high school baseball and recruiting

I would ask him what he wants.

I truly believe that summer baseball is the way to be seen, but leaving your high school team would be a mistake. I just find it hard to believe that a kid throwing 78 as a freshman, which means as a Jr. he should probably be throwing mid to high 80's, that he would be the 5th or 6th pitcher. Your team must be stacked with pitching? Don't leave the high school team, it wouldn't look good on his record and he would always be labeled a quitter and he's probably not because he's stuck it out this long. Just my opinion.

equipman,
I see this is your first post so welcome to the HSBBW! I suggest you encourage him to stay on the high school team. Playing time in HS will eventually get down to the best nine and if your son is one of the best nine he will be on the field. With your son's versatility in being able to play multiple positions and only having to compete with one child of the AD he should have no problem finding a position to play. For what it's worth most future college players normally don't spend a lot of time at firstbase in high school .
Fungo

Thank you for your replies. It is not my intention to quit the team now. I guess what I meant to say is next year, would he be better off not playing than sitting the bench because the coach has something against him. After his freshman year and the overthrowing they put him through, he had some shoulder problems and he lost velocity. He is working with a pitching coah now to regain that. But over the last three years I have tracked his pitching on my PDA and he averages 70-80% first pitch strikes even with the diminished velocity, can still paint the corners. Our coach is currently using a 2 pitcher rotation. A freshman starts on Monday, throws FB's and a good Change up, then when he reaches 100 pitches, our Junior comes in and does the rest of the game maybe 25-35 pitches mostly offspeed. On Wed, the releaver starts the game and goes up to 100 pitches then a reliever comes in. On Friday, he starts the freshman again. Doesn't make sense to me? The coach alked him after tryouts, would he rather not play or work harder. My son said work harder. My sons faults are, he is not real fast on the basepaths, (about a 8.0 60yd)but we are working on that going to Sparq training on sundays. And he usually struggles at the plate the first few games. He has always been a #3 or #5 hitter. But they give hime 1 game and he strikes out a couple of times and now when he bats its #8 or 9. These same coaches coach football, so now he doesn't want to play that. Fine I said, we will work harder on baseball this fall. My biggest problem is this, I am taking him to a showcase in August and they want him HS stats for this year. If the caoch won't give him a chance, how will it look to the scouts if he doesn't play? I have been told that most of the college pitchers, were not that great of HS pitchers. Thats because the HS coaches always overused 1 or 2 of the best and by the time they made it to college they had to have Tommy John or other surgery. Is this true?

equipman, welcome to this site. You came to the right place for advice!

First, kudos for the things your son is doing right:
* Sticking with his high school team even if he's not getting to start
* working with a pitching coach to regain his lost velocity
* Sparq training to help his baserunning speed

Here are a couple of recommendations:
* Continue with the team through senior year and work on developing a more positive attitude about the coaches. Most likely, they don't have anything against him; he's just not performing to their expectations. Be the first one to practice and the last one to leave. Ask for extra cuts after practice. Be an encourager to all teammates. Do everything possible to show the coaches that you are willing to go the extra mile.
* Work on speed more often than once a week. Is there a speed/agility program in your area that offers training 3 times a week? If not, do extra running on your own. 8.0 is quite slow.

Don't worry about not being able to give stats. Just be honest and say that he's not starting this year. Do not make excuses. It honestly will not matter this summer when he is being looked at by college scouts.

Coaches are all different when it comes to deciding who will pitch and what the rotation will look like. Do not worry that he is not seeing any time on the mound. My son has a teammate who has not gotten any innings this spring but was offered a scholarship to pitch for a prestigious junior college program. The JUCO coaches says it does not bother them that he's not pitching. In fact, they are happy he'll have a fresh arm come fall.

Best wishes to your son as he continues to work on his game!

Just keep in mind that even sitting on the bench you are in uniform 5 days a week and working on your game---I look at the 20 game HS season as preparation for the summer/fall, at least here in the Northeast where spring weather can be f brutal

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
Just keep in mind that even sitting on the bench you are in uniform 5 days a week and working on your game---I look at the 20 game HS season as preparation for the summer/fall, at least here in the Northeast where spring weather can be f brutal

frosty brutal?

Thank you all for your advice especially Infieldo8 and TRhit. That is very good advice. When my son comes home, I will have him red your posts. We had the 3rd game this week tonight and again, he sits.We lost by the way. I am going to have him sit down with the coach and find out where he is lacking and what he needs to work on. I strongly feela that it is the team that is missing out on what he could contribute. My son said to me on the phone tonight, "Why would the coach DH a lefty when the left field fence is only 290 and I hit the top of the fence last year".But, I think what I will do, is get some of the cones, bungees, and ladders for him to work on his speed and take them to the field every night. Meet him when he comes off the field and we will go to work for another half hour or so right in front of the coach. That way, he will see him putting in the extra time to get better. Tonight at the game, he warmed up the left fielder between innings and opened and closed the dugout gate for the batters. He is keeping busy. Thats good

[QUOTE]Originally posted by equipman:
Meet him when he comes off the field and we will go to work for another half hour or so right in front of the coach. That way, he will see him putting in the extra time to get better.

It sounds like you're doing the right thing, just remember your doing this to better your son, not impress the coaches.

Equipman, I can appreciate your determination to help your son get playing time. As a parent let me please recommend to you that you don't become too overzealous with all this. Sometimes a parent can inadvertently drive a wedge between the son and coach by little quirky actions or words. Believe it or not, I'd bet the farm that this coach does in fact know what your son can contribute to the team and that in itself can be many things. The fact of the matter is some kids may not bring anything to the team at this point but might later on, even next year.

I guarantee that your son is learning some very valuable "off field" lessons, i.e. determination, hard work, focus, attitude, hustle, etc. These intangibles will propel him as much as his talent in baseball.

If I may recommend, I would not meet your coach coming or going with your son to work out extra, etc. This is nothing more than flaunting. Though your intentions are good, the coach will know what you are trying to do. Do this extra training in private so that the coach(s) will be surprised by what they see in days/weeks to come.

Good luck.

HS ball is about much more than being recruited. It offers memories and experiences that last well beyond the recruiting years. There are ways to add to your son's visibility if needed. Also, if there is a coach that truly plays lesser talented players or holds an attitude towards certain kids, scouts and coaches know that and they see that. They will make up their own minds about your sons ability as well as the other kids. Just allow him to shine when he can and enjoy those moments. They go by way too quickly.

Equipman - There are many reasons why a player who is good enough to be on the field in HS may be sitting. My point here is that most college coaches are aware of this. So if they see your son play in the summer, his demonstrated ability will be more important than whether or not he actually took the field in the HS season. That said, I think it is important to be on the team.

In some high schools, particularly larger ones, there are many players vying for relatively few playing positions. Some schools, right or wrong, will play seniors ahead of more talented underclassmen. Then there are the younger brothers of the kids who were good players, and the kids who are the little league legends. Some coaches are susceptible to these things. To be fair, there are also honest differences of opinion over who the best players may be.

Most college coaches are busy with their own teams during the HS season, so the summer does become more important. The advice you are getting here is sound. Have your son stay with the HS team and get the practice reps that will prepare him for summer.

TR and others:

Today I will watch David Alder 5'4 led his team at SSU. Please note that he gave back his scholarship money so that the team could be competitive. They are now rated #2 in Division 2.
Bob

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080426/SPORTS/804260350/1010/SPORT01

Great article

What an amazing article. Thanks for posting!

Thank you all. Just to clarify a few things. Wour school is only 800 students. Not too big. I did like the article that consultant posted. He will stay on the team and continue to work on the side. I told him to get with the coach in the next few days and see what he needs to work on to get in the lineup more.

You all have provided some very good thoughts. As I have been reading other threads concerning JUCO's, I have been talking more about where my son will fit in and I truly believe that JUCO may be the way to go. What I would like to know is where can I go on the web to find a listing of JUCO's and the programs that they feed into? He wants to go into sports mgmt or athletic training so we know of many good 4 year schools for that. But, how can we find the JUCO that will feed them? Any ideas would be great

ask the coaches of the schools he is interested in which juco's they would recommend.

From what I've seen high school ball does not really matter much at all, except with some local schools. My son's team(and other teams as well) has a kid who is being heavily recruited due to showcase performances who have been consistently poor performers at high school. Bottom line- do not give up hope just because you are not playing- the summer is what seems to matter most. I say this even though in my sons case he has had great succes in school ball but his showcase impact has been only average.