Hoover Met Complex Selected to Host East Coast Pro Showcase

 Dec. 14, 2017

Hoover Met Complex Selected to Host East Coast Pro Showcase

 

 
HOOVER, Ala. — The East Coast Pro Showcase signed a three-year contract with Hoover, Ala., to move the event to the Hoover Metropolitan Complex beginning Aug. 1-4, 2018.

The East Coast Pro showcase will bring about 150 top high school baseball players in the eastern United States where 500 Major League Baseball scouts will evaluate the players as they practice and compete in games. The East Coast Pro organization has an option to keep the event in the city two additional years.

“East Coast Pro is excited to bring our world class event to the Hoover Met Stadium and Hoover. The decision to move our event to Hoover was a no-brainer after we saw the major league style facility,” said John Castleberry, a scout for the San Francisco Giants and an East Coast Cross Checker, speaking at a press conference at the facility. “We are looking forward to having the top players from the eastern seaboard come to be evaluated and enjoy the Souther hospitality of Hoover this summer. For four days this will be the Mecca of amateur baseball. The event has a strong reputation in Major League Baseball. You’re not going to see players like this in one venue site anywhere in the country.”

Castleberry said more than 90 percent of the players who participate in the event end up signing contracts to play professional baseball.

 East Coast Pro has organized this event for 23 years in cities such as Chapel Hill, N.C.; Lakeland, Fla.; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Tampa, Fla. The organization normally uses professional baseball stadiums, but Castleberry said when he learned the City of Hoover was expanding the complex to include five additional NCAA-size baseball fields and then visited the complex during the 2018 SEC Baseball Tournament, he believed the Met was the perfect facility for the East Coast Showcase.
Monty Jones, general manager for the Hoover Met Complex said construction one one of the new fields will be complete before the 2018 SEC Baseball Tournament this spring, and the four additional fields will be completed after the first Showcase. “We are very excited for them to choose us for their location. This was one of the first big events the city targeted,” Jones said.

During the four days of the East Coast Showcase players and their families will have an opportunity to attend seminars about the Major League draft process, and while games are usually not open to the public, but organizers say they are considering the possibility of making a game open to the public.

MLB club sponsors next year include the Florida Marlins, Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers, Boston Red Sox, Kansas City Royals and the Toronto Blue Jays. Players will be selected by scouts and divided into six teams.

 “This is truly a great opportunity for both the players and the representatives of all 30 Major League Baseball teams to enjoy an event that brings together the most talented players east of the Mississippi River,” said Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato.
 For more information, visit www.eastcoastpro.org or www.hoovermetcomplex.com.