I won't pretend to be an expert on college baseball recruiting. However, I can offer personal experience in the recruiting process from a parent's perspective. My thought is the heavily recruited players don't need a whole lot of help. The vast majority of college players fall into the catagory of being either lightly recruited, or not at all. These are the players that can use some information. That's what I'll try to offer.
I know a little, and I emphasize little. For someone wanting to play college ball, the thing to do is soak up these little bits of info from anywhere you can find it, and use what will help you. I'm also going to provide you some links to sites where people know a lot more than I do.
Play against the highest level of competition you can find.
I have a theory that pitchers, no matter where they live or the level of competition they face, have a little bit of an easier time being noticed than position players. What they do can be measured a little easier than what a position player does. For example, 90 mph in Pennsylvania is 90 mph in Florida. If you're 6'4" in Kansas, there's a good chance you would also be 6' 4" in Arizona. Not that the level of competition a pitcher is facing isn't important. Of course, being able to light up a radar gun doesn't mean you know how to pitch or have movement on your fastball. But your projectibility is more evident as a pitcher, I think.
If you are a position player, usually your bat is what gets you recruited. If you live in certain areas of the country that are not baseball "hotbeds", such as anywhere outside of the southeast, west coast, and Texas and Arizona, then it's particularly tough for a position player. He can have gaudy hitting stats, but he will many times be slapped in the face with "But can he hit good pitching?". Meaning, would he stand out if he was in a "hotbed" area? Frustrating, for sure. However, all the more reason for finding the best competition you can face. You have to travel, if you can. Thank goodness for summer and fall ball.
The benefits of a travel team.
Do whatever you can to get yourself on the highest level summer team you can find. You'll kill several birds with one stone.
Your skills will improve by facing better competition. If you are able to hold your own against this better competition, you will experience the added side effect of a boost in confidence. If you struggle, this will hopefully display your weaknesses to you, and show you what you need to work on.
The exposure received at tournaments, particularly the World Wood Bat events in Atlanta in the summer, and Florida in the fall, is immeasurably superior to what you would get at the local level. Not trying to bash Legion ball (or the like) at all. Any baseball is good baseball. But coaches and scouts flock to the big summer and fall tournaments. I've seen this first hand.
Many times, the coaches of a travel team can be your best advocate for finding you a college home. The ones that I've known have such a passion for baseball and seeing their players succeed, that they take players under their wing, and proactively help with getting a player recruited. The more people in your corner the better.
It's possible a player may get some friction from his high school coach for not wanting to play on his high school summer team. It's understandable that a high school coach may want to keep his team together during the summer for local play, so as to build chemestry and so he can personally supervise a player's development. However, most good coaches, if diplomatically approached, will concede that his player's best chance for exposure to recruiters exists with a travel team.
One valid point a high school coach may make is that if the player is going to see very limited playing time on a travel team, he may need to play on his local team to get his at bats in. There's something to be said for that. It could be said that if you're on a travel team, and you're not getting to play much at all, then perhaps your game is not to the level yet that will get a recruiter's attention. If that's the case, getting significant playing time at the local level is probably the answer.
I wouldn't recommend this for pitchers, but for position players, if it's possible to play on both your local and travel team, do it. The reason a pitcher shouldn't do it, is because there would be no coordination between the coaches on your two teams. You wouldn't want to throw a bunch of innings on your local team, then two days laters put yourself on the mound with your travel team, weakened, in front of recruiters. Playing on two teams would require your local coach to be a very good sport. This is because the best scenario for you would be to be full time member of your travel team, and a part timer on your local team. Spots on good travel teams are so coveted, that there's no room for part timers.
