Do you follow real fall baseball? Not the local leagues, but actual Perfect Game, Five Tool, PBR, etc? These rosters are not light. Due to the actions of the Nebraska coaches, up to now fall ball has been the only real chance for these boys to play at a high level. When the Sluggers announced they were expanding I had my doubts. They delivered.
A friend of ours has a son that is going into his 2nd year of college baseball. She said the biggest regret they have is not stepping away from legion to play competitive baseball. He’s in an uphill fight against a flood of Juco transfers and kids that used to easily go to higher level schools. I talk to all levels of college coaches D1, D2, NAIA and D3. They all are under the gun to deliver and all are heavily recruiting Juco and the only schools that tell me they regularly attend legion games are the D3 coaches. NAIA has really stepped it up. Midland’s starting 9 only had 1 kid that started school as a freshman. The other starting 8 were Juco.
Things have changed, and the competition level is serious. To think otherwise means you really are not paying attention and you are in for a rude awakening once your son gets to school thinking he’s going to walk on to that D2 or NAIA roster and be a starter his freshman year. Things have changed so much in just the last 5 years.
I do not follow "real" fall baseball. I've been there, done that. I watch football. I have no interest in watching some group of high school kids try and hit home runs against three dozen kids from the DR try to make Indian Hills CC's team. This type of stuff has been around for years. It was Nebraska Select back in the day; the only guys that played that were single sport athletes.
Several things:
1) If a kid goes to anything other than a D1 or JUCO out of high school, they are going to that school for something other than baseball. Which is fine.
2) If a kid is serious about baseball and doesn't have a D1 offer, you go JUCO.
3) If a D2 or NAIA wants you as a high school senior, they are going to want you as a JUCO transfer. Hell, that's the biggest pitch of JUCO coaches: Come to us and get a shot at SEC; if it doesn't work out Emporia will still want you. I don't know why anyone, if baseball is there sole motivator, would go to a D2 or NAIA out of high school.
4) The JUCO route gets you two extra chances to get drafted, you will get your first two years of college paid for, as opposed to a books and in-state scholarship at best, or $500 at worst from a D2. Plus, the classes are super easy and you can focus on your swing or whatever else is holding you back from D1. You get way more reps at a JUCO. You also get to clean up in the fall against punk high school kids
.
5) No amount of fall baseball or whatever else is going to change the player you are. Seeing 92 isn't going to fix your long ass swing...it's just going to expose it. There's a reason why some college guys say no to the Cape Cod league; they don't want to be exposed and hurt their draft status.
6) You've either got it or you don't. When Darryl Strawberry was a senior in high school, 26 MLB scouts came to watch his first game. By the time his first at bat was over, only 2 scouts remained. The other 24 left, knowing he wouldn't make it past the second pick and that they were wasting their time.
7) Baseball hasn't revolutionized in the last 20 years, 50 years, or whatever to make it now that there are a bunch of super players out there. To say "kids that used to easily go to higher level schools" is baloney. The reality is that that is college baseball, particularly at the D1 and D2 level, are just better players. Do you really think that if a kid played against different teams 48 months prior,
that would make him a starter on his college team? No way. To say that all of a sudden the "competition level is serious" is a big eye roll. It always has been, always will be. All college sports are "serious." If you want to start as a freshman at any level, and I"ll even include NAIA and D3, you got to be able to play.
8) If the high school coach you referenced laughed at JUCOs, I think he is a ******* idiot and should not be anywhere near a baseball field.