Fall Baseball for pitchers?

We are sort of dealing with the same thing.  Son pitched alot during HS and a little during summer season.  This fall he will not pitch in his HS fall league nor with the fall travel team. 

 

He will play 3rd, DH, and occasionally catch.  He will also be looking to put on about 15lbs via strength and conditioning as well as yoga classes. 

 

Start arm conditioning in December and should be ready to go in February.

Same position here. Decided to do a few showcases instead. School wants to start conditioning earlier this yr and work fundamentals on field while weather is nice. Would really get nothing out of more games. showcases/camps r available a lot from now to beginning Nov around here,so we can pick and choose what works best so we can plan some time off in between.

good luck, at least you re thinking correctly about protecting arm. We ve seen a lot of injured players lately and it's heartbreaking to see kids sidelined for months after surgery and wonder if it could have been avoided.

Sounds like you already know the answer. 

 

"However, I also know his arm needs some rest."

 

"Another, factor is that he needs put on at least 15 pounds and don't see how it would be possible to hit the weights that hard and play at the same time."

 

Best wishes,

 

 

 

Tell your son to take a break. A lot of guys burned out making that jump from sophomore year in high school to prepping for junior year. Increased pressure for scholarships and such are factors. Just take time off, hit the weights really hard and most importantly focus on a diet. If you need workout advice I have good resources that I am willing to share just message me. Don't overdo it. I would say let your son have a break now because jr. school season through summer will be very hectic. Build up the weights now, and take some time off so when February and March come around your son is itching to get out there even more and is rested up and now a fresh 15 lbs heavier and prepared for a great season.

Truthfully, I was strongly leaning in one direction but I feel like we are way behind on recruiting and such.  So I wanted to know if others had figured out the perfect schedule that would allow their son to pitch and be seen in the fall and get the needed rest and to prepare for the next season all in the short amount of time.

 

As of right now I don't see how it is possible so we (I say we because he needs help with planning) have to decide what is the most beneficial to meet his goals

 

Thanks and I sent you a message.  At least I think I did.  I am pretty new at this.

Three things you said make me think not playing this fall would be a good idea.

First, you said his arm is tired. Health and injury prevention always have to be your first consideration.

Second, you said he needs to work on strength training.

Third, you said that if he has the opportunity to play in college it will probably be as a pitcher.

Correct me if I'm reading between the lines incorrectly, but it sounds like your son is a good ball player but not an elite prospect.

If that's the case, your son's prime recruiting window will open next summer. Even with more and more early commitments happening now, it's still mostly the top level players that are receiving offers before they play your junior season.  Focus your plan on having him at a peak level of performance at the time he's most likely to get serious looks.

If I were in your position, I would encourage my son to spend the fall under the tutelage of a qualified conditioning coach.  Then I would have him spend the winter in a throwing program supervised by the best pitching coach you can secure.

This plan would put him in the best position to have a strong junior year and be ready to show himself to best advantage next summer.

Pitching this fall offers negligible chance of return and a heightened risk of arm damage, with significant opportunity cost.

I would also ask you when he would rest his arm if not during the fall. He does need rest. When will he get it?

In the winter?  Nope. That's when he needs to be conditioning his arm to get ready for spring.

Never?  Nope. That invites higher injury risk.

Now?  Yep.

Best wishes,

Thanks for your input.

Yeah, right.

Let us know when you find that "perfect schedule" you're looking for that allows a worn out, understrength pitcher to compete, show well and rest all at the same time.

My 2014 did fall ball / showcase event last year. basically it was one once a week double header of which he pitched 3 -5 innings and played in field the rest of the time (minus some rotational sitout time). for him it benefited, he was / is a good player but not considered elite. That time put him on radar of the level of college that he is looking at. It started in last week of august, his summer ball was over last week of july, so he took 2 weeks off then did a couple bullpens a week the last 2 inbetween and then did one during the 5 weeks the showcase/ games was going on. then at end of september he shut down. He didn't touch a baseball until mid January (don't start baseball HS season until mid March in Ohio) he lifted and played HS basketball. He actually threw his hardest ever  to that time in the fall (got up to 88, sat 84-86- in summer his best was 86). this spring he got back rather quickly to last fall standards and then has went up from there.

 

His summer team finished 2 weeks ago and he took a week break, this weekend he is doing  a specific showcase, then over next 4 weeks going to an individual showcase or playing same fall ball (these worked well because 3 of colleges he is playing the fall ball program are schools that my 2014 and they (the college) have mutual interest.  After that he is shut down. Being his senior year, not sure where we go if he hasn't committed, but he will be shut down for a bit is the plan 

We are in the south and practice for the spring season starts in February. The fall baseball schedule last through the end of October.  So isn't as much time between fall and spring as what y'all have.

nope, we have winter here startes sometime in November and can go thru mid march. been snowed out of games more that once in HS ball. Last year for HS, first scrimmage was in 3 week of March, that was, also, first day either team had been outside for baseball

I was never looking looking for or asking about resting and competing at the same time but if there was sequence of events that allowed for everything happen,  like what chefmike was able to do.  However, the timing of seasons is different here than it is Ohio so their scheduling wouldn't work for my son. 

 

I was also asking for input such as what you gave regarding which is more important this year. 

 

Again thanks for your input.

OP, you talk about exposure and conditioning.  You can train hard and play baseball at the same time.  Every player this summer who's playing football this fall had to train hard this summer (roughly a 1/3 of my son's HS teamates).  Even if your son plays fall ball through October and only has 6 weeks off before starting baseball spring training he can train during the fall gearing up to do his max lifts once fall ball ends and he's in his down period.  Talk to a certified trainer and set up a good workout plan.

 

Your question about exposure.  Others have covered that and now may not be the year he needs to have the exposure (next fall may be more usefull), so you really need to ask what fall ball will do for your son this year?  Maybe he needs to work on pitch sequence, or refining a new pitch, or something else that fall ball can help with.  If it's just exposure then taking the fall off may be good (more time to train).  My son is being converted to a catcher in HS and he also pitched in the spring.  This summer he didn't pitch at all  and didn't catch much.  So this fall he's playing fall ball (double headers on Sunday) with a club that will let him work on pitching and catching (i.e. pitch 2 innings/Sunday and catch 1 game) so he can get some work in (working on his curve and a split finger).  As for training, my son plays 3 sports (football, basketball, baseball) and trains hard all year, just have to organize it sensibly.  For example, he'll play football M-Th (maybe Friday or Sat), Baseball on Sunday, Basketball on Monday nights.  We'll find one evening a week for a bullpen and he'll lift 3 days a week for football and basketball. Even with that his throwing arm won't be overworked as it will have enough rest for Sunday (i.e. no heavy upper body work on Friday or Saturday).

I am not an expert hence the reason I am on here asking questions but I don't think that it is a good idea to do off-season type of work outs and be in-season.  That is the reason there different work outs depending what season you are in. 

 

In order on add weight and muscle you have hit the weights hard.  From my limited experience, it doesn't matter how good of shape you are in,  if work out legs like you are supposed to you are going to be sore.  If you pitch with sore legs you are going to alter your mechanics and you are a great risk for injury.

Son usually took off a couple of months in the fall. No throwing at all. Used that time to work out and condition only. Usually started throwing first of December to start building up to be ready for the start of High School season first of February. Now that he's in college, doesn't really seem to be much of an off season...fall practice, spring, summer ball...

For the record I do believe it is important to take some time off.  However, each individual needs to make that decision about when is the right time.  Health is important and so is performance. It is another risk vrs.reward thing. We all know the safest thing is to NOT pitch.  

 

I don't really care if anyone wants to believe it but the summer and fall is the best recruiting and scouting time. The biggest scouting attraction, by far, in all of baseball is at the end of October each year in Jupiter Florida. I'm going to list a bunch of pitchers who later pitched in the Big Leagues that pitched in that late October event while they were still in high school. Not sure it means a lot other than they did it and it is extremely  common. I could name many, many more.

 

Jose Fernandez

Shelby Miller

Gerritt Cole

Matt Harvey

Rick Porcello

Drew Storen

Dylan Bundy

Kevin Gausman

Tyler Skaggs

Zach Wheeler

Tyler Chatwood

Michael Roth

Steve Rodriguez

Joel Hanrahan

Jonathan Sanchez

Matt Cain

Zach Greinke

Scott Kazmir

Mike Pelfrey

Jon Broxton

Johnny Venters

JP Howell

Corey Kluber

Tommy Hanson

Tyler Clippard

Nick Adenhart

Homer Bailey

Chad Billinsley

Ian Kennedy

Chris Perez

Daniel Bard

Jacob McGee

Mike Minor

Buster Posey (pitcher then)

Chris Valstad

Travis Wood

Jeremy Hellickson

Daniel Hudson

Ross Detwiler

David Price

Matt Wieters (he pitched)

Gio Gonzalez

Yovani Gallardo

Javier Guarra

Blake Beavan

Stephen Strasburg

Jeff Locke

Zack Britton

Kyle Drabek

Lance Lynn

That's not even half of them.

 

Again, not sure it answers anyone's question regarding pitching in the Fall or resting. I will say that resting is always "safer" than playing. No doubt about that!