I can say from my daughters experience last year in the QDS, she would not do it again. The KSU pitching portion before the showcase was far better for her then pitching in the cages. It depends on the umps you get, my DD got to face 5 hitters pitching in the cage and got 1 at bat. The umps did not stick to to format that they were suppost to and my DD probably threw 20-25 pitches to 1 or 2 of the hitters. Not trying to brag, but the hitters could not hit her and the umps kinda felt bad for them, so they kept making her pitch to the same hitters over and over, it wasn't fair to anybody. Then I hear that other cage games, kids got 4 or 5 at bats, and pitchers got to pitch to a full lineup at least 2 times.
In the games, the pitchers got to start with a one ball one strike count, this was a huge advantage to the pitcher. While my DD did have a good time, and met a lot of new people, for the money, it was not worth it.
With everything she had to go through to get selected to participate in this showcase, I would have thought the talent level would have been over the top. While the talent level was good, it was not even close to the level of talent we played this past summer with her travel schedule. Now I am sure a lot of people have different opinions of how it went for them, this was our experience at the 2010 Queen of Diamonds Showcase North last year.
If you are a pitcher, do not miss the opportunity to do the Kent Pitching Showcase before the tournament. Good luck to all at the QDS and I am sure many people had a better experience then we had, while my DD did enjoy it, it was not worth the money we spent.....again this is all based on our experience. Good Luck to All.