@PABaseball posted:I think it's harder for a hitter to adjust to college ball than it is for pitchers, especially when you're coming off the bench cold having probably never sat the bench in their life.
I’m not sure if that’s true when it comes to D3. It could be, but it seems to me that there are a ton of D3 hitters who can put the bat on the ball, and they just were not athletic enough to get consideration for D1 or D2.
adding to that, most D3 hitters these days faced D1 commits in travel ball, and face D1& JUCO Pitchers in summer ball. It’s pretty difficult to get a D3 fastball by them, especially for a freshman hurler who might leave it over the plate too much.
There is definitely an adjustment in D3 for the Hitters in terms of the filth and movement of D3 pitching, but I think it’s a tougher adjustment overall for pitchers.
To your second point that’s probably the biggest problem for high school athletes coming into college in general, not nearly enough of them are being challenged enough as youths and aren’t facing adversity on the baseball field nearly enough. That is a huge macro issue involving parenting and the travel ball industry. Talented players should play up as much as possible, get used to failing, and have times when they struggle when they still have the comfort of living at home with mom and dad.