2016 High School Fall Ball

JCG posted:

Because, why not?  Fall ball is pretty relaxed at our school -- no score is kept, everybody plays in every game, only 1 game and 2 on-field practices per week  -- but still very important, since it's when kids start earning their spots on the Spring team….

That goes to show just how different every program is. We’re pretty laid back too, but then again the program is pretty laid back all year long and pretty much reflects the HC. Since our 1^st fall ball game won’t be until Thursday I really can’t say if everyone will play every game, but I do know I’m not only expected to be there keeping score, I’ve also been asked to produce the same stats for the fall I produce for the spring and summer, concentrating on pitchers and pitch counts.

With pitch counts coming in the spring, our HC is determined to come up with some kind of strategy to take that into account, and we’ll use the 17 fall games to try to get used to it. The pitching horse last season was drafted 9^th so there’s a heck of a big hole to fill on top of having to deal with the pitch counts.

Another difference between our program and yours is that the process of earning spots on the roster started with the 1^st summer game, not with fall ball. But in the end it really makes no difference. Every school manages to put a team on the field in the spring.

To be clear a book is kept.  But the lineups are nutty, with basically two squads rotating, and then this guy or that guy plugged in for any number of reasons.  I keep score in the spring but politely declined to do it in the fall.  Too crazy to do in Gamechanger.

We don't have fall ball here in Washington state. I wonder why though. The turf field is empty everyday; batting cage and bullpen eerily quiet; weather is cooler but still dry; coaches are idling too. Some kids are playing football, golf, tennis, even water polo. But I believe if coach call for fall ball, many of the kids will give up their secondary sports and play baseball!

JCG posted:

To be clear a book is kept.  But the lineups are nutty, with basically two squads rotating, and then this guy or that guy plugged in for any number of reasons.  I keep score in the spring but politely declined to do it in the fall.  Too crazy to do in Gamechanger.

When you said “no score is kept”, I took it literally since I’ve seen some programs not keep a book of any kind. I usually don’t keep fielding stats except for the spring, but the pitching and hitting stats are pretty simple to do in my program no matter how crazy they get with the changes. This summer and fall the HC wants to see how much PT the fielders are getting in the different positions. I told him that as long as he gives me any changes I can do it, and for the summer at least he made sure I got them. I don’t know what will happen in the fall games but I suspect it’ll be crazy.

I’m trying to get to the point where the players “check in” with me the same way they do in basketball. That makes it a lot easier, but even then there’s a lot of confusion about when they should be hitting. I just gird my loins and grit my teeth, then do the best I can and not worry about it.

Bogeyorpar,

Are you saying no HS’s in Wa play fall ball or that your HS doesn’t?

We have fall ball in Washington, but not for each individual hs. There is the Mariners scout team, nw elite, and Rijo which play local jcs every weekend. Then baseball nw plays in a couple fall tourneys like the fall classic and wwba world championship.

My 8th grade son is playing up on a High School JV Fall Ball team this year.  Should be fun and a good experience for him.   He won't turn 14 until February, so he is experiencing playing with older kids, which is great.  So far the transition to BBCOR for him has been no problem.  

My son's school program blew up over the summer, coaching staff was dismissed, a large number of players transferred out.  It's a long story, but my son had seen the writing on the wall and left the team before things went off the rails.

So now the program is without a coach, and has few players returning.  A former coach who has moved on to an AD position at a private school has volunteered to run teams this fall so the kids will have some place to play.

A couple of my son's friends who remained with the program had asked him to come back and play for his senior season.  So, he's back out there again.

I'm not sure if it's because he's a senior now, but he has really taken on the role of team leader.  It's an interesting change to see him out there lighting a fire under butts and setting an example of how the younger players should be carrying themselves.

One of his friends reported that he held a fifteen minute players only meeting after the coach had finished his comments after their first practice.  The subject matter... Somebody had left an empty water bottle in the outfield. 

I don't want to know what is going to happen if somebody doesn't hustle out a ground ball.

3&2  I could have swore you are an Il. guy/family. What Il. jr. high doesn't have a fall competive team playing IESA  but a local H.S. that playing IHSA ? I'm just barely south of 80. I know not all jr. highs have a team  with football the way it is in the state would find it interesting which H.S. are playing baseball in the fall.

proudhesmine posted:

3&2  I could have swore you are an Il. guy/family. What Il. jr. high doesn't have a fall competive team playing IESA  but a local H.S. that playing IHSA ? I'm just barely south of 80. I know not all jr. highs have a team  with football the way it is in the state would find it interesting which H.S. are playing baseball in the fall.

We're in Wisconsin, but play a lot in Illinois.  My son is playing on a JV team this Fall in a Fall Ball league that isn't affiliated with a particular school or group of schools.  

Sorry My confusion. My foot in mouth. question does WI jr. high play school ball in the fall like Il.? I don't know of any jr. high between my house and the state line up by you that plays in spring. not sure why. Back in my day some jr. highs had football team. That was played in the fall. maybe theres alot of carry over with H.S. teams and JR. possibly a $ to seperate seasons Who Knows. Good luck with fall season.

I wish.   In our part of Wisconsin at least there aren't Junior Highs, there are "Middle Schools" (Grades 6 through 8) and they don't have athletic programs that compete against other schools (in terms of the public schools).   The Parochial/Catholic middle schools do have competitive sports programs but not Baseball.

You are pretty much left on your own for Baseball.  Similar as anywhere else, the Travel Programs here range from very expensive to extremely expensive (obscenely expensive?) depending on where you go, with a few affordable options to choose from.  I think paying $2500 plus travel expenses for a kid to play Baseball is ridiculous and I've successfully navigated avoiding that.

Anyways, don't want to get too off topic.  I'm a big believer in Fall Ball Baseball, especially in this area of the country where April games are very iffy and the season doesn't really start until May.  The opportunity to "play up" in Fall Ball is great for our kid.   I don't think he's the #1 8th Grade prospect in Wisconsin or anything like that, but he's been able to hold his own competing with kids older than him in the past and he likes the challenge.

My son doesn't pitch (or play Catcher) but he has learned to play the other 7 positions.  For him as a hitter he is better off facing JV pitching than typical 14U pitching which can really vary at least in Fall.   He'll also get a chance to play a lot of Outfield this Fall.   In 3 Tournaments in August with a pickup team he only played 1 inning in the OF (as the other 2B got hurt), and he played almost every inning of every game at 2B.  As it is, 2B happens to be his favorite position but he knows it'd be better to step into his 1st spring of High School ball as a Freshman in 2018 as a versatile player.

Its middle school here too.Might be showing my age with the other name.

So far so good.   Had our first Double-Header in the Junior Varsity league today.   Both my son and the other 8th grade kid who is playing up had no problem handling the competition.   They were challenged but showed that they belong.  The pitching in general is way better than what we would be seeing in the 14U league, which is exactly what I wanted for these 8th graders.  Pitchers consistently throwing mid to high 70's with good secondary pitches.   In the 14U league you'll see one kid throwing 70 and the next throwing 55!

My kid played LF, CF, 2B & SS today.... very good experience so far

Due to the weather this month, my son has thrown a grand total of 3 bullpens - and hasn't faced a live batter in a year.

Last night in the team's first fall game he picked up a 2 inning save.  Seven pitches (all 4 seamers) to get 3 weak right side grounders in the 6th.  In the 7th, the coach allowed him to add in off speed, and he struck out the side on 11 pitches.

Because my son was out of the program last year, most of the parents of kids moving up from JV have no idea who he is.  It was funny to sit in the stands and listen to their comments on how hard he was throwing (no folks he's not in the 90's), where he came from (no he didn't just transfer in), and the best of all - no he's not one of the assistant coaches. 

We don't have HS fall ball in Colorado, either. However, HS softball is a fall-only sport. 

None in Ohio either, at least not associated to the HS. In ohio most play with their summer team or another team in the Fall. We do have several very good Fall leagues though. 

No fall ball in Cali.  I'm going to start strength and conditioning next month.  

roothog66 posted:

We don't have HS fall ball in Colorado, either. However, HS softball is a fall-only sport. 

Softball is spring sport here, but when I drove past HS softball field yesterday, I saw the softball team on the field practicing! Maybe because there's no football for girls?

 There's a lot of kids around here that play Football, but still, my son & I do Batting Practice 4-5 times a week at one of the local High Schools, and since July I've never seen anyone else at the Batting Cages.   Not only that but the cage is always exactly the way I left it the last time.   Have to be really self-motivated around here!

hsbaseball101 posted:

No fall ball in Cali.  I'm going to start strength and conditioning next month.  

I don’t know where you’re at in California, but for the last 20 or so years here in the SJS most HS’s play fall ball combined with strength and conditioning, then when fall balls over its strength and conditioning. We have 20 fall ball games scheduled and most other programs either have a school team or are associated with a non-school program.

We are in NorCal as well.  Similar "club" program to what Stats describes, though we have half as many games.

First one was yesterday and it really could not have gone any better. Played defending champs of a nearby league. They graduated a lot of players last year just as we did. I believe they also have more kids playing football. At least I hope so for their sake, as they did not look sharp.  We played 9 innings and used 4 pitchers who allowed no hits, no walks, only one baserunner on an error.  Our hitters mashed. 8 guys that I can think of got hits. One sophomore who didn't get much PT last year hit a couple doubles off the wall.   My kid played well.

Don't know why but even a HS fall ball game seems like more fun that summer ball.  Next couple of weeks should be a better indicator of what this team will look like next year.

Another good Sunday Double-Header for the Junior Varsity team I'm coaching.  We were short a player and a Varsity player filled in for us.   It is really something how much stronger a kid who is on the other side of puberty is than the Sophs/Freshman & 8th Graders who make up our team.   This kid is a Junior this year.  Just a whole 'nother animal!

Stats, you have a PM about another subject.

I’m a firm believer that everyone should do their jobs and let everyone else do theirs, but I had to throw my 2 cents in after Saturday’s 2^nd game of 2, albeit not a harsh 2 cents. For whatever reason, our HC allowed the kid who started the game to throw the whole thing, 131 pitches. Yes, that’s 131 pitches in a fall ball game that means absolutely nothing.

The reason I didn’t get much more vociferous is that I know come the spring it will never happen again without some kind of penalty. It appears with the new rule Ca will allow 120 pitches max.

Since I’m relatively new to the program I’m not gonna make a lot accusations about whose fault it was or guess as to what happened, but I sure have a sneaky suspicion a lot of it has to do with the guy who’s the pitching coach. When I see 11 walks, 3 hit batters, and 10 wild pitches in 13 innings, I have to look at the guy calling the signals and working with the pitchers.

hsbaseball101 posted:

No fall ball in Cali.  I'm going to start strength and conditioning next month.  

My sons high school is only doing 2 on 1 sessions with the coach for now, no Fall baseball.  This is a 6A school north of Atlanta.  Baseball tryouts aren't until mid January.

We have baseball 4 days a week and 1 day of study hall.  We focus on Defense 2 days a week and hitting 2 days a week with games on Saturdays starting the 1st weekend of October.  We also have weight room work out 3 days a week.

Rain has kept everything shut down here for the past 2 weeks or so.

Son finally got back on the mound last night.  He was scheduled to pitch 2 innings against a good opponent.

Gave up a weak infield hit on his first pitch.  First pitch of the second batter the catcher called a pitch out, which would have gotten the runner except the catcher air mailed the throw - which allowed the runner to advance to 3rd.  Struck out the next 3 to strand the runner there.

Next inning got a lazy fly and 2 more strike outs.

So far - 4 innings 1 hit no walks and 8 strikeouts.

After the game one of the opposing coaches asked if my son would come out and pitch for his travel team this weekend in a WWBA qualifier.  It's looking like he will take him up on the offer.

A year ago I thought he was done with baseball, and now he's back on the travel circuit. My poor wallet.

We got rained out on Sunday, and our practice got rained out yesterday, so my son just hit on a Tee in our basement.   This has been a good experience.  He's really learning how to play Outfield this Fall (mostly CF & LF) as well as playing a lot of 2B.  For him as an 8th Grader seeing that he can easily hang with kids that are Freshman, Sophomores and Juniors has been a nice confidence booster but also seems to have increased his work ethic outside of games & team practices.  He knows he has work to do.

Rob T posted:

Rain has kept everything shut down here for the past 2 weeks or so.

Son finally got back on the mound last night.  He was scheduled to pitch 2 innings against a good opponent.

Gave up a weak infield hit on his first pitch.  First pitch of the second batter the catcher called a pitch out, which would have gotten the runner except the catcher air mailed the throw - which allowed the runner to advance to 3rd.  Struck out the next 3 to strand the runner there.

Next inning got a lazy fly and 2 more strike outs.

So far - 4 innings 1 hit no walks and 8 strikeouts.

After the game one of the opposing coaches asked if my son would come out and pitch for his travel team this weekend in a WWBA qualifier.  It's looking like he will take him up on the offer.

A year ago I thought he was done with baseball, and now he's back on the travel circuit. My poor wallet.

At least it's sorta local

My kid put on quite a defensive display this past Sunday.   He got to fill in at Shortstop due to injuries to teammates and made a couple of highlight reel plays, including a bare handed grab on the run with a throw that just beat the baserunner at 1st that had both dugouts yelling their enthusiasm for the play.  Also had 2 different times where he snagged a short hop and tagged out the runner trying to steal 2nd. A nice confidence boost for an 8th grader playing against high school kids.  Went 0 for 4 at the plate with 2 walks including 2 flyballs to CF.

His defense is ahead of his offense at this point.  He seems motivated to continue working on his swing, though, which is great.  He could have utilized his faulty swing in the 8th Grade league and hit Doubles & Triples all day long against kids throwing 55-65 mph, but instead he is being challenged by older kids, which is forcing him to make adjustments.  He had a great batting practice yesterday and wants to go hit again tonight.  That is exactly what I hoped for when I signed him up for the Junior Varsity league.

He is already talking about trying out for his high school's Legion team for the summer of 2017.   A year from now he'll likely play on a Varsity Fall Ball team.  Good stuff

My son got his first High School Baseball extra base hit today with a two run Double over the left fielder's head.  He's been working really hard at hitting, and it was so sweet to see

Congrats, 3 and 2!

Late to this thread but my boys are playing fall ball: 19U legion, 17u legion, 13-15 Babe Ruth.  Legion games start this weekend. Babe Ruth Games have been going on for six weeks and will continue to mid January.  Tryouts for all age groups (Intermediate, JV, and Vars) start around Feb. 1.  2017's team is doing independent conditioning, and playing one game a week.  2019's and 2022's teams are more gung ho.  Practices  3x week, plus two games each weekend. Our league does not allow fall ball run by coaches so a dad is acting as manager and some independent, young coaches are doing the field work.

2017's team finished second last year in league and fifth in state.  All field starters returning (1 Div. 1, 7 div 3 players)  but lost best pitcher to graduation.  Will have one senior pitching starter (div 3), one junior (potential div 1), and three sophs who will be hoping to make their marks.  The team will do as well as the pitching staff does, a huge question mark.  These games will not matter for tryouts, but summer time legion did, with two equally divided teams made up of current varsity and varsity hopefuls.

Son's school finally hired a new coach.  A guy who coached another local school for a couple of years.  He didn't have a lot of success there, but I think it's mainly due to a lack of talent, and being in a really tough district.

He has apparently been out to see a couple of the fall games, so he will at least have an idea of what some of the players can do.

As for actual games, the weather has been brutal so the kid has only gotten in a couple more innings...

So far he's got 6 IP 1H 1BB 11K's 0 ERA .  Small sample, but looking good so far.

Fall baseball has been a total bust for us. Played only 4 out of the scheduled 12 games because of weather. Normally, we would lose one weekend to rain, not four. It's been a real bummer.