Pitcher projection

6' - 6'2"! Who is your doctor, I want to take my son to him too. Seriously, if Junior is "laid up" I hope he is OK.

LOL, nothing serious, it's been scheduled for a while. Dad appreciates the rest. We'll be back at it in 6-8 days.
How come you blew me off at the airport? my feelings (??) are hurt.

Traveldad,
I think you and your son’s position is very common in today’s baseball. You want to be pro active and do everything you can to help him achieve “success” but I see a better way.

quote:

we want to set goals soon for the 2007 season and want to set them high.

I’m all for setting goals but I think you should re-thing your approach to goal setting. If you just want to set his goal high, then put his goal velocity at 97mph, turn your back on him and move on. Problem solved ---- but of course we know that isn’t the way to do it. You want goal setting to motivate and instill good work ethic in order to achieve maximum results and allow your son will be the best he can be (and no one knows what that is)! I think goal setting should be done in small increments, called mini-goals, and should be very obtainable in a short period of time. Once he obtains his mini-goal, celebrate that accomplishment and select another mini-goal or adjust the just accomplished mini-goal. I used to set mini-goals for my son like being able to do just one more pull-up or being able to place the palms of his hands 1 inch closer to the floor or to increase his ability to throw one more strike out of twelve pitches. In reality the involved parent’s goal should be to help our sons to be the best they can be, to develop good work ethics and to realize that hard work does indeed produce results. Your main responsibility as a parent will be to recognize his accomplishments, not point out his shortcomings ---------- While I was never one to heap on the praise, I’m convinced most parents should motivate using more praise, not more pressure. Psychiatrists probably call this method of teaching “positive reinforcement” or some thing similar but we all know it’s just common sense.
Fungo

I understand what you mean, Fungo, and appreciate your clarity. I think I misphrased what I meant, though.
We have begun to realize together that instead of being a bottom of the rotation pitcher taking innings until the big guys return, that he has gradually become one of the last ones standing and relied upon to take the bump in big games too.
We want to change our mindset early on and focus on pitching to see if this change in thinking, too, will play a role in his development just as his current work habits have shown obvious returns.

Am I making any sense?

A lot of what you project will hinge on why he is "laid up" as you put it---is it illness/ is it surgery?

One cannot try to project without knowing the reason for being laid up--especially during summer baseball

TR, 4 wisdom teeth removed.