Reply to "2019 (Soph) on JV.....will it hurt recruiting chances?"

cabbagedad posted:

ironhorse posted:

cabbagedad posted:

ironhorse posted:

My mantra has always been "if we can't get you 4 ABs or meaningful innings on the mound you'll be playing JV." Now as the season nears an end that becomes more flexible, because they've likely had a lot of ABs or innings on subvarsity, so the development piece isn't as big since they nearly have a whole JV season under their belts.

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Ironhorse, can you expand on the "4ABs"?  Are you talking per game?  If so, how do you do that and keep a suitable bench with role players to pinch hit, run, bullpen catch, etc?

Yes, per game. Meaning if they're not starting they stay down.  Often we have seniors, that in Texas at least have to be on varsity, that fill those roles. There are always a tweener kid or 2 that we move up and down almost every game depending on needs that night. If we think he will pitch for us that night he'll be with us, if not he'll play OF on JV and get ABs, or something like that. I could justify it if I KNEW we were going to need a bat of the bench and the JV was definitely going to hit. I just hate to have him there and not get him in when he could have played if he was down.

Doesn't always work perfectly, but it's the overall philosophy we use.

 

Thanks.  Sounds ideal.  

We have the same senior rule but, typically, around here, if a senior sees he will still be relegated to a bit role for his last year and still expected to put in the full time commitment, he will most often quit and go enjoy doing something else.  So, we are dealing with underclassmen fighting to earn their way up the pecking order filling those roles and, certainly, one of the negatives is lack of game reps.  Of course there are many positives but it is always a tough situation for some.  The V team needs competent and important role players.  Role players need reps.

Sorry, back to the OP's topic...

This year we only have 3 Seniors, so the struggle is traveling with a very small Varsity (right now looking at 16 kids) and not many guys for role players or having some younger guys up with us "in case" but not getting reps. I got to figure it out by Friday. Real games start next week.