Let me start by telling you that for position players the Stanford camp is the greatest thing since sliced bread. The camp starts with registration beginning at 10:00 am Wednesday morning. The kids check their paperwork and they get weighed, get their height measured (I don't know how many people I heard saying that there had to be something wrong with the measurements because their son was taller than they measured - mine was 6'2" and was measured 6'2" so I don't think there was anything wrong.) They get their hat and their jersey and then they get their picture taken. Then they head off for Sparq testing. You know, the stuff where the good athletes who have had specific training in how to do those particular exercises get the good scores. Then they feed the kids burgers and dogs. Then the kids who got there on time can go hit for while in the afternoon. Next comes the camp introduction and they get assigned to their dorms, etc. After that there are a couple motivational speakers in the evening. So far so good.

By the time they've reached camp all of the kids have been assigned to a team and have a college coach with only a couple exceptions where the coach is no longer a college coach. The camp begins in earnest on Thursday. About 3 hours are spent practicing, which consists of rotating between conditioning, fielding, and hitting. At some other point in the day the team will play a 9 inning game starting each batter with a 1-1 count. If a hitter walks a pinch runner is sent out to run and the hitter gets a 1-1 count again. I don't like the 1-1 count but I do like putting a runner on so that there's a penalty to the pitcher for walking someone. The games are played at about 6 different locations. 1 location is sunken diamond and every team plays 1 game at sunken diamond. There are a lot of college coaches there for each game at sunken diamond although there are more coaches at the late afternoon and the night games as the coaches who were running the practices can attend those games. The teams also play 2 games at other sites. Most of the sites are within a 5 to 10 minute drive of sunken diamond. However, they also play games at College of San Mateo which is about a 30 minute drive in traffic. Not surprisingly the coaches don't go there so the only coaches who are there are the two team coaches and two coaches who are there to evaluate the pitchers. I'm told that a few coaches go the other sites that are close by but I can't vouch for that because my son was at College of San Mateo on both Thursday and Friday. It really doesn't matter for position players because all of them get to show their wares in front of about 30 or 40 coaches at sunken diamond. You can't beat it. Unfortunately, only about 1/3 of the pitchers get to pitch at sunken diamond, so only about 1/3 of them get seen by a lot of coaches. Now the word was that who got to pitch at sunken diamond was random. Not so. My son heard one of the team coaches telling another coach that they were told by the "Stanford people" who would pitch at sunken diamond and it was pretty obvious that all the "name" pitchers and the kids with connections got to pitch at sunken diamond. It is possible that the kids are drawn at random and then the "Stanford people" pass that on to the coaches but I don't think that's the case.

To some degree my son was lucky. He pitched at College of San Mateo, but one of the coaches made a point of coming to see him throw for his first couple innings. He gunned him the first inning when CASon was only throwing 82-83. The next inning he threw consistently 84 but he wasn't gunning him. He dropped to 82 in his 3rd inning. I didn't ask what he threw his 4th inning but was told that his last pitch was at 86. Either his legs were a bit sore from conditioning in the morning and the previous afternoon, he didn't like the start at 1-1 format or he just didn't quite have his normal velocity as he seemed to be throwing about 1 mph less than at the PG showcase 3 weeks previously. Dave Nakama from Stanford was also there. The other team had some pretty good hitters, so my guess is that he was there to see some of them. There were no set rules and although CASon got to play his secondary position and hit also, there was at least one coach who didn't let his pitchers play in the field other than pitching and didn't let them hit at all.

So the moral of the story is that the Stanford camp is a great experience and a terrific value for a position player and for the pitchers who get to pitch at sunken diamond. BTW, there were some secondary position pitchers who got to pitch at sunken diamond meaning that less than 1/3 of the pitchers got to pitch there. However, I'm not sure how good of a deal it is for a pitcher who doesn't get to throw at sunken diamond. IMO, the whole purpose of the camp is to get the opportunity to play in front of a lot of coaches so they can see you play in person. That doesn't happen for the more than 2/3 of the pitchers who don't get to pitch at sunken diamond. They do fill out a detailed evaluation and that's available to all the coaches who are at the camp but there's no way to tell how many of them look in detail at those evaluations and if it is any different than going to a showcase. In my son's case, there were a dozen college coaches watching when he pitched at his last PG showcase while there were only 4 plus the coach who came specifically to watch him and Dave Nakama who I don't think was there to look at pitchers at College of San Mateo. On the other hand the coaches who did see him at CSM were probably a better fit for him than the ones at the PG showcase who were mostly mid to upper tier D1 coaches. He was also lucky because the coaches who were evaluating the pitchers at CSM told me they thought he could add a few mph very quickly. That interested CASon quite a deal and on Friday night when they gave all the players a chance to talk to the coaches he went and asked one of those two coaches what he could work on and the coach was very helpful.

Once the camp is done they take about 5 or 6 weeks to send out the evaluations so that they can get them all done and send them out at the same time.

I'm not going to go down the path of trying to defend the camp as a whole. Our experience was great and its reputation is very good.

But I will address a couple of points:

1. Our son pitched at one of the off-sites and was evaluated just the same...and recruited (and signed) by Stanford just the same.

2. The following statement is incorrect...this I know for sure...talked to him just the other night (great guy!) and he did plenty of evaluating of our son (pitcher) as well during the recruting/evaluation period.

quote:

Dave Nakama who I don't think was there to look at pitchers at College of San Mateo.

justbaseball,
Thanks, good info. I've only seen him working with hitters and didn't realize he was involved in evaluating pitchers. Mine isn't Stanford material without a whole lot of projection so I don't think he was there looking at him at least. Like I said earlier, the other team had some good hitters so my guess is that he was looking at them. However, the position players would all be able to be seen at sunken diamond so it is possible he was there looking at a pitcher. Regardless, there is a definite advantage for the pitcher who pitches at sunken diamond as opposed to an off-site, especially for the ones who aren't quite up to being signed by Stanford and are looking for wider exposure. My guess is that anyone who comes in throwing 90+ has a pretty good time at the camp and gets all the attention he needs. However your example lends credence to the selection of who pitches at sunken diamond being random.

My son isn't a pitcher, but I thought the camp delivered what it advertised. I did talk to the parents of one pitcher on my son's team who didn't get to play his secondary position, so he just got his single appearance. That would be tough.

CABB-
I think the topic could be referenced to a lot of camps and showcases regarding pitchers.

iheartbb,
Good point. Mine has been lucky at the couple showcases he's been at because he's been on teams with very talented players who drew the coaches/scouts. I think there was some disatisfaction at one of the showcases as some players were on teams that didn't see that many coaches/scouts at their games. Whenever a showcase or camp is big enough that there are multiple locations there's almost always going to be an inequity in who get's seen by who, and it is going to tend to affect pitchers more than position players.

Rob,
My son knows at some point he's just going to be a pitcher but in the meantime he wants to play every inning and get every at bat he can so he would have been very unhappy if he had been on that team. I think he enjoyed playing for his team's coach, who also had some suggestions for him relative to his mechanics.

CABB- (or anyone else)
If you don't mind, could you please explain why your son knows at some point that he will "just be a pitcher". What does that mean, and why do guys "just become pitchers" when does that happen and why.

Thanks

When my son was back in HS, our showcase was limited and we certainly didn't attend anything as high profile as the Stanford Camp. It seems though that almost all showcases shortchange someone. I'm sure that time, facilities, etc. just make it often impossible. Son was a duel kid at showcases and I can remember one where position players got to run the 60 and take THREE swings while the pitchers got quite the evaluation and opportunity. He was doing both - thankfully! It's just difficult to fit everybody in for many of them I'm sure.

If everyone is paying the same price, I am sure they would expect to get treated equally. If it is too difficult to cover everyone evenly, then
A. have more staff on hand
or
B. Cut down the number of attendees to assure
equality or

C. have an additional camp

quote:

Originally posted by iheartbb:
CABB- (or anyone else)
If you don't mind, could you please explain why your son knows at some point that he will "just be a pitcher". What does that mean, and why do guys "just become pitchers" when does that happen and why.

Thanks

A lot depends on the individual and some don't even become "just pitchers" until late in or after HS.
A lot depends on arm strength, ability to get players out (throw strikes), pitcher mentality, need and just an overall desire to become a pitcher. Most pitchers can play other positions and good hitters, while position players can't pitch. One of my sons BF in HS threw gas, but that's all he could do, he couldn't master any other pitch but a FB. He pitched when he was younger and hated it.

More opportunities are available for pitchers.
It was evident at a very early age mine would just be a pitcher. Tall, pitchers frame, high velocity, slow runner, for him it appeared to be his natural position. A very good hitter and outfielder, he got a whole lot more attention as a "pitcher only".

I would think it wood be naturally understood that pitchers get less playing time in showcases, tournaments, camps etc. However just a few good innings often can get more results than more at bats for a position player.
There is another good discussion going on the board about camps. The Stanford Camp is most likely the top camp in the country to attend, down here it's been the UM camp, which IMO was a waste of my players time as a junior and our money, though pitchers camp was less than infielder's and outfielders camp. If he needed instruction, then it may have benefited him, he spent one whole day, working out and conditioning and my understanding is that is scrutinized as well. That tells a lot about a player. That's why coaches and scouts come to wathc a players warm up. The next day he threw a BP in front of HC, no games. The HC had told him he had seen him pitch before that day, so what was the purpose? Lot more results from a PG tourney and two showcases.

Everyone should do their homework regarding every camp, showcase, etc. and decide whether it may or may not be beneficial to their particular player. If it's trying to find a spot on their roster, I am sure you all know Stanford is very selective. If it's exposure to other coaches, and one didn't get that, I understand the argument. Obviously according to JBB's post, you don't have to pitch at Sunken Diamond to get noticed.

Perhaps just a good high profile travel team might bring better results.


JMO.

My '09 son attended the Stanford Camp as a pitcher and it was a great experience. He pitched at Sunken Diamond and came home with a video of the game from the webcam ($50). Since neither of his parents attended it was great for us to be able to see his innings on the mound via video.

My son was lucky and was able to play a position 4 or 5 innings in each of the games where he was not pitching. This was unexpected and we looked at it is as icing on the cake. He did not hit in the game where he pitched but had 2 at-bats in each of the games where he did not pitch.

Overall, my son thought the experience was outstanding, the only complaint I heard from him was about the long walk from the dorms to the field. As I parent I just smiled since walking is good for him.

He said the practice sessions included time with a position coach, hitting in the cages, and time with strength & conditioning coaches. Although 2 out of 3 were lecture format (pitching and S&C) he still found them very helpful and interesting. I was concerned that these were going to be characterized as "boring" but he did not feel that way, he thought they were informative and helpful.

I agree with CAdad about the remote fields. It sounds like other than the coaches assigned to the field or the coaches assigned to coach the two teams, there were not many coaches in attendance at the remote fields. It did sound like their were 2 coaches at each field assigned to evaluate the players, so that is good...there will be feedback on all the players in the reports that go to all the coaches. With that said, I don't know if my son's experience would have been the same if he had pitched at a remote field, pitching at the main field was very cool, complete with his mug shot and name posted on the big screen scoreboard.

My son really enjoyed the cook-out (not really a cookout since they served pizza ) on the last night. He had an opportunity to speak with coaches from several schools that he is interested in, it was a good night to network.

Overall his experience was very positive and he would do it again in a heartbeat.

If I recall correctly, in the initial package/information, Stanford made it clear to pitchers that not all will pitch in SD. I know for a fact that they were watching all players at all fields - we saw them and heard them talking at all fields. And we did see colleges at places other than SD (agreed, not as many). In addition to having colleges watch the players on the field, they also roam the workout sessions when they can, watch hitting, drills, etc. All colleges will get all of the reports on all kids, so that is good exposure, too. And lastly, the chance to talk to so many colleges in one place at the "meet and greet" session is unparalleled, IMHO. Often, the player cannot talk to the coach because they are on the field playing as the coach watches.

The parents of position players were pretty universally happy. The parents of pitchers who threw off site were generally not happy. One kid who threw against us on day 1 at CSM when nobody was there pitched quite well despite not being an overly hard thrower and got some attention based on feedback from the evaluators, but the parent was still unhappy with his not getting the exposure at sunken diamond.

Off site might be for recruiting purposes. Off site a coach can talk to players, not sure they can at other sites unless they are paid by the camp?

The players have to initiate the contact if the coaches aren't working for the camp. There were several college coaches from schools that weren't working at the camp in the stands at sunken diamond. One of them said that there was no limit on how much they could talk to a player as long as the player initiated the conversation. That was a bit different story than what we got from a coach who was attending the PG showcase a few weeks ago who said they couldn't say anything more than a short greeting. That all changes tomorrow for the rising seniors in any case.

Not sure what people expect from these camps. They including MLB camps are boring for pitchers. Some are more boring than others. At best you get to losen up, throw some bull poen and msybe a couple of innings.
If you expect instruction that is unlikely unless the camp is a slow one. You are there to show what you have and be evaluated. If it is a hot day it is very tough for a pitcher to stay sharp. It can also ne tough if you don't know any other pitchers or players. I have been to several but my son has only been to 1 and he had already signed. He only went because his team put it on. He was allowed to play a position and bat so he had a good time.
Most camps are run on the same format and can be very boring.

Could the difference in what the coaches said have to do with the time of year?

CA Dad - Is your son an '09 or '10?

quote:

Originally posted by CADad:
The parents of position players were pretty universally happy. The parents of pitchers who threw off site were generally not happy. One kid who threw against us on day 1 at CSM when nobody was there pitched quite well despite not being an overly hard thrower and got some attention based on feedback from the evaluators, but the parent was still unhappy with his not getting the exposure at sunken diamond.

Is it typical that parents observe some of the goings on at these camps?

fan '09,
'09.