[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hey, parents and coaches, are your kids using the right glove? The most important skill for youth athletes to learn is how to play proper catch. The problem is most youth gloves are made with bad leather and are too big for small hands. They actually make it harder to play catch. That's why former Major League Baseball shortstop Kevin Smith created Cali Gloves. Cali gloves are crafted from 100% Japanese kip leather and are the perfect size for kids.
All Cali gloves come with palm slits, finger loops and elastic wrist lacing that encourage proper hand placement. The right closing patterns and give kids more confidence to go make plays. Cali gloves even allow parents to break in the glove without stretching out the fit.
It's the glove Kevin wishes he had growing up and the glove all his teammates want for their kids. Visit caligloves.com to learn more and help your kids play better catch.
Cali Gloves K a l I gloves.com.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Welcome to this week's edition of in the Clubhouse with emd. I'm Andy Kiri Kutis joined by my Wonderful Co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How are we doing today?
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Great. How are you?
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Good. We're going to tackle a question that we received from a listener received a question around the value of showcases slash recruiting events for 2030 and 2031 graduates.
Seemingly this, this guy was given some decent information around probably wanting to wait a little bit before you do any of that type of showcasing, but I figured it was worth a couple minutes of our time to kind of explain why that is the case. And you know, I think in general if you're a 2030, you know, you're an eighth grader, I believe, or even a 2031 who's a seventh grader. The, the value of going to a PBR event or a perfect game event, you know, and this isn't negative talk on those two companies, just for example, that's what most people relate this to.
When you're that young, there's, there's really isn't much value given that you're so far away from being recruitable. And I think my honest take would be that there's not a college coach in the country who cares about what your velocity was. Your exit villa was when you're in seventh or eighth grade.
So for me, I think it's a pretty, a pretty hard no that you know, spending the time and money to, to go to one of those events for me is just, it's not worthwhile. I think it's probably undue stressful and something that you just don't really need to waste your time and your money on at this point?
[00:02:58] Speaker A: No, we've talked about it quite a bit on this podcast with the, the rule changes and the slowdown of recruiting and the like.
I, I don't, I can't really get behind any argument that would put a, a 2030 or 2031 in a, in a showcase setting that you're paying money to go do. Right? Like, there's just no real reason for you to really have to do that.
You know, there's.
College coaches aren't even, they're not even gonna be recruiting 20, 28s for the most part this year, let alone 29s and younger. So 30, 30 ones, you know, you're better off taking the money that you would invest in said showcase from a, you know, an entry fee to travel to maybe hotels, things of that nature, and investing in other aspects of your, your game right into your, you know, strength and conditioning, hitting, pitching, defense, nutrition, you know, any of the things that would, that are going to be more beneficial than going to a showcase and spending the money that ultimately doesn't matter.
And realistically, no one's even, you know, even if I, you know, I go to PBR and look up what you've done in the past, like, you know, it's kind of irrelevant to me what you did in seventh grade. It's, it doesn't factor into what it is that I'm going to think about from a recruiting standpoint, right? Like, I'm not going to look at and be like, well, seventh grade, he was, he was here and he's gotten markedly better. Like, yeah, of course, you know, he matured and got bigger and faster and better and older. That's just natural. Or maybe it's the, you know, converse. I, conversely, maybe you got worse. I don't know. I don't know how good seventh graders are at baseball, if you want my honest opinion. I've, I've watched some, but I, they're not strong enough.
So I don't, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know.
I don't know. You know, a good seventh grader, like, you know, they're usually not the best guys in 8th, 9th, 10th grade. So, you know, it's, you're better off saving your money in all of those instances and, and investing it in other aspects of what could potentially get you better so that, you know, you continue to develop. And then when you eventually become of recruiting age, then you can go spend some money on that. But I would tell you to save your money and not go to these types of things.
If you're the parent of a high school baseball player with college aspirations, you already know the recruiting process can feel overwhelming. Endless showcases, nonstop emails and big promises with very little clarity. That's why we recommend Diamond College Showcase Camps, the nation's premier academic baseball showcase. At Diamond College showcases, every college coach in attendance is there with a purpose to coach, instruct, evaluate and recruit. Every player is seen, every player is engaged, and every family leaves with a clear understanding of where they truly stand. This is not a mass camp. College coaches run the drills, evaluate every athlete and provide honest professional feedback that you can trust. 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 diamond collegeshowcase.com.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not even sure if you could convince me that a 2029 who's a freshman in high school should be spending a lot of time and money to go and showcase themselves. I mean, to your point, with select number of 2028s are going to get, you know, significant attention this summer.
You know, there's guys out there but percentage wise, when you look at the whole collection of 2028 and getting recruited, you know, the few and far between coaches certainly don't care about 2029s in terms of recruiting.
You know, if you show up to somebody's camp and you're really good, they might mark you down as somebody they should pay attention to. But at the end of the day they're going to be more concerned with, you know, where are you at when your window for recruiting actually opens up and when they're really going to spend some time to bear down on the quality of your play. And we start talking about seventh and eighth graders and even freshmen in high school.
The variation in physicality is crazy. I mean you've got some kids who are in seventh grade who've probably barely started to go through puberty that might barely weigh 100 pounds and that kid might put on 50 pounds in the next two years. And you know, you're talking about a completely different athlete. They might grow six inches, you know, they might put on 50 pounds which isn't. It sounds like a lot of weight but you know, when you're, things happen quick when you start to hit that growth spurt and you know, so to your point, yeah, like if you're, if.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: You'Re five three, 85 pounds, and all of a sudden you're five, 10.
Like you're not going to be 85 pounds. You're going to. You. All of a sudden you're one hundred and thirty, like 50 pounds of weight.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a big difference. And we, we mentioned this and I just think when you're at that age, seventh and eighth grade is just make sure that they really like it. Like, make sure that they really love it. And you know, when their time comes, whether it's, you know, after their sophomore year or, you know, if it's in their junior year, whenever their window comes, you want them to be ready for the rec recruiting process, but you also want them to enjoy the stuff that they're going to have to do to get recruited. And I think that sometimes this, this pressure that is undue for a lot of younger kids can get in the way of them really enjoying it. And I think when you send a seventh grader to an event, I think you're introducing them into, and some people might argue the opposite of this, but I think that you're just, you're throwing them into the world that they don't need to know anything about right now.
They need to know that baseball should be fun and they should really enjoy it and they should really enjoy competing and not worrying about throwing to a radar gun or just, just going out there and enjoying being with your teammates and playing your butt off and like, learn the fundamentals of the game, learn how to play the game, learn how to be a good teammate. I think that that would be my focus if I was a father of a seventh grader right now is let's make sure that they freaking enjoy showing up to the field every single day. I think that's a really good place to start.
Parents, if you've ever felt overwhelmed trying to navigate youth sports, there's a new resource designed just for you. Team Match.
Team Match is an online platform built to streamline how families find the right youth sports teams by location, sport and skill level all in one place.
It also provides a safe, organized space for kids to share their accomplishments, stats and highlights, while giving coaches and teams a clear way to connect with athletes who are the right fit. Less searching, less stress, more confidence in the process. Youth sports just got simpler for families. This is Team Match. Check it out
[email protected] and I think.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: It'S a hurry up to what right.
You know, I think people feel pressure from the, the interwebs with the, the showcases and the, the metrics. And the, you know, we're ranking 9U kids now and these just random ranking things that are popping up and people feel this pressure that they have to do this stuff when it, it doesn't like seventh grade.
And correct me if I'm wrong, but that's generally the first time you're on a 60, 60 foot, 6 inch, 90. 90 foot base field.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: Right.
I don't even.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Because that's modified.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I was young, I was young for my grade, but I, I think that like I didn't get to a big field until I was 13.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is generally like seventh, eighth grade.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: In eighth grade. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: But still like my point is like you're, if you're a 2030, if you're a seventh grader or eighth grader and you want to, you're gonna go showcase that you, you might not even be strong enough to hit the ball out of the infield or throw it across the diamond and your 60 time is probably going to be horrific.
And you know, you laugh and we're probably going to talk about this on a different podcast where you know, I can elaborate more on it. But like I went through some things today because I saw some absurd ranking things that were going on and like people are being ranked in younger classes and they're like 77 runners.
Like that.
How are you?
And to me, like maybe you are that good, I don't know. Right. And like these are high school kids. So like if you're a high school kid and you're a 7, 7 runner, I don't understand how you're ranked. And I'm off on a tangent here, but my point is like they're, they're not physically able enough to be able to put up the metrics and do the things it is that you're, you're actually looking for.
And the overarching theme in it is that I coach college baseball for 16 years and this isn't like a resume rollout. Right. Like, you know, I had all Americans, I had guys that got drafted. I had guys that I played for me that played in the big leagues, like I could not tell you off the top of my head. I don't even know. I'm not even say off top of my head. I don't even know. I don't know what a good exit velo for a seventh grader is or a good 60 time. Like I don't know what that looks like. Right. Like I, if I show up and watch a seventh grade game, I'm just probably going to See who moves the best and who looks the most athletic and be like, yeah, that's probably, those are probably some of the better players right there. But from a metric standpoint, I don't know. I don't know what's good.
Right? Like, is 70 exit Velo good for a 13 year old? I have no idea.
And my point in it is like going to pay to get all these metrics and do these things and people are going to look at and be like, is that good? I don't know if that's good. It's clearly not good enough for me right now because he's in seventh grade.
So I, what do I care what you did in seventh grade? I'm more interested in what you can do when you get to recruiting age in 10th, 11th, 12th grade. That's what I'm interested in. I, I don't, I don't know what a seventh grade. I don't know what a good seventh grader can do.
No. And I don't know. I, like, I know I'm not the only one who thinks that way. It's just like, it's.
I, I don't know. Like it, it bothers me that we do these things in this game and put pressure on people to make these decisions to, to go to showcases and to, to rank people and, and to do these things and like, for what? It literally means nothing.
And like, I, I can't be more clear in the fact that anything before probably 10th grade doesn't really matter.
It, it doesn't. I mean, I'm seeing 9U rankings I sent to you guys the other day.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: You saw it.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: I don't think you can slide head first at 9U and everyone has a sliding mitt. Like, what are we doing?
What have we done at this point? And I'm not a, I am not an old head screaming at the clouds of like, oh, no, you can't backflip. You can't have, no, you can have fun. But like you can't even slide head first. What do you have sliding mitts for at 7, 8, 9 years old?
And I don't think those things are cheap. Like, what are we doing?
Whatever happened to just.
And now I sound old. Whatever happened to just being tough and just sliding and seeing what happens? Maybe you get a cut. I don't know. Not the end of the world.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, I mean, I think at the end of the day, if you're a parent of the 2030 or 2031 listening to this, I mean, I think it's pretty clear what our recommendation is. Like, I just don't think you need to spend the time and the money to do it. And if you're interested in the metrics, and I do think there's some value in the metrics because I think it's always good to have an understanding of where you are. But to your point, like, I don't know if 70 is good, but if you're 70, at least you know you're 70 and you know, maybe we can work to get to 75 exit velo or your velocity is 72 and you can get to 78. But I don't think you need to go to these events to do that, right? You could buy a pocket radar and do it yourself. You could go to your hitting facility and I'm sure that they have the technology to track that stuff. And I think you can get a lot of that stuff without having to go to that right now and not worry about it. Because it does, it has, let's make no split, no hairs here. It has no recruiting value whatsoever. Zero recruiting value whatsoever. So when you're talking about that type of stuff, no value recruiting. If you want to go to like an instructional camp, right, like say you're from the Richmond area and you want to go to, you know, you want to go over to UVA's instructional camp, like, yeah, go, but just don't think of it as a recruiting opportunity. Think of as an opportunity to go and learn and, you know, be at a really cool facility and be with some coaches who are really good at their jobs and maybe learn what it looks like to be a college baseball player. But if seventh and eighth grade, if you think anything that you're doing from a visibility perspective has any impact on your long term recruiting, I would say that you're, you're probably looking at it through the wrong lens.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: I don't think it's probably Andrew. I think you are looking at it through the wrong ones.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: You are, you're worried if you're worried about the wrong stuff, period.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: It has zero recruiting value.
No matter what you do. Like you, it doesn't matter if you send it to a Division 3 coach in three years or you send it to Jay Johnson who just won a World Series at the Division 1 level last year.
Like, they're not going to care what you did in seventh grade.
And I can promise you in college, there's not a lot. There's probably zero coaches that are gonna be like, hey, how good were you in seventh grade?
It doesn't matter. It's irrelevant to anything that's going on. What matters is when you were good to be recruited and what you do when you get there. No one cares. Like, we've talked about this before. We're like, no one cares what you did in high school. When you get there from a playing standpoint and know somewhat from a coaching standpoint, but, like, you think anyone cares about middle school?
Like, no one cares about middle school. There's not a. Like, you walk into somewhere and you're like, I was the best player on my seventh grade team. People are gonna be like, congratulations, dude. That was six years ago.
Did you get any better? Like, it doesn't matter.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: Yep.
So take away.
Don't waste your time and money on that. Don't need to right now. Simple as that.
Anything else you want to add, Coach?
[00:17:59] Speaker A: No, not tonight.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: All right. All right. Well, thank you for listening, everybody. Hopefully, that was informative. We'll catch in with you next week. Thanks, everybody.
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 get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening. Check in with you next week.
