Need advice from Experienced Dads for 2017

I'm a 2017 dad of an outfielder.  So don't have experience with your same issue.   But lefty pitchers are in high demand.  What level does he want to play?  May I ask what some of his other measurable are?  What's his 60 time? 

Uhh.... what does he want to do?

Don't over think it and just let him play and do what he wants to do, plus in HS it is not your choice it is the coaches. Relax and enjoy his games.  BTW mine played both ways all the way into college. In his Sr year (college) he pitched only and really missed hitting. 

My son is a 2018 RHP and 3rd baseman. He started getting interest last summer from scouts and college coaches. The interest was 100% as a RHP. Mmy advice is let the market (college coaches and scouts) tell you where they think he ultimately ends up. My son is still playing 3B but his emphasis and priority is now pitching.

Two suggestions:

1) Ask him what he likes to do and wants to do if there is a future for him.

2) Get his talent evaluated by someone impartial.  I know your son has interest from the scout mentioned.  Possibly the scout is blowing smoke up your skirt to get him signed up for the team or for reasons unknown.  An impartial evaluation will give you something to stand on and at least get started for what are his real tools and real value.  Pretty much every college player that is playing today was the dominant player on their high school or travel team which is why they are playing in college. 

After you've done these things, then you decide on next steps if any.  

Just my ten cents....my two cents is free.

IMO - if he continues to develop skills in both disciplines and he enjoys them equally, then let him continue pursuing both.  Hopefully you can start getting some feedback in early summer as to which skills his target schools are most interested in.  It is difficult to do both.  My 2017 had hoped to do both this year but ran into some arm care issues where the potential for throws from the OF were considered too risky (and his bat was not blazing hot either).  In a weird way, I think you phrased your question wrong in that you should potentially be asking which one of his skills should he pursue - and what are the indications and stats that should help sway that decision.  If he wants to pursue pitching, I would suggest getting with the best pitching "coach" as soon as possible and have that person provide you with an assessment of his potential (just pay for the assessment - don't get talked into lessons).  It could be that there are some minor issues that the coach can identify which may cap his potential - or he may say there is considerable upside.  If you are not shooting for elite D1, it might not be a bad idea to sell him as a position player that could eat up a few innings when necessary.

Take nothing less that a $1 million signing bonus. 

Let him play HS Baseball.  Most schools/coaches are looking at projectability, not HS stats/results.   Our D1 lefty pitcher bats, plays 1b and OF.  Eventually the kid will settle in.  Good luck.   

A kid that size that hits like that....and throws low 80's as a lefty will get noticed.  At this point, I'd have him go ahead and play 1B and pitch as much as possible.   Very few teams recruit RF's.....but that's not to say he may not end up there.  If he's a quality 1B with a good bat, he's golden.  The fact that he's a LHP also doesn't hurt

You'll get an idea from each college that contacts you what they are looking for.  My son was a high school SS and RHP.  Half the schools he talked to wanted him as a 2B, the other half as a P.  The school he committed to actually has him pitching and doing some DH'ing.

I don't see many schools (especially D1's) recruiting a big kid like that to play 1B and P, but it could happen.  The "what does he want to do" questions is BIG!!!!  Also, what kind of school does he want to attend?   My son is happy with where he is, has got to throw quite a bit (most of any freshmen), but I think if he had to do it again, he'd probably have looked to go somewhere and play 2B and bat more often instead of essentially being a PO....but he's never come out and said it...just a feeling I have.  He loves the school he's at and likely isn't a pro prospect, so I guess that's the important thing. 

Thanks for all the advice.  I think perhaps I am getting too panicked.  Its just that we went from no action (him being injured) to all of a sudden college coaches are emailing, and calling and want to talk to him and want him to come on campus to meet them, etc.  I am not suggesting he play one way in high school ball as I know he will start in both.  Its more where he should focus his time this summer.  There is a chance traveling and playing two ways in summer ball his pitching doesn't get needed attention (throwing program, bullpens, etc.)

To answer your questions: 1)His 60 time is 7.0, he is confident he can shave time off.  This was recorded at the beginning of the season after basically a year of inactivity.  He moves well and he is quick but will not have elite speed. 2) He loves to play baseball and his goals are very high.  He says that he loves to play both, but knows that the demand for a lefty pitcher is much higher. 3) I am a little concerned with all the pitching and throwing from the outfield as well.   4) Since he was injured is late in the recruiting process, he is leaving his options pretty open and considering D1, Juco, and possibly D2.  We don't really understand the D3 baseball situation yet.

Your best source of information on where schools see your son playing is probably..........your son.......assuming he listens carefully and ask the right questions.  If a school wants to know when he is pitching (and not just when his games are), then they are looking at his as a pitcher.  Likewise, no questions about pitching dates means they are not concerned with his pitching.  Hopefully your son can take this task upon himself and develop some rapport with these coaches.  As one posted always points out, pay attention to what the coaches tell you AND what they don't tell you.  I really think it is just a matter of time before you and your son get a good idea of which way to go.  In closing, don't push too hard on pitching in an effort to meet some school's expectations.  It sounds like he has options now, but those could evaporate if he were to suffer an injuryover the summer from overuse or simply trying too hard to impress (I assume the recent injury was not arm related).

Josh Lowe is a 2016 who is a top 10 HS prep and most likely a top 20 draft pick. He too pitches and is a position player. I strongly recommend that you read up a bit on Josh to give you some perspective. Google away as well as research on PG.

Lots of good advice and you already seem to have a good handle on things.   Just one more point to tie in to your "he loves to play both, but knows that the demand for a lefty pitcher is much higher" comment.  That demand comment is correct.  Further more, of course, the likely scenario is that if he is recruited as a P, that is ALL HE WILL DO.  This is a great time for him to start asking college pitchers how they feel about pitching only and see if that aligns with what he will be happy with as a college player.  P only and playing maybe every fourth game or so is not for everyone.

Regarding " I am afraid by playing two ways he may not get to focus enough on pitching", there is nothing wrong with the occasional instruction to keep mechanics going the right direction.  You don't have to spend a ton of summer time with it.  In fact, he should be planning the proper rest time for his arm at some point between end of HS season and start of throwing next HS season.  That could be a difficult challenge if he is getting interest.  There will always be someone asking "will he be throwing at xxx event?" throughout summer, fall and winter. 

If he doesn't know yet what he wants to favor, and he's performing well in both departments, then by all means he should continue as a 2-way guy through summer. 

The offers he gets will probably let him know how the schools see him in their programs.  Then he can make his decision based on the whole package of his options -- academics, net costs, playing opportunities, level of competition, etc. 

Your job as parent is not to try to decide for him.  Just coach him on HOW to make an adult decision.  Also make sure he knows that things get tough if he chooses in error.  So if he's not accustomed to making real-life decisions, make sure he thinks carefully and weighs the factors in a mature and well-reasoned way.  But in the end, he has to make his own judgment as to which factors weigh most heavily.

The one exception is net cost.  If he's looking to you to pay, then you get to say what the financial constraints are.  Nothing about this process means your child gets to make the family budget decisions.

If he was out all last year, then the one thing he needs to do is avoid getting too rushed.  He should definitely be organizing his thinking and doing his research already, but he likely has at least 2-3 months before he will face any decision pressure I should think.

Thanks again for the advice, great points about the schools helping us figure this out based on where they see him fitting; although I would guess much of the inquiry is going to be based on the scarcity of LHP. This is helping me get another perspective on things.  Good points on not letting just the needs of the colleges drive his decision.

BUCKEYE 2015 interesting point on 1B.  Noah grew up playing fist base on major level travel teams and he is an outstanding first basemen.  On the high school team they moved him to right field because he can move well and they have a kid who is an ok hitter who can't move well enough to play another position.  He has started both positions this year.  I had no idea that there was any demand around First Baseman.  Perhaps we need to promote his first base capabilities more as well.

One interesting part of this will be that there will be an adjustment this summer because he will be playing the highest level travel ball which he did not get to play last year.  I don't know that we will really even know he capabilities by the end of the summer because of the catch up period.  Perhaps by the fall we can be in a good position.

I forgot to answer one additional question:  his injury was a broken hand and was not arm related.  He broke it in the first at bat of the season .  It was the non-throwing hand and the doctors have said it looks great and he should have no recurring issues.  Also, Noah has not had an issue with it through practices and 30 games.

lefty17 posted:

I need some advice from some experienced baseball dads on how to advise my son.  A scout came to see him recently and has added him to a good travel team and now he is all of a sudden getting followed by some great D1, D2  and top ranked Juco schools.

Background: My son grew up as a pretty dominant pitcher in travel ball in Georgia and a solid hitter.  He was injured last year, his sophomore season and basically missed baseball and working out all year last year.  This year he is healthy and playing pretty well considering he was out all year.  He is hitting in high 300 to 400's, playing great defense in RF and 1B.  Pitching wise he had a dominant complete game, a good start with a win, an outing with a few innings that went well and a start where he struggled with command.  He has hardly had any time to focus on pitching as they have needed him to produce at the plate and on defense for the school season. In fact he threw no bullpens after the season started.  He bats and throws left  and his velocity is in the 82-83 but could see him being in the mid 8os this summer as he gets up to full strength. He is between 6-2 and 6-3 and about 200 pounds.  I think he will bulk up more as he has not been able to lift most of high school.

Question: I am afraid by playing two ways he may not get to focus enough on pitching, but since he hit so well this year and is going to be pretty big and strong I don't know if we should cut that off.  I think he could excel at either one if he put his full focus on it.  I am afraid that trying to do both he will end up solid at both but not excelling Is it time for him to pick a direction?

Sorry for the long post and thanks for any input.

My son was a two-way player (SS/RHP) through all of HS and I had some of the same concerns.  My biggest concern though was not that he might not excel as a position player or a pitcher, but that his arm might get over used.  Fortunately, he was on team(s) that had great pitching and depth, so he didn't have to pitch a lot and I was fine with that even though I felt pitching was his strongest position.  Most importantly, I felt it was my son's choice as to what he felt he would enjoy most.  To my chagrin, he decided he liked playing a position most and that's where he put his emphasis.  Though he didn't pitch a lot on his HS varsity team, there was a lot of interest in him for pitching (what one might expect when touching 93 on occasion).   He was drafted out of HS as a pitcher, but decided to go to college and play SS and at college you don't typically see many who will play to way.  Though in his college freshman hear they had him play around with pitching in the fall where he touched 94, that was the last of it.  His career since HS has been as a middle infielder and he's been very happy that he chose that over pitching.  BUT . . . I still feel that even though he a very good position player, he would have been an even better pitcher.  It's his life and he's got to make the choices he feel best about.  So . . . I would recommend you let you son decide how he wants to handle it and you should simply support him as much as possible.  When he gets to college, and plays ball there, it's most likely the HC there that will ultimately determine his direction.

Let him keep swinging the bat until a Coach tells him not to. Pitchers may end up with arm troubles that prevent them from pitching, but if his bat is HOT, they will find him a place to play....