In this blog we will breakdown the financial and developmental aspects of playing summer ball for both high school and college athletes. While each athlete’s scenario is different, there are some common themes that must be identified and addressed.
College summer ball:
There are a lot of benefits from playing summer ball as a college athlete. If you’re playing in a highly scouted and competitive league, you can skyrocket your chances of getting drafted. This is important if you go to a smaller school where you’re surrounded by less draft picks. From a social standpoint, you meet players from all over the country and form bonds, friendships, and new connections. Ultimately when deciding between playing summer ball or training you need to sit down and establish what your goal is after college. Let’s say your goal is to play professionally. Great, now how do we get there? Is your velocity 95+? Are your secondary pitches plus pitches? Do you statistically outperform your conference/national opponents?Are you highly scouted? These are all questions to consider before you decide to play or train. If you’re at an elite performance level but you play at a smaller school, you need to play in a league like the Cape, Northwoods, or MLB Draft league to showcase your stuff. For example, Mike Wielansky was the D3 player of the year in 2018. He has a 100+ mph exit velocity, runs a 6.5 60, and throws 94+ across the diamond. He hit over .400 every single year. However, he had 0 draft attention until he played summer ball and broke every record in the Valley League and was voted the league MVP. Once he solidified his talent, he was drafted in the 2018 MLB Draft. However, if you pitched limited innings due to not having the ability to consistently get hitters outs, do you need to play summer ball? No and here’s why. If you’ve put up lackluster numbers over the past season odds are you’re not going to the three leagues mentioned above. This means you’re going to be subjected to tough travel arrangements, lack of resources, poor sleeping, feeble nutrition, and average competition. Does that sound like the best environment to get better? You’re not playing because your performance is lacking somewhere and piling on a below average environment to your current ability will not make you any better. If this is you, you need to train. For example, Thomas Spinelli was a mid to upper 80's lefty in college. His goal was to play professionally. Instead of spending his time pitching in a league, he spent 3 hours a day training. Prior to that summer he had 0 scout attention. After that summer? He was topping 96 mph with a .98 ERA and later signed to play professionally.
Pros of Playing Summer Ball:
· Strong exposure in certain leagues
· Enjoyable experiences in certain leagues
· You’re playing
Cons of Playing Summer Ball:
· You can develop bad habits and routines
· No structure
· Little time to develop
· Poor recovery
· Meaningless games
Financially the leagues are all over the board. Some do a great job with accommodations, meals, and league fees (if any). Others, you’ll spend thousands of dollars for lack-luster competition and facilities. Use your best judgement. Would you rather pay 3 grand for 3 months surrounded by average competition and instruction or spend 2 grand and have real significant results?
High School Summer Ball
This is my favorite topic to debate. Why are we playing summer ball? Every assumption is if I play enough summer games this year a team is going to recognize me and offer me a scholarship.Right? Wrong. You have to be better than your peers not just show up for the games. Under 10% of high school baseball players go on to play in college(including all divisions).
Let’s look at it this way. On average, it costs roughly $2000 to play on a summer ball team, this doesn’t include any travel, food, or accommodations. There is no guarantee the athletes get better, let alone seen. Again, let's revert back to our initial question, what do you want to get out of this? If your goal is to play college baseball, then you need to be in the top 10% of your class. How do you get there? Attacking your weaknesses and becoming physically superior than your peers. No one has ever been overlooked from a college because he threw too hard or hit the ball too far. As the evolution of the game continues to progress kids will only throw harder and harder. Which means that the soft throwing lefty isn’t receiving those mid-major offers anymore. There are guys throwing mid-90s at the D3 level. The just throw strikes mindset needs to vanish or else your dreams will.
Playing and Training?
It’s been done before. We most commonly see this amongst young pitchers who are just buried behind an impressive pitching staff. They’re most likely talented but young. They’ll be expected to eat up some big innings later in their college career. We’ve seen impressive strides with college guys who choose train and play at the same time but it’s important to align their days to ensure they are not pushing velocity too many days a week.
Summary:
This information is all relative. However, our main point is that your actions need to align with your goals. If you’re a high school sophomore who weighs 135pounds, maybe going to your summer ball practices throughout the winter is not the best thing for you. Especially if you’re just doing latter drills, fielding ground balls, and playing catch to 90 feet. If you’re a draft prospect at a small school, go out and prove yourself amongst some of the best competition in the country. If you’re good enough and your metrics back that, you’ll continue to play. Look at Ben Baggett. He signed a professional contract with the Toronto Blue Jays at the age of 26 with 7innings pitched throughout 5 years of college.
Financials:
· $2200+ to play for 3 months with no guarantee of college or development
· $2200 for a year’s worth of 1 on 1 training and development
If you’re ready to disrupt the status quo, contact Training@Connected-Performance.com