As a relative newcomer to the Illinois summer baseball landscape, a few unbiased observations from this past weekend. I was able to attend and scout at Plainfield this past weekend, though could not make it the previous weekend at Stevenson.

There was a large amount of college coaches and professional scouts in attendance. Unfortunately, they came away unimpressed with the weekend, partly due to the players who were either not invited and they wanted to see, or the players who chose not to attend in favor of other pursuits. A good number of the college coaches I spoke with had been at the TOC in Cincy Thursday and Friday, and then coming out this way for the weekend.

I am not trying to place blame on any one, though I do anticipate if a similar situation occurs next year where there is no roster of attendees available prior to the event, you will see a significantly smaller number of coaches in attendance. I refuse to interject any opinion here, but merely want to point out that if the players coaches want to see are not there, they won't come.

I would, and did recommend to any players asking my advice, that attending the showcase is a good opportunity for exposure. I would also suggest a combination of the two events, as a way to assure continued support by the college coaches that make this event necessary. Without the same number of coaches in attendance it would not be a good value to the players.

OK, so there were 10+. But the 50 or more that come out to Stevenson every year must be doing it for a very good reason. Also, I know that the year my son participated, the representatives were exclusively head coaches from what I could see. I know that they have subordinates beating the bushes during the summer and hitting the tournaments. Just a point of reference.

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OK, so there were 10+. But the 25 or more that come out to Stevenson every year must be doing it for a very good reason. Also, I know that the year my son participated, the representatives were exclusively head coaches from what I could see. I know that they have subordinates beating the bushes during the summer and hitting the tournaments. Just a point of reference.

Just an FYI.........most college baseball head coaches do not serve as the recruiting coordinator, they go where the recruiting coordinator sends them. There is no such thing as a "subordinate".

Sorry about "subordinate". How about assistant coach? I certainly didn't mean any disrespect to anyone.

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Unfortunately, they came away unimpressed with the weekend, partly due to the players who were either not invited and they wanted to see, or the players who chose not to attend in favor of other pursuits.

Coach, not sure that too many prospects are not invited, I think more the latter than the former.
I am confindent that the two Chicagoland showcases will continue to draw plenty of representation from colleges and MLB. However if there is a concern that too many players are missing, then we have a responsibility to keep them in town so they can attend.

In my opinion, the best $80.00 I've ever spent. On Saturday at Stevenson, 89 college coaches and scouts in attendance, and over a dozen (so far) we'll call you's after July 1. Beats the heck out of the usual $500.00 weekend out-of-town tourny where the only scouts in attendance are selling cookies.

Same opinion here JKennedy... the emails and letters #3 is getting now reference the showcase. And if you think about it, at $80 that's less than $1 per view by a college coach... what a great value. All we need is one who's REALLY interested!

#2 son did lots of summer and fall "showcase" tournaments where the only recruiter in attendance was from the local college who hosted the event and maybe the nearby Juco coach that he invited. We played at D1 schools where NOBODY from the college was even there to check it out. These were all billed as big deal events that simply didn't prove to be what we thought we were getting. The Stevenson weekend is exactly as it's billed - lots of colleges looking for exactly the kind of kids who are there. #2 got TONS of interest from the Stevenson weekend and ended up at a great spot for him.

And to bballdad who said that it seemed that every team had a player, so therefore it wasn't always the best players... our conference had three teams that had no players and several that had four. It's a battle in our conference among the coaches to get their players there - they all know just how important it is. And I'm sure from one conference to another there are disparities between just how good you have to be to get invited - same is true from team to team. You may be good enough to be a starter on one team, but get very little playing time on another, depending on the make up of your team.

It's not a perfect system, and I'm sure there are juniors who would benefit from being there who don't make the top 25, but it's definitely better than the **** shoot "showcase" tournament system.

Central Suburban seems to be causing their own problems from what we all heard at the meeting - not much anyone can do to fix that, except the coaches themselves.

I was really not trying to place any blame, as I am not as familiar with that whole process as I would need to be to formulate an opinion. I did want to pass along the feedback I received from the guys I talked to, hopefully helping the continued success of this event helping to provide some exposure to local players.

my3sons: I think you are right about the CSL coaches causing their own problems.

Does anyone know if any results have been posted or where they may be posted from the Plainfield event?

my 2 cents: I thought the Plainfield event was organized and well attended by scouts/coaches.

If there were 65+ colleges at the Plainfield event and 10 at the Cincy event, the question would be why would a kid want to go to the Cincy event and not the Plainfield event. Why would the coaches want him going to a tournament just to win it, rather than putting himself in front of more schools to better the kids chances of being seen?

Another thing I don't agree with, why would coaches not come to an event because a few kids weren't there? That means they'd miss out on other kids. If 10 schools are looking at 1 kid, 9 are going to miss out on him so for a school to say their not coming because a certain kid or a few kids weren't there they must be pretty confident they were going to sign that kid then. Makes no sense, there's always players and I don't think colleges are dumb enough to put all their eggs in one basket like that and not show up and risk losing out on seeing 100 more kids just because 1 or 3 they liked or knew about weren't showing up.

perfect example like matt milroy. here is a kid who did himself well at plainfield and he showed well at the ac tryout yesterday

Nails
I used the number 10 as a roundabout number . There were probably more than that ..but obviously not as many as plainfield . Also at the Cincy tourney there were college coaches from the SEC and other conferences from the east and southeast . Our guys otherwise might not ever get seen by these schools . Some of these coaches do not have it on their itinerary to even make the trip to the stevenson and/or plainfield showcases . Some of them never travel to the chicago area . I know this for a fact..i spoke to a couple of these coaches . The bottom line is this ..there was a ton a value to playing at the TOC in cincy and there was a ton of value to attending plainfield as well .

A couple side notes to all of this .

The Sparks players got the opportunity to play on Two of the nicest college parks that ive seen -Miami of Ohio and University of Cincinnati .

I know for a fact that a couple of these coaches put a call in to coach Copp after one of our games to inquire about a few of the players.

I really have no handle on how many coaches were at Stevenson from South of the Mason Dixon line. No idea.

High school players from the South don't want to come up North to play baseball. (OK may there are a few at ND but that is ND) Many kids from the North would like to go South.

Southern schools do not need to come here to recruit because they have enough kids in their area. Colin Bates (North Carolina) was seen while playing for a travel team in a South Carolina tournament. They were there to watch the kid he was pitching against & he out pitched him. Had he not ventured out of this area we never would have got to see him on TV in the College World Series.

Point is - a kid's best chance to play in the South will be enhanced if you go into their area to play.

... and I am not complaining about Stevenson. However, there is value to leaving the area if you wish to get out of the cold. JMHO

Boy, I love the enthusiasm but the SEC doesn't come up here to recruit because they've got more than enough right in their own backyard. Yes, there's a Ruairi O'Connor at FSU, Connor Powers at MSU and Jason Kipnis who went to Kentucky and then ASU and a very few others. But if you ever look at the rosters of teams in these conferences they are almost all homegrown. We think, and maybe with good reason, that we have more players in our area that are good enough to make these squads, but would they get any real playing time? Is there a player on Fresno State not from California? But, in my opinion, that is what makes the Stanford Camp so great. Coaches from coast to coast. But I know, Palo Alto is no Kenosha! LOL.

Miami of Ohio and Cincinatti were both at Area Codes. Cincinatti had a player a few years ago that played at Walther Lutheran, don't think he was on the Sparks but somehow they found out about him. There were also SEC schools at Area Code and at Plainfield. You went to the Cincy flames tournament, others went to Plainfield. No reason to defend what you did and try to bash the other one. Most school's have 3 coaches, maybe they sent one to Plainfield and one to Cincy, that would be the smart thing. There might have been another tourney going on that weekend that was just as good. To act like the one you and your kid's team went to was the best one and the best thing to do that weekend is pretty shortsighted.

ha ha thats funny nails --show me where i

" bashed " plainfield. I wasnt even there...at least i could comment on Stevenson because i was actually there. The comments i did make were in response to Rosy who didnt seem to think there was much value to playing in Cincy with Plainfield going on. I just brought up some facts to counter what he said .

Didnt know area code was involved in this conversation

And to answer you as far as defending what i did --we didnt have a choice to make --was at stevenson the week before . Didnt have a horse in that race .

The TOC in Cincy was one of the better tournaments all the way around i have been to in quite a while ..including last year IMO . Any tourney with the East Cobb Braves and some of the others had to be the best tourney going on hands down . Dont know what other tourney you are referring to .

Great job by Bill Copp and the rest of the Sparks staff .

Why was last year Cincy tourney better than this year for you? Were you on a different team or get farther this year or something?

I understand your thoughts that Stevenson isn't perfect and there's too many kids but that can be said about anything, Travel teams have upwards of 20+ on their teams and there's no way all 20 kids are going to bat in a certain game.........sometimes colleges only come to 1 game not the other because they have other places to go. So you might not get to bat at all that day in front of the college if you didn't play, whereas Stevenson they at least try to get everyone in, take an infield, etc so the college there gets to see everyone. I think every opportunity is good for the kids, nitpicking each little detail is pointless, nothing is perfect.

I would hardly characterize my comments as " nitpicking " . If you loved everything about Stevenson ..then great for you . I took issue with the hitting format . I dont think a player would view the hitting part as a " little detail " . You must not have ever been a hitter yourself mr. nails or you would not have such a difficult time understanding my points. Obviously my comments touched a nerve of yours for some reason.

didn't touch a nerve at all, I am just saying your talking up a tournament and talking down a showcase event. What about when a college is there and the kid doesn't even play that day? 1 or 2 swings in that format is better than 0 in a game. Ideally, BP and infield the first day and games the other day would be better, will they change it, who knows. I just see alot of talking/suggesting/complaining about showcase events on here and I really don't get it.