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All right, everybody, welcome to a brand new edition of the Most Valuable Agent podcast. This is coming, I guess, to you live post draft. The 2025 draft just got done. We just had the All Star Game, and a number of parents and players have sent in questions that I told them that I would answer on a future episode. So this is that episode. So I'm just going to run through a number of these. I have about 30. Some of these hopefully apply not just to the individual asking, but for a multitude of families. So question number one, we'd love your insight on something we know a lot of families wrestle with. A young player we're close to was recently accepted into a pretty decent, in fact, prestigious baseball academy, something he's been working toward for a long time. But as excited as he is, the cost is significant. Unless there's a scholarship or financial aid involved, the family's trying to weigh whether the timing and investment make sense, especially since he's pretty young and there are many other ways to reach the next level. What advice would you give to parents facing a decision like this? How should families evaluate whether to make a big commitment early in the journey or wait for a more pivotal moment down the line? So here's what I would say about that at the end of the day, and this is going to be something that I'm going to say about a number of these questions, but there's really no specific blueprint for every single person that you must follow. This is the only way to do it. So keep that in the back of your mind as I offer my advice and kind of my guidance on this. You know, a lot of the advice would be based on the specific circumstances of this family. But here's the reality. Just generally speaking, if you have a son and you're considering sending him to a pretty, as they said, prestigious baseball academy, and he's 11. Right. The reality is, is if that is a significant financial investment for you at 11 years old, nobody knows how good your son is ultimately going to be come the draft time. At 17 or 18 years old, we could have, you know, some thoughts about it. We could think that, you know, if he continues to progress, he'll be a really good player and we'll have a chance to do a lot of good things in the game. But at 11 years old, you really don't know what the competition is going to look like, even if your son is maybe further advanced at that age. So the thing that I would say is rather than just diving into this investment and spending it on this academy I would look for other ways in the meantime to get him a good level of. Of development. And then what I also would recommend is, obviously, as he progresses, you don't necessarily have to go to those programs at 11 or 12. You can wait until he's 16 or 17 years old and maybe only go for a year or two. So. And at that point, those academies, they'll also scholarship players. So feels like it's a little bit too early for you. Definitely caution you and say it's probably a better use of your resources to give it a little bit more time. Let your son continue to develop, and if you want to help him develop, try to find a really good program in the area, whether that's a, you know, a strength coach, you know, if he's a pitcher, a pitching coach, if he's an infielder, an infield coach, a hitting coach. Like, there's a number of different options. Separately, though, finding the right people, that's a different thing. So I would just do your research online. You could actually send me a dm, let me know what area you live in, and I'd be happy to kind of tell you anybody that I know in the area. So that's question number one. Question number two, we hear over and over that kids should play multiple sports, and we agree with that in theory. But for families like ours, where both parents work full time and there's no extended family nearby, adding another competitive sport just isn't practical. If we did, we'd never get a break, we'd never have a family vacation, which I know a lot of you can relate to. And we never get time to reconnect as a couple. Our son loves baseball, and we want him to have balance. But for us, balance looks like protecting family time and giving him a real offseason. But we worry will not playing multiple sports hurt him when it comes to recruiting. So let me stop you right there. I know on this podcast that I have mentioned on various occasions that playing multiple sports is a good thing. I want to make sure that I'm being clear here. I am not suggesting that if your son doesn't play multiple sports and he's now getting to high school, that he now should start playing multiple sports. What I am saying is, if your son has grown up playing multiple sports and he's good at both and he wants to continue playing both, don't feel like you have to hurry up and make a decision, because you don't at the next level, whether it's college or professional baseball, those scouts, they're going to look at someone who plays multiple sports, and they're going to recognize his athleticism. They're going to look at that like it could be a good thing. If he's super athletic, maybe he's showing leadership on the football field and he also plays baseball. But what they're not going to do is say, oh, you know what? Because that kid plays multiple sports and that kid doesn't, I'm going to like this kid more. The reason they're liking this kid more probably has to do with maybe his skill set, his talent, but it's going to start there. So I want to make sure that I'm clear. The. The kid who doesn't play multiple sports, it's not as if he's going to be penalized for not playing multiple sports. I hope that makes sense. All right, so number three, my son is 11. When can he sign with you? Great question. No, 11 years old, obviously that's a little bit too young. And to be quite honest, you don't listen, if you're looking for an agent at 11, our business has gone absolutely in the tank, because that is just not a good thing at 11 years old. I think the thing that we all need to recognize is at 11 years old, these kids are still growing, Right? So I don't care how good your son is at 11, don't start planning for things that are so far into the future. Right. I mean, these kids at 11 years old, they're not fully developed. They definitely haven't, you know, faced a level of adversity that they're going to face at some point in their career. Right. For some, that comes in high school. For some, that comes before that. For others, that comes in college. And for others, it comes in professional baseball. But at some point, they're going to fail. And when they do that, that's actually the time when, you know, I've always said this, like, the best that your kid's going to be made of is going to be brought out of them at that moment. It's not that we're trying to avoid failure, it's we want to encourage failure. And we actually talked about this in my episode with the former general manager of the New York Mets, Zach Scott, where he said, look, on some level, we want to create an environment for kids to fail early. Because when you get to professional baseball, if you've never failed and you've never realized what it takes to get out of that failure, it can be an overwhelming thing. And so, funny enough, I was having a conversation with you know, a really, really successful SEC head coach in, in, in baseball yesterday, in fact, and we were talking about a client that we have that's going to school there and how, you know, when you go to these big programs, you know, naturally, especially in the sec, like there's going to be failure for everybody at some point. It's never going to be a straight line. But what's so exciting from my standpoint, and I know a lot of these coaches and recruiting coordinators is like, how do you create an environment so that when that happens there, they're encouraged to continue to grow and get better and you know, they're not made to feel like they're not any good. So to answer your question, and this is a, a long winded way of me saying it, worrying about picking an agent as young as 11 and that I can't tell, it may have been a joke, but worrying about picking an agent as early as 11, it's like the focus needs to be on the development on the field more than anything else. So I hope that answered your question. Why is nutrition important for athletes? So, so here's what's funny. This question came from a friend who is the personal chef for, let's just say this, he was in the Major League All Star game last night. And so the thing that's funny to me is why nutrition is important for athletes. I think when you're a, call it high school or even younger than that amateur baseball player, you know, you want to emulate everything that the players do on the field. But for some odd reason, these players don't ever recognize some of the stuff these, these guys do off the field. And I'm not referring to like, you know, the swag and all of that stuff. What I'm referring to is like, how much sleep are they getting, right? How much, you know, how much protein do they need to eat, how much carbs do they need to eat and fat do they need to eat? And what's interesting is a lot of these players, what they do is they get their blood tested. The, you know, the lab will send back the results. They'll have this guy essentially analyze all the results. And what they'll figure out is, look, based on your blood type, based on your body specifically, this is, you know, this is ultimately what you need to be eating every single day. And they can get even so, so specific as designing meal plans for you. So, you know, depending on the age of your son, obviously I would encourage them. Look, if you want to like, look like so and so player on the field. Well, then we need to pay attention to, like, really, what is that guy doing off of the field to make sure that his body is staying ready and healthy. And what's interesting is some of the best players in the game are naturally gifted, and you'll see them do stuff off the field and you're like, well, wait a second, that's probably not good for him, right? I mean, we represented a pitcher, one of the, you know, most popular pitchers in the game. I mean, this guy won two Cy Young awards in his first two full major league seasons. And this guy, like, never drank water. He only drank Mountain Dews. And so that obviously isn't healthy. I don't think he necessarily didn't know that. He certainly knew that, you know, and. And it makes you wonder because, you know, this guy was a talented guy. His career wasn't as long as it probably. I think he may have been expecting. He wasn't the biggest guy in the world. But because of that, you know, it just makes you wonder. So if you see an athlete who's having a lot of success on the field, start asking yourself, well, I wonder what is he doing off of the field to make sure that he's ready to be that successful? That's kind of where you start. So I appreciate the question, Jeff, and I hope that answered it. So number five, have there been times as an agent representing players when morality and business conflict? Yes, of course. You know, I think it's one of the reasons why families and players have like an. A bad connotation or there's a bad connotation with the word agent. I think agents, historically, there's. There's a lot of. Let me make it clear, there's a lot of good agents out there, and there's a lot of good agents that are good people out there, but not everyone is. And I think this is the reason why people have this reaction when they hear the word agent. They've heard the horror stories. I mean, it's. You can just Google it like it's out there. And so what I would tell you is, yes, it happens. But, you know, I'll give you. I'll give you an idea just based on a personal situation that I've had. And I'm comfortable telling you this story because I've had this guy on the podcast and I've talked about the story with him on the podcast. But when we were negotiating Austin Riley's long term deal, which it became the highest franchise record deal for the Atlanta braves by like 50 million bucks, the reason I bring that up is because there was a point in time in that negotiation where Austin was wrestling with the decision. And this was. This was before the very end. But I essentially had a conversation with them at that point where I said, all right, look, I can tell you're struggling with this. Maybe this will make the decision easier for you. And so what I said to him was, let's talk about some of the other places that could potentially have the money to spend and pay you down the road when you become a free agent. And after going through all the various cities, there was only one other city that he even said would be remotely appealing as. Not necessarily as appealing as Atlanta, but, like, okay, like, that's a good place, too. Was. Was kind of how he. He shared it. And so I'm using that example because there are a lot of agents out there that would have heard his reluctance in should I take this deal and should I not? And they would have jumped on, listen, don't take the deal. Don't take the deal because you're going to make more money. And the thing that I did is I wanted to be truthful with him and make sure he understood, look, it's not as if, even though you get more money, if we turn this down, are you comfortable getting that money from a city that you and your family don't want to live? And so the point I'm making is there would have been a lot of agents who would have just heard him wanting to turn it down, got excited, and said, great, man, there's going to be plenty of other places that are going to pay you. You know, this is awesome. We're going to be fine. Let's just sit back and wait. And so, you know, what's interesting is, yeah, that. That was a. That was a moment in time where, like, I had a decision to make. This decision that I made was being loyal to what he wanted in his life, in his career, and could that have cost me money? Yes, but that is the role of an agent. It is my job to work on his behalf. And so that's something that I think is lost now because, you know, and you guys can Google this term, the principal agent problem, which is essentially, you know, there's this intermediary that is communicating to the two parties, right? And that's the role of an agent. And naturally, that intermediary, the person in the center, is funneling information from one side to the next. So it is very easy in our role to say, you know, the player tells us something, and we Say, okay, got it. And then we tell the team or the college or whomever we're talking to the marketing company, something totally different. And then the team or the college or the marketing company responds based on something we just told them that the player didn't say. And then round and round we go, and this intermediary is the one who's concocting these stories. That's the principal agent problem. And that's the thing that a lot of people are aware of, you know, when they think about agents and how, I don't know if we could trust them. And so if you're a family out there and you're truly thinking about maybe your son is good enough to have an agent, there are some hard conversations that you need to have with these potential advisors. Because, you know, and I said it a lot on here, like, this is a service business, this isn't a sales business. And so really ask yourself, do you feel like you're being sold? Because a lot of agents. And look, I, I, I, I've seen it firsthand. They're more interested in telling you what you want to hear than what you actually need to hear, given the, the question that you just asked. So, you know, I want to make it clear I'm not saying that that's everybody. There are some people out there that do a really good job. But I, I have seen firsthand how it is so easy for these guys to, like, manipulate information. And some people are really good at it. I've seen it. So hope that helps you ty. Okay, number six, what do college coaches and scouts actually look for at tournaments and showcases? And what do they ignore? I mean, look, I, it obviously it depends, right? What position are you? But it's all the things that you would assume, right? If you're a college coach and you're trying to scout a pitcher, you obviously want to figure out, all right, how many pitches does he, does he throw? How many pitches does he throw for strikes? What are his mechanics? Like, you're going to get video of them, you're going to look at it, you're going to, you know, nowadays people want information, right? And so these college coaches, I think, are similar to scouts in that they don't rely on rankings. Rankings inform them and just give them names that they know that they need to go watch. But in this industry, I mean, it's so incestuous that these college programs, they'll talk to scouts, they'll get a sense from these scouts, hey, who do you like? They'll talk to agents, hey, who's really, really good. You know, in this program, they'll talk to travel ball coaches. Who do you guys have? Who's going to be like, the next dude that I need to get on right now? So, as a parent hearing that, you know, again, it's. It's. It's all the basic stuff that you would assume. It's not that there's, like, something that they're looking for that's hidden, that nobody knows. I mean, these things are talked about all over the place, but something that a lot of parents actually don't think about much. They think it's all about the tools on the field is the makeup of the player. You know, how does he present himself, right when he meets somebody, does he treat him with respect? How does he talk to you, his parents? You know, these coaches, they pay attention to all that stuff. And if there's a kid out there who's listening to this and, you know, maybe he's a little. Maybe you're a little disrespectful to your parents or your coaching staff, like, and you have ambitions of playing pro ball and college ball, be careful. Because none of these college coaches and none of these scouts want to invest in somebody that they think is going to be a problem with their organization. So that is something that I think a lot of people lose sight of at the pro level. Like, when we start going through the draft stuff, we talk about this all the time, but I think sometimes with college kids, it's a little bit lost in translation. So, you know, I say this, I feel like it's common sense, but I do recognize that sometimes maybe it's not so obvious. So I at least wanted to mention that. So, number seven, how do we know if our son is on the radar or just being marketed to be at camps or at events? I mean, here's the reality is, you know, up until your son is probably 15 or 16 years old, you really don't know how good he's going to be because maybe he grew early, and at 11 years old, like, he's head and shoulders bigger than everybody. But let's assume that he's 6ft tall and he's 11, okay? You would think your kid's going to be really tall, but then what if he stops growing and everybody else catches up? Maybe he just ends up being six feet tall. So you just want to put it in perspective. I think the biggest mistake is to think that you're ranked high at 11 years old, and that somehow means that you're, like, going to Be the best kid in the class at 17 or 18. It's okay to hope that that happens, but don't make decisions that are planning for that to happen. I think parents need to kind of sit back a little bit, let it develop how it needs to. Let your kid be a kid. Let him hang out with his buddies. Don't take away this part of his childhood because you're so focused on being a professional at 11 years old. You know, he's never going to get this time back. And God forbid if he doesn't develop, you know, on the, the pace that he needs to at 11 and he, you know, doesn't have an opportunity to play college ball, like he's going to look back at those years and he may enjoy him, you guys may enjoy him, and that's okay too. But I just, I just, I just want you to be realistic about it. I hope for everybody who has A son At 11 years old, if they're ranked number one, I hope they stay number one. But like, the evidence doesn't support it. The evidence says the opposite. You know, there have been plenty of kids who were unranked going into their senior year, and then pretty quickly now they're the guy and they're in the top 10 that it happens every year. So just be aware of that. All right, so number seven, is it better to play on a high profile team with less playing time or a low tier team where he's a standout? So this I'm assuming is referring to travel ball. I mean, again, and I've said this repeatedly on here, like it depends, there are advantages to playing on some of these national teams where you're going around and you're playing really, really good competition. But it depends on where you're at and what the number one priority needs to be. I've oftentimes said this on the podcast that generally speaking for kids who are, you know, whether it's 10 to 15, their number one focus should be on development. Development. Number one from development comes wanting to go to tournaments and wanting to compete. And then a result of doing one and two, right. Then you get exposure at the right time. Right. You know, we've, Brandon Oliver and I have this conversation, like there's also something called overexposure, and you don't necessarily want that. That's not a good thing. So, you know, if you're somebody who is now 15 and 16 and you have spent a lot of time and you've worked on the development piece and you're, you're ready to like showcase your tools and your, and your skill set at that point, then what I would say is be open minded. If your local team isn't necessarily going to these big events to be a part of a bigger team so that you can participate in those events and play against better talent. But if your local team is going to those events, I'm not suggesting that you have to leave that local team and then go play for one of these bigger teams. That is not what I'm saying. I'm only saying if they're not going to an event that you wanted to go to, then I do think it's okay to then go play with one of those larger clubs, at least for, for that tournament. Now, what I'm not saying is if your son is good and he's 12 and he should be focused on development, that he should play for a better team and then not play as much. Instead of playing with a local team where he's playing a lot, he has to get reps. He has to get the experience. It doesn't do you any good to go play for a highly ranked national Travel team at 11, 12, 13 or 14, not get the reps, but say that you're on this big team. No, not. I said the opposite of what I'm saying. That is when your ego's involved and it's more important for you to tell people that you know your son's on one of the best travel teams. Like that doesn't add any value. There's nothing there. That's gonna mean that he's gonna somehow and go listen to the episode with Jeff Petty that I just had. Because Jeff and to his credit, talks openly about like, hey, look, I'll be the first to tell you, you know, we're not just gonna pick up the phone and call LSU if we don't think your son's ready for lsu. So if you're the dad or the mom of a kid who is really good, right, and you want to go play for a national team who's not going to play you a lot, how is that making you better if he's not playing you a lot on that national team? It's not that you're not good, but they may have other players that are better. So that same coach isn't necessarily going to pick up the phone and call LSU and tell them that they need to look at you if you can't even play every day for his team is essentially the point I'm trying to make. So I hope that answers your question. All right. Number 11. How much do scouts value tools like velocity, exit velo and pop time versus actual in game performance? So if we're talking about pro scouts. Yeah, I mean both matter, right? Both, both do in fact matter. But I think something that's lost sometimes is there are many kids and I remember there was a kid, I don't know, it was probably 10 years ago who, I can't remember the state this was in, I, I, I read about it, but he basically had like five no hitters in a row and he was, I think it was like Idaho or Iowa potentially. And yeah, five no hitters in a row. And I, I remember hearing from people that like this kid couldn't figure out why he like wasn't having any interest in from pro teams. And so that's a perfect example, right? When you have somebody who, let's just say isn't projectable, meaning he's not anybody that has a skill set that these scouts view as projecting into the big leagues and you know, at least into college, then it doesn't matter that the results are good, right? It's like, well, it's, it just doesn't look, it doesn't look the part. But naturally, yeah, performance certainly matters. On the flip side to that, there are many people who, they have a ton of tools and a ton of skill sets. They throw really hard, they have a ton of sync, they've got run on their fastball, they throw a nasty slider, devastating curveball, great change up, they throw great splitty. And I'm not saying that's one pitcher, but as an example, these scouts, when they see guys like that, even if that guy isn't necessarily having the success in terms of in game performance as somebody else, they may view that guy higher because his projectability is higher than the other kid who's maybe performing better with decent stuff. So again, start with what's the goal of the scout who's watching them? The goal of the scout who's watching them is to figure out do I think this player that I'm watching is a big leaguer potentially in the future, right? And so if the performance in the game is getting the result, that's certainly a good thing. But if the tools don't match the result and then they think, well, he's getting success at this level because it's high school, but the minute this kid goes to a D1 program, like he's not going to have the same success, well then obviously there's not going to be as much interest as the kid who they say, oh, no, no, this kid's stuff looks like, you know, he looks like Chris Sale, right? I mean, they, they throw the same, you know, same size. That's how you start to see people, you know, have those conversations. And I think sometimes it's frustrating for a lot of families who, you know, maybe have a son who is performing really well, but maybe doesn't have the, the, the tools that some of these other players are who don't. But hey, I mean, it's, it's just how this game goes. It's a business. And, you know, I don't think anybody wants to be disrespectful of the kids who put all the time and energy in. And there's a place for that too, by the way. Like, I've seen kids who have decent tools but who work their tail off and scouts fall in love with that player. They may not get, you know, drafted as high as some other kid who's got a bunch of raw talent, but I've seen those kids actually get to the big leagues. So it's not that it's impossible. It's just that scouts tend to lean more on the, on the upside than necessarily like a guy who's safe. And there's not really an upside much. It's, it's a bigger risk. All right, so next question. So this question comes from a parent whose 17 year old son is highly regarded. When is the right time to bring in an advisor? How should parents interpret early draft buzz, especially for parents who are already committed to college? So looks like there's multiple questions, so let me just address the first one. When is the right time for a family to bring in an advisor? So there's really no right time. Again, taking your word for it, assuming your son is highly regarded and he's 17, so that means he's probably a junior going to be a senior. Traditionally, families start having those conversations for a highly regarded kid even as early as his sophomore year. That, that is early. I recognize it. But that's when agents for the most part, will start reaching out. The reality is, is that, you know, and, and just speaking of agents and the whole community, you know, agents don't always like competition. And so when there's an opportunity to get on a kid that you've seen that you think is really good, a lot of these families, or I'm sorry, a lot of these agents will try to do that super early. So much so that they'll even tell you, if they talk to you like, hey, don't, don't talk to anybody else. Like, here's the realities, like talk to whoever you want to talk to. There's no limit to how many you need to meet with, how many you need to talk to. It's really getting clear on what are we looking for as we're trying to work with an advisor. Like rank. I would rank things like the most important thing to us is experience as an example. Right. Experience is number one. I want to make sure that these people have been through this before. Just say you're somebody who says, I, I want an agency that is massive. I want, I want to have an agent that I can call whose company represents like you know, LeBron James or whatever. Then there's the flip side of it. Who says, you know, I actually don't want to be represented by somebody who has 500 clients because at the end of the day, like I want to deal with the guy, the main guy who's negotiating my contract on a daily basis. I don't want to deal with that guy once a year, if not once every couple years. So I would just get clear on why you're, what are the reasons that you're looking for with an advisor. But as far as the timing of it, again, if, if agents start reaching out as a sophomore, this individual sounds like he's 17. Yeah. I mean, if he's highly regarded, then sure, that's probably a good time to start considering hiring an advisor. But what I am definitely not telling you is you need one no matter what, regardless of who it is. I have heard horror stories of people in certain parts of the country who maybe don't have access to the more experienced agents. And so there's like a local guy who, he knows baseball. He's never really done the agent thing, but he's just getting into it right now and he wants to represent me. And you know, I steer away from that stuff because I have heard stories where the reality is just because you know baseball and just because you may have coached, maybe because you've scouted, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're fully equipped to be an agent. I know that may sound self serving, but I would assume that a scout would tell me the same thing. Just because I've been an agent for 25 years doesn't mean that I can just go be a baseball scout and be just as good as that individual is. And so I'm essentially saying the same thing, you know, in the opposite. So, you know, if you have specific questions that you want to address, to me, the person who asked this question, send me a dm. I'd be happy to, whether it's have a call with you or shoot you an email and just kind of give you some various things to think about. I mean, one of the things that I do when I meet with families is I actually give them a list of questions, assuming they're meeting with any other advisors. They're like, ask every advisor these questions. You know, that's my way of just wanting to add value however I can. And there have been circumstances where I've signed those, those players and those families, and there are circumstances where I haven't, and that's fine too. I'm not ultimately looking to sign everybody I meet with. It's like as much as well, because you got to remember too, like, if I represent every player I've ever met with, I'd have a ton of players. And that's not been my goal. My goal has been how do I provide a certain level of service for these individuals that far surpasses any other level of service that anybody else offers. And so there's specific things that I get into in, in these meetings. But part of what I'm trying to figure out is based on what I do, does this align with what they're looking for? Right. So naturally you've, you could tell, like, well, that's not going to be the case for everybody. So I've met families and players who I've said in those meetings, it sounds like what you're looking for is maybe something different. So if you would like, help or advice on who those groups are that I think maybe do a good job, I'd be happy to kind of share that with you. And then there have been others who we were, in fact, exactly what they were looking for. So it just depends. But this is a long winded way of me saying the right age to consider an advisor. If your son is legit is probably like the spring season going into a senior summer. But chances are agents will have already reached out to you before then. Okay. All right. Can a player hurt their draft stock by committing too early to college or not committing at all? No. Well, first off, there's new rules with college right now. I'll just specifically speak as it relates to D1. But these college programs can't even talk to you until August 1st going into your junior season. So if you commit to a college after that point, no, it's not going to hurt your ability to play professional baseball, in fact. But if you don't commit to a college, that'll hurt you more than anything. Because one of the things that you as a parent need to be aware of is you need to have a plan B. Even if pro ball is plan A, you need a plan B. Because if you don't have a plan B, and the organization that wants to draft you knows it, you've got no leverage. The only leverage you have are other teams that may also have interest. But the way that the draft functions is if they know you're signing no matter what, they don't necessarily have to call you before the pick. They just take you and then good luck convincing them that you're not going to sign. So, yeah, not to mention no player, I don't care how high he's ranked, how good he is, no player going into that senior summer before his senior year is going to be able to predict exactly where he's going to go in the draft. And I'm telling you this by experience, even the best kids, you know, there have been plenty of kids, and I don't want to get into names, but plenty of kids who were ranked number one and number two in the class of high school in their senior summer, who didn't get drafted in the first round, didn't get drafted at all. And it wasn't because they turned down a lot of money, but they just regressed and, and quickly or got hurt. So, yeah, that's just one of those things that I think that you need to be prepared for. I know that I would prefer to go play professional baseball, or I know that my son would prefer to go play professional baseball out of high school. But we need to have something lined up in the event that it doesn't just go exactly as planned. And we want to make sure that, that he's protected and has another pathway. So scouts understand the best players. They're going to have college commitments. And by the way, that's actually a good little lesson. If you're, if you're the parent of a son who maybe isn't considered the best, maybe they're like a tick below, right? But you're seeing that the best are doing something, you should just pay attention to that. Be mindful of that. Ask yourself, why? Why are they doing that? And if you have any other further questions, send me a dm, send me an email. I'd be happy to help you answer it. Okay. What's the real difference between being drafted out of high school versus going to college first? Okay, so we kind of touched on a little bit of that right there. But the biggest difference is and again, I mentioned that I had a conversation with a really successful guy in the SEC head coach yesterday, and we were talking about this exact question. Really. I mean, you know, what are the things that high school players ultimately need to learn that they get to learn in college and don't necessarily get to learn in pro ball? In college, especially with the transfer portal today, you are met with a need to compete immediately. They're going to bring in other players to compete with you at your position. You are not going to be given anything. And so if you're good enough, competing against those kids and those players, if you're good enough, is going to bring out the best in you at pro ball, you're kind of depending on what you sign for. You're being given a lot longer Runway to figure it out. Right? But the reason I said if you're good enough at the college level, because for the kids who aren't good enough at the college level going to pro ball, they're not going to have the opportunity or the Runway that they otherwise would have. So I'm talking about the player who has a chance to go either one and sign for a decent amount of money. Those players, I mean, look, you need to analyze your son and figure out, is he somebody who, you know, does he need to get his teeth kicked in a little bit? Does he need to be toughened up? Does he need to be. Does he need to actually face adversity? Because he never has up to that point, going to pro ball, expecting to learn it at that level, it's even more difficult. So that's kind of one of the biggest things between pro ball and college. Okay, we are on the last few questions. Okay. How much does makeup and character really matter to scouts and coaches and how is it evaluated? So we talked about this a little bit a few questions ago. But so let me. Let's share what makeup is. So makeup is something that all scouts and colleges want to know about, right? And there are some teams that actually have two forms of makeup. There's on the field makeup and then there's off the field makeup. On the field makeup is. Are things like, you know, do you play the game the right way? Do you run hard to first base? Do you run hard out to your position? Do you do the little things? Well, right? Like think about a common sensically, like, do you check all the boxes? Right. Do you do things the right way? Do you carry yourself the right way on the field? Off the field, it's like, yeah, are you respectful of your parents? Are you responsible? Are you somebody who's a troublemaker? Do you get into drugs? Do you drink? Are you disrespectful of your parents? Do you have anger problems? All these things they're trying. What makeup is? It's the makeup of the individual, right? So what's inside of them? Are they going to be somebody? And here's why they want to know. Are they going to be somebody that when they fail at the next level, are they gonna have the tools and the skill sets with confidence, with their upbringing, to know that it's all good, I can get out of it? That's why they want to know. And they also want to know if you're re. If they're going to draft you and you're representing the name on their. On, on your chest. Are you somebody that is going to make us proud, or are you somebody that's going to disappoint us? Are you going to be the guy that you read about in the newspaper who, you know, beat his wife, who, you know, got arrested for a dui, who, you know, did any number of bad things that you can imagine? Like they're trying to figure out which one are you? Are you somebody we're going to be proud of or disappointed by? So, you know, I think the question was, does it matter? Or how much does it really matter? It matters a ton. I have seen kids who have been the most physically gifted baseball players you could ever imagine. And their makeup off the field was awful. It was affecting. And funny enough, there's a guy I'm thinking about who in the minor leagues, he got to the big leagues, but he could have been one of the best players in his, you know, kind of 10 year window in the big leagues. And instead he's a guy that like, got a cup of coffee and was out of the game. So there's a reason why these people want to know this stuff. So, you know, I think it's a good lesson. Cause I think I'm preaching to the choir. If I'm talking to mom and dad, I think you guys ultimately know that these things matter. It's really the kid, your son, who maybe is a little more, you know, rough around the edges or doesn't really want to listen to you and just know that that is totally normal. You know, most kids, we're fortunate enough where they will listen to us because we're not mom and dad. So I hope that answered the question. Okay, so last question is actually is about the agent business. I've always wanted to be an Agent, any advice for how to get my foot in the door? So, yeah, I will share with you, I guess, my story. So I played baseball in college and eventually kind of saw the writing on the wall and realized, you know, I'm probably not good enough to keep playing at this level. You know, am I, am I wasting my time by doing this? I feel like the writing's on the wall with this. I just, you know, and this is college, this is even pro ball. So I made a hard decision at that point to stop playing. And I reached out to my junior college coach. Shout out to Andy McKay. He's now the assistant GM with the Mariners. We call them Cap. So shout out to Cap, who gave me the phone number of an individual who was an agent in the business. This company represented Barry Bonds and Jose Canseco and Mike Piazza. And so I then at that point had already kind of done some research on the agent business, kind of had an idea of what it did or what an agent did, but was honest with myself, didn't know if I'd like it, didn't know if I'd be good at it. But I was interested enough and I was a hard working kid enough that I knew once I get my foot in the door, I'm gonna learn really quickly. Like, is this something that I want to do long term? I did know that I wanted to be around the game of baseball. So in that moment, when I spoke to my junior college coach, Cap, he gave me the phone number to this guy and I called him, left him a message. And it funny enough, I actually played with a couple of their clients who were at the time playing professional baseball, one with the Dodgers and one with the Orioles. And so, you know, I reached out to him, left him a message, he doesn't call me back. And so I gave it a, I think a week, called him again, left him a message, and I'm, and I'm leaving on his message, hey, I played with this guy and this guy, and funny enough, this individual that I called actually went to my same junior college and played. So I'm thinking there's enough common denominators here that like, maybe this guy's going to call me back. So I give it another couple days, he doesn't call me back again. So now I pretty much realize what's, what's, what's going on, like this guy's not going to call me back. So I picked up the phone and I called this guy every single day for six months. And it was so obnoxious. And I recognized that it was obnoxious, but that was the point is I was letting this guy know, you're not turning me away. Like, this is my one chance to get in the business and I'm going to do something about it. And so he eventually called me back and brought me in, hired me as an intern and told me we're not hiring after. So like stay here for three months and enjoy it. I ended up staying as an intern there for I think a year. And they hired me while I was still in college. And I remained at that company for, for 10 years. So that's just a quick little synopsis as far as how I got in the business. Now the reality of it was is I wasn't somebody who just tried to be aggressive. I was someone who played the game. I felt like I had something to offer to somebody. So that's where I would start. Ask yourself, do you have something to offer to an agency? And I don't just mean hard work, I mean like, because think about this. Agencies have access to pretty much whoever they want. We can go hire scouts, we can go hire college coaches, we can go hire just lawyers out there, we can go hire ex clients, we can go hire other baseball players. And so if you're just an individual who's listening to this and you just really want to be an agent, but you've never played the game, have no contacts in baseball, don't really know much about the game. My concern for you, and I'm not saying it's impossible, but what I'm saying is your pathway to getting into this is going to look different because you're going to have to figure out how you can add value to an agency in a different way. And that's on you to figure out. But in the event that you are somebody who thinks you can add value, then I would really do research on the types of companies that are available to you out there. No different than if you were a player who was looking for an agent. And to be honest with you, not every agency should be appealing to you. So I would do your homework and I would try to figure out. Once you've kind of identified some groups that you at least are attracted to or that you like, I would start reaching out and I would do everything possible to figure out your way in the door. That's just the reality. But just know that I don't believe anybody is going to hire you if you're not going to bring something to them. That's just how they think. Because again, the job they give to you is a job they couldn't give to somebody else. And if that other person is promising them, hey, you know, I played pro ball and you know, these are all of my ex teammates that are, you know, in the big leagues. Do you think that agency is going to be attracted to that? Of course they are. And you want to know why? Because they want players. Right? That's just how it is. And so I've talked about that on this podcast. How so many again, they look at it like a sales business. I just need to go out there and get sales. I need to get sales. So think about that too, from the standpoint of you wanted to get into the business. Because I was at two companies for 10 years each and I left and started my own because I wanted to do something totally different. So just have to be mindful of that, you know, I hope that helps. And so that was the last question, everybody. Look, I know this was long. I appreciate you guys sticking with me. If not all of those questions were valuable, if there were some that were, shoot me a dm, shoot me a message. If you have further questions, send them my way. But I appreciate it, guys. And if you haven't done so, like, and subscribe to the YouTube podcast the most Valuable Agent. I appreciate, appreciate you guys. We'll see you.