Game plan for fall ball

My son's high school team uses it primarily for reps and to see how our pitching staff is shaping up.  Have 20-ish kids on roster and bat the whole darn thing.  Play double headers. HS Head Coach provides a list of kids for roster and positions he would like to see them at and the rest is left to our Fall Ball coach.

My sons high school fall ball team was mostly bench players and JV players hoping to elevate their status. Some kids not interested in college ball would play.

My son used fall  of soph year to win a starting position. The s following years if he didn't have a travel game be showed up to cheerlead pinch hit  and maybe pitch an inning.

We just started a fall ball team; so far we are batting all players...though we lost a tough one on Sunday we might have won if we batted 9 only. 

 

From my perspective (and I am the Asst. Coach) we should bat everybody. I can't really say that winning some elusive 16U fall ball championship is my goal. The head coach (head lineup-writer to some) wants to "win it all", so he has made comments about batting 9 from now on. Can't say I agree and I'll make my feelings known this upcoming weekend should we go to a shortened batting order. 

 

As a dad, and not the coach, I'm looking for my 2016 to stay sharp at the plate, get some innings on the mound and get work in the field (he caught his freshman year out of necessity for the school team). Also that he has some fun playing ball. Most important I think. 

I coach our high school's developmental team in the fall.  We bat everyone. Most of our opponents don't.

We bat 10 and If we have 2 kids fighting for a position one will start and play the first 5 innings and then the next player will play the last 4.  The following week we will flip flop this. 

My son (2016) is in a fall ball league (double header on Sunday’s) with continuous batting, max 6 runs per half inning.  There are no standings and no official score.  It’s a great opportunity for the kids to work on things and learn new positions.  My son’s HS team is trying to convert him to catcher so he’s catching a lot, pitching some, and playing some third base (he normally plays first, OF, P, C).

We dont do fall ball  anymore
We just  practice. Saves us money too. Last time we did fall ball we had too many sore arms/elbows because the kids pitched ALOT on their summer teams. If I had 20 kids i would just scrimmage each other occas.  and practice. Batting all 20 in same game does not allow for  players to get into a rhythm. I would rather my son to just play one game of DH and left others play one too.

For younger kids (current 12U) in MS (that don't play football) I get together 1x per week on a weeknight to get them on the big field. Tomorrow is first night. 

 

One of my favorite things to do thistime of year!

Our Fall Ball team does bat the whole lineup, but it varies from week to week.  Sometimes we'll have 15 kids show up and other weeks we'll have 9.  Positions are rotated every couple of innings or so. 

 

Question for anyone - is your High School coach involved with the Fall Ball team?  Our team is made up of players from the High School team, but it's very relaxed and not all that competitive.  I'm just curious because there's a lot of sloppy play going on, goofing off, etc., and it wouldn't make sense for the HS coach to use Fall Ball when he's deciding on his roster come Spring.  Maybe it depends on the coach?

The IV coach ran fall ball. But the varsity coach watched from the fence or got a written report.

Our Fall Ball team is coached by a parent of one of the high school players and a guy who runs a local organization that puts together teams and sends them to NTIS and USA Baseball tourny's.  Not sure if the Varsity coach is involved at all but I would hope not.  As I mentioned, most of the players are goofing off half the time and my son is still trying to get used to the full sized field so is struggling a bit. 

Our fall ball is similar to what others have posted.  Run by middle school coach.  Everyone bats.  No one throws more than an inning or two. League is focused more on development than score.  Varsity coach doesn't watch or follow up to my knowledge, but already seems to have a good idea of who is coming up through the program.  LOTS of goofing off in the dugout.  

If anyone goofed off in the dugout at my son's high school he would have a varsity player in his face. There's a difference between fun and goofing off.

I would have thought that would be the case, but our local program is relatively weak and I was pretty shocked by how undisciplined the older kids were.  Waited for the coach to get after them but it just continued throughout the double header.  Son just shook his head when he got in the car.  We had a nice discussion about the difference between being on a highly disciplined travel ball team (to the point where fun was almost not allowed) and playing with classmates and upper classmen from school (who can't even seem to remember the batting order).  

Our fall ball is similar to what others have posted.  Run by middle school coach.  

 

That tells me we’re not talking about Varsity players. Am I wrong?

 

Everyone bats.  No one throws more than an inning or two. League is focused more on development than score.

 

Is it a real “league” with standings, or is it that the various coaches have just scheduled games with other teams rather than playing intersquad only?

 

Do you feel its necessary to have a lineup where only the “best” players get on the field for fall ball? Do you feel its necessary for only the best pitchers to throw, and to throw more?

 

Varsity coach doesn't watch or follow up to my knowledge, but already seems to have a good idea of who is coming up through the program.  

 

Is there a varsity team? If so, how would the V coach have time to do a lot of watching the younger kids? If not, what difference does it make if he seems on top of the talent in the pipeline?

 

LOTS of goofing off in the dugout.  

 

So what? Our HC is one of the most disciplinarian and most successful guys you’ll ever run across, but for fall ball the whole atmosphere is different. Its all about learning the system, getting reps, and trying out new things. I’m not trying to imply the kids are on a first name basis with the coach, but there’s definitely an atmosphere of relaxation that’s not there in the spring and summer.

 

I would have thought that would be the case, but our local program is relatively weak and I was pretty shocked by how undisciplined the older kids were.  

 

Are you trying to say that if there were more disciple in the program, it wouldn’t be as weak?

 

Waited for the coach to get after them but it just continued throughout the double header.  Son just shook his head when he got in the car.  

 

Sounds to me like your boy is a square peg that will never fit into that round hole. He should learn that it’s a game not a job, because its gonna become that soon enough.

 

We had a nice discussion about the difference between being on a highly disciplined travel ball team (to the point where fun was almost not allowed) and playing with classmates and upper classmen from school (who can't even seem to remember the batting order).  

 

The difference is, that travel team isn’t forced to take what it gets as far as talent goes, and they have made it a job. That’s fine and dandy, but there still needs to be room for others who don’t care to live in that environment 24/7/365.

 

There are some programs that can afford to treat the kids like they owe their soul to the company store, but there aren’t a lot of them. Most find fall ball a nice break in the hectic craziness that’s “serious” baseball, and try to use it as a much more relaxed time for the kids to learn to work together and hopefully improve their skills at the same time.

I like to win because I am very competitive.  I used to just have a starting 9 in fall ball games and then put kids in as I saw fit.  The issue with that though is not every kid was getting a fair opportunity in the fall to showcase what they can do or can't do.  I know a lot of programs bat everyone in the line-up and just switch the positions around to see guys every where which I think might be the best approach for a high school fall team.  It is definitely easier for defensive replacements if everyone is in the line-up.  Pitching wise in the fall I like to limit my top 3 arms to an inning or 30 pitches each outing because normally the top 3 of a staff usually threw a lot of innings over the summer with their travel team and I let my other pitchers pitch the bulk of innings in the fall so they can compete for those number 4,5,6 spots in the staff for the spring.  Trust me, I want to win, but at the same time I do realize that you can't win a District or State Championship in fall ball but you can definitely lose it if your top three pitchers go down with injuries.  Plus, letting kids have the same opportunities all fall will get the kids in a competition mode with their teammates because they are fighting for starting spots for the varsity spring team.  And if a player misses a practice the day before our next game, then they don't get to hit the first time through so that makes them accountable to showing up to the fall practices.  You try waiting 25 or 30 at bats before you get your first. If everyone plays the same then no one can say they never got their opportunity to show the coach what they can do.

Stats, sorry if my comments made you mad.  I was just trying to answer some of the earlier posters about if Varsity coach was there, etc.  I'm all for the kiddos having fun, isn't that what it's all about?, but when I can hear swearing and I see batters marching up to the plate, then turning to dad in the stands and declaring loudly "let's see if he can throw me a single strike this time" I think a little discipline is in order.  Makes our whole district look bad in my opinion.  

 

At my son's HS there are 3 fall baseball teams.  A 14u, run by the freshman coach for new freshmen, a 16u, run by the JV coach for new sophomores or players from the spring 2013 JV team and an 18u team, run by the varsity coach for spring 2013 varsity players.  It's organized through a "booster club".  All of this being said, as I've seen with my 2017, players can be moved to other teams if another coach feels they can play or they are looking at them for the spring.

In our neck of the woods, in the fall you cannot have more than 4 players form one school on a team. The rule in the summer is if you have more than 4 players from a school on a summer team you cannot start your Summer season until the Varsity team is done in the state play offs.

Our HS Varsity coach encourages kids to play away from the program in the summer and fall. He encourages kids to play with other kids of their level where they will get playing time.

 

There are restrictions in our area also.  The booster club appears to skirt any issues by organizing the teams and hiring the school coaches.  Kind of bs if you ask me.  The teams play in a local league.  It's not mandatory for players, but an option.  The better players are with travel or showcase teams.  

 

My son does not commit to the entire season, but will make the games that he can. The booster club realizes that some of the kids play on other teams, so it's not an issue.  In fact, that way of doing business has allowed my son to play some games at 16u/17u in the summer and 18u in the fall for the varsity coach.  It's been a good opportunity for him to learn more about the coaches and how they do things.

The rule here is that any fall team cannot have association with the HIgh School.  Can't use funds, can't use the field (well - could rent it technically), can't have the school name on uniforms, and the team has to be part of an organized league.

 

What our school has done is to run a JV and V team through the city Optimist Club Program.  The team fees go to the club, the players wear club uniforms and play all of their games on the club fields.

 

On the plus side, because the teams are an official part of the Optimist program, there are no costs for field rental, lights and umpires.  

Originally Posted by BaseballChauffeur:

Stats, sorry if my comments made you mad.  I was just trying to answer some of the earlier posters about if Varsity coach was there, etc.  I'm all for the kiddos having fun, isn't that what it's all about?, but when I can hear swearing and I see batters marching up to the plate, then turning to dad in the stands and declaring loudly "let's see if he can throw me a single strike this time" I think a little discipline is in order.  Makes our whole district look bad in my opinion.  

 

I’m sorry I came across as angry, because I wasn’t.

 

Maybe the kids around here are just rotten no good so-an-sos, because I hear swearing in the dugout from every single team I score for. Admittedly though, I only score HS and college games now-a-days.

 

How much I’d react was whether it was one player disrespecting the opponent like that, or if it was pretty much everyone. If its just one player, its prolly a parenting issue, and would likely best be handled by the coach talking with the parent and the player together. If it’s several players doing it, then its likely the coach has let the inmates start running the asylum.

WHEW! That’s sure a lot of restrictions for some silly fall ball games that mean nothing. Our coach gets together with a few other coaches, and the teams play what amounts to scrimmage games. We play 12 games against 6 different teams          , with only 1 twin bill.

 

We hire an umpire, but the games don’t follow the rule book very closely about substitutions and batting orders. It’s a nightmare for me as a scorer, but it’s a great atmosphere for the players because there’s absolutely no pressure. What’s really nice to see is, if a kid has an especially bad day at the plate, the coach might give him 2 or 3 ABs in the last inning. And  the score really means nothing. Our last game we were the home team and ahead by 4 in the bottom of the 7^th. No big deal. We batted in the 7^th too.

My son's former high school played in a fall league. They had ten games over six Saturdays. There were some rules that were easy to subvert. To get around entire high school teams couldn't participate they all renamed themselves as travel teams. Head coaches couldn't coach. They hung on the fence. High school equipment couldn't be used. They donated their old spring equipment to the "travel" team. Players only had to pay for team tee shirts. My sons high school fall team was named by a coach's three year old son ... Grasshoppers.  The players thought it was funny.

Our Local high school coach started a fall ball league a few years ago, when it first started was just a few local high schools that put teams together for the fall. It is now up to about 20 teams, this is the first year that a local academy team has entered a team. Our high school coach puts two teams, about 18 kids, made up of 9-12 grade kids. It has really grown into a nice option, some kids still play with their travel teams in the fall, He does not seem to care just wants the kids to play. When my son played he had a strict rule that if you played another high school sport, you could not play baseball. He wanted you to focus on your main sport, so my son played football he did not get to play in the fall.

 

The coach has even got some local colleges to come out for a showcase day a the end of the season. He is a real baseball guy, he had done a great job giving a lot of kids a decent option for fall ball. He does not coach a team, but does get out to watch many games.