Baseball · Issue No. 19
The 5-Part Recruiting Plan, in One Paragraph
Week of September 14, 2026
QUICK TAKE - Evaluation first: an honest, non-parent assessment of talent, skills, athleticism, and physicality. - Development second: fixing the specific "yeah-buts" holding a player back. - Exposure and promotion only after development — never before it. - Recruiting is the last step, not the first move at age thirteen.
After helping well over a thousand players navigate college baseball recruiting, one veteran recruiting coach has a consistent message: the families who succeed at this aren't the ones with the most talented player. They're the ones who actually have a plan, laid out in a specific order — and most families skip straight to the last step.
Evaluation comes first, and it has to be honest, not from a parent. This means assessing talent (what a player's body is naturally capable of, largely fixed), skills (what's actually been built on top of that talent), athleticism (trainable, but real), and physicality (strength — often overlooked, but a genuine factor in whether a player gets taken seriously).
Development comes next, and it's broader than most families assume — not just extra swings in a cage or extra velocity work, but a genuinely individualized plan built around a player's specific gaps. Every player has what this coach calls "yeah-buts" — the specific things holding them back that a coach will voice as a hesitation. Finding and addressing those, rather than ignoring them, is the actual work of this phase.
Exposure should come after development, not before it — sending an undeveloped player in front of college coaches too early gets that player mentally written off a list before they're actually ready to be evaluated fairly.
Promotion matters, but not the way most parents think — a parent bragging about their own son carries no credibility with a college coach. What works is promotion from someone with actual standing in the recruiting world: a trusted coach, a respected recruiting service, someone whose opinion a college program already values.
Recruiting is the last step, and it only starts once the first four are actually in place — not the first thing a family jumps to the moment their son turns thirteen.
The odds are real and worth naming honestly: fewer than 2% of high school baseball players go on to play Division I. A plan doesn't guarantee an outcome — but a family without one is leaving the process almost entirely to chance.
From an interview with a college baseball recruiting coach.
This piece ran in PPA Pro Issue No. 19, alongside a camp spotlight and trainer pick for every sport. Subscribe free.