East Coast Pro Showcase coming to Hoover Met

About 150 of the top high school baseball players in the eastern United States are coming to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium on Aug. 1-4, for the East Coast Pro Showcase.

Nearly 500 Major League Baseball scouts will be in Hoover for the event to evaluate the hottest prospects on the eastern seaboard as they practice together and compete in games, said John Castleberry, a scout for the San Francisco Giants who is heavily involved with East Coast Pro.

“For four days, Aug. 1-4, this will be the mecca of amateur baseball,” Castleberry said.

This event has a strong reputation in Major League Baseball, he said. “You’re not going to see players like this in one venue site anywhere in the country.”

More than 90 percent of the players end up signing contracts to play professional baseball, Castleberry said. Sixteen of the players in the 2017 Major League Baseball All-Star game attended the East Coast Pro Showcase when they were younger, he said.

This is the East Coast Pro Showcase’s 23rd year. It started in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and since has been held in several locations, including Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees’ spring training facility in Tampa, for the last three years.

The East Coast Pro organization has signed a three-year contract with Hoover, with an option to stay two more years.

Players, selected by scouts, will be divided into six teams based on where they live: Southeast, Georgia and north Florida, south Florida and Puerto Rico, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley. Each day there are three games, some with seven innings and some with nine.

Major League baseball clubs sponsoring the teams this year are the Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers, Florida Marlins, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals.

In addition to being evaluated, the players — and their parents — will get to attend seminars to inform them about the Major League draft process and what life is like with a professional baseball organization.

The showcase for the most part will not be open to the public, but the public will be allowed to attend the three games scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Admission for the day is $10.

For more information, go to eastcoastpro.org.

This post was updated at 12:56 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 3, to indicate that the East Coast Pro Showcase will be open to the public on Saturday, Aug. 4, with a $10 admission charge.