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Why High School Baseball Still Matters in College Recruiting — What Coaches Are Really Watching | EMD Shorts · Dugout Dish Baseball Recruiting Podcast powered by EMD Baseball

• 0:02
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• 1:10
  Speaker B: welcome to this week's edition of in the Clubhouse with EMD Baseball. I'm Andy Kiri Kitties joined with my Wonderful Co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How are we doing, sir?
• 1:18
  Speaker C: Great. How are you?
• 1:20
  Speaker B: Good. Today we are going to talk about the fact that the high school season still matters. I think there's, I think we're, we've started to shift our focus that we think that the summer and travel ball is where all the recruiting and all the substance really happens. Right. And I think there's a little bit of validity to that. Right. It's where the vast majority of guys are going to get their exposure. It's where the vast majority of coaches are going to do their evaluations just due to the nature of kind of the schedule that we have and that these guys are, you know, they're playing their college seasons during the high school season and you have less flexibility or ability to get out and see guys. But I think in that conversation, what has been lost is that the success and the resume you start to build during the high school season is something that coaches actively pay attention to and it's, it's information that they're going to value. I think we've kind of put it simply is that you need to be a good high school player before you can, you know, really start to think about playing in college. And every coach that we talk to, they're going to look at the performance of a guy from a high school perspective. Like, you may have some awesome metrics and you may do some things that look really good on video, you know, but if you're 87, 88, with a 78 mile slider, mile an hour slider. But I go and I look up and every time I, I see a pitching line, it's four innings, six hits, six walks, two punch outs. Like something's not kind of marriaging, you know, and you can go in the other direction too. Or a guy might be a tick below from a metric standpoint, but every time I, I look at the box score, yeah, got nine punch outs, one walk, and we're getting into the seventh inning. And you know, like everything in this process, I don't think it's the end all be all, but I, I think it's, for me, it's easy to say. I think the high school season still matters and it's, it's something that college coaches are going to look at.
• 3:16
  Speaker C: Yeah, I, I think it's always going to matter. Right? There's no, there's nobody who's going to coach at, in the collegiate level, for the most part, that's going to sit across the desk from you and be like, you know what? Your high school season doesn't matter. I think there's a little bit of nuance to that where, you know, if you're, and these are out there, if you're at a school that maybe isn't all that good at baseball, but you're really good, I'm not going to tell you your season doesn't matter. Like, maybe the wins and losses don't, but your, your performance amongst the teams you're going to go play is still going to matter. Right. I want you to go out and dominate. Like if you're an arm, a pretty good arm that wants to go play in college and you're in a team that maybe is a below average high school baseball team, every time you toe the rubber, I want to see that. You, you know, I can discern. If you go six innings and give up five runs and zero are earned and your team made seven errors and you punched out nine, you probably had a pretty good outing. Maybe you threw too many pitches with that stat line I just threw out there. But the point is made.
• 4:26
  Speaker B: But I think that it, it, it's
• 4:28
  Speaker C: always going to matter. Anytime you're able to put on a uniform and go out and compete against somebody else. Regardless of what it is, that competition aspect matters because it's an opportunity for you to be able to go play against somebody else. And I think especially at the high school level, you don't really get a lot of opportunities. You know, there's not a lot of high School, there's not a lot of high school baseball programs out there that are going to do a ton of inner squats, you know what I mean? Where from a collegiate standpoint you're going to inter squad a lot, there's a lot of different, there's more people, it's structured in a way in which you're going to be able to do those things or in high school, you know, we have 14 guys, we're not really inter squatting and being able to compete and do those things from a competition standpoint in practice where that's your lone kind of opportunity over the course of your high school season. For most people it's going to be a 20ish games, some playoffs where you get to go tee it up and play somebody else. So that's always going to matter. You know, the compete factor that, you know, you're trying to foster and develop and make even more of a fire in guys when they get to college, it starts there. I mean it starts earlier than that. But yeah, man, it matters. You're going to compete like there's, there's something that matters there and I think that it's, you break it down even more. You're like, it matters to play with your friends and you know, if you're going to go play at the next level, this is one of those things that, you know, it, it matters for your high school, it matters for the town. It, Matt, like it's a little bit bigger than that. So yeah, it matters to go compete. And if you want to be good and you want to succeed at the next level, it's being able to compete and, and find ways to, you know, pull the best out of people so that they don't have a, you know, you don't get to the next level and you're overwhelmed, if you will, by the amount of competition that you're going to be opting into when you go play in college.
• 6:23
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• 7:27
  Speaker B: yeah, I know that we. And you're the same way because I know you, you actively tried to get out in the capital region when you were an RPI and go see a lot of high school games because I know you valued that. But it was something that we valued at William and Mary in particular is that we wanted to go guys, see guys compete in games where the wins and losses, like, really mattered, right? You, you see, you know, you get into the state tournament and you get a chance to watch guys really compete for something. And there's something about that atmosphere that gives you a better chance to evaluate guys. You get to see them in a true, you know, kind of winner take all environment that that's what they're going to live in for 56 games a year every spring versus. You know, the travel ball scene is, you know, in a lot of ways it's awesome. It gets kids a ton of exposure, but it's not the same type of competitive atmosphere, right?
• 8:18
  Speaker C: It's.
• 8:18
  Speaker B: It's different. You know, you're splitting up games with pitchers and that's what they should be doing. I'm not being critical of it because it is about exposure, it is about showcasing players. But in high school, you know, it's wins and losses. You get the first round of the state tournament, you know, we got to go out there, we got to compete, we got to try to win that game. And it was something that we valued. And I know conversations that we've had with guys recently, and same with myself is like, you do do your homework and you go and you look bad, like, all right, well, I really like this kid. Like, how do you do in his high school season, you know, did he, did he show a certain level of dominance, right? Did we see, you know, a high batting average? Did we see some good strikeout numbers? Do we see stuff that we think has a chance to translate to the next level? And I just don't like the narrative that because we've had these conversations with parents where, you know, how the high school season doesn't matter much? Well, coaches might not be there to see you, but I do think that, you know, at the end of the day, coaches do take, they do hold some weight when it comes to the high school season. And something that shouldn't be dismissed. And you know, I think you brought up a couple really good points around. Like you're playing with your friends, like you're playing for something. Like you're trying to win a league, you're trying to, you know, advance as far as you can and you know, that's the world that college baseball is. So.
• 9:41
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I still remember, I mean I just turned 40, but we want to stay championship my senior year.
• 9:50
  Speaker B: Don't look a day over 37.
• 9:52
  Speaker C: I appreciate that, I really do. You know, but you remember those things, right? Like, you remember you're never going to forget winning a state championship with your friends when you were a senior in high school. That's a cool thing to be able to say. Like, hey, like we were the best in the state biggest at the time in New York, 20 years ago. Plus, you know, we knocked it dead and you know, I. But it's a cool thing to be able to, it's not something that I, you know, put on my resume or, or talk about a whole hell of a lot, but it's, it's a super cool thing that we were able to accomplish. And you did it with your friends and you did it with, you know, some of your best friends that you, you're still in contact with. And it's, it's just a cool thing to be able to kind of, you know, reminisce about and think about and know that, you know, for one year we were, you know, we knocked down the state tournament and that's a, it's like that matters, right? And obviously I'm going to say this and this is not really going to, it shouldn't shock anyone. Like we had 10 dudes off that team that went and played in college. That's kind of what lends yourself to being one of the better teams in the state of a bunch of guys who play in college. But you know, it fostered that competition. You know, you had 10 guys who were going to play in college who really wanted to compete day in and day out and you know, it made other guys better. And I think that, you know, it like it was a unique opportunity for us to be able to kind of figure out a young age and in high school of like, okay, like this is what this is going to be like, huh? And you know, pushed other people to be better. And I think that that stuff matters. And when, you know, regardless of, you know, if you're a multi sport athlete, whatever it is, like maybe you're, you know, you make it to the playoffs the state playoffs and hoops or, or football or soccer or whatever it might be. You know, it, you're probably fostering a lot of competition that's going to help you at the next level because you're, you're figuring out how ways to push other people to get them better. And ultimately that's what is going to drive your development at the next level as well. But, you know, we've talked about this a lot. I don't think we've talked about it on any recent podcast, but you're going to go opt into a hyper competitive environment when you go to college. You have to be willing to compete if you want to go play in college. It can't just be something where it's like, there's very few guys that are going to walk in and be like, I don't like the practice, I don't like the weight room. I only like to show up on game day and play. There's very few guys who can legitimately do that and find success at the next level. And they're unicorns. They are. We played with some of them, but they're unicorns. They're, they're, they're, they're not the norm. The vast majority of people are going to have to show up every day and work their tail off so that they can, you know, get run, get burned and find opportunities to be able to find success and, and be able to, to succeed at the next level at a, at a high level.
• 12:51
  Speaker B: When you talk about playing, you know, the state tournament and those type of games, like, the reality is that when you're 17 years old, those are the biggest games you've ever played in. That's the best example. Being able to evaluate a guy in a pressure situation. If you can really perform. If the biggest game you've ever played in is the state semifinal and you went out and you performed in the state semifinal and you did really well. Well, that's the best example of you being able to perform in a high pressure situation, which is what college baseball is. Not every game is the same level of pressure. But like, if you're going to play meaningful games in college, you better at some point in your life been comfortable playing in tight spots where the margins are thin. Maybe there's a big crowd, right? You know, you talk about, you know, there's a lot of guys who have the physical talent to go and play at LSU, but can you play in front of 10,000 people? You know, can you go into Mississippi State or Texas A and M and handle that type of crowd. I'm not saying that's, you know, the same thing as, as, you know, playing in the state championship, but at the same time, like, that's the biggest pressure moment you have. And I think that coaches value the opportunity to evaluate guys in those types of situations because the. It's the closest proxy we have. The pressure because there's no pressure in summer ball. There's no true pressure, right? There's no fans, there's no, you know, there's no trophy on the line. It's not maybe your last game of your high school career. Like, you're not the, the. The stakes aren't as high. And I mean, shoot, I know coaches who get fired up to go watch state high school games because they know that's the highest stakes environment they're going to have a chance to evaluate a kid in, and they value that moment.
• 14:33
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• 15:15
  Speaker C: yeah, I mean, kid I recruited at RPI, his dad played at RPI. Pitch for me there. You know, he was, I think his team, it was a class C or B school at the time, which is, you know, some of the. One of the smaller divisions, but they went to the state finals like three years in a row. And he was the number one guy who pitched in it. He pitched in the sectional championships. He and I went and watched him and I saw a good portion of those games. He was never rattled, never bothered, didn't matter. And I knew from the jump that he was. There was a very high likelihood that he would be pitching on the weekends for me as a freshman. I mean, his stuff was obviously there, but it was also the. It was also the makeup. And he had played in those types of games where, you know, that's the type of atmosphere. And not to say that the state championship atmosphere is the same as it is on a Saturday in April in a conference game in the Liberty League, but it's pretty close because you're playing for the one seed. You're playing for the two seed, you're playing to get into the turn you're playing for. There's more on the line, there's more at stake for what's going on and to be able to handle that type of pressure and be able to pitch really well and, and show up and be a guy who never really gave in. And he was, he was going to hit some guys, he was going to give up some hits, but he never, it was a bend but not break type kid. And he, he had a phenomenal career at rpi. Couldn't be happier for him, you know, but I, Alex Valley is his name. He was. But I legitimately thought during the recruiting process, like, he's going to be pitching on the weekends for us as a freshman. The stuff's there, the makeup's there. He's just got to prove it. And it was pretty quickly that he did. And he pitched on the weekends from the second he set foot on campus. And a lot of it is for what you just said, like, he pitched in a lot of games that mattered. And he had been in that situation before multiple times. And he had succeeded in that situation where when we got into him when he was a freshman, I shouldn't say when we got into it, but when we got him as a freshman, we put him in those spots. He wasn't overwhelmed by the moment because he had already been in situations like that before. It was just, all right, here we go. I know what to do. This is no different than. It's a little bit different, but not that much different than what I've done before, you know, so that's why I think, you know, this stuff still matters because, you know, there's a lot more at stake. There's a lot more in the lines and it matters a little bit more. So, you know, you're right. Summer ball, you know what it is now from what it was when we played. And not to sound like that old, not sound like an old guy, but like when we played there, there was a lot more at stake. There was a lot more on the line that we didn't have, that we didn't have the diamond nations or the NABCs or the. There was no Georgia. There was no baseball heaven. That stuff didn't exist. There weren't monster tournaments where you went down and played pool play and played a couple games and left like you went to. You wouldn't played some of the better teams in the region to see how good you were in the hopes that you were going to go to The Connie Mack World Series or, you know, whatever it was that you wanted to go play in. You know, I was fortunate enough to play in the Connie Mac World Series. It was awesome. It was a phenomenal experience. There were a ton of big leaguers that came out of that thing when I went there. There was a ton of big leaders that have gone through there over the, over the 60 plus years that it's been there. You know, there were multiple first rounders on the field. You know, it was a phenomenal experience to see what amateur baseball was at the highest levels. And you know, to your point, same thing like, you know, to see how, what it looks like and how pressure packed it is. And you know, I remember playing the host team in the year we went, there was like 15,000 people in the stands and we got booed off the field after we beat them. It was, it was an awesome experience. But that was, that's something you don't get now. You know what I mean? Like you don't, you do not get 15,000 people at many summer high school baseball games anymore. So what does that look, you know, can you handle that type of atmosphere? Can you handle what it is? You know, we went and played LSU my freshman year in the regional. You know, that's, that's an intimidating place to walk into. It really is.
• 19:43
  Speaker B: But when the ground shakes after they hit the go ahead home run in
• 19:46
  Speaker C: the sixth inning, couldn't hear yourself think. I mean, I was getting chirped multiple times in the bullpen. I was getting chirped during the national anthem, 8 to 1. How many of those flags do you have out in center field as like the seven national championship flags are out there with the American flag. Probably just that big red, white and blue one, huh? I was like, that's pretty good. Yeah. No, we don't have any national championships out of yet. The old Maris College, okay, A couple
• 20:19
  Speaker B: region, couple regional plaques on the, on
• 20:21
  Speaker C: the chain, regional flags out on the chain link fence. But no, we don't, we don't have a national championship flag hanging out in center field.
• 20:29
  Speaker B: But no, I think, I mean, what we're getting at is one, don't, don't look past your high school season because you, and you're talking about all the stuff that's really cool, right? You get one pass at high school just like you do, you get one pass at college and don't look past it, but also understand that it still holds a lot of weight and coaches do pay attention to it and they value those games just like they value their in person evaluations. So don't look past the high school season. Don't chalk it up as a place where you're not going to get recruited. Like you still need to go play. You still need to perform, still need to continue to get better and do things to help your team win. Anything else you want to add?
• 21:06
  Speaker C: No, sir.
• 21:08
  Speaker B: All right, well, thank you for listening, everybody. Tune in next week. We'll talk to you then. Thanks, y'.
• 21:12
  Speaker C: All.
• 21:13
  Speaker B: Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead
• 21:16
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• 21:18
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• 21:20
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• 21:25
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• 21:29
  Speaker E: If you want to find out what
• 21:30
  Speaker B: me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go
• 21:35
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