D3 Freshman Realistic Playing Time Expectations

Here's how great the tubes are.  I read your post, and in under a minute I was able to ascertain that during the 2015 season, but one freshman at your son's school got what I would call a significant number of at-bats.  So yeah, it's going to be difficult but it can be done.  Ok back to work now.

Good post and timely for many people right now.

I don't have a college age kid, but I have a friend who sent their son to play at a local, top tier D3 program in Oregon. This kid went to high school in the L.A. area. He played ball all his life, but wasn't really competitive on his HS team. His HS team was stacked with kids that went on to play D1 or high level JC in prep for the draft.

He thought his baseball days were over until he got an opportunity at the D3. As a freshman (this past year) he did not make the travel team and I think he might have played some at the JV level. So, he was still getting some playing time, but not in the big games.

Another thing to consider is if the D3 team also fields a JV team. This kid's JV team played against other JV programs at the D3 and NAIA level, as well as lower level JC teams in the area.

Dad, while I think much of what you have observed might be  accurate, I might suggest a different mindset and approach.

None of our son's can control who returns, their year in college, their physical maturity or anything else.  This is truly when I think an entering freshman needs to and must focus only on what they can control, in terms of competing.  Being early to lifting, early to practice, staying late, being coachable, and being mentally disciplined, for time management, with a focus of working from a starting point and getting better every day, in every aspect, seems awfully important.

There is nothing any of our son's can do about any of those guys returning.  Realistically,  our son's are competing with, and against, not only the upper class-men but also transfers and all recruits.

In my view, that "competition" is the province of the coaching staff, not the player, especially an incoming freshman.  For each freshman,  it is about being the best they can be each day and in each minute they are part of a baseball activity. Controlling what they can control and doing it at the highest level they can do it each minute they are doing it, while not easy, is how I might suggest this be approached. Don't make anyone bigger than they are, respect them for who they are but realize they put their pants on one leg at a time also is part of that message.

And, while taking an approach of controlling what can be controlled, a player does balance that with appreciating, enjoying, learning and evolving through a potentially challenging time both on and off the field.

College baseball is  a very individual effort within small group of people where "team" usually means more than anything in terms of winning and post-season success. Just my view, but I tend to support that the toughest and hardest competition should be with yourself and making yourself, not any returning senior, junior, transfer or recruit your "competitor"  will lead to the most individual success in an environment where strong team bonds seem critical to team success.

Also, freshman can and do start. Each freshman has to believe that. Our son was a freshman on a team everyone now recognizes as a D3 power team.  That team he joined as a freshman was the starting point.  The previous season that team won their conference for the first time in many seasons. They returned every starter and every back up except the left fielder. Our son started the 3rd game and everyone after that.

But same applies to D1 -- right?  I was just addressing the mentality that says go to D3, rather than D1 because at D3 as a freshman you can play, while you usually can't play as a frosh at D1.  No matter the level, you have to go in and hustle and work your buns off to see the field.  (And take advantage of your opportunities when they come.)

I think you could substitute D2, NAIA, JuCo for "D3" and it would be the same.  An athlete shouldn't think that just because they'll probably sit on the bench at a D1 as a freshman automatically means they'll start or get a lot of playing time at any other level.  They're still going to have to prove themselves wherever they go.  It ain't a "given".

There are freshman that start at most top DIs.  That is because they are among the most talented kids on the roster.  In some ways it might be tougher to start as a freshman at a real good DIII.

Truth is, there is no way of knowing other than looking at the track record of the college. When I coached at small colleges, we recruited players that would help us immediately.  The bench was filled with those that we didn't work hard to recruit. If a player wasn't good enough to contribute his first year, he might not play much for four years. And some that played last year had to work hard to play the next year.  In the end, the most talent, most effort, most intelligent would be in the line up.  One thing I found out many years ago, there's are no equal players.  It just that sometimes it takes a little while to figure out which one you feel best about.

Other colleges will reward players more on a seniority basis.  Nothing wrong with that system I guess.

I get your point -- some guys are such studs in HS  (think the guys who get drafted out of HS for example but choose to go to college instead)  that they can step into a D1  (or any other level for that matter) and be expected to be major contributors from day 1. Don't doubt that at all.

That's not the kind of player I'm talking about.  Obviously those type of players probably wouldn't be torn between "sitting"  at D1 or "playing" at  D3 at least not for the most part. 

I'm talking about the would be  D1 player whose sort of on the bubble who thinks that that while he will definitely sit at a D1 and doesn't want to sit, he chooses instead to go the D3 route, because he thinks "I will play freshman year  D3."  I'm just saying that that playing at D3 (or any level) is not automatic -- even if you are the sort of player who would ride the  bench as a freshman at a D1. Going the D3 route is still very competitive and will take  a lot of work, etc.

I think you agree with that, right?  

My point was that top D3 schools are probably full of guys of whom this same sort of thing can be said.  So it's not like you will be  competing on terms  more favorable to you than to them automatically.    

SluggerDad,

You know first hand that the D2 programs in CA. present a real obstacle for freshman playing time. However, it may well be as much JC transfers and D1 drop downs as it is seniors who did not get drafted.

The same can be true at larger D3's which are public, like Wisconsin schools, NJAC and SUNY schools, but it might come at a freshman through a picture more like you have envisioned rather than the CA. D2 example.

It works different ways, though. At one D3, I know of D1 kids transferring from 2 top SEC programs and another player came from a Big 10 program, where he played as a freshman.  One of those 3 played and at a very high level at the D3, one was solid but got exposed on breaking balls against top D3's just like he did at the D1 and one played infrequently.

There is so much mobility in college baseball.  At South Carolina or ASU, for instance, it may not be seniors, it is JC transfers and huge recruiting classes.

Taking your original post, I think folks make generalities but there is a huge difference between "can" play and "will" play. Not many D3 players "will" play at top 75-100 D1's, but a few will.

As we get below top 100 D1 programs and insert  higher level D3 players into the equation, "can" play and "will" play might be more interchangeable on some type of  sliding scale.

Sluggerdad,

I agree with the basic premise.  Surely, every situation is different but if there is something close to a constant, it is this...  freshman players are almost always surprised by the level and depth of talented players when they step on the college field in the fall regardless of the level.

I have several references specific to just your son's new school.  In another thread, you mentioned the strong returning OF's and alluded to a returning fourth OF.  I have watched that fourth OF play summer ball the last two years and saw him light up good summer pitching.  To see him hit, you would wonder why the heck he was the fourth OF at a D3.  I coached a player who attended there some years ago... seemed like a good fit for D3, solid but not spectacular player, some local accolades, great character kid, was actively recruited to come to the school.  In his mind, the challenge would be whether he could earn any playing time freshman year.  He and several similar players found themselves cut in early fall.  About the same time period, there was a kid from our HS league who a few of us coaches felt was the best position player to come out of the area in a while.  Five tool SS who, not to our surprise, was drafted out of HS.  We were surprised to hear he decided to go D3.  He had a very successful baseball career there but not before sitting most of his freshman and half his soph season.

I think, in part, it is only human nature to associate a drop-off in quality of players with each level, even when one knows that is quite often not the case.  My own OF son's recent final decision came down to a D2 and a strong NAIA.  It appeared that his better chances of seeing the field early would surely be with the NAIA and this, among other factors, left me with questions about his decision to go D2.  The NAIA had also offered significant academic and athletic $$, so we assumed he was targeted as one of their top guys.  The roster didn't show much in terms of returning OF's and although the coach stated he would be in a competitive situation in the fall, I felt pretty good about his shot at early PT.  Well, after his decision to go the other direction, out of curiosity I went back to check for activity on the NAIA team site.  They had several new players already listed and it included both a major and mid-major D1 drop-down OF as well as two other strong OF's (one all conference) from the same Calif JC system son was coming from.  It would have been far from a cake-walk to a starting spot.

The other constant is that the college coaches are, per their job description, constantly trying to bring in players who can make them better at every position.  That can come in many forms -  next year's bigger/better/stronger/faster freshmen, transfers, mid-year transfers, drop-downs, player development, etc. This ongoing process often takes a while for the incoming freshman player to grasp.

I'd apologize for thread drift but I think the usual suspects have put SluggerDad's OP to bed pretty definitively.

So earlier this summer I found myself killing a little time with the R.C. of a pretty successful, pretty high academic D3 baseball program.  He was telling me about a couple games and talking about some players, and I said to him something like, so do you see yourselves as more of a grind-it-out small-ball kind of a team, or are you looking more for the 3-run homer?  He said basically it really depends on who decides to come play with us. If we get some great contact guys with speed, that's the kind of ball we play. If we get slower guys with power, then we adapt our game plan to their strengths. And he described pitching as being a similar process, year to year, and even day to day, as he said the style and ability of his #1 was really different than his #3. 

I thought that was interesting. It gave me a different take on the difficulty of building a college team each year, particularly when the guys you're recruiting, though they may be very very talented, are either guys whose skills have not gotten the attention of D1 schools, or who have D1 talent but have elected to play D3.  It sounds like it's a tough job reeling those guys in, and improvising each year to make it work.

JCG,

If anyone thought I put to rest the ideas and thoughts of SD, that certainly was/is not my intent of the concept of the post.  I I think  posters have views of D3 for whatever reason,  but D3 can be so different depending on regions such as very large public schools in NJ, NY, Wisc., Tx. and the smaller and private programs in the West Region. As I noted,  anyone trying to play as a freshman in the NJAC, SUNY, etc is likely to confront some of the exact issues SD noted.

In terms of successful D3 coaches, I think there is as much variation as the above paragraphs illustrate. Trying to massage the type of baseball to the recruiting class, in my view, would be challenging. How would that work if the coaching staff has classes with distinctly different baseball skills in each of their 4 years. While they don't necessarily have the selection group they might like, I strongly believe strong West Region teams like Linfield, PLU (new coach might change this), and Trinity play a similar type of baseball from year to year to year.

On the other hand, you are exactly right that  it can be challenging to get the top recruits  admitted and in school on day 1, if they are recruiting players posters feel "can" play D1, which many of the top programs are doing.

sluggerdad,

There are 5-6 times during a recruited college baseball players career where you are making these important talent level assumptions.  First is before he is enrolled, and every Fall Practice thereafter.  

As a recruit, or the parent of a recruit,I think some people are really good at evaluating talent and the skill level they are witnessing and others not so much.  There are many reasons people transfer, but underevaluating the talent required to earn playing time is at or near the top of the list.  Others understand the risks and go for it which is totally understandable..  

I always strongly suggest people go to some games and see for themselves the talent on the field and the coaches style.  I think most tend to over shoot their talent level and undershoot the prospective college.  I 100% agree with cabbagedad that almost everybody doesn't understand how competitive it is to earn playing time in college at any level.  Also, I think there are others on this board who have purposefully undershot the baseball talent level due to competitive academic reasons, academic workload reasons or playing time reasons. They've figured a situation that works to their overall goals not necessarily to just baseball goals..