College Recruiting Evaluations and Showcases For Baseball Pitching

I recently looked at an evaluation from Baseball Factory of one of our high school junior pitchers who came to visit for one-on-one instruction. This evaluation cost the parent $500 and after the scouting evaluation they were encouraged to take advantage of a $1995 upgrade and then a $3000 upgrade in order to get their son some exposure to college coaches and a potential college scholarship.

Was this pitching evaluation a good investment for this parent and the junior pitcher? I don’t think so. And here’s why.

This particular pitcher, a 5’10″ 172 lb. RH was hitting 82 mph when his father brought him to us for evaluation and for improving his mechanics so he could improve his velocity. The Baseball Factory evaluation form showed fastball velocity from 78-82 mph.

However, this same pitcher was hitting 86 mph as a sophomore. The velocity drop occurred after the pitcher worked with one of the major league pitching coaches during the winter, who encouraged him to stride out farther. The only problem is the major league pitching coach never used videotaping or a radar gun to see if the increase in stride was producing an increase in velocity. The fact is, this pitcher’s velocity was slowly decreasing. Why?

Because he could not manage the additional stride length. His front leg angle upon landing was nearly 90 degrees. This would not allow him to get his hips and trunk up and over his front leg at ball release. So he was essentially like “pitching in sand” where his back hip ended up lower than his front hip. This killed his velocity.

Our focus was to find out what he was doing differently during his junior year that was different mechanically to what he was doing now. Although we did not have video of his junior year, his father was able to show me one photo of his son at the landing position which clearly showed a shorter stride and a larger landing leg angle closer to 135 degrees. We showed him how to shift his weight better and to stay at a more manageable stride length with that 135 degree landing leg angle. We believe he will be able to quickly get back to his 86 and then by next year up to 90 mph or above.

So what does this have to do with the Baseball Factory evaluation? Well, it would have made more sense to wait until his son’s velocity was back up to the 86 mph range. A video analysis would have quickly found the problem and would have given the pitcher time to get his velocity back up.

Do you really want an evaluation form saying 78-82 mph or 86 mph as a high school junior?

A video analysis thus would have been a far better investment, which is less than the $500 required for the Baseball Factory evaluation, which provided no tips on how to fix this pitcher’s mechanics and his velocity.

So until this pitcher or any other high school pitcher gets his velocity to at least 85 mph it makes little sense to pay for a $500 evaluation or to go even further and invest in a college recruitment package would could easily cost an additional $3000-$5000.

Investing in sound pitching instruction, where videotaping is the mainstay, is a far better investment. If the major league pitching coach had been videotaping, and had the knowledge to interpret this boy’s mechanics, he could have helped this high school junior pitcher be closer to 90 mph than to low 80′s.

Also these evaluation forms or scouting reports are supposed to go to X amount of college coaches or get exposure to these coaches. Do you really think that college coaches have time to search databases or look at video of pitchers they know nothing about. Very unlikely.

The best way to get noticed is first to have above average velocity and then I would suggest narrowing your choices down to 3 to 5 schools and then attend their summer clinics so they can actually see the pitcher and get to know him better. The other strategy should be to get on a travel team that attends many high profile tournaments, which is where pro scouts and college coaches go to see top prospects firsthand.

My son Ryan was an unknown until his sophomore year in high school when his team went from Phoenix to a tournament in the southeast where he was seen as a developing lefty whom college and pro scouts could watch over the next year or two.

Then as a high school junior he was invited to The Area Code showcase in Long Beach, CA which had over 150 pro scouts and about 75 college coaches in attendance. After that showcase Ryan was on the radar and had his pick of D1 schools from Miami, Florida State, Clemson, LSU and dozens more but finally settled on Arizona State close to his hometown.

So for parents wondering what to do, I would suggest you first get your son evaluated as a pitcher so you can see if it is worth investing in college recruitment right now or would be better off getting better professional instruction…which could improve his velocity and make him a good candidate for a college scholarship. You might want to look at our Video Analysis service.

The other thing this father could have done is have us do a video analysis which would have shown why his son was losing velocity. A video analysis is an insurance policy against poor instruction.

But remember this… there are no secrets to pitching improvement. Just sound sports science principles that we apply to pitching that just make common sense. No magic spoken here.

A video analysis is your best insurance policy against poor instruction, guaranteed improvement and added arm insurance against injury. http://www.pitching.com/video_analysis/

Our Explosively Pitching DVD program teaches parents how to help their sons use their bodies to pitch instead of just their arms. Not only does this improve velocity but reduces the risk of arm injuries. We also teach them proper conditioning.

See our Off-season discounts on our instructional DVD’s: http://www.pitching.com/products/