Fall D1 Baseball

Well I have a rule and have followed it since Little League.

If I do not want to coach( no matter how I would like to criticize coaches) I leave them to the coaching.

For 4 years I tried to read my son's HCs mind.   I went 0 for 4, and clearly not my skillset.  Be glad that he is doing well as a freshman, making a positive impression, and he's not in the coaches doghouse.  My son had a few guys show up freshman year who did not make a great first impression, and it stayed with them for quite a while.  Fall D1 Baseball is where your son wins and loses playing time for the spring.   If he is doing well then just continue to support him and listen to what your son shares with you in private.

Remember, the HC is the boss.  Not everybody agrees with everything he does, but its his @ss at the end of the day.

JMO.

Rockers;

Does your son's team play this team in the Spring? Maybe the Head Coach desires to hold his best pitchers from the "over exposure" formula.

Bob

@Rockers posted:

My son plays for a D1 school and the coaches have only had him pitching against inter squads. Like today he started and pitched two innings and did great. No walks or runs. One hit.

The team is playing against a top school this weekend but he was told he is not pitching against them, although according to his stats he is in the top third of all pitchers.

Why would the coach do this to a kid that is excelling? There is another pitcher on the team that is in the exact same predicament. He is actually doing better!

Just makes no sense to have two of your top third pitchers not pitching against a top team when others that haven’t been performing are. Would love to know your thoughts.

I agree with Good Knight and Fenway.

You mentioned that your son pitched 2 innings today and did well, so why do you think he should pitch this weekend against a game that essentially isn't important?

Good question about  if we’re playing that team in the spring.  I’m not sure yet. The schedules haven’t been published yet that I am aware of

He is a transfer in junior. all of the kids that are not pitching today against a top 25 D1 program have only been pitching inner squad scrimmages.  

They told him Monday he would not be pitching. In addition to him not pitching today are either injured players or kids that are at the bottom of the stats that he shared with me. just makes no logical sense. And as a father it irks me.

So let me get this straight...he is a junior transfer, pitched yesterday and you think he should pitch today?

What am I missing?

And what makes me even more mad is I took the day off thinking I’d go up there and maybe watch him pitch so now I can’t do that either

in the fall everybody pitches. so my point is is why is he keeping two pitchers  behind that can pitch with the rest of the guys that can’t and those that are injured. It  doesn’t make any sense. On top of it there are others that can’t pitch that are on the card to pitch. Logically doesn’t make any sense. It is a huge hit to his ego.

There is a reason for it and I can’t figure it out. Why these pitchers? Why not two others? That’s my point.

Who knows what the coach is thinking, or what his plan is for the fall....Doesn't really matter, you can't control it. All I would say is I hope you're not in your son's ear chirping that he should be pitching and other kids shouldn't...

Agree but kids can easily figure out who should and shouldn’t be pitching.  Watching a scrimmage when kids can’t even get out of an inning shows who can and can’t.

Knowing what I know now about how all this shit works I would never have my son do this again. I would tell him go to school get a degree and get out.

It’s not always evident why coaches make the decisions the make in the moment. It usually visible over time. If it’s that important to know now tell your son to confront the coach. I guessing you will be on the receiving end of, “Are you kidding!”

My son won the starting second base position mid season freshman year. He hit ,300+ and made the all freshman team. He returned the following year to find an All American JuCo at his position, a Gatorade POY freshman in center and the son of a former MLBer at short. He didn’t start the first two games of the season. He got two hits on Sunday. He started the remInder of the year. He made honorable mention all conference.

The following year the coach added another Gatorade POY. Once again after hitting .300+ and making a level of all conference he didn’t start the first two games. He got two hits on Sunday and started the remainder of the season.

It didn’t take long before he was batting second and leading the team in almost everything. He made second team all conference.

How it netted out was my son was capable of playing seven position. The coach never explained why my son didn’t start opening day. He did later say he knew my son could hit and play anywhere.

The point is a player has to roll with the minor stuff and remain physically and mentally ready to contribute. One opportunity may be all it takes. One successful opportunity leads to another. One opportunity may be all a player gets. Freshman year after four pinch running stolen bases and showing good instincts on the bases the coach decided to start my son and see if he could hit his way on.

Hang in there. Stay positive. Don’t pour any of your negativity on your son. There are about twenty pitchers competing to be the ten who contribute. Negativity and lack of mental preparation won’t get him there. All twenty are capable or they wouldn’t be on the team. But it’s not going to end well for about a half of them. It’s just the way it works.

@Rockers,

Clearly your son has expectations coming in as a junior transfer from another program.  Maybe you are looking at this all wrong.   Maybe this isn't about winning in the Fall.   Maybe the HC wants to see more of others that have not pitched in a pressure or stressful situation (freshmen, other underclass transfers, etc...).  The intra-squad games are important (not stressful), but its more about development and learning...at least that is what my son told me.

In the Fall, his college team was divided into 3 teams, and he led all the Fall teams in pitching as an incoming freshmen at the end of the season.  When the Spring rolled around he was not on the travel team for the first series which pi$$ed him off more than I can tell you.  That was a big blow to his ego, and we had to cancel our travel plans.  Fast forward a couple weeks later and he was starting an in-conference series on the road as a freshmen.   So, you tell me what am I supposed to make of those HC decisions?  I have no clue what the man was thinking or if he was thinking at all.   During all of this, his PC told him to be patient.  He was.  To this day, I have no answers whatsoever but it did work out well for him in the long run.  Maybe talking to his PC may reveal part of the mystery....just a thought.

Good luck, and don't lose your mind over this like I did!     

@Rockers posted:

He is a transfer in junior.

I am curious as to why he transfered.

Was it because he felt he didn't pitch enough, you didn't think he pitched enough or was it because they told him to move on?

Your son should be communicating with his pitching coach.

Hey guys – you all have given some really good feedback and I do greatly appreciate you taking time out of your day to let me know. I know there’s all kinds of stories out there and I mean kudos to your kids getting over those humps. I think y’all know as a father, it’s just very frustrating seeing your son not playing when you know he’s outperforming everyone else but anyways, I do appreciate your time. Have a great rest of the day and you know what I’ll keep y’all posted to see how this all turns out because they have another scrimmage next weekend if  he doesn’t pitch in that one, then I think we have some problems.

He pitched his freshman year right out of the gate as a reliever.As the season went on he did well but towards the end faltered. Sophomore season started out with no pitching coach. He left for another job. Started the year off strong and then back issues pretty much all season. Decided to try the portal and bam the first day got an email right when it opened. So we talked about and went with it. And here we are now.

By the way this is a more competitive division now so as step up.

That is what I am thinking to ask the pitching,  but my son said he is out recruiting while they are a scrimmaging and playing today. Nice!

At a D1 school I think they are constantly recruiting and looking toward the future. There are always other coaches and eyes at practices/scrimmages they are missing. Jobs are on the line. We never talk coaching strategy & decisions with our D1 freshman and I doubt it'll always look fair from the outside looking in, plus they're also looking at things that aren't reflected on a stat sheet. Just gotta hope our kids are making good choices and putting their best out there and trust they'll end up where they're supposed to be (and have some good favor with the baseball angels). Even when he was young, we never spoke with the coaches, never spoke about the coaches. Kid's gotta learn to deal with it and have a conversation if something doesn't make sense to him and work his butt off to be their best option on the field at his position. Still, fall college ball is weird, quietly stressful, and full of unknowns.

Yeah, I mean it’s all really good feedback guys and it really gives me a good perspective on things, but I’ll be honest with you. I think it means that his name is on the board to not play this coming season I mean, why else would you do that? It just doesn’t logically make sense but hey, what do I know.

Also, you guys can’t assume that all coaches are good coaches and there’s some really bad head coaches out there in division one baseball as well as base coaches and pitching coaches

I’ve yet to hear anybody give me a reason why if you were the head coach you would do this and that’s the frustrating part of this

Rockets;

My game plan is to use 3 pitchers each game. My "slower" pitchers will pitch 1st three innings and my "faster" pitchers will pitch the final 6 innings.

My rule is to "change the hitter's eyes". Maybe your son can re-enter the portal.

Bob

@Rockers posted:

I’ve yet to hear anybody give me a reason why if you were the head coach you would do this and that’s the frustrating part of this

Ok here goes.

You need to chill out. You need to stop thinking you know better than the coaches. You don't have a clue. Trust me.

Coaches, unless they dont know what the **** they are doing, don't pitch their staff on consecutive days. ESPECIALLY if the pitcher has had previous injuries and ESPECIALLY this time of year. The game is meaningless, and it's only a few weeks into official practice.  That's it. You don't seem to understand how it works.

And your son has to man up, because he made the decision first offer out of the portal! So you are right, here you are now!

DO NOT even THINK about calling the coach. Don't ruin things for your son, you will seriously regret it.

Sir - I don’t believe I ever said I would call the coach. I know better than that. Nothing wrong with him asking though. I don’t know why a coach would single out those 8 pitchers. That is my point. Why not say let’s go boys and play and here is who is starting, etc. coaching is more mental than anything. A lot of psychological aspects to it.

@Rockers posted:

That is what I am thinking to ask the pitching,  but my son said he is out recruiting while they are a scrimmaging and playing today. Nice!

You meant for him to ask the pitching coach...but he was out recruiting?

That's part of their job. Last week pcoachson worked like 10 hours a day for 4 days then headed to Ft Myers for 3 days and came home to a hurricane 2 days later. Nice.

I am not a Sir. Why would you assume that?

Take my advice chill out!  Tell you son to be a leader, help his teammates. That's a big reason coaches recruit guys from the portal.

Remember, baseball season doesn't start for another 4-5  months!

Just relax, see where this goes.  Maybe they thought he would be good and isn’t.  Maybe he pitched well against a jv team.  Maybe he pitched against the bottom of the order.  Or like others have said, maybe they realize he is going to be one of their top guys and they don’t need to see anymore. You are getting way too worked up.  There is so much baseball left.  If your son catches on to your tone it won’t be good.  

@Rockers posted:

I’ve yet to hear anybody give me a reason why if you were the head coach you would do this and that’s the frustrating part of this

Well, if we're going this route...maybe he just doesn't like your kid?

Baseball is a game of failure. Your son has proven nothing so far, from what you have posted, other than as a new recruit he can get out a small number of hitters in college Spring training.
How he handles failure will resonate with his coaches and teammates. Will he pout (sorry but like you are doing) or will he be the first guy at lifting, do extra, support his team, etc?

New recruits don’t “earn” playing time in 10 days or a few innings, Coaches could care less about his stats. They are projecting can he get outs in  the first game in February and, if they think he can, will he do all the work (in the weight room, in the bullpen, in the classroom and as a teammate to get there.

Assuming you did your homework, these are college coaches who know what it takes to succeed starting in February, not September.In my view, you are highlighting stats the college coaches view as mostly meaningless!

You all are way over the top. Mister and misses know it alls. You are getting way off track on my original ask. Thanks for your time.

I don’t care if they are colleges. Doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing.  That is a really dumb assumption.

The coaches share the stats you idiot. They use track man and it shows first pitch strikes percentage , zone percentage, strike percentage, etc. so why do stats if they are meaningless?

@Rockers posted:

I don’t care if they are colleges. Doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing.  That is a really dumb assumption.

Your son, or you, or both picked those coaches.

For some reason I had no interest in clicking on this thread, but boy am I glad I did! This is a hilarious read! Last year, my friend’s son was new to a D1 program. He thought he was the best player on the team, and the coach even told him they don’t usually get players like him at their program. But his attitude showed, and the coach wanted to teach him a lesson by sitting him out for one of the scrimmages. Next thing you know, the kid was out of the program and in the transfer portal. His reputation followed him and no other coaches would give him an offer.

If you don’t pitch in a big time scrimmage I don’t see him pitching all year. Remember I told you 20 pitchers went. 14 slated to pitch 4 were told sorry no. Rest my case. I am tied of trying to look for answers when it’s right in front of me.

@TerribleBPthrower posted:

For some reason I had no interest in clicking on this thread, but boy am I glad I did! This is a hilarious read! Last year, my friend’s son was new to a D1 program. He thought he was the best player on the team, and the coach even told him they don’t usually get players like him at their program. But his attitude showed, and the coach wanted to teach him a lesson by sitting him out for one of the scrimmages. Next thing you know, the kid was out of the program and in the transfer portal. His reputation followed him and no other coaches would give him an offer.

I feel the same way. I was hooked. I'd like an update on what happens this school year.

@Momball11 posted:

I feel the same way. I was hooked. I'd like an update on what happens this school year.

I agree! It's been a tough week in Florida. Looking forward to the update on the scrimmage!