Episode Transcript
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[00:01:12] Speaker B: Welcome to this week's edition of in.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: The Clubhouse with the MD Baseball. I'm Andy Kira Kidis, joined by my Wonderful co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How are we doing?
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Great. How are you?
[00:01:23] Speaker C: Got my new fly hat on the mail. I don't know.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: I don't have any.
[00:01:28] Speaker D: I'm just wearing a backwards blue one.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: Fair enough. It's a good, it's a good look for you though. Thank you.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Appreciate it.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: Today's topic I feel like this is kind of an annual one this time of year that I feel like we always need to continue to touch on is showcase timing and specifically about the timing of events in that January, February time frame kind of heading into the high school season.
And there are some things that I think people need to take into consideration when deciding on where they're going to go or if they're going to showcase. So we're going to cover that here.
So I'll kick it over to you coach to to start off with a couple thoughts and we'll cover this topic.
[00:02:14] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: The this is my favorite topic or one of my favorite topics I should say the timing of the January February. We're in the quiet period obviously for from a Division 1 standpoint. So only Division 2 and 3 coaches can go out and see you.
You know I I think and I'll beat this drum and die on this hill. You from a position player standpoint, I don't want to say it doesn't matter but I want to say that if you're going to go to these events you want to at least be have been doing some throwing be in the cages. Do A little bit of defense so that when you show up, you're. You're not just all rusty from not having done nothing for three, four months.
Where I feel like the showcase timing in, in the, the January February realm is. Gets jammed up is where.
[00:03:12] Speaker D: Where you're from, I should say geographically, right?
[00:03:16] Speaker B: The. If you're a Northeast kid, if you're a New England kid, where you're not really going to be pitching or throwing meaningful innings until late March, most likely April.
I don't think that you should really be going to these showcase events because you're not ready. You know, even some of these high schools, I, I've heard of some of high school guys that are throwing bullpens in, in early January, which, why I don't know. You know, you're not. Again, you're not throwing a meaningful inning for another four months. So I'm unsure why we're getting up and down on mounds four months out. Like, college guys aren't don't do that. Pro guys don't do that. But for some reason at the high school level, we feel as though that's the right thing to do.
But guys aren't ready to go and you run the risk of, of injuring yourself, obviously, first and foremost, but it creates a super long season for yourself, right? So you're going to be throwing January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September and maybe into October. So we're talking 10 months of throwing.
And if you're not ready, you're going to go to these camps and be seen by guys and they're going to evaluate you on what they see in front of you of, in front of themselves. So if you go there and you're not very good because you're not ready, you're going to get crossed off a list. And if you're really good, they're going to go, dad, I got to see that guy against better competition this summer, you know, so they're, you know, I'm not saying there's. It's not a lose lose because if you go there and you're really good, you know that that creates a follow, right, which gets your foot in the door where coaches are going to be able to come and, or they're going to want to get out and see you throw in the summer against other competition. But if you're not good, they're not going to come see you throw in the summer. And conversely, if you are good, you got to be able to do that in July, seven months from now when they're coming to See, you throw and that's a hard thing to do for, for younger guys where you can be up for seven months and be really good in July that you were the same person that they saw in January, that you're in July, you know, so I, you know, I think for arms you have to be very careful with what you want to do from a showcase standpoint. You know, obviously if you're a Southeast type kid where you know you're, you're firing up baseball in late February and you're built, you know, you're built up and you're ready to go, different story, right? Like you're, you've been throwing, you've been up and down a mound, you've thrown pens, you've thrown live stuff like that, that's a different animal, you know. But if you're a Mid Atlantic, northeast New England type kid or Midwest type kid where you know, you haven't been outside, you haven't been throwing, maybe you're playing hoops, I would really think twice about signing up for a showcase and going and throwing because there's not, you know, there's not a, a large amount of upside for you in that, in going to that showcase and throwing.
[00:06:15] Speaker D: 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, non stop 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.
[00:07:18] Speaker C: Yeah, the health thing is the one that I always get jammed up with and the timing like you're talking about being ready to throw a competitive bullpen the first week of February at somebody's camp. When you don't throw a meaningful high school pitch until the first week of April, you might be asking your yourself to do a lot in the preparation there to make sure that you're healthy come spring and summer. To your point, guys are going to most likely are Going to want to see you compete versus throw kind of a controlled environment bullpen.
Then there's so much you can do with video these days too that can catch guys eyes that in person evaluation from a pitching standpoint in February may not be quite as important because you can show guys trackman data and video and they got a pretty good idea and then they're going to want to watch it compete anyways.
So that first time showcase, I just think it matters from a pitching perspective. Matters so much that you're actually ready to do it. I mean for most kids in the northern climates, they don't, they're just not, they shouldn't be ready. It's not that they are, it's that they shouldn't be ready at that point.
You know, most guys I'm in, I'm in Northern Virginia and you know, most guys right now aren't even in their bullpen phase and they start earlier down here.
So I think keeping an eye on health and making sure that you're actually ready to go perform is, is really important both for the short term and for the, the long term evaluation piece. To your point, if you go there and you're not ready to go and you don't have a good performance, that's your first impression that you make with a coach. And not that it's the end all be all but you know, you only get one chance to make a first impression as the saying goes and you want to make sure that you make a good one from a position player standpoint. I think one of the things to consider with a lot of these indoor camps, and I can say this because I've had conversations with guys, college coaches recently about this, about a couple of guys, is yeah, it'd be great if he could come, but I'd rather have, I'd rather have him come to our Prospect Cab in the summer where it's two days. We're going to play games, we're going to be on campus, we're going to be doing tours. A lot of these camps that happen in February, most of them are pretty condensed and I would actually consider them a little bit more like a, like a clinic where you get an opportunity to go play in front of those coaches. But you're also going to be limited in terms of what is going to be done at those camps. Right? There's going to be fewer live at bats, if any.
You may not run, you might not do a full workout.
It's a little bit of a different environment and being selective about where you Go. And when you go, I think, is, you know, another really important piece of the puzzle. And the only other thing that I. I think that needs to be taken into consideration here, and I think this goes broadly for all types of camps that, that people choose to attend, is you need to go somewhere where you're gonna.
You actually have a chance of being recruited at.
And we talk about this a lot, and the kind of two examples that we use is like, if you're not an ACC guy, you know, it's pretty obvious if you are, but if you're not an ACC guy, flying down to Wake Forest, hitting camp in February, you know, might not be the best use of your time. If, you know, if you're a 3.3 student with a 24 ACT and you decide that you want to go to Columbia's camp, you can be the best player that's ever shown up to camp, but they can't recruit you, right? So making really good decisions about where you go.
And the other thing that's really important to note about the timing of things in the. In the. This kind of the late winter here, is Division 1 coaches can't leave campus.
So you're only showcasing yourself in front of one Division 1 school. A lot of these schools will bring other coaches on campus, but they're going to be Division 2 and Division 3 guys. If you fit at those levels, then, yeah, that makes sense.
But understanding who's going to be there, understanding the format and making sure you're in a place where you can really actually go in and make a name for yourself and peak somebody's interest is really important.
Especially if you're 27. Right. If you're a 28, I could be convinced that there's a little bit more value about getting some feedback and kind of understanding where you stand in the grand scheme of things. That's a little bit different.
But I do think that there's a.
There's an element of knowledge that needs to be imparted about where you fit.
And, you know, is it going to be worth your time to go to one of those camps? And, you know, having somebody who's able to direct you on that, I think is really important because it can save you time, it can save you money.
You know, most of these camps are going to take you a full weekend to kind of plan out. You know, even it's Saturday and you're traveling, you know, you're probably either getting into town Friday night or leaving early Saturday morning. You're kind of washing almost two days during the weekend. And those are two valuable days from a workout perspective as well. So it sounds like there's a lot to unpack as we talk about it here. And I feel like we're throwing a lot of bit a lot of information into kind of a tight window. But I think at the end of the day, it's. It's really not that complicated. Is, is if you're a pitcher, you better be ready to rock and roll if you're going to go throw a bullpen for somebody.
And that better not compromise your ability to be ready and healthy for the high school season and more importantly, for the summer where the vast majority of recruiting occurs.
And from a position player standpoint, making a decision on going somewhere that is actually feasible for you and a place that you could potentially fit and understanding the type of player you are, the type of player that a program is looking for before you make these decisions to run off and try to showcase yourself, you know, in this January, February timeframe when you know most of your opportunities to improve, to impress coaches are going to come by. One, having a really good high school season, so you've got a little bit of a resume that you can bounce off of coaches. And then two, this summer where the camp opportunities are going to be more detailed, they're going to be more game like and a lot of the evaluation and I think there's a lot more opportunity and a lot more bang for your. Your proverbial buck, if you will, when it comes to attending some of those camps during the summer.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Yeah, couldn't agree more.
[00:13:25] Speaker C: Anything else you want to add to the, the showcase timing that we, we feel like we always need to make sure that we touch on.
[00:13:34] Speaker D: I don't think so. I mean, we, we hammer this stuff quite a bit. So I think we nailed this one.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: All right, if you have any questions.
[00:13:41] Speaker D: Let us know, Email us, we'll answer them for you.
[00:13:45] Speaker C: Absolutely. Absolutely.
All right, well, thank you everybody for listening. Tune in next week and we will talk to you then. Thanks everybody.
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You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MDBaseball. 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.
