Why PG & PBR Rankings Don't Matter in Recruiting

Do college coaches care about your PBR rankings or your perfect game rankings? And this is a completely valid question to ask, especially if you haven't been through this recruiting process yourself or you weren't a former college coach and you can't read the minds of these college coaches. And I'm here to tell you no, it's completely overrated. And not to say that these rankings are bad by any means, I want you to get the highest rankings that you possibly can, but I don't want you to put too much weight into it and think that if you get a high grade that you're going to automatically just get recruited. That is definitely not how it works. Or if you get a super low grade or a low grade itself, that you're not going to recruit. And that's coming from a guy that had a seven, a low grade, that went on to play at the Division 1 level, three time captain, three regionals. And I say that to hopefully motivate you as far as if you get a low grade or just don't put your identity into that number. Focus on the things that actually matter in this recruiting process. If you're new to my channel, my name is Alex Swimming and I'm A former Division 1 college coach, scout and recruiter with 11 years of experience. And now what I do is help high school baseball players and their parents navigate this college recruiting process and put them in the best possible position to play at the next level. It's been really good. I've helped over 375 guys get to the next level. And just over the last few months, we've had more high school commits than ever in all of this crazy recruiting landscape. So if you're interested in more help, go to my website right here, here or down in the description. You can click down there. You can schedule a call with me to see if this is a good fit moving forward. So let's talk about why these perfect game rankings or PBR rankings don't matter and don't put too much weight on it. So number one is, hey, they're only typically graded off of one day. Have you ever had a bad day? Right. It's not typically off like a season, right? Like that. Like I've had plenty of bad days and they're in a showcase setting, typically, meaning you're going to get 10 to 15 BP swings and there's a lot of elements of that. How good is that BP thrower, Right. Are you making adjustments? How are you feeling? Right. That's not actually a game setting. You're going to run a 60. Have they actually watched you run the bases in game? You're going to take some ground balls, right? You're going to throw the bases. That's not actually in game. These showcases are grades basically off of tools, which is nothing wrong with that. And the coaches will look at that. But arguably game performance is what matters the most and I want you guys to focus on that. Especially looking at showcases and camps. You got to make sure that you're going to stuff that actually has games. You're going to do showcases like the pro style and all that. But make sure you are going places to play games so they can see you in game. I was a gamer, if you will. I wasn't going to wow you with my metrics since the seven back there in my rankings. I wasn't going to lie. But hey, I played above my metrics, although above my grade in game, which ultimately mattered. Number two, college coaches trust their own eyes. Not a showcase grade. All right, again, nines and tens, you can go look at it right now. They're not playing at the next level where there's some grades that are not even up there and some players of course that didn't go to perfect game or PBR that are playing at the next level level. Focus on your skill development, get strong in the weight room and don't be so worried about going to pbr. Perfect game showcases, they're good for like getting updated metrics, maybe, maybe some updated video. But don't go in there just trying to get the highest grade that you possibly can. And you know, you sometimes you see these guys throwing as hard as they possibly can from shortstopping. It is like a shotgun, you know, firing and not accurate at all. Okay. These college coaches are going to trust their own eye. Not a great. And number three, rankings are subjective and also sometimes they are political. You got to ask the question of that sometime because that's the reality of it and that baseball is a hard sport to scout because it depends on the coach and what they are looking for and what they like. But there's a lot of elements depending on your position that overall college coach is one of you. And if you watch any of my channel, I go over that from a position by position basis of what college coaches are looking for. But you got to focus on your physicality getting strong in the weight room, of course. All right. In that skill development that we have talked about before and then hey, working on, hey, of course your academics, also your character. They're going to ask you questions about how are you as a teammate, are you coachable? All of those factors here, leave that subjective side and that play political side, all that over there and you focus on what you can control. And number four, recruiting is not about a number, it is about a fit. What is a good fit for you academically, athletically, what schools are recruiting, your position in your class, that is really important. Don't be so worried about your grade. Find that fit as you go and target the right schools. Make sure you're being proactive in this recruitment, recruiting process, not just sitting back and hopefully somebody finds a grade on PBR Perfect Game to recruit you. That's not how it works. So hopefully this helped you not to focus so much and chase these PBR Perfect Game showcase grades and all that and focusing on your skill development, your physicality. All right, Your grades, your game performance and all of that. Yeah, we want to continue to get better. And again, nothing wrong with rankings. Just don't put so much weight on that. If you have any questions, please leave a comment down below or reach out to me on my website. I'll see you in the next video.