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The honest version
Roughly 2% of high school baseball players go on to play NCAA Division I. Roughly 0.5% get drafted. Yet the youth baseball industry sells the other 97% an experience priced for the top 2%. This guide is for the parents who want to know what's real before they sign another travel-ball check.
What's inside
- Where the money goes — a real breakdown of what a year of travel ball + showcases actually costs, and where each dollar lands.
- "Exposure" decoded — what college coaches actually look at, when, and who they trust.
- The showcase pyramid — which events matter, which are pay-to-play marketing, and how to tell the difference.
- NCAA eligibility basics — the rules every parent should know two years before their kid is a junior, not two months after.
- The "verbal commit" reality — what a verbal is, what it isn't, and what's changed since NIL.
- Questions to ask — 12 questions every parent should ask before paying for a showcase, a travel team, or a private trainer.
One sentence we keep coming back to: Recruiting is a marketplace. Your kid is the product. You're allowed to ask what you're buying.
Who this is for
- Parents of 12U–14U players who are starting to hear "you need to be on a showcase team."
- Parents of high schoolers trying to figure out the eligibility / commitment timeline.
- Anyone tired of recruiting advice that sounds like a sales pitch.
Get the Parent Recruiting Talk
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