Fall Ball at bats

Passion4baseball,

I can’t tell you the right thing to do in your specific case, but I can tell you what I’ve witnessed over the last 15 years of HSV fall ball.

The whole idea about fall ball around here, is to try to give as many opportunities as possible to kids you DON’T think are gonna be starters, while making sure the projected starters get enough game time in to at least keep them at whatever level they are. The reason is fairly straightforward.

The kids you’re pretty sure about have more than likely been playing all summer and likely are still playing some TB, getting more than their share of PT. So chances are a rest will be much more of a benefit than more PT. Also, in HS at least, no matter how good or how deep last year’s team was, there probably were at least a few players who moved on that left holes that there was no obvious fill for. So you might have a pretty good idea about who would be likely to fill that spot, but ya never really know! You may have someone on the roster that reached physical or mental maturity over the summer, and are ready to come out of the cocoon. If they aren’t given the opportunity, they could easily fall through the cracks.

You may want to look down further in the forum, we just had this question a few weeks ago.  I bat everyone and play everyone as much as possible.  We only have 12 kids on a team but have split into 3 teams total so everyone gets to play a lot.  Not all schools in our league do it that way, one has 22 kids on one team.

Is this for high school? Or what age travel? It depends on how many players you have available. My son played fall ball for the high school soph year. At least twenty players would show for every game. It wouldn't have been productive to play them in a CBO. 

What the coach did was if there was one game the players he really wanted to see played five innings and the rest finished the game. If there was a doubleheader the players flip flopped playing time. 

Our HS's coach has an unusual approach.  He bats his key returning V players, usually   7  or 8 guys, in one line-up, and goes through that line-up twice.  Once they've each been up twice, his #2 line-up cycles through twice.    If the game is still going after that, it's back to the first group.

The benefit is having everybody hit, but still getting more of a game rhythm than they would with straight CBO.

I like JCG's Coaches method for the most part.  I would switch it up a little if one of my starters was in a dogfight for their position.  (I had a hole at 2B, and I needed to decide between a couple guys.)

So many ways to go about this and it really is team specific.  One definite is that you need to see what you have with any newcomers that may be in the mix come spring.  As JCG describes, if we have a lot of players, we will hit in rotations - go thru a nine hitter lineup a couple times and then run in the next group (less is actually a good idea, thanks JCG).  This gives the hitters a better shot at having some sense of rhythm vs hitting all 16 or whatever.  We try to place them in lineup spot that makes sense but getting AB's takes precedence.  No reason for anyone not to get some PT in every game this time of year. 

Just throwing out a thought....don't you want the kids you don't know about getting a decent amount of at bats?

My thought is...the kid might be slow when you clock his 60...he might hit just middle of the pack in the batting cage...but if his game base-running skills are A++++ that might make up for the other two issues. 

Originally Posted by CaCO3Girl:

…My thought is...the kid might be slow when you clock his 60...he might hit just middle of the pack in the batting cage...but if his game base-running skills are A++++ that might make up for the other two issues. 

Something occurred to me when I read that, and I thought I‘d ask about it to see what experiences other have had.

In all the years I’ve been around HS ball locally, I’ve never been associated with a team as a scorer or am aware of another team in the area that has baseball players run a 60 under the clock. Granted, there are upwards of 160 HS programs in the immediate area and most have Fr and JV baseball, so that’s almost 500 teams and no one could possibly know what each team does. But be that as it may, its just not something I see getting much “play” here in NorCal.

Now I will say that almost every showcase or tryout for travel or tournament teams does some form of foot speed measurement, but I don’t see it for HS teams. Before I got into HS baseball, I have to admit I ASSUMED the coaches were having everyone run a 30, a 60, a home to 1^st, home to 2^nd, home to 3^rd, and home to home to get times, then check them periodically to see how was advancing. But the reality in my experience is, it just doesn’t rank up there very high on the need to know the precise measurement.

Anyone have other experiences?

Totally different topic.  Out of respect to OP's question, why not start a separate thread?

Cabbagedad;

Interesting!

Each weekend I watch the Fall games at SSU. We are departing for Australia in 75 days and I discuss the trip with the parents.

We have discussed with the SSU coaches to provide instruction with the games.

Maybe the players not in the game can hit in the cage or run the 60 years, then listen to the SSU track coach and run a second time.

Several years ago at Fresno State, II did this during an Area Code tryout. We had a 10% improvement in running times.

Bat 10 hitters double DH and everyone is happy.

Bob

<www.goodwillseries.org>

Originally Posted by cabbagedad:

Totally different topic.  Out of respect to OP's question, why not start a separate thread?

Now wait a second. CaCO3Girl threw out a thought and I commented on that thought. I meant no disrespect to anyone, and thought it would be interesting to see what others experiences were. All I did was point out that that timing players in the 60 was something I’d never seen done. My thinking wasn’t that foot speed wasn’t a factor, but that how it was determined might be important.

If we’re going to stop any kind of post that isn’t exactly on point to the OP in a thread, there’s not going to be very many threads last longer than a few posts.

LOL - I gotta side with you on this one, Stats.  The thread drift is not on you in this case, and not a big deal regardless of who it's on.

My kid's team does time the 60 during tryouts, and they also do some other metrics that they compare from season to season.

Originally Posted by JCG:

…My kid's team does time the 60 during tryouts, and they also do some other metrics that they compare from season to season.

As I said earlier, I assumed every coach was doing not just that, but some other base running things, and for exactly what you said, comparing performance from season to season.

I have to admit though, that time has worked its magic on me, and now I don’t see nearly as much value in it as I once did, although I still see it as a valuable tool to help a coach when it comes to keep/cut when players are very close and at the very bottom of the depth chart. But even then, if the only real difference is one kid can run 6.3 and the other is 6.4, I say either keep them both or cut them both. However, if one is 6.3 and the other 6.8, then the 6.8 gotta go because the other kid will at least help in pinch running situations.

I like to give all the new kid's plenty of snaps, I know what all my regulars can do. This way newbies can play with no pressure for several weeks, We already have a pretty good idea how everything is gonna shake out, but just in case I miss something we should find it here.