Thanks Wavehog. I truly appreciate the kind comments. I try to stay as objective as a proud subjective dad can be, but it's nice to hear positive words from an objective 3rd party.
He did get a lot calls after July 1 ... plus a few more schools that he's having an encouraging email dialog that will hopefully 'blossom' in the coming weeks to a fuller discussion. Given he's a legit 2-way player, it's interesting to see what different schools want out of him, his pitching or his bat. I think that it wasn't until this year that anyone started to look at him for his pitching. He's always had great movement and command, but didn't have high-80s velocity until this year. I think it made him a better pitcher because in his Frosh/Soph years he had to 'pitch' and learn to really spot his CB and changeup, not just grunt out a dominant FB. But because he didn't have that top-end until this year, he didn't really have a lot of visibility as a pitcher until this year.
The scarey part is he's still growing into his frame. He's easily got another 20 lbs to fill in. I've given up wrestling with him because now he can hurt me
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He had a good outing at the 1st Area Code tryouts, which did a lot to raise his stock. He was sitting 87/88 on his FB and his changeup just fell off the table. Of course, most of the pitchers at the tryouts throw high 80s, low 90s, so they have to hit their spots and have movement to stand out.
I think the events like area code and the junior north/south tryouts that cause a flock of college coaches is that it's just efficient: there's a big collection of some of the top juniors in the area all in one place at one time. But no one venue by itself is the best or only answer ... some kids don't get nominated to these events that deserve to go, some get nominated because of who they know. Some have a couple of bad ABs at one venue then crush the ball at the next.
I'd expect the coaches are experienced at this and try to see kids they're following at different venues, in different situations. They know that one AB or pitching to three batters doesn't give them the full view of a kids abilities. That's why it's a good idea to look at going to the HS camps at those colleges where there's a high degree of mutual interest ... it gives the coaches several days to see a kid in different situations, and see more of his character and mental attitude, and the kid gets a better feel for the coaching staff and their program.
