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Flash - awesome to hear. There's nothing better than reading or hearing about a kid's continued development. And yes, baseball development is about building blocks and its good to remember that development is never a linear line. There's guaranteed to be peaks and valleys along the way and keeping perspective of where the journey started is a key to getting through those valleys.
Jon - regarding HS ball. It's 100% true that it's dying off and being minimalized, but a lot of those coaches still have strong connections and can make or break a kid with a recommendation if that coach has the right connections. The funny thing is that fact plays a role in both kids not completely abandoning it while also pushing them to focus more and more on summer ball. I'd say the politics of HS baseball (which that falls under) would be right up there with the lack of detail and attention that summer baseball and offseason training bring that HS cosches can't compete with as the primary reasons kids just aren't as interested in HS ball anymore. The politics have always been there, but HS coaches had a monopoly on opportunity that they don't necessarily have anymore.
To give an example, Marc Wiese is a legendary baseball coach in this area and he has connections all across the country. He's placed kids at probably every Pac12 school and is a USA baseball coordinator. Kids line up to play for him, parents move their kids to play for him, and his kids play summer ball for 1 of 2 programs he has his hands in.
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