2024 High School Baseball Season

@Master P posted:

Just out of curiosity, how much weight did he lose during the basketball season?

This is a problem for baseball players. My son started his growth burst towards the end of summer heading into high school. By spring he was 5’11 135. Strength was an issue because basketball took away from the time he could have spent strength training. He also couldn’t gain weight despite eating like a horse. He was talented enough to start on varsity freshman year on a bad team. But, upper body strength wise he was a little boy compared to varsity players.

We were shocked he was cut from the basketball program soph year. He skipped freshman ball for JV freshman year. He started at point. People who knew the game expected him to start at point and defend the top scorer. The coach told him he was already playing varsity soccer, would be playing varsity baseball in the spring and never showed up for “optional” offseason basketball work. He cut him altogether. That winter he focused on getting stronger. He went from not making varsity freshman year to first team all conference soph year. He was now driving the ball hard. Junior year he got elevation (homers) on his hits.

It was amusing to have a former ten year NBA veteran dad yelling at the coach  “Your best point guard is sitting in the stands” when the team struggled with traps. After a few games my son politely asked him to stop.

Still going good. 4 scrimmages down against 5A teams (we are 4A). "Won" all 4 pretty easily. We have used 8 different pitchers with no more then 2 innings in a game. One more scrimmage this Friday, then first tournament next week (BorderOlympics). Should be a good trip down south. Scheduled to play some good teams (5A, 6A, and 1 independent (private school)).

HS season for my kid started like last season… bench warmer and no opportunity on the mound.  Luckily he’s turned it around quickly and is back to batting cleanup and starting to earn more innings on the mound.

I’d like to say it’s isolated, but on our particular team, 3 IF positions and 1 OF position have swapped to the ‘better’ player.  Coaches anointed kids from tryouts and preseason that were definitely not the best players.  It’s a little baffling that our coaches get it that wrong year over year.  maybe I’m being too harsh.  I appreciate the time these coaches put into the program for not a lot of pay.  But… 🤯

Ha ha!  Yeah.  I get both sides.  Going to be interesting here when we start next week.  However, the coaches (here) are going off mostly indoor practice, hitting off machines.  Some kids are great practice kids, others are gamers….  That being said I know several people are questioning the starting line up.  Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

At least they realized it and made changes... This site is full of stories where it's felt that doesn't happen and coaches stick with seniors. Maybe it's a ploy too - hungry players getting roles can cause those losing spots to become hungry. They can also become disruptive.

Season is still going good. Team is in the top 20 rankings in the state for their division. Big tournament starting today. They will be playing 2 other teams that are above them in the rankings and a good 6A team. We shall see how it goes.

My son is a freshman and I am new to this. I am wondering why and how the hs teams play in tournaments.  To my knowledge neither our JV or varsity plays in anything but league play. Our program seems much less intense than others. Even winter workouts were basically about 6 weeks once or twice a week in the gym. Does it depend on the coach whether they are willing to put in the extra time? Or the  school budget?

@BB328 posted:

My son is a freshman and I am new to this. I am wondering why and how the hs teams play in tournaments.  To my knowledge neither our JV or varsity plays in anything but league play. Our program seems much less intense than others. Even winter workouts were basically about 6 weeks once or twice a week in the gym. Does it depend on the coach whether they are willing to put in the extra time? Or the  school budget?

  If you want good feedback you need to provide more information. What part of the country do you live in? What size HS does your son attend??
  It astounds me that people make generic posts, with no details, and expect helpful comments. That’s not how it works!

@BB328 posted:

My son is a freshman and I am new to this. I am wondering why and how the hs teams play in tournaments.  To my knowledge neither our JV or varsity plays in anything but league play. Our program seems much less intense than others. Even winter workouts were basically about 6 weeks once or twice a week in the gym. Does it depend on the coach whether they are willing to put in the extra time? Or the  school budget?

My son played in one of the most competitive districts in the HS baseball hotbed of southern Texas. There were perennial powerhouse schools and schools that gave baseball very little effort. It's hard to know much about your son's program from the info provided, but I would just say HS baseball should be fun for the athlete and parent. IMO if your son projects to play beyond HS, the growth will likely come from activities outside the HS program (unless your son is in an elite HS program).  

@BB328 posted:

My son is a freshman and I am new to this. I am wondering why and how the hs teams play in tournaments.  To my knowledge neither our JV or varsity plays in anything but league play. Our program seems much less intense than others. Even winter workouts were basically about 6 weeks once or twice a week in the gym. Does it depend on the coach whether they are willing to put in the extra time? Or the  school budget?

My son’s coach turned a perennial doormat into a conference champion. His third fourth and fifth seasons were my son’s soph to senior years. The team came in second and two firsts.

The team went from no offseason plan and no fall ball to a M-F off season plan and fall ball.

The reason for playing in tournaments may vary from state to state. When my son played, in our state teams were allowed to play twenty-two regular season games. But a tournament counted as one event/game. A four or five game tournament only counted as one game. The  tournament games didn’t count in the record and the ranking formula. So, tournaments were a good way to put players in real competition to see if they genuinely deserved to start.

Our coach ran summer camps to fundraise for the baseball team. We also had a major community wide fundraiser to upgrade the baseball and softball fields and facilities.  

The new coach and how organized he was and his talent as a coach didn’t just elevate the talent. A lot of talent previously lured away by privates and Catholics in the stayed in the school district.

It all started with a new DA deciding the high school was too big (6A) to be a doormat in everything but country club sports (four CCs within the district boundaries). However, one of my favorite lines was the football coach telling me it was a challenge recruiting football players off the mean streets of the country clubs.

We are a 6A in TX and have baseball class everyday. I think a lot of the powerhouse programs do. We actually have class for all sports. So off season is class and “optional” after school practice run by the kids with the coaches watching on golf carts and in spring it is class the last hour of the day that continues into practice after school.

Ditto. In general, there's a regionality (including WEATHER) and sociocultural differences at play. Kid wrapped up a big HS preseason tourney of 26 teams with top HS teams from all over: soCal, Hawaii, AZ, MS. PLUS there was another big PBR tourney with great teams going on simultaneously as well.  YES, $$$ matters, as you can imagine how expensive team travel can be. At one point we had >110 kids in our program. You know what they say, everything is bigger in Texas... and yes, understand that  bigger is not always better

So we are in the Northeast small public high school about 800 students. Coaches have played college baseball. I think our JV season is about 20-22 games. No baseball class or any sports specific classes of any kind. They have a,short winter workout program obviously limited by the weather and space we have. There are plenty of kids who play travel and we do have some good players. But to gave you an idea of skill level  I think we had 4 senior college commits last year mostly D3. Our league is not super competitive. We do win alot.

As far tournaments I don't know of any hs team tournaments here. Travel ball and tournaments at HS age with rare exception completely stop during school ball unless a kid goes to guest play down South somewhere.

My son would be so excited to play for some of the programs other posters describe above.

I think for  my son it's more about playing with school friends right now then anything else.

@BB328 posted:

So we are in the Northeast small public high school about 800 students. Coaches have played college baseball. I think our JV season is about 20-22 games. No baseball class or any sports specific classes of any kind. They have a,short winter workout program obviously limited by the weather and space we have. There are plenty of kids who play travel and we do have some good players. But to gave you an idea of skill level  I think we had 4 senior college commits last year mostly D3. Our league is not super competitive. We do win alot.

As far tournaments I don't know of any hs team tournaments here. Travel ball and tournaments at HS age with rare exception completely stop during school ball unless a kid goes to guest play down South somewhere.

My son would be so excited to play for some of the programs other posters describe above.

I think for  my son it's more about playing with school friends right now then anything else.

Our Mid Atlantic/northeast high school had after school indoor workouts alternating between baseball skills and physical training from November through February. There were also 5:45am workouts for baseball players playing a winter sport.

The coach made an arrangement with a nearby baseball facility where the kids could go in and hit during certain hours in the winter for $10 per month. Players were expected to show up March 1 in mid season physical form. The team traveled to South Carolina for tournaments.

Before the new coach showed up one or two kids from each class might go D3. Two of the three winning seasons out of the previous twenty seasons a 7th round pick put the team on his back. After the new coach came on twelve of my son’s junior year roster played college ball at some level. Three played P5. Two more played for a ranked D2.

Tomorrow's scrimmages vs. 2 other schools canceled due to rain. Bummer.

So far this season has sucked.  Rain and wet fields all the time (usual for this time of the year), broken lawnmowers, my JV pitchers can't throw strike to save their lives, absolutely no discipline or commitment from a majority of our players, between JV and varsity we are off to an 0-5 start 3 of the 5 haven't really been close one of the other ones we made either 5 or 6 errors and lost to a really really bad team, the other game we led 10-9 vs the #4 team in the state (in a class lower than ours) going into the 7th but gave up 7 runs in the top of the 7th to lose it 16-10 because we only have one guy in the entire program that can consistently throw strikes.  To top it off our team acted like idiots all night, I have been embarrassed by the baseball product we have put on the field before but I have never been so embarrassed by the way that they conducted themselves as I was that night. 

Sorry for the rant.

at least it’s not snowing!

wait, I take that back … it is snowing in SE PA tonight

@JucoDad posted:

My son played in one of the most competitive districts in the HS baseball hotbed of southern Texas. There were perennial powerhouse schools and schools that gave baseball very little effort. It's hard to know much about your son's program from the info provided, but I would just say HS baseball should be fun for the athlete and parent. IMO if your son projects to play beyond HS, the growth will likely come from activities outside the HS program (unless your son is in an elite HS program).  

I think we have 70-72 players about evenly spread Soph, JV, and Varsity.  I think it’s solely so the coach doesn’t worry about complaining parents but maybe it’s fund raising.  I’d say he is actually trying to let players develop but that would be contrary to reality.  Our Soph team is essentially equal playing time.  JV is same until district.  Varsity is just a mess IMO.  We live in a baseball hotbed btw with 95% of our kids (and most other schools too) playing year round travel ball before they enter HS  

I‘m only a couple of years into HS baseball, but if wasn’t for the fun and social aspects of being involved with HS sports (for my son and me), I’d just pull him out and have him train like he does in the fall.  He’d make bigger gains.  Our HS doesn’t have a baseball weight training program, Zero lockers for baseball players, and generally football coaches handling sub varsity.  So pretty much an ‘who cares’ sport despite 110 kids trying out every year.  All the while, we have one of the better talent pools in our district but not great coaching.  

I’ll also reiterate what I learned here and from my son’s various coaches pre-HS - be utility, be explosive or fast (base running and hitting), and if you hit you will play.  All are very valuable assets that play well in HS.  

We just got back from our opening weekend going to Dallas to play a couple games.  Beat a good 15-1 Grapevine team even though we didn't see their top arms. Then beat Denton Braswell today.

The boy went 4 shutout innings against Grapevine, 0H, 8K's was 91-94 in the first inning.  The 4 walks are concerning but not a bad first outing.

Great Outing! Not an expert, just a baseball dad and pitcher's father that's been at it a while. Throwing gas with 2K's per inning against a top HS team is high cotton. It's hard at that age to live near max effort and not give away some bags. I think the goal is to work on the misses being competitive, it's hard tho, even the pro's struggle with 0 - 2 sliders that are close enough to give the hitter's pause...

@Master P posted:

We just got back from our opening weekend going to Dallas to play a couple games.  Beat a good 15-1 Grapevine team even though we didn't see their top arms. Then beat Denton Braswell today.

The boy went 4 shutout innings against Grapevine, 0H, 8K's was 91-94 in the first inning.  The 4 walks are concerning but not a bad first outing.

That's impressive! That GV team is no joke. Too bad the powers that be didnt set up a match up against DH on the "hill" (all pun intended). That would've been must see TV and would've drawn scouts and coaches from ALL OVER. Great when these pre season tourneys pit great teams across state lines that normally wouldnt happen.

@GratefulNTXlurker posted:

That's impressive! That GV team is no joke. Too bad the powers that be didnt set up a match up against DH on the "hill" (all pun intended). That would've been must see TV and would've drawn scouts and coaches from ALL OVER. Great when these pre season tourneys pit great teams across state lines that normally wouldnt happen.

He had pitched the day before for them in a much more important game.  I was just glad we got the game in.  Due to the rain it had to be moved and didn't start till 8pm.

Season still going good, 12 regular games left. Undefeated in district. Still in the top 20 in the state.

Son has mostly been playing outfield, they desperately needed another outfielder and son was their fastest option. Doing a really good job for someone that has not been in the outfield since he was 10. Gives him more practice being a team player.

@Master P posted:

We just got back from our opening weekend going to Dallas to play a couple games.  Beat a good 15-1 Grapevine team even though we didn't see their top arms. Then beat Denton Braswell today.

The boy went 4 shutout innings against Grapevine, 0H, 8K's was 91-94 in the first inning.  The 4 walks are concerning but not a bad first outing.

Welp.  The boy had a start against one of the top teams in the state.  3 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 4K.  Gave up 2 bombs, 3 doubles and a triple.

Baseball.

@Master P posted:

Welp.  The boy had a start against one of the top teams in the state.  3 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 4K.  Gave up 2 bombs, 3 doubles and a triple.

Baseball.

That has happened to every pitcher that has ever stepped on a game mound. Learn what you can from the experience, flush it, and move on. Tomorrow is a new day.

@Master P posted:

Welp.  The boy had a start against one of the top teams in the state.  3 IP, 9 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 4K.  Gave up 2 bombs, 3 doubles and a triple.

Baseball.

This game will humble you quickly.

My 2025 had a similar nightmare in his first appearance this preseason. He had never given up a home run on "The Big Field" before. He then proceeded to give up a grand slam & a three-run homer in the same inning 😁.

To my surprise he handled it well. He told me after the game " Well it can't get any worse than that, can it?"

Has been solid ever since and has become The closer on a 9 -3 team.

I'm sure your boy will bounce back! @Master P

I will ask some questions. Who was calling pitches? Can your son shake if he doesn’t like the pitch call?? What pitches were the extra base hits off???

@adbono posted:

That has happened to every pitcher that has ever stepped on a game mound. Learn what you can from the experience, flush it, and move on. Tomorrow is a new day.

That was almost the exact text I sent him.  I added that I was proud of him and he kept his composure.  It happens, its baseball.

@adbono posted:

I will ask some questions. Who was calling pitches? Can your son shake if he doesn’t like the pitch call?? What pitches were the extra base hits off???

First inning gave up a full count bomb on a 94 FB to a Tennessee commit the other way.  Second inning left an 0-2 change up and a kid hit it 400'  Then he just started catching barrels.  

His coach calls the pitches but they can shake it off.  The other team was being aggressive and executing.

Additionally, your kid is in the 99th percentile for highschool velo.

So if and when a hitter barrels his pitches, it's going to come off real hot. Comes with the territory.

@Master P posted:

First inning gave up a full count bomb on a 94 FB to a Tennessee commit the other way.  Second inning left an 0-2 change up and a kid hit it 400'  Then he just started catching barrels.  

His coach calls the pitches but they can shake it off.  The other team was being aggressive and executing.

Fair enough

@DaddyBaller posted:

Additionally, your kid is in the 99th percentile for highschool velo.

So if and when a hitter barrels his pitches, it's going to come off real hot. Comes with the territory.

This is true. Hard throwers can give up bombs that go a long way. In a Karl Young college summer league game in Houston I gave up a HR to a LHH named Alvin Rueben (who later played DE in the NFL) at Del Mar Stadium. The ball was still going up as it cleared the RF fence, it easily carried the grass and the service road, and hit a car that was traveling on Hwy 290. Had to go close to 500 ft.

@Master P posted:

First inning gave up a full count bomb on a 94 FB to a Tennessee commit the other way.  Second inning left an 0-2 change up and a kid hit it 400'  Then he just started catching barrels.  

His coach calls the pitches but they can shake it off.  The other team was being aggressive and executing.

additional thought:

We have a couple teams regionally that are really good at picking signs ....  knowing what is coming really helps kids "catch barrels"

@ReluctantO'sFan posted:

additional thought:

We have a couple teams regionally that are really good at picking signs ....  knowing what is coming really helps kids "catch barrels"

Its funny you mention that.  The day after I was at a game talking to one of the pro area scouts who watched his outing.   He was talking about how he thought the other team "saw something" and how comfortable they were in the box, etc.  Then he said, "We liked to see him get rocked, it happens in baseball."

my 2027 had a great day yesterday on JV.  Hit his first hs home run oppo.  It was on the varsity field but to be fair it is a short right field fence.  300 at the corner.  Not entirely sure how far it went since it was not right at the corner.  but it was more than 300'

@Dadof3 posted:

Ha ha!  Yeah.  I get both sides.  Going to be interesting here when we start next week.  However, the coaches (here) are going off mostly indoor practice, hitting off machines.  Some kids are great practice kids, others are gamers….  That being said I know several people are questioning the starting line up.  Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

My son told me the other day he once had a teammate who was a great baseball player — until you saw him in a game.

@Iowamom23 posted:

My son told me the other day he once had a teammate who was a great baseball player — until you saw him in a game.

So I saw this one kid who was listed as starting.  I really questioned it (to myself ) due to the hiccup in his swing.  I even casually mentioned something to the coach (who I am friendly with).  So we are now 4/5 games in and the kid has yet to get a hit.  Killed the ball in practice.  Not so much in games.

@Iowamom23 posted:

My son told me the other day he once had a teammate who was a great baseball player — until you saw him in a game.

My son had a high school teammate who looked like anyone’s first pick for next level prospect. He was 6’4” 200. He was the last player in the roster. He didn’t make varsity until senior year.

@RJM posted:

My son had a high school teammate who looked like anyone’s first pick for next level prospect. He was 6’4” 200. He was the last player in the roster. He didn’t make varsity until senior year.

Same. My youngest son had a 16 U travel  ball teammate that had all the measurables.  And his single mom thought he was all that. We called him Baseball Jesus. Looked great in a uniform. Couldn’t play a lick.