the guys who go from 77 to 79 to 84 to 86.
It's the guy that goes from being 155 pounds to 175 pounds who was running a 73 and is now running a 6 8. Like those are all feasible goals. Those are all legitimate improvements that I have seen and you have seen with kids who are really dedicated to okay, I want to play college baseball.
I know I need to do some things to put myself in a spot to where I'm going to get recruited.
And it usually works out for those guys because they understand that the commitment to that is what really, really separates them from the pack.
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Diamond College Showcase camps are built for serious student athletes who value both baseball and academics. If you're looking for transparency, clarity and a recruiting experience that respects your time and your players future, Diamond College Showcase is the place to be. To learn more, visit diamondcollegeshowcase.com yeah, yeah, I mean, I think that's the, the truth in a lot of this stuff though, right?
If this is what you want to do, you're gonna have to make tough decisions whether or not it's going to be playing fall ball or not stepping away. But ultimately like, you have to be committed to what it is that your, your overall goal is.
And I think that there's a lot of different ways this, that you know, anecdotally skin the cat in this type of setup, you know, and I think in recent years, you know, fall baseball has become a little bit less intensive and you know, dare I say useful.
You know, with all the rule changes, this is probably something we haven't really talked about. And as we, you've been talking about this, I've been thinking about it.
The majority of people aren't necessarily heavily recruiting 2020 eights right now and into the fall.
So like, and there's only going to be a handful of coaches that are actually going to be able to get out and see these kids play in the fall.
They're going to see guys during the course of the summer, circle them, hopefully get them to camp so that you have an opportunity to get them on your field, meet them, see what they're about, maybe develop a relationship with them. But the likelihood of you getting out and seeing these kids play enough to where you're really going to make a decision on whether or not you're going to move isn't all that high from what it used to be. You know, 10, 12, 15 years ago, you know, you were out hammering the road in the fall to try to, you know, really make decisions on guys because you had to move, you had to make a decision on whether or not you were going to offer kids and how much money you were going to get and xyz.
But you could talk to them earlier, you could have a relationship, you could see them a little bit more. Whereas now, you know, you can't talk to them until August 1st. And you got to get to know them. You have a roster crunch where you're at 34. You got to make sure that you hit it on the head that this is the kid you want to bring into your program from a student athlete standpoint and from a character standpoint. And that's going to take a little bit more time than it used to.
So I think the on campus camp stuff is probably going to be a little bit more important for a lot of these guys. And the other side of this is they're, they're, you know, they're practicing and playing too, right? So like if you're, you know, Niagara or Canisius, let's call it like, the likelihood of you driving down to Diamond Nation multiple times during the course of the fall or down to baseball heaven or out to NABC is probably pretty slim because it's a pretty long drive for you to go, you know, leave on a Friday, give up, probably practice on Friday, practice Saturday, practice Sunday, and not be there with your guys to go.
Maybe see some guys that you like.
The, the cost, the, the cost benefit analysis there isn't really going to work out in your favor. You'd rather stay with your team, get them better and then figure out like, okay, if we can get like the top five, six guys that we really like to camp, it's going to give us an opportunity to expose them to campus, get them in front of us. We can see how they take our coaching and whether or not this is something that we should do, you know. So I don't necessarily know right now on, as we record this on July 27, if fall baseball holds its weight like it used to 10, 15, 20 years ago, because the landscape, the landscape has changed to where there's not a whole hell of a lot of, you know, and if you're younger, 28, 29, like, no one's watching.
Literally no one.
They ain't watching.
Like, they don't care. You're too young, you're not physical enough, you're not going to be good enough. No one's making a decision on you because they know in their minds they have a whole other year for you to get to where they can even call you, and then a whole other year to where you're recruitable for the most part.
So you're two, three years away.
No one's going to waste their time on something that's two or three years away.
In this landscape with the transfer portal, with junior College Baseball, with 34 man rosters, full scholarships at some of these places, they ain't wasting their time.
So it begs the question, is it really worth it from what it used to be?
I would say no.
But, like, my point in all of this is I'm not saying that it's not useless. It's useful if you go about it the right way and, or make a decision based off of what I just said of, like, I don't know how useful it is for you to go to all these tournaments if you're not going to be seen by some of the coaches you want to be seen by and maybe take a step back from playing fall ball and schedule some camps on weekends to go to and say, hey, you know what? I want to go to the RPI camp, the William and Mary camp, and the Columbia camp, and I'm going to hit those three camps and that's going to be my fall. It's on three separate weekends in the fall during when we would be normally playing. But I'm going to go to those three camps and we get in front of a ton of coaches. There's going to be multiple coaches at two of those events, get in front of a bunch of them, get some feedback, see where I'm at, see what people think, and then let that drive my, you know, development moving forward into the off season. Because these are coaches I want to get in front of. And the likelihood of them being at some of the events that I'm going to is astronomically low. I'm going to guarantee myself the opportunity to get in front of them and see where the chips fall when that, when I do that. And I think that that could be, you know, for some people, that is, that's a better route. For some people playing, you know, four weekends is, is Good. For some people, not playing at all is a better option, you know, but you have to be honest with where you're at, where you want to go, what you need to do. And you might have to make some tough decisions and be like, yeah, no, we're not playing football. Like, doesn't. Like, you have us going to, you know, Georgia three times, and there's not a school in that down there that I want to be recruited by. So why. Why would we do that?
I think that's hard for people to think about, but, like, that's a reality.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: It is. It's almost, it's. It's almost making the decision, like, are you going to play volleyball for the reps or are you going to play fall ball? For the recruiting value.
And for some guys, like, hey, if you're a California kid who wants to play in the Ivy League and you spend the whole just playing on the west coast, you need to come to terms with. It's probably, you know, more about reps than it is about exposure. Right. Unless you're going to go to, like, the Arizona Fall Classic or something like that. But, like, you know, the, the regional stuff. If you're a kid who's going to stay in your region and you're a kid who's fringe recruitable as a 28, yeah, I could get behind it. But to your point, if you have specific things that you're looking for, there's just as much value in making some good decisions on going to some camps and some schools that you really like or you think could be a really good fit for you. From a baseball, academic, financial perspective, you can get just as much out of a fall as you can there.
100%.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:24] Speaker B: I think, like, we'll fast forward a touch, but, like, I think that's a conversation that a lot of people need to have about their summer schedule.
And yeah, you need to play. Right. It's important to play.
But if you're a kid from the Midwest and all your tournaments are in the Midwest, but none of the schools you're interested are in the Midwest, well, we got to do something outside of your summer ball schedule, like your travel team schedule to get you in front of the coaches that you're interested in.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: And I think that sometimes that's the.
Well, we, we go to Georgia, like, we'll get maybe, maybe. But I can tell you, if you're a Division 3 kid from the Midwest and you're academic, Amherst and Tufts and Williams and those schools, like, they don't go to Georgia So Georgia doesn't get you in front of those guys. So do you have a plan to get in front of the schools that you're looking at?
Right. And maybe some of the. I. I'm almost positive none of them go down there, but, like, having an honest conversation about, like, what does my schedule look like and is it conducive to me getting recruited by the schools that I'm interested in, because there's. There's a smaller collection of kids that coaches show up to see Right. Where they're going to travel to go see a kid. Right.
If you're really, really good and you go to Georgia a couple times, like, yeah, you're probably going to cross paths, you're going to get some visibility with some really good schools. But if you're not interested in the Southeast schools or you're not good enough to play at a lot of the big boy schools, well, you need to make some decisions on where you're spending your time, or else you're just spending money to play in tournaments that aren't going to get you any recruiting value, that aren't going to get you in front of the schools that you're looking for.
And I. I think that that often isn't talked about enough. Like, hey, if you're a northeast kid and you're going to stay in the Northeast and your team plays in Northeast tournaments, awesome. You probably are set up for success.
But if that's not the case.
Right. If you're a kid from the Pacific Northwest or you're a kid from California and you want to play on the east coast for whatever reason, because the schools that you're interested are on the east Coast. Well, if you just spend the whole summer on the west coast, you have diminished the likelihood of playing at some of those schools because you didn't make the effort to get out there.
And that's just one example. But I think a lot of. There are a lot of good examples of that.
And even if you are regional, do you have some supplemental stuff to ensure that you're in front of some schools that you want to be in front of?
Yeah.
Like, it kind of has to start there. And you might have to have the conversation with your travel coach that, like, hey, I'm not going to this tournament because I need to. I've got these two camps scheduled at my two top schools that I'm getting some interest from, and there's going to be eight other schools at both of those camps, so I'm going to that this weekend.
And your travel Ball coaches should support you in that because part of their mission should be to get you to college, not just to win the, you know, the south by Southeast, you know, perfect, you know, perfect game tournament. Like, that doesn't matter.
You can miss that one.
But those are hard conversations to people have. And I think if you're 28 and you're going through it right now, like, you need to start thinking about some of that stuff now.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I mean, it's.
It's kind of my point with fall ball. Like, is it.
Is it worth it?
And, you know, I, I don't know. Like, I, I think that it is in some regard. It's. It's. It's going to be dependent, heavily dependent on the kid and what you want to do in where you're at. But, you know, if you're, you know, if you're just going to play a bunch, if you're looking to go to school somewhere and you're just playing a bunch of tournaments that are going to get you in front of nobody that you want to be seen by, then you need to make a decision like, hey, this isn't.
I'm not getting seen by anybody that I would like to be recruited by, so I'm going to go to them.
And, you know, at least you're giving yourself a shot. And you can't say you want to play in the Ivy League and then never go to the east coast, hope that they find you, you know, and not go to a camp that is maybe on the west coast that they're going to be at. Right. Like, at some point you're going to have to go to them.
They're not just going to show up in Winchesterton, Fieldville, Iowa, hoping that they're, you know, they're finding a diamond in the rough.
[00:31:30] Speaker B: What a reference.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: What a reference.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: But, you know, I, I think it's. But I. Again, this is.
These are things that I don't think anyone really wants to think about. It's just like, well, everyone's done this before. Well, the landscape has changed. So if the landscape has changed, like, we need to do something, like, there might be some.
Some time to. To reflect and think of, you know, doing something a little bit different.
Like, you know, hey, we're gonna play two weeks of fall ball and go to, like, five other camps, or, you know, go to three other camps and there's five weekends. We're gonna play two. Like, is it worth it to spend that money? Go to the two, Save it for hotels and food when you go to, you know, the other stuff, you know, I, I just, you know, near point, like if you're the summer ball coach or the football coach, like, hey, this kid's investing in himself and trying to go somewhere and you know, the, the, the stuff you're doing, you can't guarantee that the coaches he wants to be seen by are going to be there.
You can guarantee yourself an opportunity in front of all those coaches by getting on their camp and going to their on campus camp because they're all going
[00:32:36] Speaker B: to be there in the guys who are good at this in travel ball. And we know a lot of them, right.
They are completely supportive of kids that play on their teams that might be regional based teams that are looking to go to a different part of the country or have a very specific thing that they're driving at. Those coaches encourage their kids, hey, just give me a heads up so I can plan. But like, if you've got a camp that's got eight of the schools that you're super interested in, that conflict with a tournament that we're in, just let me know.
The really good guys understand that what they do is way bigger than any specific tournament.
Even the best teams, they're cool with it.
Hey, we want you at Georgia. We want you this one because we're really good and we're going to try to make it run at it. But everywhere else like they're, they should be in it to support you in your decision making and to help you get to where you're going to go.
Right.
Honestly, if you have a summer ball coach who's getting in the way of you going to camps that are beneficial for you, you might have picked the wrong summer ball team.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: Yeah. What are we doing?
It's not about you, it's about the kid.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:56] Speaker A: About him being able to get to the point, get to, you know, aspire to get to his, achieve his goals.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: And if you, if you get to next summer and you're 20, 28 and you're uncommitted and you really want to play college baseball and the vast majority of kids are going to be uncommitted next year. Right. That's just how this works. It's worked like that a long time, but it's even more prevalent now.
You have to be a little bit selfish because if the goal is to get committed and the goal is to find a place to go play college baseball, you might have to step away from your team for a weekend to go showcase yourself. And I think sometimes the draw of like well, I'm letting down my team and like, I get it, but you might have to miss a tournament because I've had that conversation. Well, I don't want to miss my summer ball stuff. Well, the tournament you're playing in doesn't have any coaches that are going to recruit you and have you have an opportunity to get in front of a bunch of schools that are either interested in you or you're interested in taking a weekend away. There's is going to be the right decision for your recruiting process.
And you're the good summer coaches will understand that is what I'm getting at.
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[00:35:51] Speaker A: there's a lot of truth in it. And I think that if you, if you ultimately want to play at the next level, you have to do everything in your power to give yourself the best opportunity. If that means that you have to miss a weekend, you miss a weekend. And I, I, I think that this is, again, this is something where the landscape has changed. Right.
Talked about, I just talked about it with fall ball.
I think the landscape has changed from when you and I played fall in summer baseball to what it is now.
Right. When we used to play football and we're going back 20 plus years now, you played. There was no real time frame for recruiting with, with coaches being allowed out. Right?
So you could, you know, you could play a robust fall schedule and go play another 25, 30 games. We didn't have these big tournaments. You play, you know, games during the week. You know, you'd play on a Tuesday and a Thursday and then play Saturday, Sunday somewhere else. You know, so you'd get five, six weeks of playing, you know, five, six games a week. You're staring down another 35, 36 games where now, you know, you're really playing. You're guaranteed, what, three on a weekend, maybe in pool play, you know, you might play another 12 games.
It's a completely different landscape than what it was 10, 12 years ago. Now, if you're A younger kid and you're, you know, 13, 14, 15, 16, if you could play in a league where you can play on, you know, Tuesday and Thursday night and play a game or two on the weekend, like, yeah, man, go play. That's awesome. You can develop, you can get used to the bigger field. You can, you know, get better at skill set or skill acquisition, things like that. Yeah, but if you're of recruiting age, those 12 games, you're better suited giving yourself a guaranteed opportunity to get in front of coaches by going, if you're going to do false stuff, you're guaranteed you're an opportunity to get in front of coaches at some of these camps, whether it's the big showcases or whether it's going to be on campus stuff, and especially if It's a Division 1 camp, because I would probably argue that a good portion of them are going to have more than just their staff there. They're going to have other Division 2 and Division 3 schools. So it gives you an opportunity of like, hey, I can go to Columbia camp and there's going to be seven other schools there on top of Columbia. So I can get a really good feel coming out of that camp of where I'm at and what I need to get better at. And you, you know, you can say that you can guarantee that there's going to be college coaches there, but. Sure, there might be. But are they going to legitimately sit on your game for all seven innings?
The likelihood of that is no, the likelihood is they're probably going to sit for a game, you know, for an inning or two, seeing that batter two, and then move on and go watch another game.
Whereas you can guarantee yourself one or two days of full on.
Everyone is paying attention to what's going on in this one field where I'm playing and you can get a pretty good evaluation of yourself coming out of that. And in this landscape, I would argue that that is way better for you in your recruitment process to drive it forward than playing 12 games and maybe throwing 12 more innings, 14 more innings. You know, if you're a position guy and you know you want to get more at bats, okay, I can get behind that a little bit. But again, what do you want to do from a recruitment standpoint?
And if you're a dude that people want to recruit, they're probably going to want, want to get you to camp, you know, so there's more nuance to it than just like, oh, just go play football and guys will show up.
Because that I can tell you, unequivocally in the fall when I was coaching Division 3 baseball. And I'm not going to speak for everyone, but I didn't go out on the weekends because I use Saturday and Sunday as practice days, because it was a day, two days where we didn't have class that I could take our guys and do as much as I possibly could in inner squad, in coach pitch and put us in situations that we need to get better at. And I was taking our time to coach my team that way. And I know there's a lot of coaches that do that. So you're not really going out and you're not worried about 28 at that point in time or whatever it was at the time. Right. Like, I'll get to those guys next year. I'm still trying to Finish up the 27 class. I'll worry about them later. And if guys are really interested, I'm going to want them to come to camp, like, come to me. I'm going to keep the numbers, numbers low. It's not going to be all that cost prohibitive. I want you on my campus so you can see everything it is that we have. Get on my field, meet my players, meet with me, see what's going on and go from there. Because I'm not making decisions on twenty eighths right now. If I'm a Division 3 coach, I'm not. Yeah, I'd love to have them, but, like, we're going to offer 28. I don't even know if you get to school, really looks like you can, but as long as you, you know, we got to see what your junior grades look like, you know, and for. If it's Division 1 and that stuff again, some of those guys might not be able to get out a whole hell of a lot in the fall. Like, they're going to try, but, you know, they're. They're probably going to target the guys that are, you know, top 10 guys on their list that they saw this summer and try and go and see those guys play in the fall, and if something catches their eye, awesome. If not, yeah, whatever. So if you don't catch the rye immediately, you're probably not going to be on their list right away. But if you go to camp and they see you or you go to a showcase where they're working it and they're there and they see you, you give yourself more of an opportunity to find success there.
But that's just me. And again, the landscape has changed. So if we're going to continue to try to do everything like we did 20 years ago, you're going to find yourself in a, in a really tough spot.
And if we're coaching that way at that level from 20 years ago, the game has changed, the, the landscape has changed. Like you're going to find yourself in, in an even tougher spot.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: Certainly a lot to think about. I think it's exactly why we wanted to have this conversation that you got to, you got to have a little bit of a plan, you got to think a little bit below the surface, like a little bit deeper on some of the decisions you're making, why you're making them, and you need to meet, you need to make decisions that are going to get you closer to getting recruited. Whether it's do I play football or not, who am I working out with, what do I need to get better at, what camps am I going to go to? Then you get into the summer of like, how am I going to supplement my travel ball schedule to make sure that I get in front of the coaches that I need to get in front of? A lot of, a lot of people out there need to have these conversations.
If you're one of the families where it's regional and you're set up with your schedule to be in front of all the schools that you want, awesome. You're in a great spot.
You still need to go and perform, you still need to have a plan of attack, you still need to understand what you're going to work at. But one of the scheduling things might be a little bit more straightforward for you. But the reality is for most people, the scheduling is what becomes and can be an issue.
And having a plan being, being willing to adjust. Right. We could sit down with a kid in October and talk about what we think is going to be the right plan for the summer. Well, and then they go and just put on 15 pounds and add six miles an hour velocity and the whole plan changes. And that's a good thing. But you need to constantly be having these check ins and you need to constantly be evaluating where am I at, what do I need to do to get to where I want to go and what decisions do I need to make to maximize my ability to play college baseball.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: Well, it's privilege, not a right. We talked about this a couple weeks ago and you need to go and earn it. And the only thing that you can control is the effort that you put in the performance that you put out on the field and the decisions that you make along the way to maximize your opportunity.
[00:44:01] Speaker A: Yes, I concur Got anything else you
[00:44:06] Speaker B: want to add to this, Coach?
[00:44:07] Speaker A: No, sir.
[00:44:08] Speaker B: All right.
Well, thank you for listening, everybody. Tune in next week. We'll have some more good stuff for you then. Thank you.
Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button for us. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MD Baseball. If you want to find out what me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com take a few minutes to check out our new online academy. I promise you'll be get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening.
[00:44:47] Speaker A: Check in with you next week.
