Repeating A Grade

Thank you all for your input. I am truly a student of all aspects of baseball and am always willing to learn. Clevelanddad, I find it good to hear another side of this discussion. I believe being competitive and not holding anything because is very important. Hard work does pay off and I have seen it many times with myself and teammates. 

NxtLvl, I live in New England but I am from the west coast. Lived there 13 of the 15 years of my life. I have been playing baseball year-round since I was 7. From ages 7-10 I played around 60-75 games per year. From 11-13 we played around 70-85 games per year. We also practiced 3 times per week with the games on Saturdays and Sundays. However, Prior to tournaments from age 10-13 we would practice everyday from around 3 weeks before the tournament started. We would usually take 3 weeks off after the summer season but we would be back at after the break. It may seem like early specialization but I have always loved the game of baseball ( Nothing forced upon me by my parents). Now that I live in New England I play around 80 games per year including HS, Fall, and travel ball. I aspir to play collegiately and professionally but know that if I don't, I want to have a job that involves coaching baseball. I am extremely close to my family and had to leave some of them a couple of years ago. Tough? Yes. However, life goes on and there are ways I stay connected to loved ones. Also, my parents and I have been discussing repeating a grade since we thought about it in sixth grade. 

Thank you all for the responses!

You will be a soph next year. If you stayed where you are would you start on varsity? What size high school? What league? You said you might change travel programs. Are you being recruited away to a better program?

I have a good chance of starting on varsity. I play in a d1 top three Massachusetts high school.

Baseballcomesthird posted:

I have a good chance of starting on varsity. I play in a d1 top three Massachusetts high school.

So your high school played Super Eights? Top 3?  St Johns Shresbury, St Johns Prep, Central Catholic? If so, you really don't need to be playing anywhere else. There are several Super Eight players moving on to big time college baseball. A BC High pitcher is currently on the 18u Team USA.

Note for others: Super Eights is the top eight teams regardless of size classification.

I meant to say too 3 baseball conference, not top 3. My bad.

Don't do it just for baseball. If he is a real prospect he will make it anyway and if not he won't make it even a year later.

Don't forget that the additional growth can help but is also considered into projection by scouts.

If it helps him emotionally and academically it can make sense but even then there is a cost. The kid will enter work a year later and you have to feed him a year longer (which is probably almost as expensive as a year of college).

So if he really needs it academically it can make sense but if his grades are already good it probably doesn't make much sense since baseball scholarships are usually not that great either.

No,no,no, no, and no. Keep playing the game, if the interest you are looking for doesn't come, use Juco with a solid baseball program as an option for your first year.

FYI, being older in your class isn't what impresses coaches and makes you a better athlete. 

If your decision is for better grades, then that's much more important.

JMO

CD I will never get tired of hearing that story. I didn't know you or your son at that time but I kept up with Coastal because I knew your son's knucklehead room mate very well. And I knew Coastal's coaches very well. That is an awesome story and I love to hear it.

Sounds to me like you are less interested in becoming a college player and more interested in becoming a pro player.That is what I hear when you say you are reclassifying in high school to play baseball at a higher level. Sounds like you are playing at a level that should get you D1 attention but you arent satisfied with your present trajectory, you aspire for more.   Your wish is to be a pro player and an extra year will make you a better prospect. Maybe improve your draft stock or even get you into the draft right out of high school. I know plenty of guys that have done  that for basketball and baseball. Nothing wrong with it. Sounds like you have already made up your mind about transferring to play in Fla as well. I wish you the best of luck. Keep us posted please 

If draft is what the player is striving for, spend money on a FL JUCO. Some are better than D1 programs and scouts are always around.

Being  30 something round pick out of HS is not what your goal should be.

Piggybacking on TPM a bit, a college friend of my son took a gap year at a boarding school out of HS.  I do not know the reasons for the gap year, but he landed at a top academic D1 to play baseball.  He got all sorts of awards during his college career and he was disappointed that he didn't get drafted after his junior year.   With more awards and good stats his senior year, he gets drafted.  But, now he is 2 years older than than the college juniors that were drafted and MANY years older than the foreign players and high schoolers that were drafted.  He saw the writing on the wall and played only one summer.  (But he did fulfill his dream to play pro ball).

I am realizing that being older in the lower levels of pro ball is not particularly a good thing.

nxt lvl posted:

Sounds to me like you are less interested in becoming a college player and more interested in becoming a pro player.That is what I hear when you say you are reclassifying in high school to play baseball at a higher level. Sounds like you are playing at a level that should get you D1 attention but you arent satisfied with your present trajectory, you aspire for more.   Your wish is to be a pro player and an extra year will make you a better prospect. Maybe improve your draft stock or even get you into the draft right out of high school. I know plenty of guys that have done  that for basketball and baseball. Nothing wrong with it. Sounds like you have already made up your mind about transferring to play in Fla as well. I wish you the best of luck. Keep us posted please 

 

For a pro prospect it is actually better to be younger, rutherford dropped in the draft because he was old for a hs guy.

For college being older might be a slight advantage because it is less about projection and more about what you can do now.

BCT seems to be thinking about repeating a grade because he is a young 2020.  He gave his size and stats on another thread -- runs a 7.3 or so, throws from the OF in the 70's and exit velo was not yet high enough to warrant repeating a grade for MLB draft reasons.  Maybe he will get there, but the repeating question seems to be more about HS.

I've had one on the younger side and one on the older side, and IMHO it all evens out by 11th...the differences are much more noticeable in 8/9/10

Sorry for being very late to this thread...

There's been a lot of very good comments here.  My oldest did a PG year in Florida and as I've posted numerous times, we would do things very differently if we could do it over.

I've seen dozens, maybe hundreds, of young men do a PG year for baseball.  Generally, it's a waste of time and money.  Most players are simply older after a PG year, not better.  Particularly those young men, like BCT, who will already be 18 as a graduating HS Senior.  

There's plenty of baseball and academic development that BCT can do between now and HS Senior year to make himself a better ballplayer and student.  And then much more "marketable" to colleges.

I've see PG years be positive, as others have noted, at more traditional day and boarding schools where there's a college prep curriculum, variety of sports and other extracurricular activities, robust college counseling, and student work assignments (yes, working on campus as a requirement). 

Some kids are very young for their grade.  Some kids need academic improvement.  Some kids can benefit from a transition year away from home but still in primarily an academic environment. 

Doing a "gap year" is also something that might make sense.  Again, not just for baseball.  Work to make money.  Volunteer.  Take a couple college courses.  Live at home and eat meals with your family.  Worship if your family does so.  Enhance your SAT/ACT scores.  Complete college applications.  And do some baseball and conditioning training.  Play games...there's a surprising number of adult/alternative/summer/fall/winter leagues around the country.

Just my opinion based on my family's experience and seeing many other young men go down this path.