Showcase Aggressiveness?

Just speculation since I don't have any experience with showcases but if he's going to attend many showcases he's probably better off sticking to his natural approach. He'll get his cuts and he'll get them on good pitches to hit. If he's only going to ever attend one or two showcases it might be a different story and he'd probably want to open it up a bit.

Would you rather have him swing at a bad pitch and weakly pop up to first twice? If I were watching him the first thing I would be saying is "Hey that kid shows a good eye at the plate hasnt he walked twice today"? Or I would be saying "Thats twice that kid has swung at a bad pitch up in the count and got out. He sure is struggling with the zone isnt he"? Take your normal approach at the plate on the mound and in the field. The coaches watching want to see them take thier natural approach. If you put pressure on them to do something that they are not trained to do ie swing at bad pitches in order to put it in play rather than walk they will only fail. It sounds like to me he did fine.

Have to agree with Coach May. A walk is as good as a single. Shows good plate discipline, especially to lay off those border line pitches when the counts is heavily in your favor.

A walk takes away from the pitcher more in showcases. It just gives the scouts some positive knowledge on the hitter.

Coach May, I hear you! Anxious Dads can do more harm than good sometimes.

Perfect Game Showcases don't allow the player to "walk".

After the fourth ball, or if the batter is hit by the pitcher, only "fast balls" may be thrown.

At our events there are no walks or hit batters---the batter stays in the box-- we have a runner ready to go who serves as the first base coach and is usually a kid with "wheels' who then gets to show his stuff on the base paths while the batter stays in the box to hit.

We use "patch" umpires so we have a good strike zone for both the batter and the pitcher.

We do not want kids swinging at bad pitches just to swing--we want to show what kind of a hitter they are.

In our estimation swinging at "bad" pitches does not help a batter in terms of evaluation

Here is the other side of the coin. Should a pitcher groove his pitches or show all of his ability to use the corners in a showcase game situation?

We want them to pitch as if they were in a title game.

Do not groove any pitches

Tr, Thats my opinion also. Just wanted to hear it from someone like you.