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Get in the weight room and add lower body mass (with core work) and you will get stronger and faster. You can easily add 15lbs and do both.
Phase your lifting with heavy mass building now and then come mid January phase into explosive work. I doubt you will put on 15 lbs in that time frame but hit it hard now.
Chaas98,
False dichotomy, unless by "bulk up" you mean to add mass unrelated to functional strength, power, and mobility needed in baseball--which is often what happens when eager ball players are turned loose in a gym without good supervision and they end up clustered around the bench press station.
I strongly recommend doing your off-season conditioning under the supervision of a competent strength coach who understands your physical situation and baseball's physical demands.
Going to the gym and working hard without this supervision is like getting in a car and driving fast without knowing what road you're on: neither course of action is likely to get you closer to your intended destination.
A well designed program can help you add more weight than you describe without slowing you down.
Best wishes,
As Swamp says, seek out an expert. You can add weight, strength and speed. How much weight depends on your body frame. When my son was in high school he had trouble getting past 175. In college he got to 195. When he hit 200 he felt it was affecting his speed and dropped back to 195.
Not sure of your age or your background in lifting. However, if you have never lifted, you are in a good position. People new to lifting can add strength and muscle while maintaining or losing some weight. Probably for around 8-12 weeks.
If so, you can add strength and muscle, while losing some body fat. As long as you're doing your normal running, you should get faster from adding strength alone.
At a certain point, whether it is 8 weeks, 10 weeks or whatever, your initial strength and muscular gains will plateau, and you will need to add additional calories and protein to support muscular and strength gains. Again, this only applies to newbie lifters.
If you immediately start eating more, adding protein shakes, etc... and attempt to gain weight quickly, you might get faster from the strength, or you might get slower from the added weight. Strength should be the main concern in getting faster, with increasing bodyweight slowly.
Then no, it shouldn't still apply. Here's my suggestion.
Add some strength, but don't go crazy adding body weight. Squats, Bench, Rows, and cleans (power cleans or hang cleans).
I would be real hesitant about trying to add 15lbs of bodyweight. Five lbs of body weight between now and February, with an increase in strength sounds good, as long as you keep working on your speed.
If you're in high school, and looking to get noticed at a camp or a showcase, then you should be trying to get that 6.9 down to 6.8 or 6.75.
