Fall baseball teams for D1 hopeful

[Anonymous]

DS is entering HS this Fall, and we need to find a new baseball team for the Fall. Which area teams actually send kids to D1 - which is DS's ultimate goal. He's a really good athlete and plays higher level travel ball now with lots of showball. We're not baseball savvy enough to know if he ultimately has what it takes, but he's athletic and competitive enough that we want to help him reach for it.

TIA.

[Anonymous]

My unpopular opinion is that it doesn't matter what team you play on.

D1 level talent for baseball is either you have it or you don't.

Also, I hope your kid has some size to him. College coaches love big kids. I've seen some undersized kids get pushed aside for some 6'0+ kid who lacked skills but had athleticism. Coaches think they can fix the skills but you can't fix athletic ability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My unpopular opinion is that it doesn't matter what team you play on.

D1 level talent for baseball is either you have it or you don't.

Also, I hope your kid has some size to him. College coaches love big kids. I've seen some undersized kids get pushed aside for some 6'0+ kid who lacked skills but had athleticism. Coaches think they can fix the skills but you can't fix athletic ability.

I kind of understand what you are saying, but you need to play on a team that has some D1 relationships. A D1 coach won't just randomly decide to attend a local tournament where they never recruit anyone and then "discover" you, nor will they happen upon a random Twitter feed on your kid. They need some college coach that they respect to get your kid on their radar.

Certainly if you play for SJC, then your HS and Travel team are one-and-the same (for the most part) which makes life kind of easy.

To answer OP's question, here are teams to think about...BTW, I wouldn't worry about these teams until at the earliest Summer after Freshman year (15U)...but you can even skip that too and consider starting on the Summer 16u team, or start Fall of your sophomore year to get acclimated to the program:

Mid-Atlantic Red Sox (current 2025 HS graduates include WV, NC State, 2 UMD (one likely to be a high MLB draft pick), 1 UCF, 1 Upenn, 1 UMBC, and like 3 other D1 recruits...nearly all other kids are D2 or D3 recruits)...Mid-Atlantic Red Sox only have 1 team per age group which makes like simple; and
Richmond Braves National Team (Richmond Braves have many teams for each age group...only the National team is worthwhile)

These teams don't practice, and will pull kids from all over the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast...they will expect you to train/practice on your own. That's fairly typical for these teams that get a bunch of kids recruited to D1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is entering HS this Fall, and we need to find a new baseball team for the Fall. Which area teams actually send kids to D1 - which is DS's ultimate goal. He's a really good athlete and plays higher level travel ball now with lots of showball. We're not baseball savvy enough to know if he ultimately has what it takes, but he's athletic and competitive enough that we want to help him reach for it.

TIA.

SJC is an outlier in terms of local baseball. If your son is really D1 material coaches will be far more interested in how he handles failure, how he is in the dugout, and how he carries himself on the field. If he has off the chart athletic ability that will be instantly seen, it's the things that people don't pay attention to that scouts care about. Finding a team with a good dugout culture is what I would be looking for.

[Anonymous]

Also, D3 is kind of a stepping stone for a lot of late bloomers these days with the transfer portal.

[Anonymous]

This doesn’t answer your question, but I wanted to chime in as a parent who finished this process last summer (DS just graduated) and went into it knowing next to nothing. Looking back, I tend to agree with PP who said it doesn’t matter as much what team you play on right now. Again, no expert but watched a lot of kids on a lot of teams over the last 5 years. If you’re truly DI talent, it’s clear, and someone will see you somewhere and pull you to one of those regional/national teams for the most part. And size is a big factor in that. If you’re not, DIII baseball is mostly marketing yourself for recruitment purposes (emails, camps, showcases), not necessarily being on the right team.

Your son is still young so dreams are great and motivating, but as he gets older, make sure he understands getting recruited versus making a roster versus actually playing. My kid is on the smaller side (5’10.5” and about 170-175) so was likely always destined for DIII, but I watched a lot of kids this cycle decide to go to highly successful DIII programs either because they decided they’d rather have a much better chance of playing or because they thought/hoped they were going DI but couldn’t get any traction and ended up going DIII late senior year. I saw kids a year ahead of mine who went DI and were cut fall of their freshman year; DS really wanted to avoid that. Good luck to your son as you start this journey; it’s a grind. Staying realistic is my best advice as another parent who wasn’t/isn’t baseball savvy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This doesn’t answer your question, but I wanted to chime in as a parent who finished this process last summer (DS just graduated) and went into it knowing next to nothing. Looking back, I tend to agree with PP who said it doesn’t matter as much what team you play on right now. Again, no expert but watched a lot of kids on a lot of teams over the last 5 years. If you’re truly DI talent, it’s clear, and someone will see you somewhere and pull you to one of those regional/national teams for the most part. And size is a big factor in that. If you’re not, DIII baseball is mostly marketing yourself for recruitment purposes (emails, camps, showcases), not necessarily being on the right team.

Your son is still young so dreams are great and motivating, but as he gets older, make sure he understands getting recruited versus making a roster versus actually playing. My kid is on the smaller side (5’10.5” and about 170-175) so was likely always destined for DIII, but I watched a lot of kids this cycle decide to go to highly successful DIII programs either because they decided they’d rather have a much better chance of playing or because they thought/hoped they were going DI but couldn’t get any traction and ended up going DIII late senior year. I saw kids a year ahead of mine who went DI and were cut fall of their freshman year; DS really wanted to avoid that. Good luck to your son as you start this journey; it’s a grind. Staying realistic is my best advice as another parent who wasn’t/isn’t baseball savvy.

There are many degrees of D1 talent.

If you are someone that Vanderbilt would recruit, then yes, your talent is clear.

However, if you are someone that is Fordham or Ivy or Patriot League D1 level (meaning, that would be your upper limit of athletic ability)...that's not such an easy call and it matters that a club coach knows those coaches, understands which schools are recruiting for what slots and makes sure you get in front of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My unpopular opinion is that it doesn't matter what team you play on.

D1 level talent for baseball is either you have it or you don't.

Also, I hope your kid has some size to him. College coaches love big kids. I've seen some undersized kids get pushed aside for some 6'0+ kid who lacked skills but had athleticism. Coaches think they can fix the skills but you can't fix athletic ability.

I kind of understand what you are saying, but you need to play on a team that has some D1 relationships. A D1 coach won't just randomly decide to attend a local tournament where they never recruit anyone and then "discover" you, nor will they happen upon a random Twitter feed on your kid. They need some college coach that they respect to get your kid on their radar.

Certainly if you play for SJC, then your HS and Travel team are one-and-the same (for the most part) which makes life kind of easy.

To answer OP's question, here are teams to think about...BTW, I wouldn't worry about these teams until at the earliest Summer after Freshman year (15U)...but you can even skip that too and consider starting on the Summer 16u team, or start Fall of your sophomore year to get acclimated to the program:

Mid-Atlantic Red Sox (current 2025 HS graduates include WV, NC State, 2 UMD (one likely to be a high MLB draft pick), 1 UCF, 1 Upenn, 1 UMBC, and like 3 other D1 recruits...nearly all other kids are D2 or D3 recruits)...Mid-Atlantic Red Sox only have 1 team per age group which makes like simple; and
Richmond Braves National Team (Richmond Braves have many teams for each age group...only the National team is worthwhile)

These teams don't practice, and will pull kids from all over the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast...they will expect you to train/practice on your own. That's fairly typical for these teams that get a bunch of kids recruited to D1.

The OP's son is a freshman. It doesn't matter.

If he is a true D1 talent then it will be obvious and a high level org will try and recruit him. 99.5% of freshman travel ball players aren't D1 talents so OP should proceed accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Who is he playing for now??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There are many degrees of D1 talent.

If you are someone that Vanderbilt would recruit, then yes, your talent is clear.

However, if you are someone that is Fordham or Ivy or Patriot League D1 level (meaning, that would be your upper limit of athletic ability)...that's not such an easy call and it matters that a club coach knows those coaches, understands which schools are recruiting for what slots and makes sure you get in front of them.

You have to be an incredibly good player to attend any of these schools for baseball. I highly doubt a travel coach would do anything to sway the recruitment for these schools. D3 no name schools, maybe. Ivy's? Not a chance.

If you're not an All State player and a three year or four year varsity starter then chances are you aren't playing at an Ivy or Patriot league school.

[Anonymous]

Why is he needing a new team? Whats wrong with the current team?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There are many degrees of D1 talent.

If you are someone that Vanderbilt would recruit, then yes, your talent is clear.

However, if you are someone that is Fordham or Ivy or Patriot League D1 level (meaning, that would be your upper limit of athletic ability)...that's not such an easy call and it matters that a club coach knows those coaches, understands which schools are recruiting for what slots and makes sure you get in front of them.

You have to be an incredibly good player to attend any of these schools for baseball. I highly doubt a travel coach would do anything to sway the recruitment for these schools. D3 no name schools, maybe. Ivy's? Not a chance.

If you're not an All State player and a three year or four year varsity starter then chances are you aren't playing at an Ivy or Patriot league school.

Most baseball parents don't understand what it takes to play in high school, college, etc. Some do, most don't. If you are playing college baseball you're really good, understand the intricate nature of the game, and can execute at a high level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There are many degrees of D1 talent.

If you are someone that Vanderbilt would recruit, then yes, your talent is clear.

However, if you are someone that is Fordham or Ivy or Patriot League D1 level (meaning, that would be your upper limit of athletic ability)...that's not such an easy call and it matters that a club coach knows those coaches, understands which schools are recruiting for what slots and makes sure you get in front of them.

You have to be an incredibly good player to attend any of these schools for baseball. I highly doubt a travel coach would do anything to sway the recruitment for these schools. D3 no name schools, maybe. Ivy's? Not a chance.

If you're not an All State player and a three year or four year varsity starter then chances are you aren't playing at an Ivy or Patriot league school.

Ok…but a kid good enough to get recruited at Vanderbilt would be the best kid on any Ivy team…in fact they wouldn’t even bother trying to recruit them they would be so good. It’s a completely different level.

My kid is on a team with a kid gong to play for Penn…he’s a great player, but not All State nor even made varsity until a junior. It absolutely helped that the club coach knows the Penn coaching staff well (the team has probably sent 5 kids to Penn over the last 7 years) and they have a track record with their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My unpopular opinion is that it doesn't matter what team you play on.

D1 level talent for baseball is either you have it or you don't.

Also, I hope your kid has some size to him. College coaches love big kids. I've seen some undersized kids get pushed aside for some 6'0+ kid who lacked skills but had athleticism. Coaches think they can fix the skills but you can't fix athletic ability.

I kind of understand what you are saying, but you need to play on a team that has some D1 relationships. A D1 coach won't just randomly decide to attend a local tournament where they never recruit anyone and then "discover" you, nor will they happen upon a random Twitter feed on your kid. They need some college coach that they respect to get your kid on their radar.

Certainly if you play for SJC, then your HS and Travel team are one-and-the same (for the most part) which makes life kind of easy.

To answer OP's question, here are teams to think about...BTW, I wouldn't worry about these teams until at the earliest Summer after Freshman year (15U)...but you can even skip that too and consider starting on the Summer 16u team, or start Fall of your sophomore year to get acclimated to the program:

Mid-Atlantic Red Sox (current 2025 HS graduates include WV, NC State, 2 UMD (one likely to be a high MLB draft pick), 1 UCF, 1 Upenn, 1 UMBC, and like 3 other D1 recruits...nearly all other kids are D2 or D3 recruits)...Mid-Atlantic Red Sox only have 1 team per age group which makes like simple; and
Richmond Braves National Team (Richmond Braves have many teams for each age group...only the National team is worthwhile)

These teams don't practice, and will pull kids from all over the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast...they will expect you to train/practice on your own. That's fairly typical for these teams that get a bunch of kids recruited to D1.

The OP's son is a freshman. It doesn't matter.

If he is a true D1 talent then it will be obvious and a high level org will try and recruit him. 99.5% of freshman travel ball players aren't D1 talents so OP should proceed accordingly.

Is this even remotely true? Were ALL D1 baseball players actively recruited by a high level travel organization while in high school?

I find that incredibly hard to believe, but I would absolutely love to see your data! Along with your definition of “high level org” while we’re at it…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There are many degrees of D1 talent.

If you are someone that Vanderbilt would recruit, then yes, your talent is clear.

However, if you are someone that is Fordham or Ivy or Patriot League D1 level (meaning, that would be your upper limit of athletic ability)...that's not such an easy call and it matters that a club coach knows those coaches, understands which schools are recruiting for what slots and makes sure you get in front of them.

You have to be an incredibly good player to attend any of these schools for baseball. I highly doubt a travel coach would do anything to sway the recruitment for these schools. D3 no name schools, maybe. Ivy's? Not a chance.

If you're not an All State player and a three year or four year varsity starter then chances are you aren't playing at an Ivy or Patriot league school.

You clearly didn’t understand the point PP was making. The coach isn’t “swaying” anyone’s decision at these schools - he’s connected enough to get the kids a *look* from these schools.