Interesting article

Great article TPM!!  I love to read success stories!!

2014Prospect posted:

Great article TPM!!  I love to read success stories!!

I posted it because there is always a concern about being too small. But sometimes you just have to wait to catch up.

I know he must be pretty good as he committed to Florida.

Great story, thanks.

I'm assuming there is a typo in the article and the author meant to say that he competed in the 14U PG BCS final when he was 14, not the 12U PG BCS final!

Similar story about Joc Pederson -- he was 5'4" 110 lbs. as a freshman in high school.

2019Dad posted:

Great story, thanks.

I'm assuming there is a typo in the article and the author meant to say that he competed in the 14U PG BCS final when he was 14, not the 12U PG BCS final!

Similar story about Joc Pederson -- he was 5'4" 110 lbs. as a freshman in high school.

The only thing about Pederson was that his father was a player (Dodgers also), so he had the pedigree, and not a first day draft pick either.  

I do remember a discussion here about teams drafting their boys, nepotism, wastes a draft pick and there are others more deserving, in this case NOT!

Great kid.

In baseball, what I am seeing is that if you go through your growth spurt early you are more apt to get on the higher level teams, get commitments to the best schools early.  As I look at some of the rosters of the high level teams for the 2018 class I see the majority of kids already over 6' tall.  When top D1 coaches are looking to get their rosters set before half of the kids in that graduation class are halfway done with puberty its unfortunate for the late bloomers, and by late, I just mean by the time they are out of high school.  FSU already has 7 commits in 2018 and Florida has 8 listed.  My son will be over 6' tall someday but like his brother and cousin ( 6'3") probably won't be until he's a junior or senior, right now he is 5'9"  and 145 pounds...but the schools he would love to play at will probably be done recruiting his class by the time he has the physique they are looking for, even if he has the talent.  That is just my observation of this early recruiting I could be wrong.

JLC posted:

In baseball, what I am seeing is that if you go through your growth spurt early you are more apt to get on the higher level teams, get commitments to the best schools early.  As I look at some of the rosters of the high level teams for the 2018 class I see the majority of kids already over 6' tall.  When top D1 coaches are looking to get their rosters set before half of the kids in that graduation class are halfway done with puberty its unfortunate for the late bloomers, and by late, I just mean by the time they are out of high school.  FSU already has 7 commits in 2018 and Florida has 8 listed.  My son will be over 6' tall someday but like his brother and cousin ( 6'3") probably won't be until he's a junior or senior, right now he is 5'9"  and 145 pounds...but the schools he would love to play at will probably be done recruiting his class by the time he has the physique they are looking for, even if he has the talent.  That is just my observation of this early recruiting I could be wrong.

 JUCO is a great place for these kids to fill out and pad their stats a little, and D-1 schools don't mind a nice JUCO transfer that can help them win.

JLC posted:

In baseball, what I am seeing is that if you go through your growth spurt early you are more apt to get on the higher level teams, get commitments to the best schools early.  As I look at some of the rosters of the high level teams for the 2018 class I see the majority of kids already over 6' tall.  When top D1 coaches are looking to get their rosters set before half of the kids in that graduation class are halfway done with puberty its unfortunate for the late bloomers, and by late, I just mean by the time they are out of high school.  FSU already has 7 commits in 2018 and Florida has 8 listed.  My son will be over 6' tall someday but like his brother and cousin ( 6'3") probably won't be until he's a junior or senior, right now he is 5'9"  and 145 pounds...but the schools he would love to play at will probably be done recruiting his class by the time he has the physique they are looking for, even if he has the talent.  That is just my observation of this early recruiting I could be wrong.

Florida has some great programs, its not all about the big 3.  And a good place to start out is at a JUCO in Florida.  And one of the best D2 in college baseball is in Tampa.

Remember many of these coaches recruit these players because they are projectible and they have the skills and talent needed from the get go, the player mentioned might be  a good example.  Two of the Florida coaches are ML former scouts, they know what they are looking for, as does the head coach, Kevin O'Sullivan. They are very good at what they do. They also recruit players that will never set foot on campus.

 Chris Sale didnt get any interest from the big 3, but he was a stud coming out of a smaller D1 (Gulf Coast)  as a first round pick.

It has been said many of time by me an others " A big kid has to prove he can not play and the small kid has to prove he can play!"

Size has come into play for every sport. That is something you can not teach.

TPM posted:

2019Dad posted:

Great story, thanks.

I'm assuming there is a typo in the article and the author meant to say that he competed in the 14U PG BCS final when he was 14, not the 12U PG BCS final!

Similar story about Joc Pederson -- he was 5'4" 110 lbs. as a freshman in high school.

The only thing about Pederson was that his father was a player (Dodgers also), so he had the pedigree, and not a first day draft pick either.  

I do remember a discussion here about teams drafting their boys, nepotism, wastes a draft pick and there are others more deserving, in this case NOT!

Great kid.

No doubt that nepotism plays a roll in the MBA when a player has pedigree, and I might add it also often plays a roll in college recruiting.  

By Joc's  HS senior year he was 6'1" and over 180 lbs. (about the same size as his father when he played pro ball).  During that Sr. year Joc played on some elite travel teams along as a team mate with my son. It wasn't unusual that I would sit with his father during the travel ball team practices or games.  Joc had an excellent bat, pretty good running speed and what I would say was an average arm.  

Aside from any nepotism that was involved concerning the Dodgers, It was really no surprise that Joc was drafted.  He was one of the best players on his HS team, though his team was really only about average in a very competitive Central Coast Section and in a very weak league.  Joc had committed to USC (where his father also went to school and played baseball), so his signability was very likely in question.  Though Joc had committed to USC, he really didn't like school work and really wanted to sign a pro contract.  Joc was literally packed and ready to leave for school the next day (he and my son were going to be room mates) when he finally got the negotiated signing bonus that was acceptable to forgo going to school.

So, since Joc had pretty much grown and filled out by his HS Sr. year, there was plenty of time for college recruiters and pro scouts to get a decent read on his projection.  I thought he'd do fine in pro-ball, but from the get-go he really excelled and certainly went well beyond what I might have thought.  And like one might expect, it didn't just come from talent.  He works very hard at his game/profession.  And no doubt in my mind that Stu (is father) helped him a lot early on with his hitting skills.

Aside from any nepotism that was involved concerning the Dodgers, It was really no surprise that Joc was drafted.  He was one of the best players on his HS team, though his team was really only about average in a very competitive Central Coast Section and in a very weak league. 

 

Now, now, let's be nice ....  I wouldn't call that league  "very weak" at least not their A-league (as opposed to their lower division B-league).   Sure even the A-league is  not  as strong top to bottom as the WCAL, with all of its  rich private schools.   But Los Gatos  from that league was CCS runner up to private Powerhouse Saint Francis this past year in the Open Division Championship.   I was really rooting for them in the championship game.  Wanted to see a public school take down the private behemoth. 

SluggerDad posted:

Aside from any nepotism that was involved concerning the Dodgers, It was really no surprise that Joc was drafted.  He was one of the best players on his HS team, though his team was really only about average in a very competitive Central Coast Section and in a very weak league. 

 

Now, now, let's be nice ....  I wouldn't call that league  "very weak" at least not their A-league (as opposed to their lower division B-league).   Sure even the A-league is  not  as strong top to bottom as the WCAL, with all of its  rich private schools.   But Los Gatos  from that league was CCS runner up to private Powerhouse Saint Francis this past year in the Open Division Championship.   I was really rooting for them in the championship game.  Wanted to see a public school take down the private behemoth. 

Yes, things can change from year to year.   For the time period I was referring to, it was a pretty weak league and the WCAL was, at that time, particularly strong.

No doubt, those public schools love to take down those "rich private schools."