Skip to main content

25 replies

Limom84 comes clean.

L limom84100+ posts
You guys still don't get it. Let's try it again. When I say that hitting is overrated, I am talking about inflated averages, inflated distance that the ball travels when hit with an aluminum bat, and all the praise that good hitters at the HS level get.

Let's face it. HS pitching is easy to hit. Normally, the first five or six hitters in the lineup are very good. So what are these kids really proving when they hit mediocre pitching?Mom and Dad get all excited and believe their Little Johnny is going to be a star one day in the Major Leagues. But is that really going to happen?

The scout said that only 5% of HS players will play ball in college. I believe there are some stats on this website that can verify this. So if there are 20 kids on the team, 1 will play at the next level. If the other kids were such good hitters, then why don't they get a turn in college? It is that one kid who can hit, run, throw and play great defense. Remember, there is only one position on each team for the big banger with no other skills. You see, kids with speed tend to be better athletes. Better athletes tend to be better hitters, better reflexes, etc., etc., etc.

As for my son, he can hit, he can run and he can throw. It has been indicated that he will play at a D1 because of his speed and defense, not because he is one of the better hitters in the league.

Why aren't more playing at the next level? Because they really can't hit as well as Mom and Dad think they can.

HSBBW Stats:

Less than three in 50, or about 5.6 percent, of high school senior boys interscholastic baseball players will go on to play men's baseball at a NCAA member institution.

Less than eleven in 100, or about 10.5 percent, of NCAA senior male baseball players will get drafted by a Major League Baseball (MLB) team.

Approximately one in 200, or approximately 0.5 percent of high school senior boys playing interscholastic baseball will eventually be drafted by an MLB team
Last edited {1}
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Captain JackCaptain Jack100+ posts
I don't know why ya'll are being so ugly to Limon!! Is it because she is talking about your boys perhaps???? What she is saying does have some truth to it! The big kid on the HS team that hits the ball hard but then turns a triple into a double and then can't field a position probably won't play at the next level!!! She is stating the obvious but I don't get why everyone is jumping on her about it?? Maybe I have missed somethin
Peace!
Moc1Moc1500+ posts
The amazing thing about this thread is that someone with the ability to figure out how to start this subject can sit through a world series where hitting(plus decent pitching) was at the forefront and still try to make a point that hitting is overrated, that speed is what matters more than anything else.

Kansas City Royals tried an experiment in the 70's to try to prove the theory that they
could take the best and fastest athletes and make MLB players out of them. They put these
boys in school in Bradenton,Fl at Manatee CC and worked with them on all the baseball skills
in an effort to show that speed and athletic ability was what really mattered. Willie Wilson
was the only player that was a success(pretty good center fielder). Virtually none of the other "experiements" made it.

I've played with untold number of "speedsters" who never made it out of "A" ball because it
didn't matter how FAST you could run back to the dugout after getting K'd by a 75mph curveball.

All things being equal as far as hitting ability is concerned(and other variables) naturally
the scout is going to take the faster player if he can. Isn't that just common sense?

There may be players in the Hall of Fame based on their speed along with their hitting ability
but there are NONE (that I am aware of)based on speed alone. But the list of average running/
great hitters is too long to list.

Speed or hitter? No-brainer!
gratefulgrateful1,000+ posts
While I can agree and disagree with some of the thoughts that y'all have posted here, we must realize that nothing is really overrated in baseball, except for opinions.

I disagree with Limom when (s)he states that "normally the first five or six hitters in the lineup are very good" on a high school team. Those "very good' high school hitters usually don't hit much at all against a "very good" pitcher, so it is only an opinion that they are very good hitters.

I also watched the World Series last week, Moc1. That World Series was a great example (in games 2,3, and 4) of great pitching beating great hitting. There wasn't much pitching in game 1. If the Cardinals had better pitching, it would have been a much more competitive series, so we could say that in that Series the Cardinals' hitting prowess was overestimated, overrated????
FutureBack.MomFutureBack.Mom1,000+ posts
Hit & Run ...

quote:
I don't know why ya'll are being so ugly to Limon!!


Perhaps because this person (and many of us moms aren't convinced Limom is a female) keeps posting the same message, about every 3 or 4 weeks, trying to get everybody to agree with his/her belief and when he/she isn't successful, goes into hiding for a few weeks ... and then resurfaces and starts all over again. Kind of like a kid in that regard ... if at first you don't succeed, take a break, and then start pestering all over again.
BlueDogBlueDog1,000+ posts
"That World Series was a great example (in games 2,3, and 4) of great pitching beating great hitting."

Grateful, you are clueless.......The Cardinals fired their hitting instructor after the Series......

Now, don't say anything about how well the Cardinals hit during the season....It won't hold water......If the Boston pitchers were so great, why didn't they win their Division..... noidea
gratefulgrateful1,000+ posts
To "Clueless" Bluedog......

If it makes you feel better about yourself to call people derogatory names, then go ahead. It was obvious that the three starting pitchers that the Sox threw in the final three games completely outmatched the Cardinals hitters.

Some losing teams like to place blame, while more often than not they would be able to get over it easier by giving credit to the opponent.

It doesn't matter that the Red Sox didn't win their Division; they won the World Series.
CoachB25CoachB25Honorary "Old TImer"
In all fairness, Mitchell Paige was fired because he has a severe drinking problem. I wish him well fighting his deamons. Several people had speculated that something seemed wrong during stretches of the year where he seemed overwhelmed with the goings on during the stretch run. I thought those speculations were just rumors. For the record, I don't think that Limom84 is a lady. I believe Limom84 to be one of the Notorious posters with multiple identities.
IN 78704 (It's not just a zip)10+ posts
If only 5.6% of high school players play NCAA baseball, its probably because there is not enough teams to support 6%. That doesn't mean that the colleges get the top 5.6%. MLB takes the elite, D1 takes most of the cream that is left and the rest of the kids probably come from the top 20% to 25% of the high school player pool. There are many reasons why some very tallented high school players do not play NCAA baseball (academics,money,lack of desire, attitude, etc...) and it doesn't have anything to do with what their parents think. If you can't hit you better be able to pitch at whatever level your at.
Last edited by 78704 (It's not just a zip)
B bbforlife100+ posts
limom84

First of all Mom and Dad should get excited when their son does well in High School. Heck when my son pitched a no hitter on the JV I got excited even though I knew there were better players on the varsity. I also know that scouts don't give a hoot about Mom and Dad so I am not sure what that has to do with the subject.

Scouts know how to evaluate talent. The players that can't make it at the HS level will almost never get a chance at the next level no matter how fast they run. Many who are good hitters at the HS level will also have little opportunity at the next level unless they have demonstrated to someone they have the talent to play at that next level. The demonstration of this talent does not usually take place during the traditional HS season but at showcases, camps and high-level tournament play in the summer or fall. Bottom line though is if a player can hit he will be on a roster regardless of his speed. If a player can run he better also bring another skill to the park or he won't make it.
Last edited by bbforlife
HeyBatterHeyBatter1,000+ posts
The initial premise of this thread is quite interesting to me as I've never seen scouts or college coaches judge kids based on high school batting averages, how far they hit the ball with metal etc.

From my observation, college coachs or scouts, worth anything simply study the players hitting mechanics (and if possible want to see you hit with wood).

I remember watching a PAC 10 college head coach watching some players at a camp. He stood at the batting cage on the opposite side of the hitter, eyes fixed on the hitter, studying his swing. The coach's head never turned once to follow the flight of the ball that had been hit, he never asked one kid to run the bases and never asked any about their high school stats.

My son has been involved in the scout teams for two different MLb teams. Scouts at both stated that if you can hit, they will find a spot for you to play. One of the teams held no running drills at tryouts for the team. Head Scout said "this ain't a track meet". Granted that's probably an exception, but........

From Puljols to Helton to Big Mac to Ortiz etc. etc, it seems to me that hitting counts and if you bring the bonus of speed then that is certainly all the better. Speed is certainly looked at, but hitting overrated Roll Eyes

Piazza and Karros are 2 of the all time leading Dodger hitters and both are slow as can be. A Bonds, Mays, Canseco are more the exception than the rule. On the Champion Red Sox, Dave Roberts can fly, but Ramirez, Ortiz, Mueller, Millar and Nixon (hardly rabbits) are the ones playing.

The old cliche about playing baseball is "hit the ball, catch the ball". No one talks about running with it Wink
CM Coach May1,000+ posts
You seem to be directing your post to the next level I assume College ball. You are right 5 or 6 guys in most programs can hit high school pitching. But can they hit college pitching since that is what you are referring to. The fact is most high school kids can not hit college level pitching on a consistent enough basis. That is why kids that can are so valuable. In high school hitting is not as much a premium that in college. Pitching is not as dominate pitchers walk many more batters and the defense is not nearly as good. You can score runs in high school much easier than in college and thats a fact. In college routine outs are outs almost all the time. Pitchers do not walk nearly as many batters either. You have to have some guys that can flat out hit or you are in trouble. Your logic is quite frankly ridiculous.
M matadordad100+ posts
The biggest thing my son talked about during his freshman year at DI was how he could no longer sit on fastballs in fastball counts. What he got instead were cutters and splits, pitches he NEVER saw during high school.

Good high school hitters are in abundance, great high school hitters are not, once they have to deal with more than fastball, curve as in college, only then do you get to see which catagory they fit into. Most high school teams have at the most 2 quality pitchers and a bunch of average ones, those are the pitchers the hitters feast on. In college, most of the pitchers are scholarship kids that are there for a reason.... they can pitch.
TPMTPMHSBaseballweb Member since 2003
When telling my husband about this thread he reminded me of something my son said a few weeks ago while we were up for a visit.
Essentially it was that you have to be pretty darn careful as a pitcher not to mess up, because these kids can HIT just about ANYTHING you throw to them.

Add Reply

Post
.

Membership Required

We're sorry. You must be signed in to continue. Sign In or Register
×
Are you sure you want to remove from your Block List?
×
Loading...
×
When you block a person, they can no longer invite you to a private message or post to your profile wall. Replies and comments they make will be collapsed/hidden by default. Finally, you'll never receive email notifications about content they create or likes they designate for your content.
Note: if you proceed, you will no longer be following .
×
Advanced Search
Advanced Search
Link copied to your clipboard.
×