PitchingFan posted:Son had 18 ks tonight. No walks 2 hits. 81 pitches 70 for strikes.
Has thrown 38 innings with 78 strikeouts. 4 walks. 2 earned runs.
Those are some crazy numbers... congrats to him!
Congrats to meads and PitchingFan! Sounds like your boys are off to great starts to the spring.
Chico Jr's HS team is playing to expectations--weren't supposed to contend for a title, but should be pretty good. They have won the games they were expected to; lost some close ones to teams that were supposed to beat them; only been blown out once.
My son's team has a strong pitching staff, which is all seniors plus him (a junior). He (and the coaches) expected he would be a starter and he was on track for that very early on, but has not looked good in his last couple of appearances and, for now at least, is a middle reliever. Unfortunately, he has never pitched well in relief going all the way back to Little League (but he hasn't earned another start). Jr isn't giving up many hits except a few seeing-eye grounders, but when you load the bases with walks and HBP, a single means a couple of runs... He seems ticked off rather than discouraged, which I suppose it good. His dad is a little concerned, but is a worrier by nature.
Chico Escuela posted:Congrats to meads and PitchingFan! Sounds like your boys are off to great starts to the spring.
Chico Jr's HS team is playing to expectations--weren't supposed to contend for a title, but should be pretty good. They have won the games they were expected to; lost some close ones to teams that were supposed to beat them; only been blown out once.
My son's team has a strong pitching staff, which is all seniors plus him (a junior). He (and the coaches) expected he would be a starter and he was on track for that very early on, but has not looked good in his last couple of appearances and, for now at least, is a middle reliever. Unfortunately, he has never pitched well in relief going all the way back to Little League (but he hasn't earned another start). Jr isn't giving up many hits except a few seeing-eye grounders, but when you load the bases with walks and HBP, a single means a couple of runs... He seems ticked off rather than discouraged, which I suppose it good. His dad is a little concerned, but is a worrier by nature.
For whatever its worth- my son has had his struggles this season. First HS team, lots of great talent. Coaches who play the best and sit the rest. His first game was crap, to put it nicely. When he didn't play game 2, it felt more like a punishment. I told him he has to go out there and give it his all, but he was still playing it too safe, afraid to take a chance and make a mistake and get benched again. So we had a chat and I told him wherever and whenever the coaches put you in, you have a job to do. Just DO YOUR JOB and everything will fall in line. The last 2 games he played an inning here and there but he DID HIS JOB and played well. Last night he was starting pitcher and completed the game- I told him, DO YOUR JOB, trust your teammates and if the coach yells at you, don't let him get in your head, your know your pitches and if it doesn't feel right its between you and your catcher.
Now, he will never admit that I give good advice, but I think our chats are finally sinking in and paying off!
meads posted:Chico Escuela posted:Congrats to meads and PitchingFan! Sounds like your boys are off to great starts to the spring.
Chico Jr's HS team is playing to expectations--weren't supposed to contend for a title, but should be pretty good. They have won the games they were expected to; lost some close ones to teams that were supposed to beat them; only been blown out once.
My son's team has a strong pitching staff, which is all seniors plus him (a junior). He (and the coaches) expected he would be a starter and he was on track for that very early on, but has not looked good in his last couple of appearances and, for now at least, is a middle reliever. Unfortunately, he has never pitched well in relief going all the way back to Little League (but he hasn't earned another start). Jr isn't giving up many hits except a few seeing-eye grounders, but when you load the bases with walks and HBP, a single means a couple of runs... He seems ticked off rather than discouraged, which I suppose it good. His dad is a little concerned, but is a worrier by nature.
For whatever its worth- my son has had his struggles this season. First HS team, lots of great talent. Coaches who play the best and sit the rest. His first game was crap, to put it nicely. When he didn't play game 2, it felt more like a punishment. I told him he has to go out there and give it his all, but he was still playing it too safe, afraid to take a chance and make a mistake and get benched again. So we had a chat and I told him wherever and whenever the coaches put you in, you have a job to do. Just DO YOUR JOB and everything will fall in line. The last 2 games he played an inning here and there but he DID HIS JOB and played well. Last night he was starting pitcher and completed the game- I told him, DO YOUR JOB, trust your teammates and if the coach yells at you, don't let him get in your head, your know your pitches and if it doesn't feel right its between you and your catcher.
Now, he will never admit that I give good advice,
but I think our chats are finally sinking in and paying off!
Congrats. Huge change in less than a week.
My 2020 pitched 5IP, and got a win in his first V start of the year. Allowed 1H. Pretty efficient 72 pitches.
My 2022 pitched in JV (after pitching an inning on V in last pre-season game)....Was not good. Which is fine. But coach left him out there for 84 pitches....He's probably not thrown 84 pitches....ever and high in pre-season was 40 pitches or so. After 3IP was at 72 with 7BB (but up 5-1) and they sent him back out to start the 4th. My son said he was going to talk to the coach (first year) about his pitch counts. At least the next day he didn't put him at SS but at 2B.
One month into the season and we've only managed 8 games (one conference) due to weather. Son's had 2 pitching starts for a total of 11 innings (he's on a limited pitch count as he finishes his "rehab") with 21 Ks and a 1.23 ERA. More importantly to us his arm has never felt better and his velo is the highest its ever been. Kind of surprisingly he's leading the team in hitting too, with a .542 avg, 3 doubles and a HR, plus he's hit in all 8 games.
Arm health is most important at this point, as he gets ready for whatever next year brings. Hopefully we'll get to play this weekend, but the Chicagoland weather, again, looks sketchy!
KilroyJ posted:One month into the season and we've only managed 8 games (one conference) due to weather. Son's had 2 pitching starts for a total of 11 innings (he's on a limited pitch count as he finishes his "rehab") with 21 Ks and a 1.23 ERA. More importantly to us his arm has never felt better and his velo is the highest its ever been. Kind of surprisingly he's leading the team in hitting too, with a .542 avg, 3 doubles and a HR, plus he's hit in all 8 games.
Arm health is most important at this point, as he gets ready for whatever next year brings. Hopefully we'll get to play this weekend, but the Chicagoland weather, again, looks sketchy!
Awesome! Keep up that arm health
Played our opener on Tuesday, which was OK...less errors than expected, and a few absolute bombs hit. We are playing on a multi purpose new turf field with no fences. 40 F weather, with a cold wind. One kid on our team hit a triple that must've gone 400' in the air, aided by a strong NW wind. That's still quite a shot in the cold air when the ball simply doesn't travel.
Yesterday's game was cancelled due to weather, and we are now looking at 12" snow on the ground, wiping out all our games this week at a minimum. The home set of fields are really nice, but grass...this will set them back at least a couple of weeks, and the HS teams(we have four of them) will be fighting over the multi purpose turf fields together with the LAX and other teams. We are back to practicing in gyms. There is only so much you can do there.
Now 6 games into our varsity season. 6-0 so far. After Friday's game team heads down to Myrtle Beach for a tournament during their spring break. Will be nice to play in some warm weather.
My son pitched 7 innings tonight Allowed only 4 hits. Faced 31 batters and of those 31 he threw 25 first pitch strikes 👏 He threw 69% strikes tonight. 3 strikeouts, 2 walks. 1 run.
Everyone did THEIR job 👏👏👏👏 The last 3 innings he faced 3 batters each time. One inning he only threw 3 pitches total 😂 💣
And it's snowing again today. We'll be lucky to start play by early next week, even on the turf fields, and even then there is the problem of availability, as all the sports are trying to book the turf fields.
So...this happened.
Freshmen son is playing Varsity. He's been starting and playing the full games so far.
In the 6th game of the season, his 6th varsity game ever, in his 18th overall varsity plate appearance, he goes yard. 375 feet to straight left. The freshmen now leads the team in homers with one. :-)
And, just for RJM, it happened 2 weeks before his 15th birthday :-)
It was a really fun moment for the whole family.
Francis7 posted:So...this happened.
Freshmen son is playing Varsity. He's been starting and playing the full games so far.
In the 6th game of the season, his 6th varsity game ever, in his 18th overall varsity plate appearance, he goes yard. 375 feet to straight left. The freshmen now leads the team in homers with one. :-)
And, just for RJM, it happened 2 weeks before his 15th birthday :-)
It was a really fun moment for the whole family.
A kids first HR in a new level will be remembered and so special to the player and parents. Congrats and many more to come!
Trust In Him posted:A kids first HR in a new level will be remembered and so special to the player and parents. Congrats and many more to come!
Thanks. Thanks to local media and social media, it was a big story. Both his phone and my phone blew up that night and the day after. I think everyone in our town heard about it and was talking about it.
Francis7 posted:Trust In Him posted:A kids first HR in a new level will be remembered and so special to the player and parents. Congrats and many more to come!
Thanks. Thanks to local media and social media, it was a big story. Both his phone and my phone blew up that night and the day after. I think everyone in our town heard about it and was talking about it.
Haha, that’s how it was when my son pitched his first No Hitter! Had over 1900 likes, comments, tweets 😱
PitchingFAN....great news story!
Son was a dropped third strike from Perfect Game tonight. Faced minimum because he picked off kid who reached.
Would be interested to hear anyone else's story about their son struggling at the HS level.
My son's story... he was the leading hitter on his travel ball team from 8U -13U, always lead the team in all areas; Hits, AVG, OPS, SLG. Then he goes to HS and played JV last year as a freshman and struggles..big time, 5 hits over the season for a .179 AVG.
Now I know some of that is the change to the BBCOR -3 bat, he used a -5 and -3 his last year of travel ball. Summer Legion ball was better with 19 hits and a .306 AVG.
But now he's a Sophomore backup catcher on Varsity and struggling again, 3 hits in 17 PA. 231 AVG.
So I don't know if it's a mental thing in getting overwhelmed at the plate or something else.
Anyone else seen their son struggle in HS?
My opinion is that school ball is a completely different animal from travel. Lot more pressure and limited opportunities to produce and show something.
Coach_TV posted:Would be interested to hear anyone else's story about their son struggling at the HS level.
My son's story... he was the leading hitter on his travel ball team from 8U -13U, always lead the team in all areas; Hits, AVG, OPS, SLG. Then he goes to HS and played JV last year as a freshman and struggles..big time, 5 hits over the season for a .179 AVG.
Now I know some of that is the change to the BBCOR -3 bat, he used a -5 and -3 his last year of travel ball. Summer Legion ball was better with 19 hits and a .306 AVG.
But now he's a Sophomore backup catcher on Varsity and struggling again, 3 hits in 17 PA. 231 AVG.
So I don't know if it's a mental thing in getting overwhelmed at the plate or something else.
Anyone else seen their son struggle in HS?
I don't know if my son's story will be helpful (for sure it won't be encouraging), but:
Chico Jr. was a good hitter from machine pitch through age 14--always hit for average and for power. As an 8th grader he batted clean-up for his middle school team (they won their conference title), then hit in the middle of the lineup during travel ball that summer. This was his second year with a BBCOR bat, and he faced many of the same pitchers he would see the following spring in JV ball.
In JV (third year using BBCOR), the boy just stopped hitting. That carried over to travel ball after 9th grade, where he had a miserable summer at the plate. To my eye, the pitching didn't change much from 8th grade to 9th--a few more curve balls, not much velo change. He spent a lot of time in the cage and working with a hitting coach. We got his eyes checked. He was mashing the ball in the cage... then hitting weak grounders or pop-ups in games.
My son is a pitcher, and after a year of not hitting much at all he opted to become a PO. He's very happy with that choice--says he was getting burned-out trying to be a 2-way player. He made varsity last year as a sophomore and insists he has no desire to pick up a bat again. I can't explain what happened, although it worked out pretty well in the end.
I am surprised my frosh kid's confidence took a dip this season. He is hitting very well, has a high ob% and rarely strikes out. He was complaining recently not driving the ball enough and feels he will be dropped in the line up. I never was a pep talk dad and usually sicken them with "you get what you put in" speeches, but he was not really responding to my assertion that the numbers and what they see is what will determine his spot. Regardless, he wanted to go to the cages and "work" on things (always happy to do that). He also told me he wants to be a primary OF and move away from behind the dish. I was not surprised as he was spending most of his time there this season.
Chico Escuela posted:Coach_TV posted:Would be interested to hear anyone else's story about their son struggling at the HS level.
My son's story... he was the leading hitter on his travel ball team from 8U -13U, always lead the team in all areas; Hits, AVG, OPS, SLG. Then he goes to HS and played JV last year as a freshman and struggles..big time, 5 hits over the season for a .179 AVG.
Now I know some of that is the change to the BBCOR -3 bat, he used a -5 and -3 his last year of travel ball. Summer Legion ball was better with 19 hits and a .306 AVG.
But now he's a Sophomore backup catcher on Varsity and struggling again, 3 hits in 17 PA. 231 AVG.
So I don't know if it's a mental thing in getting overwhelmed at the plate or something else.
Anyone else seen their son struggle in HS?
I don't know if my son's story will be helpful (for sure it won't be encouraging), but:
Chico Jr. was a good hitter from machine pitch through age 14--always hit for average and for power. As an 8th grader he batted clean-up for his middle school team (they won their conference title), then hit in the middle of the lineup during travel ball that summer. This was his second year with a BBCOR bat, and he faced many of the same pitchers he would see the following spring in JV ball.
In JV (third year using BBCOR), the boy just stopped hitting.
It does help, at least to know that others (not all) have struggled as well. My son like your's it seems is a totally different hitter in BP. I happened to be up at their practice yesterday doing some work in the press box and I heard some of the boys yell his name and I looked up and he line a ball of the LC fence 325 ft away.
So I think it's a mental thing overall and maybe a few mechanical things in his swing as well.
He's a catcher who receives, blocks and throws very well; so I don't think it's his eyes...but who knows. The good thing about the boy is he's willing to put in the extra work to figure it out. I built a Plyo wall and hitting net in our garage and to his credit he's been in there every night hitting and throwing Plyo's. So we'll see what happens going forward, he's going to play summer legion and Fall Ball this year; so he'll get a lot of reps (hopefully) to figure it out.
I would say it is 99% a mental thing. In BP they are relaxed and just doing their reps. In a game, the pressure is on- getting signs from the coach, the situation, and of course the bad call from the ump on the first pitch can totally affect the batter’s psyche. It doesn’t take much. Even a slight distraction means the difference between fouling it straight back, and launching it over the centerfielder’s head. I think that is very common. Look at all the rookies in the MLB right now making their debut. One that comes to mind and reminds me of my son is the Yankee Ford who just came up. Great plate discipline, but keeps in just missing a big hit. Finally got a double today. Confidence is everything as a batter. If that confidence falters even slightly, it turns a slugger into an irrelevant batter.
2022NYC posted:I am surprised my frosh kid's confidence took a dip this season. He is hitting very well, has a high ob% and rarely strikes out. He was complaining recently not driving the ball enough and feels he will be dropped in the line up. I never was a pep talk dad and usually sicken them with "you get what you put in" speeches, but he was not really responding to my assertion that the numbers and what they see is what will determine his spot. Regardless, he wanted to go to the cages and "work" on things (always happy to do that). He also told me he wants to be a primary OF and move away from behind the dish. I was not surprised as he was spending most of his time there this season.
I had to be moved from C in high school because I just couldn't hit when I played there. We had several D1 pitchers who were hard to catch and always wanted to go over the hitters in between innings. I got moved to 1B/OF and my hitting vastly improved.
2019’s team wins District for Second consecutive year. Son pitched 2 hit run rule shutout 10-0.
Playoff time in Texas. Team tied one and lost two in first three games of season. Then went 23-1. Is currently ranked #10 in Texas by Texas High School Baseball. Tied for district championship at 13-1. Other than top two teams, district is about average, Son pitched 54 innings, gave up 3 ER's, 77 strikeouts. He did take 2 of their 3 losses. Also hit 3-hole for the season. A few weeks back he was at .500, probably just at that as regular season wrapped up.
Team is in Texas 6A class. Largest class in Texas. There are four regions. Playoffs within Region are usually a best of 3. Win the region, it becomes a single elim for the final two steps.
Here's to 12 in a row!
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We are a bit over halfway through the HS season.
Good: team is tied for first in the city. Son is 3-0.
Bad: My son seems to pitch every Weds. A school my son has been in contact with for a while wants to come down and see him, but their weekday games are Weds....
We start playoffs this week as well. With high percentage storms forecasted for the next 10 days it could be interesting. A 3 days series may be forced to go to a one game playoff. We are scheduled Wed-Friday with 70-80% chance of rain on two of those days. Next week doesn't look any better.
baseballhs posted:We start playoffs this week as well. With high percentage storms forecasted for the next 10 days it could be interesting. A 3 days series may be forced to go to a one game playoff. We are scheduled Wed-Friday with 70-80% chance of rain on two of those days. Next week doesn't look any better.
Turf fields were in high demand this week. Lot's of cash for a program to have playoff games + concessions. Pays a lot of the bills and provides cash for "niceties" for the kids.
A view from a different neighborhood of the standings: A couple of weeks left in the season. Son’s team is a little over .500 — middle of the conference pack. That is about as expected, although they did play some very close games against highly-ranked teams. Chico Jr. is a RHP. His season stats look Pretty good except for too many walks. (One per IP, although they tend to come in bunches in the games. When you walk 3 in a row, a ground ball single does real damage.) Hoping he finds his command again in summer ball.
A bit discouraged here as I am realizing that Freshman ball doesn't really matter and its all nothing but a way for Varsity coaches to scope out who they have coming up for JV and Varsity next year and in the coming years- that's fine and all, but the Freshman team were doing well this year with a record of 10-4 then the coaches started messing with who they put where and even put some kids in to play who have been on the DL list most of the season (don't get me wrong, they deserve to get some play time as well) but a PO the coaches put at 2B and in 1 game; the kid cost us literally 12 runs in the 1st inning (
so not exaggerating this)
Our record now is 10-10. Just like that! My son is playing better over all, but just frustrated with some of the attitudes in the dugout- he knows to keep his mouth shut and just DO HIS JOB!
Saturdays game was an absolute nightmare- the way they played as a team, I have seen 11U teams who played better- fly balls dropped with 3 guys watching the ball, one ball FO to 1st, no one catches it, no one touches it- if they would have just picked it up and touched 1st base, that would have been an easy out- instead the batter was safe and they scored a run
After games, in the car, with windows rolled up is our time to vent, recall events that occurred during the game and bad mouth some of the players and review what he did in the game. He is very hard on himself and we discuss what he did, what he could have done instead and what he will do next time.
I dare not say anything to the coaches, I do know that the head varsity coach is in charge of making up a list of who plays where and when they hit and the freshman coaches make tweaks along the way- but I just want to scream WHY!!!! 
Annual lottery -- I mean, single-elimination tournament -- to determine the D1 champion in CIF Southern Section starts Thursday. 25 public schools, 7 privates.
The bracket includes 10 of the top 36 teams in Maxpreps current national rankings (#1, #3, #7, #8, #11, #19, #26, #31, #35, #36), plus lots of other strong teams, so it really is a crapshoot.
2019Dad posted:
The bracket includes 10 of the top 36 teams in Maxpreps current national rankings (#1, #3, #7, #8, #11, #19, #26, #31, #35, #36), plus lots of other strong teams, so it really is a crapshoot.
Does the southern section winner move on to play another region or is this it? Not familiar with CA.
CIF Southern Section D1 always have great teams in the bracket. Lots of good baseball to watch. Good luck.
Too many schools and too big geographically, PA... For most, winning your CIF Section Division is the end of the road. The Southern Section is one of ten California sections and has roughly 600 schools. It is the biggest and those schools are typically spread across seven divisions (D1 being the top) for baseball. It is not uncommon to see a Southern Section division 3 school nationally ranked.
There are over 1500 schools total in CA that are registered CIF HS's. It is a 15 hour drive from Crescent City in the north to San Diego in the south. Travel/accommodations would be a logistical and cost nightmare for HS's to participate in true state championships requiring multiple rounds of elimination.
So halfway through my son's freshman year on varsity. Team is D1 in Wisconsin but is really young and trying to find itself. 4-7 with 5 losses by 1-2 runs. Last year's infield was all seniors and outfield was all juniors so they had to turnover the whole group. So big youth movement this year. Infield is sophomores at 1B, 2B, and SS, with the C and my freshman son at 3B. First 7 games son had at least one hit in every game but has been hitless last 3 but has been walked and hit some. Also has pitched 3 scoreless innings. So not tearing it up but not completely overmatched.
cabbagedad posted:Too many schools and too big geographically, PA... For most, winning your CIF Section Division is the end of the road. The Southern Section is one of ten California sections and has roughly 600 schools. It is the biggest and those schools are typically spread across seven divisions (D1 being the top) for baseball. It is not uncommon to see a Southern Section division 3 school nationally ranked.
There are over 1500 schools total in CA that are registered CIF HS's. It is a 15 hour drive from Crescent City in the north to San Diego in the south. Travel/accommodations would be a logistical and cost nightmare for HS's to participate in true state championships requiring multiple rounds of elimination.
Just curious as CA is one of the only states where their wrestling state tournament is a single class. One state champion at each weight class for the entire state. Wasn't sure if it worked that way for baseball as well. I figured they might have a neutral site picked out on a specific weekend that way different regions could play and have one state champion for division. That is how ours does it, but we also only have 4 regions with single elimination, 10 is a lot.
PABaseball posted:2019Dad posted:
The bracket includes 10 of the top 36 teams in Maxpreps current national rankings (#1, #3, #7, #8, #11, #19, #26, #31, #35, #36), plus lots of other strong teams, so it really is a crapshoot.
Does the southern section winner move on to play another region or is this it? Not familiar with CA.
My high school was Capistrano Valley! WOO WOO!