High School Parents: ignore your kids’ stats & batting average!

Love this!  Very good info and thanks for sharing

This is good to hear after a tournament weekend of son making good hard contact over and over again either right at someone or having the ball caught by several extremely athletic outfielders.

@3and2Fastball posted:

My 2021 son (now a D3 player) hit a 375 foot HR in high school off of a kid throwing a 74 mph meatball 4 seamer that was as straight as an arrow.  In that same game he went 3 for 3 hitting little blooper singles off a D1 commit who was throwing 93.  None of those at bats impressed the D1 coaches In attendance

But it did get the D3 coaches interested who were there.  When they talked to him, they said they liked his attitude, & approach when he fell behind in counts, and the way he battled.  None of them mentioned the HR.  It was meaningless.  Nobody in D3, that we’ve seen at least, has thrown that bad of a meatball. Multiply games like that by 10 (or 50!) and all kinds of crazy differentiation in stats occur

College coaches in recruiting never asked about his batting average.  Ever.  They wanted to know his GPA, 60 time, and throwing velo.  They wanted to know if he was legit 6’1” or if that was in cleats.  And they wanted to see hitting video, to see his mechanics.

The proper level has a way of finding you

Excellent post!

100% truth

NO college coach or recruiter ever asked for any of my son's stats.  They came and watched, or saw video with velo.

Last week a pro scout texted my son asking for the following stats for his HS senior year.  Innings pitched, K's, BBs and HBP.

@3and2Fastball posted:

My 2021 son (now a D3 player) hit a 375 foot HR in high school off of a kid throwing a 74 mph meatball 4 seamer that was as straight as an arrow.  In that same game he went 3 for 3 hitting little blooper singles off a D1 commit who was throwing 93.  None of those at bats impressed the D1 coaches In attendance

But it did get the D3 coaches interested who were there.  When they talked to him, they said they liked his attitude, & approach when he fell behind in counts, and the way he battled.  None of them mentioned the HR.  It was meaningless.  Nobody in D3, that we’ve seen at least, has thrown that bad of a meatball. Multiply games like that by 10 (or 50!) and all kinds of crazy differentiation in stats occur

College coaches in recruiting never asked about his batting average.  Ever.  They wanted to know his GPA, 60 time, and throwing velo.  They wanted to know if he was legit 6’1” or if that was in cleats.  And they wanted to see hitting video, to see his mechanics.

The proper level has a way of finding you

Very well said! I will add, however, that when the proper level finds you that you need to be open to accepting it. Lots of kids have opportunities put in front of them that they scoff at without a second thought. And let’s talk about who determines the proper level. It’s not your parents, it’s not your HS coach, it’s not your private instructor, it’s not PG, PBR, or VTool. Who determines the proper level (at least initially) is a MLB scout or a college coach. That is who you should be listening to.

Adbono;

Yes, the "PROPER" level is determined by the competition, Coaches and Scouts.

For 6 years, I coached our 16-18 year old Summer Santa Rosa team in the Northern California League.

* Forty [40] players in the League, later played in the MLB. The Coaches of each team was a Pro Scout or former College Coach. The players did not pay  to play.

In the Fall, the players played in the Pro Scout League against College teams.

This was excellent preparation for College baseball.

Bob

@adbono posted:

Very well said! I will add, however, that when the proper level finds you that you need to be open to accepting it. Lots of kids have opportunities put in front of them that they scoff at without a second thought. And let’s talk about who determines the proper level. It’s not your parents, it’s not your HS coach, it’s not your private instructor, it’s not PG, PBR, or VTool. Who determines the proper level (at least initially) is a MLB scout or a college coach. That is who you should be listening to.

100% agree

My son learned his level by the response from coaches.  D1’s sent camp invites.  He never heard from a D2.  D3’s called him on the phone.  The perennial powerhouse D3’s called him once or twice, one of them had him in for a visit.

The mid-level D3’s called him weekly, and a few sent hand written letters.  Asked him to come visit.  Talked about his non-Baseball interests & academic pursuits etc

It was pretty clear what level he belonged in.  And it was clear that if he overreached (even to a perennial power D3) he might have never seen the playing field

Ha ha!  I was running GC this weekend.  I incorrectly entered a weak ground ball that would have resulted in an out as "batter out - other.  Kids dad went in and changed it to a hit after the game.  I just had to laugh, no one but parents look at game changer.  And by the rules, it was a hit, but come on, that "hit" didn't impress anyone.