How You Act in the Stands Affects Your Son's Draft Stock (An MLB Agent Explains)

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Most Valuable Agent with Matt Hannaford

Episode: How You Act in the Stands Affects Your Son's Draft Stock (An MLB Agent Explains)

Date: June 3, 2026

Host: Matt Hannaford | Guest: Mike Liguori

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Overview

This episode delves deep into how parental behavior—especially during youth baseball games and the travel ball circuit—not only affects a young athlete’s enjoyment and development but can significantly impact their prospects and draft stock in the eyes of MLB scouts and colleges. Host Matt Hannaford, a seasoned MLB agent, and guest Mike Liguori, broadcaster and Marine Corps veteran, discuss the high-stakes world of youth baseball, the pressure parents and players face, the importance of development over exposure, and the critical role of a player’s “makeup” (on and off the field) in attracting scouts. The conversation is packed with behind-the-scenes advice for players and especially their families.

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Guest Introduction and Context (00:12–04:53)

• Mike Liguori shares his background in media and sports, lifelong love of baseball, and his experience as a Marine, drawing parallels between high-pressure teamwork in sports and the military.
  • Quote: “There’s parallels, for sure, between pro athletes and the military in the sense of it’s a team first, and it’s also a mission first type of organization” – Mike Liguori (02:21)
• Emphasis on putting youth baseball in perspective: it feels intense, but “it’s not life or death” as in the military.
  • Quote: “It’s easy to kind of fall into that trap of thinking, yeah, if I don’t do this… my life’s over. But it’s not.” – Matt Hannaford (04:53)

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Travel Ball Patterns & Parental Pressure (06:49–09:23)

• Parents often operate from love and hope for their child's success but feel overwhelmed by “pressure from the outside”—the fear of missing out causes over-scheduling.
• No one-size-fits-all path to the big leagues; parents must tailor their approach to their child’s needs, capacities, and joy.
  • “There’s no cookie cutter answer… be interested in your son’s experience and let that guide you.” – Matt Hannaford (06:49)

2. Development Over Exposure (09:23–13:49)

• Success comes from strategic participation in events and prioritizing development—physical and mental—not just maximizing exposure.
• Overloading kids with tournaments can cause exhaustion, burnout, and stunted development.
  • “The goal is the development piece. The exposure is a byproduct of doing a lot of things well.” – Matt Hannaford (09:52)
• Planning should consider the athlete’s age, goals, and readiness for higher-level showcases.

3. Balancing Parental Encouragement and Pressure (13:49–16:28)

• Importance of dialog with the child (“What do you want?”) to help them set and pursue their own goals.
• Kids often burn out at 13 if pushed too hard from a young age.
• It’s vital to push kids only as much as aligns with their own ambitions and assure the child enjoys the game, reducing pressure if not.
  • “If you say you want this thing, we’re going to have to make sure that we’re spending time practicing and developing. If you don’t want to do that…chances are you’re not going to achieve the things you ultimately want to.” – Matt Hannaford (14:45)

4. The “Support vs. Wound” Parental Dilemma & Lasting Impact (18:02–21:36)

• Many MLB players still carry emotional wounds from how parents, especially dads (but not only), managed their youth sports experience.
• Critical for parents to focus on raising responsible, communicative, resilient adults—not just big leaguers.
  • “The goal isn’t necessarily how do I make my kid a big leaguer, it’s how do I create a powerful human being…” – Matt Hannaford (19:12)
• Constant criticism and never feeling “good enough” can result in lifelong issues, even for top pros.

5. Social Media’s Double-Edged Sword (21:36–24:15)

• Social media can help showcase talent but brings toxic comparison and exposure to criticism.
• Kids and parents should not base their self-worth or decisions on online comments.
  • “It’s like road rage…Who cares what they think? Doesn’t matter.” – Matt Hannaford (22:38)

6. Parents’ Behavior in the Stands & Its Real Impact (25:11–26:30)

• Coaches and scouts pay close attention to parent behavior at games—yelling, criticizing coaches, or creating scenes are red flags.
  • “Oftentimes the parent is the perfect view into how that kid is going to handle things down the road.” – Matt Hannaford (25:11)
• A parent’s conduct can shape or even limit a player’s opportunities and reflects profoundly in scout reports.

7. How Scouts Actually Evaluate Families (26:30–28:47)

• Scouts do home visits to evaluate family dynamics, interaction styles, and communication.
• Respectful, supportive families stand out and can raise a player’s stock; negative, interventionist parents are a warning sign.
  • “If mom and dad let the kid answer, and the kid is very respectful of his parents, that also speaks volumes.” – Matt Hannaford (27:10)
  • Story: A player’s first-round status hinged not just on talent, but on family character and support.

8. Draft Process Unveiled (29:45–33:15)

• The run-up to the draft is stressful for all, even likely first-rounders; parents and families must prepare for uncertainty and pivots, as team plans change in real time.
• Example: A team’s draft strategy shifting after the top pick didn’t go as predicted, affecting all downstream decisions.
• Matt stresses: Families must be prepared for disappointment and have alternate (e.g., college) plans.

9. The Critical Role of “Makeup” (34:24–38:14)

• “Makeup” is both on-field (effort, play style) and off-field (character, academics, discipline, law) and is heavily scrutinized.
• The majority of team conversations are about the player’s mental, emotional, and family context, not just on-field performance.
  • “They want to know as much information as possible…if they’re going to invest money…they want to know that your return is going to be good for them.” – Matt Hannaford (34:24)
• Families who fail to prepare for both outcomes (pro or college) risk disappointment and poor decision making.

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Notable Quotes/Memorable Moments

• “We need to get into a world in which we’re, like, ignoring that stuff [social media commentary].” – Matt Hannaford (23:00)
• “If you think that you’re going to a game and…there’s no negative repercussions [from poor behavior], I would just caution you to be mindful of, like, no, that stuff does matter.” – Matt Hannaford (28:10)
• “The draft process…even in the best case, is stressful right now. Why is it stressful? …you’re watching your son who is close to fulfilling his dream, and you as a parent, you want…to make sure that this experience is comfortable.” – Matt Hannaford (29:45)
• “There’s two forms of makeup…on the field…then there’s off the field makeup. And off the field makeup is, what kind of person is he?” – Matt Hannaford (34:26)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:12–04:53 – Guest intro, values from military and sports, putting youth sports in perspective
• 06:49–09:23 – Patterns in parental approaches to travel ball
• 09:23–13:49 – Why development trumps exposure for young players
• 14:45–16:28 – Conversations parents should initiate for balance
• 18:02–21:36 – Effects of parenting on MLB players’ long-term well-being
• 21:36–24:15 – Social media’s effect on athletes and families
• 25:11–26:30 – How parental behavior affects draft stock
• 26:30–28:47 – What scouts look for in families during evaluation
• 29:45–33:15 – Inside the stressful, unpredictable MLB draft process
• 34:24–38:14 – The meaning and role of “makeup” in scouting and recruiting
• 38:45–39:31 – Final advice: Parental awareness is key

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Final Takeaway: Hannaford’s Core Advice (38:45)

• “As a parent, you want to be aware of where’s your son at mentally…that needs to be a really central piece…” – Matt Hannaford
• Have honest conversations with your child about their wants and needs, keeping their mental health and enjoyment at the forefront.

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For aspiring athletes and their parents, this episode is essential listening—a crucial reminder that what happens in the stands and at home matters as much as what happens on the field.

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Transcript

[A]

Okay. So, Mike, I feel like you've been a voice for so long, and now everyone's like, oh, who's this guy?

[B]

Mike? I'm here. Yeah.

[A]

But before we jump in, because I know you have a handful of questions that you want to ask me. I want to get into, like, your story real fast just to give them some perspective. Right. Who is Mike Liguori? What's your. What's your history?

[B]

Yeah, I've been in the media game since 2012, and I've had the privilege of working with some amazing companies and clients like yourself. And, you know, I'm also a pretty avid sports guy, and baseball's one of those ones that I've really gotten into the last couple years.

[A]

We share our love affair for the Niners.

[B]

Yes, we do. And, you know, grew up a San Francisco Giants fan. Still amazing. And, you know, got to live through the glory days of the. The 10 12, the even year World Series. But, you know, we have not had any success as of late, so hoping we can turn things around, but other than that. Yeah, live here in Southern California. Married. Happily married.

[A]

And also, I must say, I do think this is an important piece to it. So when we started working together, I learned you were in the military before.

[B]

Yes, yes. Oh, I'll touch on that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Then also served in the marine Corps from 2002, 2006, and ended up doing two tours in Iraq for total about 15 months.

[A]

And this could be a podcast in and of itself. That.

[B]

That, yes. That could be a series of books, it could be a series of television drama. However you want to spin. Was an amazing experience to be able to serve my country and to be able to, you know, serve in the Marine Corps as well. And that's carried with me in terms of what I learned in the service and to what I do today.

[A]

Well, and I told you this before, but I. I speak for everybody to say thank you for your service.

[B]

Thank you, man.

[A]

One of the things I love so much about that, though, is I feel like not that serving in. In the military is like playing sports, but I'm sure on some level, playing sports as a kid growing up, like, you had a certain level of competition inside of you. Yeah. That has kind of carried you forward.

[B]

There's parallels, for sure, between pro athletes and the military in the sense of it's a team first, and it's also a mission first type of organization as well. And, you know, sports players that I've interacted with. And, you know, from my experience of being in the military, it's really cool to see athletes and people who serve in the military get to experience what it's like to be in a high tempo, high pressure situations. Obviously not the same in terms of environment, but, you know, being able to operate at such a level of excellence with a group of people. A lot of these men and women that you serve with, you don't know.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And I'm assuming it's the same thing with.

[A]

And you're also part of a team

[B]

and it's all about the team. It's about, you know, winning a championship for sports team, it's four for the military, it's about accomplishing the mission, like getting the mission accomplished, making sure everybody comes home safe.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, and with that being said, I think it's. I think it's cool to see those types of perils, especially learning from you and the work that you've been doing for such a long time, you know, learning from players experiences. They get drafted, get put on a team and they don't know anybody and they're expected to contribute in some form or fashion.

[A]

Well, an interesting perspective that you have too, because I think as we talk about these young kids kind of going through the travel ball journey, it feels like life or death. It's not life or death. It's not where what you went through was life or death. And so that's something that I think everybody could benefit from is just really putting it in perspective, recognizing as. As heavy as this stuff feels, as challenging as it is at the end of the day, like, you're fine. You know, this is not going to be. This is not going to determine the course of your life necessarily where in the military it obviously does. So, yeah. Happy to jump into whatever you have for us today.

[B]

Yeah. And just one thing that made me reminded me of something I learned when I got out the service because it was such a matter of black and white, life or death. You know, there was no gray area. Ironically, there was a lot of gray, though, right when you're serving. But I had someone tell me when I got out of the military and was transitioning into college and, you know, trying to get my feet back on the ground. He said, just remember that nobody's dying on the table now, though. It's not. Not life or death. You going into school is that there's. It's not that serious. You should have fun and you should, you know, learn that it's a life and it's a game and it's a learning experience in that too. So it just made we all care.

[A]

Yeah, right. You care so much, and you. You spend so much time doing something that you. You want it to. You want it to turn out the way that you've dreamed that it will. And so it's easy to kind of fall into that trap of thinking, yeah, it's. If I don't. If I don't do this, oh, man, what, you know, my life's over.

[B]

And in speaking of today, the fact that we are talking about then transitioning over into travel baseball and a lot of these parents that you've been helping with over the course of the most valuable agent, I think, you know, first of all, just thanks to everybody who's been watching and listening and commenting. And we. We read your comments. I read your comments, and I see. And we see your questions. And the goal of this show, Matt, is really for us to come together and say, hey, you know, it is time to give you guys answers to some of your most pressing questions around travel baseball and nil and the draft. And, you know, what if my son wants to go to a D1? I think this is actually a very specific one. We'll probably answer that today with some of the questions that we have. But what if my son wants to go to D1, but all he can get is a D2 scholarship? What do you suggest that he should do? And I think those have been things that we have seen repeatedly come up in. In the comments section. So thank you, guys for. For everything. All right, so speaking of which, let's. Let's jump into it. We're going to talk about today. We got a bunch of questions here. But, Matt, just to tee you up, travel baseball and baseball parenting is a huge passion of yours. You care so much about parents mentoring their kids in such a caring, nurturing way, but also in an encouraging way that they don't end up hating the game of baseball. And before I get into this first question, let's set the table a little bit. Tell me so far what you see is the major pattern or a major pattern that parents are taking with their children when it comes to navigating travel baseball.

[A]

Yeah. So I think the biggest takeaway for me is everybody comes from a place of. It's a care factor. Right. They all go into this process with the most positive hopes and ambitions that this is going to turn into something so great for them. And I think that is certainly a great place to start. What quickly starts to happen, though, is there's so much pressure oftentimes coming from the outside feeling like, you know, mom and dad don't want to make a mistake. And so naturally, when there's, you know, 30 tournaments that get thrown your way and this fear of missing out and every parent seeing all these other kids and what they're doing, very quickly, all these parents start to feel like, oh, well, the outside world is telling me that we need to do these 50 different things. And it gets overwhelming, right? So they start to really wrestle with, are we doing enough? Are we doing too much? I'm seeing my son, and he's responding in a certain way. Is this normal? Is this not normal? Is this good or is this bad? And so what I want to help these families understand is there's no cookie cutter answer to any of this stuff, right? This isn't. This isn't a formula that if you do the formula, it's going to work out exactly this way for everybody. And so my advice always is, you know, be interested in your son's experience and let that guide you, you know, your decision making. What I want to help provide is answers to various questions. But at the end of the day, there's not only one way to do it. So I think if. If every parent hears this, I want them to really understand. Like, you have to listen to your son. You have to be aware of. Of how he's responding to certain things. If some of the advice is, you know, go to these five tournaments, if your son feels like, you know, he's overwhelmed, maybe it's too much, he's tired, he doesn't enjoy it, then we need to pump the brakes. We need to back up. We need it. We need to take a pause. And I know some of the questions that I've answered recently on the podcast oftentimes is, you know, there'll be a message that maybe they're receiving from me in one particular episode, and very quickly they think it's black and white, right? Like, oh, but what about this? There's always a flip side, right? So this isn't like, this is the way it has to be done for every single kid 100% of the time. This is my advice, given these circumstances. But oftentimes I tell these families context matters. And so for anybody listening, if there's. If there's. Any advice that you're receiving and you feel like, yeah, but what about this? Send me a message. And that's something that I will tell everybody. Send me a message. And I'd be happy to kind of go through your specific situation more, more personally. But, yeah, I. I hope that's helpful for everybody.

[B]

Yeah, I. I think so. And I think it's a great way for us to dive into this first question where, you know, there's a lot of dads who are really running their sons through these 10 to 15 plus tournaments every summer, thinking that's the path forward. And the kids are coming out of it tired, they're breaking down mechanically, and they're not actually getting better. What are these parents missing about development? And what's the signal that the volume is actually hurting their development instead of helping it?

[A]

Yeah. So I think we did an episode recently where we talked about, you know, 70 baseball games over the course of a year. Like, that's too much. And I think the thing that everybody needs to understand is there's. There's strategy involved in going to all these different events, whether it's tournaments or showcases. There is a light at the end of the tunnel that we're trying to accomplish a thing. Right. And the thing that I want to make sure everybody understands is the goal is the development piece. Right. The goal is not the exposure. The exposure is a byproduct of doing a lot of things well. And so oftentimes, parents think of the end goal as, we want to get a scholarship, we want to get drafted. So we need to go to every single tournament and every single showcase in order to achieve that. And I'm the first person to say, no, let's start first with what is the goal for your specific situation? Maybe if your son is 10, the goal shouldn't be, we need to hurry up and get a scholarship, because you can't even start having those conversations until his August 1st of his junior season in high school. Right. So it's put it in perspective. But recognize the foundation of all of this is how do we go to things that help him develop into be the best player that he can be. That's obviously physical, but it's also mental. Right. It's also from the standpoint of, you know, does he feel like when he's going to these events, he's putting himself in a good position to succeed? Because you can, you know, sign up a year in advance to go to all these tournaments. And then by the time you get to a tournament, he's exhausted, he's tired, he feels like he's not capable of showing his best. Well, then we may need to back off that a little bit. And so the foundational piece of development, I do think that needs to be kind of the cornerstone to everything a family does. When we say 10 to 15 tournaments, you know, you can Think about it. Over the course of an entire year, right? There's various things depending on the player's age that are important events to go to. The most important time, though, for travel ball is the summer most of the time, because it's time when the family has more downtime. During the spring season, they're obviously playing high school baseball, depending on his age. But in the summer, you know, when you talk about how many tournaments should we go to? Again, it depends on what the goal is. If your son is now at the point where, let's just say he's 15, 16, 17 years old, now all of a sudden, college becomes a bigger conversation. So what events do we go to in order to make sure that we're being seen by the right people? I talked about development. Well, you have to make sure that when you're going to these events, he's developed so that when he goes and performs, he's showcasing his best abilities. Right. So there are various tournaments you can go to, Perfect Game and organization that puts on a lot of these events. You know, there's the WWB in Atlanta, which is a good one. That's at the beginning of the summer in June. And then you have various showcases, the PG national showcases, one, the Area Code Games, the East Coast Pro. There's. We'll do a whole. And we've kind of talked about this before in the past. We'll do a whole episode on this. But I think the. The message I want to send to families is we have to put together a plan very specifically to your situation. And if that plan is related to college, well, then what events are going to be events that are seen by these college recruiting coordinators? If college recruiting coordinators are not going to these events, but you're choosing to go to it because your goal is to get a college scholarship, you at least need to recognize. All right, maybe this is an event where we're not being seen, but we're going to make sure that the next event we go to were prepared for. Right? That's something that I talk to my clients about. Right. So if we go to Atlanta as an example, we may choose to go to Atlanta not to be seen, but we want to be ready for a Team USA event that comes up two weeks later. Right. If your son's a pitcher, going there and making sure that he stays ready is an important piece of this. So I think, again, put it in the context of what's our goal, you know, and then from that point forward, what events do we need to go to? To make sure that we are accomplishing our goal in a responsible way.

[B]

The other thing I wanted to ask you was more about from the kids perspective too, because we are talking about 10 year olds and we are talking about.

[A]

Oftentimes. We are. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Oftentimes it's 10 year olds, it's 11 year olds, 12 year olds. And you know, there's always been this kind of, I guess, cycle where you have dads who really want to push their sons to be excellent in a sport. Right. And because of that, I think there's an inherent pressure on that kid to perform so well. In your experience, when a kid's kind of like back against the wall, too much pressure, they're like, I don't want to do this anymore, but the dad's still pushing them. How do you suggest that maybe parents reframe that conversation to get the kid to see that, I don't want you to quit, I want you to play baseball, but I also don't. I also want to like push you to be excellent. What's that balance?

[A]

Yeah. So at 10 years old, I think an important conversation is at about 13. Oftentimes that's when kids get burnt out.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right. So if a kid's 10 years old, I think what's important is you need to start with a question with your son. It's what do you want? What do you want to make of this? Right. Are you enjoying playing the game? Because I think sometimes parents do recognize there's value in pushing them. And at some point, yeah, you do need to push them. Right. If he tells you, this is my goal, mom and dad, then obviously if there are times in which he doesn't want to go practice, it's an opportunity for you to say, well, if you, if you say you want this thing, we're going to have to make sure that we're spending time practicing and developing. If you don't want to do that, we can still go to these events and play. But then chances are you're not going to achieve the things that you ultimately want to, this is going to feel hard for you. That's not a bad thing. But again, you have to gauge it based on the kid. If the kid is discouraged, maybe because other players are better than he is, that's an opportunity to say, well, at the highest level, it's not going to be easy. So we need to push through that initial, you know, frustration and the hard times. But at the same time, if the kid isn't enjoying it anymore, it's too much pressure Then as a parent, you need to recognize that and maybe pull back a little bit and say, why are we doing this? At the end of the day, we're doing this because you enjoy it. So if you're not enjoying this now, we could still go to events, but maybe we'll choose to go to local events that are less pressure packed. And we don't need to go to the national events where, you know, all the attention is on you. Because at 10 years old you're not getting the scholarship yet, right? At 10 years old, we're not. This isn't the time to like be ranked nationally.

[B]

And also, is it safe to assume that at 10 years old baseball is not their main focus?

[A]

It shouldn't be. Right, right. It shouldn't be. It's, it's a piece to the puzzle. But you really need to define as a parent. And, and I did an episode with a good buddy of mine, Johan, where we recorded and we just aired it actually the event we put on in San Diego. But the goal, you know, and we talked about it, is what is the vision that you have? And oftentimes parents are like, well, I don't know what his vision is. And the kids even I don't know what my vision is. Right. Well, what we started with is this premise of understanding what's your biggest complaint, right? And everybody has a complaint, right? I have a complaint, right. If I'm not aware of it, there's a complaint that like fills my head most of the days. But underneath the complaint actually is a vision. Right? So let's just say, let's play this out. Let's say for a kid who's 10 years old, his biggest complaint is I'm not as good as everybody else. Right? Okay. So the vision is you want to be better than other players. Okay, that's good. But then underneath that it's what is the language that you're using around all this stuff? Right? Because as a kid, the language that he uses is, I stink, I'm not any good. Well, then naturally that's going to hurt your vision. It's not going to help your vision. So there's various things that a player can do to clean up a lot of this stuff so that when he is going to these events, he's putting himself in a position to actually go have success and not show up frustrated, feels like he's not any good. And so that's something that if anybody watching this today hasn't gone back and watched our event that we put on, it's the Parents playbook, Go watch that event, because I think that'd be beneficial.

[B]

That was a, that was a great event that you did with, with Johan. And what I loved about it too was the, the fact that you addressed the most successful baseball players that are playing at the highest level. The, the MLB players. A lot of them are still dealing with issues that came from their dads, and a lot of them. Let me rephrase that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You also said at that event too, that a lot of MLB players, even at the highest level, still deal with issues that may have stemmed from how their dad handled their sports career. And so, you know, for the parent that is listening to this, who wants to be that support for their child and not the wound, because you and Johan talked a lot about that wound is really from their dads. And those MLB players still carry it. And those MLB players utilize that wound to achieve great things in their career. But for the player, or excuse me, for the parent who wants to be the support and not the wound, what does that line actually mean in practice? What's the difference between the dad who wants to help and the dad who's, you know, costing you some something that they won't see for the next 10 to 20 years?

[A]

Yeah. So interesting distinction is we oftentimes talk about the dad. I will tell you, it's equally mom and dad. It's not necessarily only the dad. So I do want to kind of call that out. I certainly don't want to be somebody who says, dad, you're failing. It's more of an invitation into this idea of, you know, for a parent to reflect on it and say is what I'm doing is how I'm pushing my son causing damage down the road. And I think one of the things, and we talked about this at the event is in the best case scenario, right? And you talked about a big league player. In the best case scenario, your son maybe gets drafted really high, gets a, you know, a nice signing bonus and then down the road gets to the big leagues, oftentimes a parent says, I did my job. But if the result of that is now a 25 year old man in the big leagues still carrying with them some of this, some of these wounds, I think it's a matter of really recognizing the goal isn't necessarily how do I make my kid a big leaguer, it's how do I create a powerful human being that no matter what their life turns out to be, they are responsible men. They are guys who work really hard. There are guys that could communicate well because that is one of the pieces that I've seen when a, when a player at the highest level has some residual effect of, you know, this, this experience in travel ball. Oftentimes what that looks like is the player never feels like they're good enough. Right. And that comes a lot of times from the parent. Right? Not 100% of the time, but oftentimes that's what it looks like. And so the player may feel like, you know, he's never ever good enough. And that can be a damaging thing even at 25 years old, even a 30 years old, if they haven't truly seen the other side of that. And so these parents, when they push their kids, they, they love them. I've, I've seen it. Like the parents, they, they care for them, they love them. And I've seen fathers down the road really try to repair that relationship and oftentimes are met with kind of this like, enough. Right. And that's the damage that I'm talking about is a, is a player down the road who experiences all of this good stuff that happens, but still has an inability of communicating with their parents. That's. It comes from when the kid was 10, 11, 12 years old and the dad telling him he's never good enough or the dad telling him he doesn't work hard.

[B]

Do you think, do you. Does social media and the pressure that can come from these platforms where, you know, athletes today are getting constantly bombarded with, you missed, you know, you missed four shots in a basketball game. Like, you're, you're the worst that. And we've even heard horrible stories, not just you and me, but I mean, you just hear athletes talk about getting death threats because they had a bad performance during a game. If we were to, if we were to take that and put it into this situation specifically, do you find that social media impacts the pressure that these parents are putting on these kids? Because I, I find that what you and I talking, maybe some of these parents are subconsciously treating these kids to be so good at baseball, like it's their lottery ticket. I need you to be successful because I need to validate myself that I did a good job or hey, we want to change our financial fortunes with that. Do you have an opinion on the impact of social media with these.

[A]

Yeah, I think common sense would tell you there's a positive to social media, but there's also a really big negative. Um, and so where I think it can be a negative is when you're looking at the outside world and you're trying to convince everybody out there, right out there, meaning just literally anywhere, whether that's a scout, a coach, fans, whatever the perception is of you as a player. If you're reading into that and saying, I need the world to think that I'm good, that can be a dangerous thing. It's a positive when it's. You know, you could put a video together and you can showcase your kid's abilities. And that now gets received from a coach saying, oh, I need to look into that kid more. That's a positive. But you can see how that could be done very easily. Right. But you take that too far, and now all it becomes is I need everybody to think I'm good. And the minute I have a thousand people that think I'm good, but one person thinks I'm bad, or one person online, you know, is. Is bad mouthing my son on his video, and they're commenting about it like, we need to get into a world in which we're, like, ignoring that stuff. And so you talked about some of the death threats. I have conversations with clients all the time. Like, look, you're gonna get comments. That happens. And the. The example I always use is, like, it's road rage. Right. Imagine if you're driving in your car and someone next to you don't know who that person is, and they're yelling at you in your car. That's the same thing as about some. You know, with some of these comments. And so you just need to be aware of it. Right. Like, we're not trying to convince the driver to your. Right. That you're a good driver. Who cares what they think? Doesn't matter.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This is the same exact thing. Right. It's no different. So.

[B]

Yeah, and. And I think that's one thing I wanted to reference to just. Just in that for. For those of you who haven't watched yet, you know, Matt, we did a Q and A about yelling from the stands at the coaches. And, you know, everything's getting recorded. Now these days, when you're out in public, where they're in at sports events, it's just everything's getting recorded. And one of the things that I think is interesting, too, is the way that you were addressing that specific issue with parents thinking that they're better than the coaches when it comes to their kids playing, batting ninth right at the bottom of the order, and the dad's making a scene to get that. I find it really interesting that even with all this pressure for a kid to do really, really well and with social media, too, It's a great perspective that you put in there. It's like, you know, at the end of the day, the kid still needs to enjoy the game, and the kid's a kid, and we just need to all remember that.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, with. With the parents yelling from the stands. Something that we oftentimes talk about on here is, you know, whether it's college coach, a kid who's getting scouted for the draft, there's a reason why these scouts really want to get to know the families. Right. What they're trying to figure out is who is this player and is he going to reflect positively on our organization, whether that's college or pro ball, or negatively. Oftentimes the parent is the perfect view into how that kid is going to handle things down the road. So when you're a parent and you're at, you know, at a game and you're in the stands and you're yelling at everybody, it's not that your son is going to be the exact same, but if you really want to get a view into this player's upbringing, that tells you pretty clearly, is this kid mentally prepared or is he going to be a hothead? Has he dealt with failure? How is he going to deal with that failure? All these things they want to know about, and it all goes into their reports. Yeah.

[B]

And speaking of family, one of the questions I wanted to ask you was you talk about scouts at the college level and at the pro level evaluating the family just as much, if not more than the actual player. So what does that mean in practice? What are coaches and scouts actually watching for in the stands, in the parking lot, in the way that a parent talks about their own son.

[A]

So for the draft, when scouts are, you know, analyzing, is this a player that we want to invest in? Right. There's a reason why they have what's called in home visits that could look like a zoom with the family, that could also look like a meeting in their house. Oftentimes when they're asking the family questions, it. It revolves around this. This really idea and belief of who is this person at. At their core. Right. If mom and dad are short with each other in the meeting. Right. It speaks volume like, oh, the. The. The dad doesn't ever let the kid talk. Oh, maybe he's somebody down the road that's going to have an issue with our coaching staff.

[B]

Wouldn't be a problem.

[A]

That's right. If on the flip side of that, we ask the kid a question and then mom and dad let the kid answer. And the kid is very respectful of his parents. That also speaks volumes, right? I have a kid right now in the draft and everybody literally acknowledges every single time this is a phenomenal kid who comes from a phenomenal family. Like, he's in a really good spot with us physically. But one of the most attractive things is that he's such a good guy that it makes us, like, fall in love with this idea of, like, if you couple this guy's mindset and his upbringing with how good he is on the baseball field, it's even more attractive. And so years ago, we had a kid who was a first round pick. And one of the, one of the first things everybody said is, and I, this is going to sound crazy, but it's true. Every single team was like, if this kid isn't as good of a kid as he is, he's not going to be a first rounder. He ended up being a first rounder. And everybody talks about like, he, he kind of put himself in that position and the family was highly involved in that because they raised him right. And so that's one of those things that, you know, I'm not asking anybody to be anything other than they are, but at the same time, be mindful. If you think that you're going to a game and you're going to yell at your son or you're going to yell at the coaching staff and there's no negative repercussions, I would just caution you to be mindful of, like, no, that stuff does matter. Why else would they want to get to know you? Right? It's not just, oh, we were interested in knowing who mom and dad is, like, casually. No, it's like they actually want to know. How do you analyze information? How do you process it? How supportive of an environment is this? If it's not supportive, then naturally, you know there's going to be some negative repercussions for that player down the road.

[B]

The draft is coming up right around the All Star break, if not during, during the All Star break. So if just to give a little context to a lot of our viewers, because I, I know we provide a lot of guidance and expertise and, and value, hopefully for you guys when it comes to, you know, the raising kids and making sure that you're stewarding your kids properly and also just being a good support system for them. But we also have a lot of baseball fans and you as an agent who have been doing this for over 25 plus years. The draft is always a big aspect of the Scouting and the agents part of getting their clients into the big leagues. So it's coming during the All Star break. We're now sitting here in May. What is, if you can, what is the process like leading up to the draft from maybe three months out or six months out? Like, what are you and the scouts talking about when it comes to the families and when it comes to really diving into the mental aspect for, you know, for these guys that are getting ready to get drafted?

[A]

Yeah. So I tell families all the time the process, even in the best case, is stressful right now. Why is it stressful? Is it because you want information? You don't have it? Partly. But it's also because you're watching your son who is close to fulfilling his dream, and you as a parent, you want to do whatever you can to make sure that this experience is comfortable. The giraffe, the way that it functions naturally is not a comfortable experience. And so when families go through this and they experience stress, that's normal. Right? And I tell families this all the time. It's like, even in the best case, this is going to be a stressful thing. Even if I were to tell you, you know, we don't have hindsight, but if we had hindsight and you're going to be the fifth overall pick in the draft, it's still going to be a stressful experience no matter what. Right. I've had plenty of first round picks. Even in those scenarios, it's not like the guy who doesn't get drafted is stressed, but the one who goes number one overall is not stressed. Everybody's stressed, and it's for those reasons. But that experience, it's interesting because part of what the process calls for is, is these scouts have to go scout the player and naturally they're not going to tell you what they're doing in advance because they don't know what they're doing in advance. They're watching the player play. To really figure out come draft day, we need to have all of the information so that when picks start coming, we know which players we want to pivot to. And talk about the only team that ever really knows in advance of the draft what they're doing is the team that's picking one overall. That's it. One team with one pick. Everything else, it starts as the draft goes.

[B]

Oh, so the board kind of gets set after that first pick.

[A]

Absolutely. And I'll give you a story. So several years ago, we had a kid based in Nashville who is committed to a really good SEC program and Prior to the draft, we know we had picked a number, and there was one particular team that was basically figuring their draft out and said, look for us, we can give you this number, but it's going to be at this pick, right? And it was pretty clear. And this was 10 years ago, so it's changed a little bit, but it was very clear if we get our number, it's going to be with this one particular team, right? This. This club picked for that year, right? They had this whole plan it was going to work out, or so they thought the player that they thought they would go with at pick four, right, was still available, but they had no idea that the player that they ended up taking, they thought was going to go one. One, he didn't go on one, and then he didn't go two, and then he didn't go three. So he fell to them at four. And where they thought they were going to save some money with that first pick, now that this other guy's available, they end up overspending on that guy, which then affected every single pick after. So they thought they were going to save money, use some of that money to then go give it to us and some of these other players. Now that turns into totally different ballgame. Now we're overpaying this kid. So every pick thereafter, now they're saving money, so now they don't have the money to spend on some of these other kids. And so very naturally, you have to pivot.

[B]

And.

[A]

And so my job as an advisor is help these families understand, even in the best case, it's still a flip of a coin. So many things have to go right for this all to work out. And so I just want to make sure that we are prepared for anything. And so part of that is really managing the expectation of the family so that they're not blindsided by, oh, we thought this was going to happen. Right. So I will literally tell players, even in the best case, I know you think this is how it's going to go. We need to be prepared for if this doesn't happen quite the way that you want.

[B]

Yeah, that's. It was really insightful for me at least, just because being a fan, because you. You don't realize how intricate the draft process we see, like the. The glitz and glamour of, like, the NFL draft, or you see the NBA draft where everybody's kind of, you know, working. They've worked so hard their entire life just to have that one moment on stage. But what people don't know is that process, it's it's actually once that first pick gets made, the board changes, the board gets set, or things get moved around. Still, before we wrap up this episode, I did want to ask you one question as an agent. What percentage of your conversations with scouts, with teams are involved in the makeup of the kid and the family? Because I think a lot of parents out there, they want their kids to get drafted and we've talked about this. Or they have a son right now who's in high school and they're ready to go to the pros or they're ready to go to a big SEC school. What percentage of your conversations are really involved around the family dynamic, the mental makeup when you're talking to the teams in Major League Baseball or even, you know, even the big SEC schools like the Georgias and the Auburns.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, makeup. So let's first talk, I guess let's define what makeup is, right? There's two forms of makeup. There's on the field makeup, which is, do you play the game the right way? Do you run hard? You know, are you a hard worker on the field? Right. Do you do all of those things well? And then there's off the field makeup. And off the field makeup is, what kind of person is he? Is he a good student? Um, does he get in trouble with the law? Right. Has he ever done drugs? Does he drink? All these various things. And so they want to know as much information as possible. Again, because if they're going to invest money into this particular player and assume it's a lot of money, they want to know that, like, this return is going to be good for them. Right? They want to know that you're going to represent their brand really, really well. And that's the same in college or, or pro ball. And so naturally, the only way to do that is to get to know the family as much as possible. The area scout, kind of like the first line of defense, they're the one that's tasked with gathering all this information. They have the time, they're more centrally located. You. They see you more. But when you talk about an organization really investing a lot of money, that's going to come from the scouting director, the general manager, in some instances, the national cross checker, the west coast crosschecker for he's on the west coast or the, you know, the, the Midwest crosschecker, if he's in the Midwest. But you're. It's never enough to where it's like, oh, one scout sauce, one scout likes us. They're going to give us all of this money because it's one scout like, that very rarely happens because naturally you have an organization who, you know, it's a big corporation, right? Like, these guys have these people in these roles for a reason. And so it's not enough to say, oh, he played well in this one game. It's like, you've got to check so many different boxes for so long again. And that's why oftentimes families feel overwhelmed and, you know, is this good, is this bad? We don't really know. And so the role of an advisor, through that and everybody listening, you know, if you have an advisor, you want to make sure that they're providing you with the information that ultimately is going to allow you guys to make the best decision. If it's a high school kid, should we sign? Should we not sign? What are the pros of signing? What are the cons of signing? And I think sometimes, and I tell my families this, if you have a high school kid go through the draft process, looking at college, even if it's a backup plan, you want to make sure that you line it up to where that actually provides you with a really, really good kind of like, fail safe option. If the draft doesn't work out for the families who don't do that, who basically buy into the hype of like, no, we're going to get drafted, everything's going to work out perfect. All you're doing is you're putting yourself in a really bad spot. The draft is going to be crazy. And if you don't do all of that work behind the scenes well and you don't manage that expectation well, then you can watch your son really get his hopes up. And then when the draft goes, oh, this other player gone, you know, went, he, he got signed, I haven't got signed yet. You know, let's just say for this particular family, they wanted a million dollars. Pretty quickly you're in the 15th round and you're like, you know what? I know I said I wanted a million. I'll take 500 grand, I'll take 300 grand, I'll take 100 grand.

[B]

Like, it start compromising.

[A]

Yeah, they just start like saying, whatever, I'll just take whatever. And so that's never an enjoyable experience. I feel like the, the, the outcome of that is frustration and disappointment. And it's sad because even if the kid signs a pro contract and he gets a number that he didn't want, he's disappointed where instead if you were to approach the draft and say, look if the draft goes well, great. But I know that if I'm committed to Arkansas, lsu, Georgia, you know, Texas, any one of these schools, Texas A and M or wherever, Long Beach State, Fullerton, it doesn't matter. Knowing that if I end up on campus like this is a really good outcome and if I don't, it's because an organization just gave me life changing money to let me fulfill my dream. Yeah. So.

[B]

All right, well, we're at the end of the episode. This was great. Before we go, if parents out there who are listening to this gave you a lot of, there's a lot of information. We do encourage you to go back and rewatch this as much as possible just so you can make sure you're taking notes and you're thinking about all the things as you're prepping your kid for the upcoming season in the summer or, you know, whatever stage of life that they're in with their baseball career, what's a piece of advice, one takeaway that they could implement with what they're doing right now?

[A]

I think awareness.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right. As a parent, you want to be aware of, you know, where's your son at mentally? Right. That needs to be a really central piece to this because even though if everything goes well and he achieves his dream, that's just the start of things. Right. That's not the end. Right. Going into pro ball now, it's going to get real. And so if you're not aware of your, your son's mental capacity, if, if you ignore the fact that he, you know, maybe he wasn't ready for pro ball, but you just didn't even consider that, well, then he's not being set up for success. So I think having an awareness around where your son's at mentally is one of the, the best things that you can do. And oftentimes that starts with just having conversations with him, asking him what he wants. Right. Asking him how he's doing. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

What a, what a great answer. And I hope all of you guys found this valuable and found this just really thought provoking. I think so. Yeah. I love doing these with you, man. Thank you for having me on.

[A]

I love it. Yeah. So if everybody liked the podcast, obviously share, like, subscribe and as always, just continue to send us your questions. That's what we're doing.

[B]

We're here for it. Yeah.

[A]

So thank you.

[B]

We'll see you guys later.

[A]

Sam,