Taking Your Facility Work Into the Game — Why In-Game Performance Is What College Coaches Recruit | EMD Shorts
by Keith Glasser on Sep 15, 2026
Private coaching, facility work, and off field development have never been more accessible or more popular in youth and high school baseball — and the results show up in the numbers. Velocity is up. Exit velocity is up. Metrics across the board are trending in the right direction for more players than ever before. But there is a gap that separates the players who get recruited from the ones who do not — and it has nothing to do with their facility numbers. It is whether or not all of that work actually shows up in games. In this episode of Dugout Dish, Andy and Keith tackle one of the most important transitions in the entire recruiting and development process — making the jump from performing in a facility to performing when the game is on the line.
What we cover:
- Why private coaching and facility work are valuable investments in a player's development — and why they are only half of the equation when it comes to getting recruited
- How coaches evaluate the gap between a player's facility metrics and their actual in game performance — and what that gap tells them about a recruit's readiness for the college level
- Why velocity and spin rate in a bullpen session and exit velocity in a cage mean very little to a recruiting staff if those numbers do not translate to getting hitters out and making quality swing decisions in live game situations
- What college coaches are actually watching for when they evaluate a player at a showcase or game — and why the ability to compete and play the game still matters more than any metric on a radar gun or launch monitor
- How pitchers can make the transition from throwing well in practice to executing in games — what that jump looks like mechanically, mentally, and competitively
- How hitters can make the transition from impressive cage work to quality at bats and smart swing decisions in live game environments
- Why the ability to actually play the game — to compete, adjust, and execute under pressure — remains the single most important quality college coaches recruit regardless of what the numbers say
- What bridging the gap between facility performance and game performance looks like in practice and how players can start making that transition right now
- Why making this jump is the next evolution in your recruiting process and what it signals to college coaches about your readiness to compete at the next level
Whether your son has great facility numbers and has not yet figured out how to make them translate — or is just beginning to understand what college coaches actually evaluate — this episode gives you the complete picture of what it takes to get recruited in today's game.
New episodes of Dugout Dish drop every week. Subscribe so you never miss recruiting and development intel that could change your player's future.
📞 Book a FREE 30-minute call with EMD Baseball: emdbaseball.com
