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A 2011 graduate will be attending showcases this summer. He is 6'5", 225-230, hits and pitches very well, plays his infield position very well. RHP throws 84, has hit 85 on Stalker. Hit just under .500 last year on his high school team. When not pitching starts at 1st base. Always bats 3rd or 4th in lineup.

Problem: slooooooooow 60 yard time. Can a player decline to run the 60? Claim injury? Claim illness? Should he just run it anyway??

His side to side range is suprisingly very good considering how slow he is running the 60.
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Depends on the camp or showcase. At the area code tryouts pitchers don't run. Others they do. I say run it. It is what it is. It may make the decision that he is a pitcher. With his size he more than likely has great projection as a pitcher. They will end up finding out. Why hide something scouts will eventually discover.
I suggest this player going to get some help on his running form before the next showcase. Have someone who knows what they're doing step through what it takes to improve starts and technique. Then practice running 60s. It's like anything else. The player may not get a lot faster, but every 1/10th of a second he can shave off his time will help. Don't back away from the challenge, which coaches might notice more than a poor time.
The 60 has become a routine in baseball prospect evaluation as the 40 has been in football. My son has been to PG and several D1 camps in the past year and they all want 60 times but the emphasis has been on the OF positions. They want 6.8 or better to cover the outfield. Pitchers and firstbasemen are the other end of the spectrum. They time them and put them on the side while they get the fast guys to race each other a few more times to identify speed. Speed is not as obvious as 6'5" 230 lbs. At his size, if he can hit, he won't sit.
Most of the showcases have you run. Sometimes they will not depending on the format. Sometimes they cannot let you run if it is not in the right "NCAA season". I know at the Arizona Fall Classic my son decided not to do the SPARQ testing to save himself for the Academic game, since he had a fairly active pitching day the prior day.

Regardless, if someone is going to offer him scholarship $$ they are going to want to see him run. Kind of silly to think that you can just ignore it. Kind of like the elephant in the center of the room, it is not going to go away. The fact is he will have to figure out if he is going to pitch or play first in college and then he needs to compare himself to others at this position.

Get him working with a sprint coach and he will improve, probably significantly.
You would make a worse impression by ducking it, than by running slowly.

When faced with limitations, you either improve or you are forced to live with them. Improvement in speed is possible. If he hits well enough, or if he's a pitcher, teams will live with a bad 60 time. But if he's slow and he doesn't improve and he doesn't hit or pitch well enough to compensate for the slowness .... well, you can see where that would lead.
quote:
Improvement in speed is possible.


Yes. My son isn't fast, either, but then he never trained to be fast. The college coaches that are looking at him have passed the word that they like what they see, but he needs to get his 60 down to 6.8 or so. He's getting there - has dropped nearly half a second in one month working with a speed coach. He'll be where he needs to be in another couple of months. It can be done.
Last edited by 2Bmom
At his size nobody expects him to run a 7.0 60----let him run it to the best of his ability---not every kid is a speed demon----if he pitches well and has thunder in his bat there will be a place for him regardless of his foot speed==ifhe does what you say he does he can play for our team anyday

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