Should You Showcase?

We are smack dab in the middle of “showcase season”. It’s a time when parents of kids as young as 12 and 13 are starting to think about whether or not they should begin the process of paying a bunch of money to have their young athletes show up at a field house for 3 hours and “showcase” their skills in the hopes of getting discovered by college scouts. With that, I’ve had a few parents ask me, “should my son showcase?”. My answer generally depends on the situation, but usually goes like this… No. Why not? Well, for starters, what are you showcasing? If you are thinking that being “average” amongst hundreds of your grade level peers is going to get you discovered by a college scout, you are wrong. On the positive side, here are a couple of questions to help you clarify whether you should showcase now: Do you have a tool or tools that are in the top 10% of your class at this point in time? Coaches at showcases are looking for TOOLS - Run tool, Hit tool, Hit for power tool, Defensive tool (arm, range, glove), Throw Tool. Look at the same or similar showcases from the prior year. Does your son rank in the top 10-20% in any of the evaluative metrics (exit velocity, 60 time, pop time, Fastball Velocity). If not, it’s very likely that his registration fee is going to be nothing other than an addition to the HUGE PROFITS that showcase companies MAKE off of kids who don’t REALLY belong at that showcase. Is it time to be showcasing? With the exception of APPROXIMATELY THE 10 BEST (AND FULLY GROWN) kids in the state, if you are showcasing in 8th grade, you are not being looked at seriously. “Educational” Showcases are just that - and you don’t really need education in how a glorified tryout is run. If you feel like you need to pay someone $300 to show you the experience of taking batting practice or throwing off of a mound, that’s fascinating, but once you’ve done that, you probably don’t need to showcase again until you’re a little older and a little more ready. If you’re a high school sophomore and you are at the right showcase (RIGHT SCHOOLS, RIGHT COMPETITION, RIGHT EMPHASIS), and you stack up with something that colleges might be looking for, then it’s probably a good time to get in front of somebody. AGAIN, IF YOU DON’T REALLY STAND OUT IN ANY WAY, WHAT’S THE POINT? Are you trying to make a “special” team? Many showcase companies dangle the opportunity to make an “exposure team” as a result of performing at a showcase. See Question 1 above. Unless you are a top guy in one or several tools at the showcase, or are politically connected to the organizer, don’t think you are going to get magically picked because you fielded a couple ground balls cleanly. And when you make that team, there won’t be anyone watching you play, because you are not in high school yet AND COLLEGE COACHES ARE NOT RUNNING TO SEE 5’7, 125 LB PLAYERS PLAY ON 90FT BASES FOR THE FIRST TIME. Are you just doing it to “see how you stack up” That’s easy enough. Log on to www.prepbaseballreport.com or www.perfectgame.org and look at other kids in your age group to see how they did. You can sort the data and see how you stack up without the time and expense of driving to an actual location. Looking to play tournament games against tough competition? Play for a summer team that plays a difficult schedule against tough competition - you don’t have to go out of state to a showcase to find dudes to play against. Do you have unlimited funds? If money is no object, feel free to spend it on whatever you want. If you don’t mind spending 5 hours on a Sunday checking in, standing in line, taking pictures, and taking a few grounders and 10 swings of batting practice, go for it. But if you want to save $300-$700 and a few hours, there are quite a few other things that you could spend that time on (including a more efficient baseball practice, having family dinner at grandmas house, OR WATCHING JOHN WICK 3 FOR THE 14TH TIME) Are you Ok with being average to below average in a very public way? Most showcases produce numbers that are posted to the web and stay there forever. If you’re average to below average in your competitive peer group, that number stays on your profile for EVERYONE to see FOREVER. Is that something you want? If you don’t put up a great number now, the only way to improve it is to SHOWCASE AGAIN. Do you see where this leads? You will be in a cycle of paying to post average results until your results are not average, and this continues as long as you have aspirations of playing at a higher level. In summary, the answer to the question of “should I showcase” is pretty easy for 9 OUT OF 10 kids that are asking it. If you value your time or your money, and you’re not clearly in the higher end on any metric, the answer is “No”. WANT TO GET BETTER SO THAT YOU CAN GO TURN SOME HEADS? COME SEE US AND WE’LL HELP YOU PUT TOGETHER A PLAN.