A good friend of mine who lives in NE Indiana has a Sophomore who is, by all accounts, a pretty good HS player. He is leading his (small) school in hitting and is a LH pitcher who apparently throws low 80's.

He called me here in Ohio and asked for advice on getting him noticed. I explained talking to his coach to get the word out; he plays travel ball for, I believe, the Cannons(?); I explained going to camps of schools he likes.

However, does anyone know of any good camps in Indiana, or for that matter, any bad ones to stay away from? Would love to help him get looked at if he is as up and coming as thought.

Thanks for all the help.

quote:

Originally posted by TCB1:
A good friend of mine who lives in NE Indiana has a Sophomore who is, by all accounts, a pretty good HS player. He is leading his (small) school in hitting and is a LH pitcher who apparently throws low 80's.

He called me here in Ohio and asked for advice on getting him noticed. I explained talking to his coach to get the word out; he plays travel ball for, I believe, the Cannons(?); I explained going to camps of schools he likes.

However, does anyone know of any good camps in Indiana, or for that matter, any bad ones to stay away from? Would love to help him get looked at if he is as up and coming as thought.

Thanks for all the help.

I'm from NE Indiana also (Ft. Wayne)and my son plays for Snider. For exposure for your friend's son, I'd highly recommend any of the Perfect Game showcases. There are a lot of other "showcases" in the area, but many aren't worth much, to be honest. PG showcases are always worthwhile and will gain him maximum exposure to the folks whose opinions and evaluations count, to both colleges and the pros. Another smaller showcase he might consider is the TPX Top 96 showcase this August in Mishawaka at Bethel College. Mostly smaller colleges attend, but they represent many good programs. Also, if he is a good player, he might reconsider playing summer ball for "travel" teams and try instead to get on a good select team that draws scouts to their games. While there are some decent travel teams, a great many are more "daddyball" teams that no one goes to see. A good select team will play in tournaments that feature nationally-recognized teams and it's those teams the college and pro scouts will attend. Unfortunately, just because a team calls itself a "travel" team, doesn't always mean the people who count will recognize them or show up at their games. It takes some homework to find the teams that actually get exposure. Watch also for teams that claim that "scouts" come to their games, that the scouts they're referring to aren't just local "birddogs" that have some tenacious connection to pro or college teams, and aren't really scouts who the pros or colleges actually pay much attention to. There are several of those around... Not implying they're bad people or something, but just not the level of baseball people that can do a kid much good other than to recommend to someone higher up that they may want to look at a kid. The kinds of teams in this area that qualify as teams that higher-level scouts--pro and college--will be at are teams like the Midland Redskins, Indiana Bulls, Indiana Yankees, Indy Bulldogs, Prospects, Bandits, Cincy Sting, etc. There are perhaps 20-30 teams in Indiana and Ohio that are at that level, and perhaps 5-10 that are truly top teams.

As far as college camps, Notre Dame has excellent camps and the U. of Tennessee also has a great one.

Hope this helps!

Get better! Here is a good site to look at and the training program is not far from you.
www.fletchspen.net

Listen to BlueSky, he's on track. Get involved with the best travel team you can, play the best competition you can, go to the college camps that you think he has the talent to play at and go to a Perfect Game showcase/ tournament.