How College Scouts Find Baseball Players

Hey, how you doing? Alex here. Thanks for joining me. In today's episode, we are talking about eight ways college scouts find players going through this college recruiting process. Now the thing I want to get across here, once I get done explaining these eight ways, whether you're watching this on YouTube or the podcast, don't go into the mode of alright, great, I got the eight ways. Hopefully I get found one of these ways. Guys, hope is not a good strategy going through this college recruiting process. You be proactive in this recruiting process. You be strategic, you put yourself in the best possible position to play at the next level. And also be open mind to all of the levels that will help your chances. It's a 7.2, 7.3% chance to play at the Division 3 level, Division 2 level and Division 1 level, the NCAA level. Hey, those are pretty low percentages, right? But if you're proactive in this process, you can really increase those percentages. If you are open minded and you're strategic target schools going through this college recruiting process. And if you're new to my channel, my name is Alex Swinson. I'm a former Division I college coach, scout and recruiter with 11 years of experience. And now what I do is help high school baseball athletes and the parents navigate and guide them through this college recruiting process and help them put themselves in the best possible position to play at the next level. So if you get anything from this video, please smash that like button that thumbs up here and subscribe. And subscribe on the podcast. You can also visit my website down below in the description. And let's hop into this. Alright, the first way. All right, the first way. And one of the most important ways, especially starting off this recruiting process, is player outreach. That means you or your son reaching out, being proactive with these coaches, hitting all different levels, showing interest, giving the coaches what they want. And whether it's in an email, whether it's in a DM on Twitter, player outreach is huge. That is a big way college scouts find players. The second way is a highlight video. Okay, it could be the player, the athlete sending the video. It could be seen at posts being posted on Twitter or maybe even Instagram. Instagram starting to increase a little bit on the recruiting side of things. But also a coach or a summer ball coach or a recruiter like myself, like video sending video to college coaches and them seeing video, that is a way as well. Because video is important because it can really. A scout, a college scout can look at a video and gain traction with the player they See the player, they like the actions of the player, whether it's them hitting or fielding or arm actions or how the ball comes out of their hand. On video, you can see some initial things that gets them to come watch you play at a camp or at a showcase or at a tournament. Okay? It gains interest and it can create dialogue with college coaches. Once they see video and think of it, video can be very, very good because you can just send that out and get that in front of coaches right away. Everybody has an email and everybody checks their email. Okay? So. So it's an easy way to get traction as far as scouts finding you on that side of things. Then there's media. So media is social media, whether that's Twitter. You can post stuff on Twitter, they can find you that way. Or Instagram. And then media kind of lumped everything into this is perfect game or pbr. Hey, love them or hate them, they can be a good way. If they post about you, coaches can find you that way. All right, so that is an aspect of it. Word of mouth from a high school coach, a travel ball coach, a recruiter, okay? A word of mouth can be very, very big and is big in this college recruiting process that these college scouts can find. So if they hear about a player from a trusted source that they trust, that is great. That gets them to go out and watch you play or watch video. Now, ultimately, they're going to make a decision. Not a, a high school coach or travel ball coach or even a recruiter is going to call up a coach like, hey, you need to sign and offer this guy right away. It doesn't work like that. If anybody tells you it works like that, that's not true. Okay? The college coach is going to make the final decision and they need to hit their checks and balances, if you will, to see if you're a good fit, not only athletically, if they're even in need of your position for your year and character wise, grade wise, all of those factors and the tools wise, all those to make sure it's a good fit. They're going to do their due diligence, especially the good recruiters out there. And of course there's camp. So a lot of the stuff that we went in the first four can be initial things. That starts this recruiting process that gets college scouts to notice you or to find out about you. But then they're going to need to see you play in person. Okay? There's only so much they can see, whether it's via video or reading an email or reading a post. There's things in game that you just can't see in a video or of course, just word of mouth. Right. They need to see those things. So camps is a great way. And camps are school specific. So I break these up in camps, showcases and tournaments. So camps are school specific. And you guys might be getting a lot of emails right now about coming to our school camp and that's for another video. Whether that's smart for you and what to look for. I'll explain that. I actually have done videos in the past. Go look for those on my page as well. But camps are school specific and this is where you're getting directly in front of the college coaches. So that's really, really important going through this. Then showcases, showcases are third party events that you know college coaches are going to be at. There's a lot of good ones out there and there's a lot that are not so good. All right? And we want to get in front of the decision makers. These are good because you, you can knock out a lot of schools and get a lot of exposure in one event. Especially if it's a two day event and you're doing a pro style in a game that's really, really important going through. So showcases another way. And then tournaments, tournaments. Hey, hey. Tournaments are tough with me because tournaments used to be really, really good. But there is. This is still the way that college scouts can find you. It's just not as good. All right? Because the tournaments has gotten so big. There's so many teams. There's like literally this last tournament in Perfect Game in Georgia and it's just so many players. It's hard to find players. All right. When you have that many, you miss a lot of players. But it is a way that college scouts can find players. So there's that. And last but not least is walk on. These are opportunities where you try out for the team. This is how a college scout can find a player is you try out for the program in the foot and you make the team. You are a true walk on. Again, I love these stories. I've been a part of these playing and coaching where guys have walked on and been contributors to the team and great contributors to the team, at least from my experience with guys. So it's an amazing way to be found. Is a walk on because it is literally like the last hurrah and opportunity you could be found because you go into the fall, you, you get into the school on your own, you try out for the team, you make the team just amazing. I love these stories. Now the thing is, from a walk on standpoint, you're going to have more opportunities to walk onto programs at the D3 level. They usually have tryouts, D2 level and some Division 1 programs. Not all Division 1 programs have tryouts, but some do as we go. It's something that you could ask the coach. So those are the eight ways that college scouts can find players. Again, be proactive in this process, especially those first four, and get in front of the right coaches at camps and showcases and tournaments. Again, is hit or miss, but the camps and showcases you're getting directly in front of them. And if you have any questions, please comment down below or reach out to me and my website's down below if you want more information. Have a great day. Take care.