Day 3 of tryouts in the books. We've been fortunate to have 2 days outside. In Nebraska that is a real accomplishment. Off tomorrow for conferences and then back at it Friday. Kids are out of school from tomorrow afternoon until March 14 for spring break. Should be able to get lots of good field time in next week with temps forecast to be in the 60's.
NJ HS Baseball begins today. 2016 is captain of his HS team, while 2019 goes to tryouts after winter workouts feeling pretty good about his chances to get some good playing time this season.
Good luck to all the boys in NJ!
Our first scrimmage tomorrow. Great to get back out there. 71 degrees and sunny. Normally, this time of year it's about 50/50 that we'll get snowed out and, when we do play, it's in the 30's.
Tryouts concluded yesterday with 2018 making the varsity squad. We're pretty happy for him. They are now on spring break with an amazing weather week ahead. Which will be a huge help in preparing for Arizona in 2 weeks. I'm off to Cancun with my 2016 for spring break. I should be more excited but I will miss the first scrimmage and that's killing me. 10 days until our first game. I can't wait!
Spring HS games start on March 22nd with a spring break baseball trip. Will be a fun trip given 2018 made Varsity the past Friday to join his 2016 brother. Sons will be teammates!
The infield will consist of 2018 at 3rd, my 2016 at 2B, with 2 top D1 2016 recruits at SS and 1B.
It will be especially fun when the SS goes to pitch with all the MLB scouts at the game, and my boys are the MIF support. This SS D1 recruit is a two player (3rd/RHP) throwing 94... This is going to be a fun season, glad my work schedule will accommodate the games. 2018 will get more visibility being at SS when this kid pitches.
We had our first scrimmage of the year Saturday. We replace eight starters and the one returning starter was still playing basketball and wasn't there. However, we didn't look too bad. My 2018 pitched two innings, giving up no runs, striking out three and walking one. He threw a consistent 85 (eerily consistent - every single fastball over two innings was 85). I was a little disappointed in his at bats. He got three at bats. In the first at bat, he hit one off the fists that still drove to deep right field for a line drive out. The other two at bats were four pitch walks. Even knowing nothing about him (we were playing a 5A team that wouldn't know us at all), they were obviously keeping the ball away from him. He may see a lot of that this year. Because he was mainly a PO during the summer, he only had a limited number of at bats since last spring. However, he's put on 60 pounds since last year at this time (going from 170 to 230) and I am interested in seeing how that translates to power at the plate.
Our intersquad scrimmage got rained out this weekend, of course. Now that baseball is in full swing, the rain is back with a vengeance. My 2018 made varsity again (not really a surprise, but we always stress that you have to earn your position every year and there are always kids gunning for your spot). It sounds like he is slated to be one of the 3 starting pitchers this season. I'm not sure how I feel about that. As a Sophomore, I would rather have him in a relief role, but you do what the team needs and the team is not deep at pitching. Still waiting to see if he will earn a starting outfield spot on non-pitching days. Games officially start on 3/15. Good luck to all the HSBBW kids this season!
Aaaarrrggghhh! It has been 70's and beautiful here for almost a month straight. Our first two games are scheduled for Friday. The forecast for Friday? High: 33, Low: 17, 3-5 inches of snow. Aaaarrrggghhh!
roothog66 posted:Aaaarrrggghhh! It has been 70's and beautiful here for almost a month straight. Our first two games are scheduled for Friday. The forecast for Friday? High: 33, Low: 17, 3-5 inches of snow. Aaaarrrggghhh!
Haha, today is the first day of tryouts here. Last week was 60s and sunny. Today it is 40 and rainy. Two weeks from now is the first game and snow is in the forecast.
The guys (and coaches!) are anxious to get outside. I can't wait to cheer them all on this year. I hope 2019 has as much fun in high school ball as 2017 has had so far.
BaseballChauffeur posted:roothog66 posted:Aaaarrrggghhh! It has been 70's and beautiful here for almost a month straight. Our first two games are scheduled for Friday. The forecast for Friday? High: 33, Low: 17, 3-5 inches of snow. Aaaarrrggghhh!
Haha, today is the first day of tryouts here. Last week was 60s and sunny. Today it is 40 and rainy. Two weeks from now is the first game and snow is in the forecast.
The guys (and coaches!) are anxious to get outside. I can't wait to cheer them all on this year. I hope 2019 has as much fun in high school ball as 2017 has had so far.
Games are scheduled to start today. It's been raining for a week straight with no end in sight until Thursday and that's only for a couple days. Looks like it's another week of inside practice.
Beautiful sunny day for baseball here. But we did get several inches of rain over the past few days and the quickest way to get from home to first on our field is with a jet ski.
Well, they did the smart and obvious thing here, for once. The forecast for our Friday and Saturday games kept getting worse (90% chance of snow, 6-10 inches, high: 28, low: 6 on Friday). They moved our games up to tomorrow and Thursday. We finally get to play ball! Temps will be in the low 40's for Thursday, but if you aren't willing to play in that kind of weather in Colorado, you just won't get to play some seasons at all.
I hate to even type it out because I don't want to jinx it but our season opener is Thursday and it looks good for everything to go on. No rain in the forecast, sunny, high of 56. Friday is home opener with high of 47 and sun. If forecast doesn't change they will play in that weather. Then Saturday morning we all board a plane for Arizona and 4 games in the desert. Then we come home with temps forecast to be in the mid 60s. If we can get 2 weeks into the season without cancellations it will be a miracle. And will bode very well for the rest of the spring since each week we get closer to warmer temps. 2018 is being told they may throw him a couple of innings on Thursday. They are going to try to keep innings low on Thursday and Friday so that we have all arms on deck in Arizona. It's almost time!
I've been reading this weather reports and kind of smirking about how awesome the weather is out here in the middle of the Pacific. We're almost a third of the way through our season and tied for first with the team we had a game with today. Wouldn't you know it: fourth inning deluge in one of the drier areas of the island leading to a very rare rainout. The league we're in is VERY tight this year, so how this gets rescheduled and what it does to our pitching rotation will be very interesting to watch unfold.
Hope everyone else's weather is better than ours was today.
6 games into the season and the team is just 1-5. But we have had a pretty tough schedule with a really young team. 6 sophomores getting good playing time on the varsity. At any rate, 2018 has had 2 starts. Senior slated to start the season opener was sick so he got the call, then started our second game in Arizona. Went 3 innings in first outing and 5 innings in second. Gave up 2 runs in both but had help from errors in the field. Lost both games. One game 7-3 and the other 4-1. Overall did well for early in his sophomore season. First team was ranked 9th in state. Second team was from Chandler, Arizona and not sure where they would rank there. The Coach Bob Invite was a fantastic experience and I really think the time the boys were able to spend bonding will pay huge dividends down the line. Came home yesterday to cold weather with a double header scheduled for tomorrow. High of 46. Ugh. Playing Cole Stobbe's team in one of the games. That should be interesting.
6 games in team standing at 5-1! My freshman lhp unfortunately got the one losing 3-2 and throwing 5 strong 3 hit innings with 1 earned. Unfortunately all 3 runners that scored found themselves on base due to walks! Hopefully that is a learning lesson but it was a byproduct of visitors not getting a break from ump. Not one to normally blame an ump for my kids shortfalls but this one was so bad he called our kids back to the field after an inning ending DP because he forgot the batter before flew out to center! Now off to the beach for a spring break tournament....life is good!!
My 2018 got a lesson in humility this weekend, in case he was starting to feel invincible. We went up against the team he played summer ball with. They got a run off him in the first and then four more in the third. Five hits. He had only given up 2 hits in his total 20 innings of high school pitching coming into that game. He was disappointed, but handled it well. His off speed wasn't working, so this team (probably the best hitting team in the state) just sat on his fastball and he learned he can't blow it by good hitting teams when they wait on it.
The opposing team's home town newspaper ran a story in the Sunday paper in which the coach was quoted as saying that they knew his strengths and weaknesses and were expecting to hit him. The paper also said that they "rocked Chandler the entire game getting 12 hits." They had five. That article was printed up and tacked to his bedroom wall.
I'd love to see the next time they face each other!lol
roothog66 posted:My 2018 got a lesson in humility this weekend, in case he was starting to feel invincible. We went up against the team he played summer ball with. They got a run off him in the first and then four more in the third. Five hits. He had only given up 2 hits in his total 20 innings of high school pitching coming into that game. He was disappointed, but handled it well. His off speed wasn't working, so this team (probably the best hitting team in the state) just sat on his fastball and he learned he can't blow it by good hitting teams when they wait on it.
The opposing team's home town newspaper ran a story in the Sunday paper in which the coach was quoted as saying that they knew his strengths and weaknesses and were expecting to hit him. The paper also said that they "rocked Chandler the entire game getting 12 hits." They had five. That article was printed up and tacked to his bedroom wall.
Someone is inflating batting averages. I guess that is why college coaches take B.A. with a grain of salt when recruiting. 
Humble pie's a tough game. This will strengthen Chandler 2018!
Missed a no hitter with 2 out in top of 7th.Would have been icing on the cake after hitting 2 run shot in a 0-0 game in bottom of 6th.
Got to share:
Big game yesterday for 2017 against league rival stacked with 4 D1 commits + 2 more who on the verge. I found myself feeling butterflies before the game and told myself, that's silly, you're not a player or coach, just enjoy this, win or lose, because it's all going to be over soon.
Game turned into a pitcher's duel. Though our boys are usually excellent on D, a couple timely errors had us down 2-0 after 5, but we tied the game with a little help from their fielders. Both bullpens held in the 7th, but in the eighth my kid doubled a one-out, 2-strike fastball off the plate down the line in right. One batter later his teammate pulled a ball to the wall for the win. It was the first walk-off the team has had since my kid started playing HS ball, and the most jacked up I've seen him after a game in years. Me too!
I got a little excited last night...
Bolts-Coach-PR posted:
I got a little excited last night...
BOOM!
Awesome. Also looked like all the runners touched home plate.
Bolts-Coach-PR posted:
I got a little excited last night...
Sweet swing! Congrats.
Finally had our league opening game last night and it was a pretty good one. Our opponents had many opportunities to score. I think they left 14 kids on base, but could never get a run over the plate. We only had a couple base runners all night. In the bottom of the 7th, our only runner to reach 3rd came home on a blown suicide squeeze and was safe. Batter did his best to lay down the bunt, but a pitch out was called so there was no way for him to even touch the ball short of throwing the bat. Catcher grabbed the ball and dove toward the plate, but our runner went to the outside and catcher was on the inside of the plate. Run scores and we win. Right now, the team is 7-2. Last year, our program only won 5 games total. The year before that, they won 7. Two years of rebuilding and focusing on getting playing experience for our young players is starting to pay off.
roothog66 posted:My 2018 got a lesson in humility this weekend, in case he was starting to feel invincible. We went up against the team he played summer ball with. They got a run off him in the first and then four more in the third. Five hits. He had only given up 2 hits in his total 20 innings of high school pitching coming into that game. He was disappointed, but handled it well. His off speed wasn't working, so this team (probably the best hitting team in the state) just sat on his fastball and he learned he can't blow it by good hitting teams when they wait on it.
The opposing team's home town newspaper ran a story in the Sunday paper in which the coach was quoted as saying that they knew his strengths and weaknesses and were expecting to hit him. The paper also said that they "rocked Chandler the entire game getting 12 hits." They had five. That article was printed up and tacked to his bedroom wall.
Wow, gotta love HS coaches who resort to crap like this to make their team (and themselves) look good
My son's senior season is now half over. Team is 6-4/6-2 in league. He is the captain and doing his best to be the team's big producer at the plate (as he was last year during his first varsity season). His productivity has fallen off of his pace from an amazing Junior seasaon.
But the thing I have noticed this year that I find most gratifying is that around his teammates, he has been far more invested in pumping up his guys, especially those that are struggling this year. He talks with everyone in the dugout when the team is at-bat. Stands near the hole so that he has a continuing opportunity to chat up everyone. This was after spending a lot of practice time sacrificing his cage time to work with underclassmen on their swings. He's young for his year so I am amazed at this show of leadership. I didn't think it would come to him.
He had a major leadership moment in a game they lost last week. As a CF, he has a fantastic streak of OF kills at the plate. During this game, he gunned a base hit home and had the poor baserunner by 8 steps. But the catcher stepped up and instead of covering the baserunner at home, the catcher airmailed a throw down to second, allowing yet another 2 runs to score. Those runs ended up being the difference in the game.
Some might cringe to hear this, but my son lit the catcher up coming off the field, and continued to lecture the kid on keeping his head in the game. Instead of fracturing the team, the younger players respected his authority and the catcher relented that he should have covered the runner coming home. My boy is as easy going as they come, not a vocal intensity guy by any stretch so this was all new to my eyes and ears. Personally I thought it was a risk to blow up a teammate. But he garnered a surge of team support and teammates are bought in so they are in good shape heading into the second half.
tres_arboles posted:My son's senior season is now half over. Team is 6-4/6-2 in league. He is the captain and doing his best to be the team's big producer at the plate (as he was last year during his first varsity season). His productivity has fallen off of his pace from an amazing Junior seasaon.
But the thing I have noticed this year that I find most gratifying is that around his teammates, he has been far more invested in pumping up his guys, especially those that are struggling this year. He talks with everyone in the dugout when the team is at-bat. Stands near the hole so that he has a continuing opportunity to chat up everyone. This was after spending a lot of practice time sacrificing his cage time to work with underclassmen on their swings. He's young for his year so I am amazed at this show of leadership. I didn't think it would come to him.
He had a major leadership moment in a game they lost last week. As a CF, he has a fantastic streak of OF kills at the plate. During this game, he gunned a base hit home and had the poor baserunner by 8 steps. But the catcher stepped up and instead of covering the baserunner at home, the catcher airmailed a throw down to second, allowing yet another 2 runs to score. Those runs ended up being the difference in the game.
Some might cringe to hear this, but my son lit the catcher up coming off the field, and continued to lecture the kid on keeping his head in the game. Instead of fracturing the team, the younger players respected his authority and the catcher relented that he should have covered the runner coming home. My boy is as easy going as they come, not a vocal intensity guy by any stretch so this was all new to my eyes and ears. Personally I thought it was a risk to blow up a teammate. But he garnered a surge of team support and teammates are bought in so they are in good shape heading into the second half.
I have mixed emotions about one team mate criticizing another. My son is a catcher and if another player on the team pointed out a mistake he made I would let my son know to remind that kid that mistakes are part of baseball. My son made a block of a throw from an errant throw from CF and instead of letting the ball hit him and cover it he ran into it and the ball ricochet away and a run scored. I think he knows the mistake he made.
tres_arboles posted:My son's senior season is now half over. Team is 6-4/6-2 in league. He is the captain and doing his best to be the team's big producer at the plate (as he was last year during his first varsity season). His productivity has fallen off of his pace from an amazing Junior seasaon.
But the thing I have noticed this year that I find most gratifying is that around his teammates, he has been far more invested in pumping up his guys, especially those that are struggling this year. He talks with everyone in the dugout when the team is at-bat. Stands near the hole so that he has a continuing opportunity to chat up everyone. This was after spending a lot of practice time sacrificing his cage time to work with underclassmen on their swings. He's young for his year so I am amazed at this show of leadership. I didn't think it would come to him.
He had a major leadership moment in a game they lost last week. As a CF, he has a fantastic streak of OF kills at the plate. During this game, he gunned a base hit home and had the poor baserunner by 8 steps. But the catcher stepped up and instead of covering the baserunner at home, the catcher airmailed a throw down to second, allowing yet another 2 runs to score. Those runs ended up being the difference in the game.
Some might cringe to hear this, but my son lit the catcher up coming off the field, and continued to lecture the kid on keeping his head in the game. Instead of fracturing the team, the younger players respected his authority and the catcher relented that he should have covered the runner coming home. My boy is as easy going as they come, not a vocal intensity guy by any stretch so this was all new to my eyes and ears. Personally I thought it was a risk to blow up a teammate. But he garnered a surge of team support and teammates are bought in so they are in good shape heading into the second half.
I cringe. Your son seems to be a player & "was" a leader on the field. In adverse moments, leaders maintain humility and stay focused on team. If your son had to do this again, I'd hope he pick up his teammate.
This is a learning opportunity for your son.
He'll be in that situation one day.
Tres, I'm torn on this, but leaning toward supporting, with some qualification, your son's actions. What has driven me crazy as a player and a coach for the past 35 years are mental errors, my own, and my teammates. Your son's catcher made a serious mental error and to call him out for not having his head in the game I think is appropriate. I might encourage that calling out to be a private conversation though. I've had intense conversations with my oldest son after games when he or a teammate of his has run through a coach's red light, or has not been in the proper cut position on a throw home, or is otherwise just standing around watching the game go by. I'm trying to figure out what the thought process the kid had, and often it's no thought process at all.
We had the exact same situation occur with our 12 year old team and my assistant coach's son was the catcher. The throw home was perfect, the kid trying to score would have been out by ten feet, and the ass't coach's son decides to try to throw the batter out at second. Coach and I were utterly speechless. Until the kid got in the dugout, and the asst coach said, "I can't talk to him. I'll go nuts. You do it."
JCG posted:Got to share:
Big game yesterday for 2017 against league rival stacked with 4 D1 commits + 2 more who on the verge. I found myself feeling butterflies before the game and told myself, that's silly, you're not a player or coach, just enjoy this, win or lose, because it's all going to be over soon.
Game turned into a pitcher's duel. Though our boys are usually excellent on D, a couple timely errors had us down 2-0 after 5, but we tied the game with a little help from their fielders. Both bullpens held in the 7th, but in the eighth my kid doubled a one-out, 2-strike fastball off the plate down the line in right. One batter later his teammate pulled a ball to the wall for the win. It was the first walk-off the team has had since my kid started playing HS ball, and the most jacked up I've seen him after a game in years. Me too!
Statistical anomaly time. Another league home game today. Pretty sloppy effort and we end up tied going into bottom 7. Once again my kid hits lead-off double. Once again, #3 hitter gets the intentional pass. Once again #4 hitter gets the walkoff as my kid scores winning run. I think you could play a few hundred games before that happens a third time.
I don't know what to call this other than sometimes the baseball gods taketh away, and sometimes the baseball gods giveth right back.
Last Friday night. Televised game against first-place team. Major newspaper there, too. Big deal here as TV games only happen to a team once a year at most. We're three games back, the season is about 2/3 over. Must win for us.
Son starts in center. Other team jumps out to a 3-1 lead after one and a half innings. Lead off hitter in our half of the first strokes a nice single. Son follows and attempts a sacrifice bunt on the first pitch he sees. Ball pops straight up in the air; easy, easy play for the catcher. Next time up, a couple of innings later, son dumps a pop fly into no man's land in shallow RF. Next guy up gets HBP. Now, runners at first and second. Next guy up given hit and run signal but swings and misses and son caught dead to rights at third base. Newspaper publishes big photo of this. Our team eventually falls apart in the top of the 7th, giving up 5 runs, with my 2017 committing his first error of the year on a sharp single to center, allowing two runs to score. Text from son after game: "Well, that was fun."
But, then this: his next game is less than 12 hours later. In a major scheduling quirk, we had the late game on a Friday AND the early game on Saturday! This time against our arch rivals. Fall behind again early on, 3-1. First time up, son attempts a drag bunt. It has the right tempo but it is straight to the pitcher, so he's out easily. Not a bad idea though.
Our starting pitcher is pulled, and coach throws a guy I would normally call a crafty left-hander, except that he's right handed, and throws even MORE slowly than a crafty left-hander would. But the kid has pinpoint control and the opposing team is either off balance, or hitting loud outs.
Bottom of third, opponent crushes one to right center. This thing is whacked but flashing to his left, son makes a full on, laid out, diving catch. Very next pitch is crushed to dead center, and son goes back and hits the fence at the same time as he reaches up to catch to the ball. Holds on. I'm amazed. Consecutive pitches, two outs, collective sigh of relief. Next batter grounds out weakly to second. Son comes up with two outs and two on in the next half inning. Strike looking. Ball. Strike looking. Foul. Ball. Foul. Ball. Full Count. Foul. Another foul. Another foul, straight up, very high, but catcher doesn't see it right away and once he does, there is no time to get to it. Next pitch hit over the left fielders head for a game tying double. Next time up, he hits a line-drive two run single that gives us a 7-4 lead, and we hang on to win 7-6.
One day, you're down. Next day, you're up.
Baseball. What a game. Grateful to be here!
I actually really appreciate the contra opinions on my son's actions on the field last week. He spent a lot of time doing off season work with college and pro players and he was offered conflicting advice on this very subject by a bunch of them this winter when he asked those guys about taking over a team. Advice was about 75/25 in favor of calling guys who don't care or lose focus, and 25% of guys telling him to be quiet and let his play do the trick.
The most influential of those opinions was from a PAC12 pitcher that told him "not all your teammates are going to like you or be your friends." But if you back up the demands you make of your teammates with your own work and production, they have to respect it or they are jerks. I couldn't disagree with it and I am glad my son owned that idea.
Two games have passed since the "incident." Team hasn't allowed an earned run since. Practices have been crisper and more serious. This is a state contending team. I think the boy's actions have helped the team get energized and focused after all.
Finally got to have our first league game of the season this past Friday! After having 4" of snow last week didn't look like we would be close to getting a game in. The weather wasn't the best, only about 30 degrees out and snow flurries throughout the whole game. My son had a really good start to the season pitching a no hitter into the bottom of the 6th and then only gave up one hit and 10ks for 6 complete innings. He only pitched 75 pitches so should be ready to go by this Friday. We won 9-0 so a good first win. He's very relieved to have his first start of the season over and can now get down to business. Even with the cold weather it was nice to be watching baseball again!
A dad of a younger (still in HS) player texted me:
A local HS player was awarded the win and also the save in a game,
AND was credited as having 5 hits in 4 at-bats.
Some things never change.
I've seen the same thing as Catcherdad in our part of the country too. Son's school stopped reporting game stats to Max Preps and the local media knowing that many opponents' stats are dubious and inflated. That practice, while laudable, puts a dent in local recognition by the local media (all area teams, etc) of kids at our school. But I agree with it even if that practice has hurt my son's visibility this and last year.
I would rather go that way than see things like the "7 hits in 5 PAs" stat. I have also seen the "2 HRs inside the park" after hearing a parent at said school tell me there were two throwing errors on both of the "HRs." Heard one school's coach has instructed scorekeeper that "the other team never makes an error when our team is hitting." 
tres_arboles posted:I've seen the same thing as Catcherdad in our part of the country too. Son's school stopped reporting game stats to Max Preps and the local media knowing that many opponents' stats are dubious and inflated. That practice, while laudable, puts a dent in local recognition by the local media (all area teams, etc) of kids at our school. But I agree with it even if that practice has hurt my son's visibility this and last year.
I would rather go that way than see things like the "7 hits in 5 PAs" stat. I have also seen the "2 HRs inside the park" after hearing a parent at said school tell me there were two throwing errors on both of the "HRs." Heard one school's coach has instructed scorekeeper that "the other team never makes an error when our team is hitting."
LOL. There is a local school here currently showing the following on Maxpreps:
- 40 runs scored against the team. 16 of them earned. Makes for some good ERAs.
- 454 team ABs (with 60 Ks, so about 400 balls put into play); a grand total of 2 ROE. For the life of me, I can't figure out why they have 2 ROE -- someone must have hit the wrong button in gamechanger.
Final game of the regular season today. Dang, the time flies. The season has gone very well - clinched league championship already so we have more games to look forward to in both league and section tournaments. 2017 has had a breakout season. OTOH today's opponent will not qualify for postseason play so we'll be seeing their seniors honored in a pre-game Senior Day ceremony and then play their last high school game. Having known many of them since Little League, that will be very sad.