[baseball1974]

I will say Aaron would be recruited anyway =, if you throw 90 someone going to hear about it. He would not have opportunities he has now though.

Playing name the Kid, name kids from 14 15 regions form last 10 years or so to Play baseball at D1 level. Chandler Shepard be obvious one. Hamilton from Pikeville at UK now. There are not many, why? Baseball talent not great, could be part of it. Lack of exposure, in my opinion, is part of it.

I will agree with 74 that if our HS coaches took more active role in promoting kids it would help. Feltner appears to do decent job at it JC does good job promoting all their players and that about it.

I will also agree with 74 that strictly playing travel ball is not answer, player and parents need to be selfish. What I mean by that is they need to self promote like 74 suggests with video and social media. I would/have do/done this in addition to travel.

JC (Greg Horne I believe) did a very good video for Geordon.

I agree exposure is important. I guess what I am trying to get at is that the inflated prices it takes to get exposure isn't worth it. When you add in the variable of those teenage kids having to play 9-10 months a year, it is definetely not worth it. They let it get way out of control and it has led to more and more injuries from overuse. They need to be brought along slowly and when I see a 19-20 year old pitcher getting called up it makes my stomach turn. They are not physically ready to take on 250 innings a year while they are still growing. That is what minor leagues are for. So when they get exposed to even more of that an early age it will always lead to some type of surgery. The argument has always been those D1 prospects need to pitch that much at an early age so they can get use to it, but they are not taking in to account how their body develops. There is a reason when you look at pictures from guys in high school to when they are seniors in college that they look tiny. It's because they are still kids and all of this "exposure" will lead to injury, especially if they are throwing 100+ pitches a game in 7 innings.

You brought up Chandler Shepherd. He began pitching at a high level while still in middle school. Granted, he was the best pitcher in the town so obviously he would be brought up. If we would have known the risks more throughly then his parents might have decided not to let him pitch until he was a freshman. No fault really, it is an evolving science and we are just now seeing the results of the past 15 years or so in regards to arm stress at an early age.