Is Baseball Factory legit or just a money grab?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid that played at one of these HA D3 that does well in the NCAA tournament. He went to one Showball camp and played on a local travel team. He had the grades and the skills and got the coaches attention at Showball, then followed up with an email to the HC.

We're on a similar path -- I hope. Just wrapped sophomore year. Ivies and D3 are on a different recruiting calendar, so everything I have heard says that it makes sense to do Showball in the summer after junior year. Is that what your son did?

Not that poster, but yes, summer after junior year for D3 (I don’t know about ivy - that’s not my kid’s path). We started way too early (at kid’s instigation, but still, we went along with it) by going to a couple of events after Freshman and Sophomore years. It didn’t hurt anything, and now my kid is really comfortable at showcases and talking to coaches. But it didn’t do anything, either. And now, summer after junior year, he is in touch with coaches, has two offers, and will have choices. So hold onto your wallet (and time) and wait till after junior year.

Thanks; this is super helpful. Yeah, he went to a couple of camps last fall, and it was clearly too early. As you said, it didn't harm anything—except my wallet.

Best of luck to your son!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid that played at one of these HA D3 that does well in the NCAA tournament. He went to one Showball camp and played on a local travel team. He had the grades and the skills and got the coaches attention at Showball, then followed up with an email to the HC.

We're on a similar path -- I hope. Just wrapped sophomore year. Ivies and D3 are on a different recruiting calendar, so everything I have heard says that it makes sense to do Showball in the summer after junior year. Is that what your son did?

Ivy schools have to adhere to the NCAA D1 calendar while D3 has no restrictions.

Summer after junior and Fall of senior are key.

This is good to know. It’s such a different landscape than when we were kids. I am not necessarily actively trying to get my (currently 8th grade) kid recruited, but I don’t want to completely fail as a parent by not getting him positioned at some point to even have a chance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid that played at one of these HA D3 that does well in the NCAA tournament. He went to one Showball camp and played on a local travel team. He had the grades and the skills and got the coaches attention at Showball, then followed up with an email to the HC.

We're on a similar path -- I hope. Just wrapped sophomore year. Ivies and D3 are on a different recruiting calendar, so everything I have heard says that it makes sense to do Showball in the summer after junior year. Is that what your son did?

Ivy schools have to adhere to the NCAA D1 calendar while D3 has no restrictions.

Summer after junior and Fall of senior are key.

This is good to know. It’s such a different landscape than when we were kids. I am not necessarily actively trying to get my (currently 8th grade) kid recruited, but I don’t want to completely fail as a parent by not getting him positioned at some point to even have a chance.

I don’t want to introduce the transfer portal…but that has upended recruiting. D3 kids looking to transfer to D1…D1 kids transferring to other D1. Coaches spend more time watching summer college leagues trying to get transfers vs high school kids.

Some schools recruit D1 kids then cut them from the team when they show up on campus because they did better in the transfer portal.

It’s nuts…a little better now that all the Covid kids with an extra year of eligibility are finally out of the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid that played at one of these HA D3 that does well in the NCAA tournament. He went to one Showball camp and played on a local travel team. He had the grades and the skills and got the coaches attention at Showball, then followed up with an email to the HC.

We're on a similar path -- I hope. Just wrapped sophomore year. Ivies and D3 are on a different recruiting calendar, so everything I have heard says that it makes sense to do Showball in the summer after junior year. Is that what your son did?

PP poster and yes summer after junior year. He did do one localish (Fredericksburg) showcase prior to just have the experience and we mutually decided that was enough. Showball really was the only other place he want and did get attention from Ivies and multiple HA D3 but he really only was interested in one school and only aggressively reached out to that one coach (and yes we had a lot of conversations about that). He did get other offers, but again had his heart set on the one school.

As to the portal - what a freakin nightmare!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP poster and yes summer after junior year. He did do one localish (Fredericksburg) showcase prior to just have the experience and we mutually decided that was enough. Showball really was the only other place he want and did get attention from Ivies and multiple HA D3 but he really only was interested in one school and only aggressively reached out to that one coach (and yes we had a lot of conversations about that). He did get other offers, but again had his heart set on the one school.

As to the portal - what a freakin nightmare!

Thank you. This is very helpful and puts me at ease a bit. We have time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid that played at one of these HA D3 that does well in the NCAA tournament. He went to one Showball camp and played on a local travel team. He had the grades and the skills and got the coaches attention at Showball, then followed up with an email to the HC.

We're on a similar path -- I hope. Just wrapped sophomore year. Ivies and D3 are on a different recruiting calendar, so everything I have heard says that it makes sense to do Showball in the summer after junior year. Is that what your son did?

Ivy schools have to adhere to the NCAA D1 calendar while D3 has no restrictions.

Summer after junior and Fall of senior are key.

This is good to know. It’s such a different landscape than when we were kids. I am not necessarily actively trying to get my (currently 8th grade) kid recruited, but I don’t want to completely fail as a parent by not getting him positioned at some point to even have a chance.

I don’t want to introduce the transfer portal…but that has upended recruiting. D3 kids looking to transfer to D1…D1 kids transferring to other D1. Coaches spend more time watching summer college leagues trying to get transfers vs high school kids.

Some schools recruit D1 kids then cut them from the team when they show up on campus because they did better in the transfer portal.

It’s nuts…a little better now that all the Covid kids with an extra year of eligibility are finally out of the system.

Uggg, 23 year old Covid kids. Most our seniors, there are a few juniors still around for next year.

[Anonymous]

Buyer beware. Baseball Factory has a wonderful sales pitch, promising the world then delivering little to nothing for the money. And forget about any refund of anything regardless of the circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Very much agree. Great sales pitch, promising the world then delivering little to nothing for the money. And forget about any refund of anything regardless of the circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've known the owner for 25 years. He loves baseball and cares about the kids. If your kid is serious about baseball, he can help get visability and recruiting looks.

Much of baseball these days are money grabs. That is why there are so many adults running teams now. The travel clubs get money from the parents, pay the tournament hosts registration fees, and the tournament hosts pay college coaches to show up. These combine things are the worst.

Yes, youth baseball has become a business. I’m not sure it is one that is terribly lucrative - maybe one or two owners of these big places make a six figure income, but the coaches, trainers, tournament directors, etc are making blue collar wages. Would the world be nicer if baseball was still the sandlot? Yeah, maybe. But it’s not. And as a mom of a baseball-mad teenager who can only envision a career in baseball and refuses to consider anything else, I wish there was a middle-class income open to him. There really isn’t. Which brings me back to baseball being a money grab. If it is, who is grabbing all that money? When you do the math you realize how little each coach is making. You wouldn’t work for that wage.

Youth baseball is a money grab, and with two boys having gone through the recruiting process, it is getting worse. But it can be navigated. We never did the $1500 Showball type showcases (not sure how much Baseball Factory is), but we picked a couple other less expensive ones, went on school visits and did some one on ones with coaches. It became pretty clear, if you are good, you can get school’s attention without shelling out $$$$.

My experience is "good"...means like top 1% of all baseball players. My kid plays on a team with one of those...they get invited to play in the national PG all star game that is televised on ESPN, invited to MLB exclusive invite-only showcases, etc. They don't have to pay anything because they are wanted by everyone.

Alternatively, I also agree with you if you are just targeting D3 schools (though maybe not the schools making it far in the D3 national tournament)...especially the Northeast high academic D3s (assuming you have the grades/test scores). You can directly reach out to those coaches and if you have decent stats for a D3 player, they will respond.

DP and a genuine question:

How does this top 1% kid get all this attention in the first place? Who is looking at him and then inviting him to all of these games and showcases?

To me it sounds like a chicken or egg question. At some point, a kid had to be in a position to get noticed. How does that generally happen? Is it just luck?

They get noticied because it's obvious how good they are compared to everyone else. They also have elite measurables like size, height, and speed.

If you look and play like Aaron Judge in highschool then you could play highschool ball and someome would notice and come ask you to play travel. Unfortunately for 99.99% of kids don't have that athleticism or power.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've known the owner for 25 years. He loves baseball and cares about the kids. If your kid is serious about baseball, he can help get visability and recruiting looks.

Much of baseball these days are money grabs. That is why there are so many adults running teams now. The travel clubs get money from the parents, pay the tournament hosts registration fees, and the tournament hosts pay college coaches to show up. These combine things are the worst.

Yes, youth baseball has become a business. I’m not sure it is one that is terribly lucrative - maybe one or two owners of these big places make a six figure income, but the coaches, trainers, tournament directors, etc are making blue collar wages. Would the world be nicer if baseball was still the sandlot? Yeah, maybe. But it’s not. And as a mom of a baseball-mad teenager who can only envision a career in baseball and refuses to consider anything else, I wish there was a middle-class income open to him. There really isn’t. Which brings me back to baseball being a money grab. If it is, who is grabbing all that money? When you do the math you realize how little each coach is making. You wouldn’t work for that wage.

Youth baseball is a money grab, and with two boys having gone through the recruiting process, it is getting worse. But it can be navigated. We never did the $1500 Showball type showcases (not sure how much Baseball Factory is), but we picked a couple other less expensive ones, went on school visits and did some one on ones with coaches. It became pretty clear, if you are good, you can get school’s attention without shelling out $$$$.

My experience is "good"...means like top 1% of all baseball players. My kid plays on a team with one of those...they get invited to play in the national PG all star game that is televised on ESPN, invited to MLB exclusive invite-only showcases, etc. They don't have to pay anything because they are wanted by everyone.

Alternatively, I also agree with you if you are just targeting D3 schools (though maybe not the schools making it far in the D3 national tournament)...especially the Northeast high academic D3s (assuming you have the grades/test scores). You can directly reach out to those coaches and if you have decent stats for a D3 player, they will respond.

DP and a genuine question:

How does this top 1% kid get all this attention in the first place? Who is looking at him and then inviting him to all of these games and showcases?

To me it sounds like a chicken or egg question. At some point, a kid had to be in a position to get noticed. How does that generally happen? Is it just luck?

They get noticied because it's obvious how good they are compared to everyone else. They also have elite measurables like size, height, and speed.

If you look and play like Aaron Judge in highschool then you could play highschool ball and someome would notice and come ask you to play travel. Unfortunately for 99.99% of kids don't have that athleticism or power.

Most of these kids also come from CA, FL, TX, GA and play in areas where some connected coaches know if they have the next Aaron Judge or just a really good player.

Considering 40% of the 1st and 2nd round MLB picks are HS players, it's hard to go completely under the radar if you are that good.

I did listen to a podcast by some guy who helps kids get recruited to D1 programs. He mentioned that the only complete outlier situation he ever had was he was asked by some meek parents to evaluate their son (I think it was Michael Busch). They were hoping he was good enough to get recruited and maybe a scholarship to University of MN.

He said this is the only time probably in his lifetime when he told the parents that their kid was strong enough to be a top MLB draft pick which completely floored them.