HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL SPRING 2015

2018 turns 15 late june...i dont try to get caught up in the age piece but it is hard to ignore...he does work hard so just looking forward to the start of ball this year to see how it goes.

I understand the age thing.  My 2018 doesn't turn 15 until the end of August.  By the way, as an update to my above post, he didn't see any action with the varsity that Friday night.  The next day he started both Varsity games at catcher, threw one guy out at second out of 4 attempts, and was 2 for 5 at the plate with no strike outs (1 pop fly, 1 ground out, and one deep fly ball). This past week end he started the only game we had, was 0 for 1 at the plate with 2 walks and a weak shot to SS off the shaft of the bat.  Overall, I'm really pleased.  He's having some real quality at bats for the team, especially for a 14 year old. 

phillyinnj, our son has a late birthday as well, just before schools starts each fall.

He was 16 this summer playing with 2015s (his grade) who were 18 or 19 and some who'd be 20 by this June.

Our son will be 20u (LOL)  the summer after Junior year in college

The switching schools thing is bigger than we thought a few years ago..

We weret asked often about a PG year or switching schools,

and when we look at rankings many 2016 and several 2017s are older than him.

Do agree It is prep for college or anything beyond that.

Son has done very well,

works hard & continues to get better (don't underestimate the continuing to get better part, many kids plateau at 14, 16 or 17).

though if we had a Stewie Griffin time machine we may have done things differently as the 2 year difference hurt in some major avenues.

I would say we knew young 2015s who did not play their grade and instead strictly  played their age in the summer (ie 16u 2015s this summer) they say it hurt in recruiting.

I suppose if you are on the Astros, the best Scorpions or Best Evoshield it may not matter as much,

I think see how he does this spring & summer on the travel circuit- then discuss & evaluate.

 

Shoveled this morning, praying for a thaw & disliking groundhogs & their shadows right now.

Good Luck this spring

 

Well if it makes you feel better my 2017 son's birthday is late July and I actually held him back one year at 8th grade.  So he was 15 entering his freshman year.

 

Since we homeschooled him until 8th grade it was easy and the extra year of physical and mental growth has helped him quite a bit.

 

Not sure I would go back to adjust his school start year as his grades are well above where they need to be (straight A's)...I did see the shaky adjustment this fall as he went from 13U to 16U...we will see how he does this spring and summer.  Thanks!

Pitchers and catchers were to report for their firs work yesterday morning. My wife were out of town and left him with my 23yo daughter who doesn't have a car, so he walked the mile-and-a-half in a snowstorm and 20 degrees.

Up hill?

 

Both ways?

Funny you guys mention that. It's exactly what I told him when he complained; that he'd one day be able to tell his son he walked a mile in a blizzard to baseball practice...uphill...both ways.

in bare feet fighting off rabid dogs with his baseball bat...

Now you're confusing him with my grandfather.

First interscholastic scrimmages today and tomorrow.  Four real games next week.  The kid has been raking I'm told in preseason.  Finally healthy and whole, after an injury filled 2014. Looking forward to the final HS campaign -- but team has many holes to fill.  

Going crazy here in NC... Tryouts were to start on the 16th, but we were sent home early from school on Monday (no tryouts allowed) and haven't been back since.  Temperatures supposed to be near record-lows the rest of the week and with the ice on the ground, I don't see us going back to school until next week.  Very frustrating.

Wait was the bat wood or BBCOR?

Two games in to the JV season and it doesn't look good.   The overall program at the HS is in dire straights should it be left under control of its current HC's.  It has become painfully obvious to some JV parents the the JV HC runs his team like the local LL...'If you don't play this game, you get to play the next game'.  Doesn't matter what your skill level is, you sit this game , you play the next.  JV loses a game last night that could have easily gone the the other way against a historically good program in our area.  Lost due to errors, lots of errors.  HC sees me after the game and says "tough to win when you spot them 7".....but, I immediately thought back to many discussions on this site and thought it best to hold my tongue and keep from saying...'no, it's tough to win when you don't put your best 9 on the field'.  With 4 clear and obvious starters riding the pine, many parents were echoing how hard it is to support a program that resides to this type of coaching philosophy.  Sadly, the V HC does not give any input on the JV team and never asks about them or gives direction on development. 

Are JV wins all that important? 

Finally able to get back on the forums, praise be to the internet gods.

 

Son had his first official school appearance since missing last spring in a doubleheader this past weekend.

 

Coach wanted to see as many pitchers as possible, so he limited them to only 2 innings each.

 

Son was second pitcher in.  Gave up no hits or walks, One strikeout, 4 grounders, one popup. Only pitcher to not give up a base runner. Followed coach's plan to work mostly on locating his secondary pitches while throwing fastball at about 85% velocity.  Felt good afterwards so coach has given him the okay to go 100% for a couple of innings this weekend.  If he gets through that without any pain, next week he will go 4 innings. The overall plan is to have him back to shape to pitch a complete game before playoff time rolls around.

       
       
I believe JV wins are very important.   Builds confidence and excitement about the program and its future.  May make the difference between a kid choosing baseball or another sport when he is a junior and decides to focus on one or two sports instead of playing three.  Kids want to be part if a winner.  Got to give them a reason to be excited.  And I will step up and be the harsh one here...  these kids are 16 years old!  When do they have to face the music that they are not good enough?  Play the best.  Period.

Not really, but ideally there is going to be some kind of cohesive development going on with the JV and V teams.  A V HC who doesn't give input and closely follow the development of his JV team is not one who will develop a winning program.  Any coach worth his salt will know that those kids are his future players, and will want them developed properly so that he will have less work to do to get them ready in the future.

 

Even on the JV level you want to win - but at the same time you want to give players an opportunity to prove themselves, either in a good way or bad.  Especially early in the season, you need to confirm if what you see in practice carries over to games when the pressure is increased. 

I don't think it's about the "W", at least not for me.  But, as has been discussed here to no end, once you reach the HS level, it's about developing to get to the next level.  This is no way to prepare kids for the next level, it is simply the continuation of the coddling and "everyone is a winner" methodology.  JV should be used to develop the next level of V players, if you want to have a strong V program.  If the school, coaches and parents are only concerned about having a team so kids can play, then so be it.  But that is not the case at our school.  The parents and players want a successful program, not just a team.  Our school is not deep in talent, quite the opposite.  The V HC has chosen, for the first time, to put JR players on JV.  Why do that if they are going to go to JV and sit?  Why not just grow a pair an cut them?  In this particular case these JR's were in crowded position on V but could very well be contributors to next years V team, but won't be ready if they sit on JV.  HS is not LL.  There is no guarantee of play time.  The JV HC wants to win, complained all last year about the lack of talent and inabiity to win games, then he fields a team in this manner.  He should not be blasting kids after a loss if he chooses to run the team in this manner, sends a mixed message to everyone.

I generally agree with you guys (rob, Joliet and lefthook).  My kid's HS suffers from a sever disconnect between the Varsity and lower levels.  And it shows years later when they get to varsity -- they suck in most sports.  And unfortunately it creates a loosing culture.  What you say is ideal.  But I just don't see it a lot these days.   

Our Frosh situation is the same. Lots of coaches yelling about winning (literally), but then they play all 19 kids every game. Our #19 player plays three innings, our #1 player plays four. Not exactly conducive to winning, yet the coaches scream & holler every game not realizing that they aren't putting the players in the optimal situation to beat a team that plays their best 9 the whole game. Varsity coach completely hands off up to this point. Hopefully as the season goes along it gets better, if not 2018 will go with the flow and anxiously await travel ball season.

I thought for a second lefthookdad was watching my son's team last year.We could have started 3 freshman on varsity but apparently no freshman ever go to varsity..It was a tough season in general..FACT IT SUCKED....Feel your pain..

As I drive by our high school baseball diamond in Coal City,IL and it's buried under 10 inches of snow and there's a -30 below windchill at the moment,LOL, it's hard to fathom that our first game is in the 2nd week of March. Our Varsity team will be young this year, only 5 seniors on the team,including my son who is the starting catcher. We are a small school,class 2a this yr, but we get to play some powerhouses on our schedule,including Joliet Catholic and in the past Providence Catholic. My frustration comes with the fact that anyone that goes out for baseball,even at the varsity level makes the team. I can see it at the lower levels where you are encouraging kids to tryout and make the team but when you get to the varsity level and your basically bringing a football team to every game,while your opponent is bringing 15 guys, at what point are you playing to win?? Maybe i'm being selfish and i'm sorry if I come across like that but I feel you should be trying to field the best team possible when playing. Oh well, enough venting, I feel we will go deep into the post season this year,we have junior stud pitcher who's going to Indiana and he will go against the top teams, if they don't throw his arm off,LOL. I'm sure Proudhesmine will be watching with his pitch counter,LOL.

2017's first game is tomorrow. One of three Soph's to make Varsity this year. Season was supposed to start Monday but games canceled due to rain, snow & unseasonably cold temps. Have three games for the day with modified schedule. He's been moved to PO & told he'll be pitching tomorrow. No idea if starting or out of the bullpen. Told him not to be disappointed if he see's no action but be ready.

Son's coach has changed his thinking a bit and it looks like my son will be working as the team's closer.  He wants to keep his bat in the lineup, and thinks this is the best way to do it without having to juggle too many lineup changes.

 

In any case, I can't complain about the results from this weekend.

 

Came in to begin the top of the 7th with a 1 run lead and the middle of their order coming up.

 

Struck them out in order on 11 pitches. 6 swinging strikes, not even a foul ball.  All fastballs.

 

He was pleased with his velocity and isn't having any arm pain so all is looking good.

Sitting here in IL waiting for tryouts to start next week.  Not sure when the season is going to start.  Currently -4 with packed snow that is now hard as ice on the ground.  To top things off they are now saying we could get "several inches" or even a "significant snow storm" this upcoming weekend.  And they are now reporting that we are going to have a cool to cold spring as the lakes are almost completely frozen over.  

 

My kid is a 3 sport athlete and I love watching the kids play football and basketball but his first love is baseball and he is itching to get started.

Official practice here in Ohio starts today.  4 degrees right now...and not much better the rest of the week.  First game is a month away...hopefully the snow is gone

Practice starts next Monday, with our first game on 3/17.  2015 has been working out with his summer team since our HS fall season ended last October.  This is his only week off, so what's he doing tonight?  Going to the local indoor center to get some hitting in.  Sad that this will be his last HS season, but he has a full summer season ahead followed by college ball.  Knowing the end isn't coming in a few months is letting us all enjoy his senior year very much.  

 

I feel so far behind the rest of the country and I'm getting antsy to get this show on the road. Like MOMOM, we don't start official tryouts until next Monday. Rumblings are that my 2018 will play JV, but we'll see what happens. There are about 30 Freshman trying out, which is huge considering this is only the second year we've had a Freshman team in many years. Many Sophomores will be playing V, so there are a few spots open on JV, at least that's what the kids were told last week. My son has made it to every early morning workout, after school conditioning, pitching practice and field work day. Hopefully, he has proven his commitment, dedication and desire to improve.

  

We've been so fortunate to have very spring like weather over the last month. Hopefully, that trend continues through spring. However, it would be just our luck for it to start raining and snowing as soon as practices start.

Son is a 2015 LHP/1B...so this is it!  First real scrimmage in NorCal was this past Saturday...10 inning game.  Our team fared alot better than I thought.  I knew the pitching staff was going to have the biggest holes with 3 of our top 4 pitchers graduating last year.  So far, gave up grounders and pop-ups...our pitchers made them put it in play, which definitely works.  Since our OF is also thin, my son also played CF for a couple innings for the first time in high school.  He said he had a choice between his pitching glove or his 1B mitt to take out there.  Ugh.  Another scrimmage game tomrw against a better team.  Can't wait for tomrw.  Our first real scheduled game is this Friday with my son starting on the mound.

 

Our JV has alot of kids it seems, I heard 18-19, with a couple of cuts supposedly happening after their scrimmage tomrw, not sure if that's true.  I was hoping an unknown stud JV kid would shine and get called up and help the OF and bottom of the our lineup.        

2018 got his first varsity action in a scrimmage game.  Struck out the side in the first inning, struck out 3 in the second inning threw 23 pitches in two innings sitting 85. 

 

My wife told my father to go get his truck so he could take my head home

Exciting times, good luck with the rest of the season!

http://www.orlandosentinel.com...24-story.html#page=1

Yesterday was the big day. At the start of fall workouts it looked like the the coach would have to cut over 20 kids. Along the way enough kids self-cut to the point that the coaching staff only had to cut eight kids with only five of them being freshmen.  The coach brought each kid individually in a room and let them know if they had a place in the program or not.  The boys had to walk back into the same room and face the other boys.  I came by to pick up my son and could tell the couple of boys that were cut.  It was sad to see them holding their baseball gear wondering if they would continue on or hang them up. 

My son told me that he does not know what team he has made. Based on his talk with the coaches,  I think he is going to split time with V/JV.  I am happy for him,but I still think about the boy standing waiting for his parents to pick him up.  He stood there trying to be strong but you could tell he wanted to burst into tears.

First time back on the hill since Thanksgiving for my son.

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/...28-story.html#page=1

 

Just to let you all know I had a heart attack Thursday night around 2:30am - without prior warnings - and it was very scary and I'm very lucky to be talking to you all now. I had 100% blockage in the 'widow-maker' artery and they put in a stint, I'm feeling great now and I'm VERY thankful...

My son and his mom drove about 45 mins and saw me around 4:30 and were with me until 6am... He then went to school after leaving me, and had an away game at 4pm... I watched the game on GameChanger from the hospital and he hit a Grand-Slam.... it made my day!

http://youtu.be/WXbNfQnSNlc

Wow, coach, so glad to hear you got through that.  Best wishes toward a full recovery.  That hit had to be a big help toward recovery for what has to be a tough time for your son as well.