Starting the process...

I would focus on getting better right now instead of trying to be seen and get on anyone's radar.

He has great HT especially for a 15 year old kid. What would be the most beneficial thing for him right now? A great throwing program. A great strength and conditioning program. A pitching coach that can work with him on his mechanics. I would spend my money on the development side right now and worry about the showcase stuff down the road. I would put my focus on the development side as well because that is where it is need is.

He simply at 72 mph does not have the velo he is going to need in order to attact offers especially as a rhp. Get to work on the things that can assist him into developing as a player. Leave the other stuff alone until he does. JMHO

I agree get the skills down first because it's still early since he's 15 years old. He's probably went through a huge growth spurt recently and that has hurt his skill development because he has to relearn how his body works.

Maybe as he gets older the MPH will increase to mid upper 80's that gives him a chance or his foot speed will get better as he learns his body but it's not a given. By being showcased now he is not showing ALL he has to offer because he's so young he still has a lot to learn in skill development. Take care of that first and then once he has better control of his body he can start the showcase stuff.

Best of luck and keep us posted on how he develops.

Thanks for the advice.

He is working with a pitching coach, but a throwing program has never been pursued. He is on a travel team because we felt he needed to get some position time and at bats since he doesn't get that with his HS team. Our thinking was he may be looked at more favorably down the road if he had a second position.

And we felt he needed game opportunities for his pitching development and weren't worried so much this year about showcases-that just happens to be where the team is playing.

I was just unsure of if he risked being written off too early. We had been given the advice that he needs to pitch against better hitters to get better.

Some upside to this is he has a great mound demeanor, and doesn't get rattled easily if he is getting rocked. He does work hard but it sounds like we need to focus more on command and not be too concerned with velocity in the immediate future?.

Also GPA is 3.5 unweighted and he is in advanced program.

So I am picking up that it is too soon the send out an initial letter until he has more innings, better control and velocity correct?

DP - Your son is huge for a 15-year old!

Read Coach May's and Coach2709's advice over and over. They're spot on.

1. Strength and conditioning
2. Throwing program (need more velo.)
3. Mechanics
4. Command will follow

Relax and enjoy. Its a journey, not a sprint.

My son is 6 feet tall, 185 pounds, very athletic and was the catcher for his highschools JV team. He is 16 years old and just finished his sophmore year. He is a good hitter last year batting around 400 and this year so far (with 50 at bats) batting 488.(both stats coming from his summer season) He is relativly fast. Pop time on average 1.9 to 2.0. He can throw the ball on average at 78 mph but can hit 82. He has never been to any showcase events or anything like that. I would like anyones opinion on if he has a shot to play baseball in college if he keep working and if so what should he do next to better his chances. Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by baseballdad121:
My son is 6 feet tall, 185 pounds, very athletic and was the catcher for his highschools JV team. He is 16 years old and just finished his sophmore year. He is a good hitter last year batting around 400 and this year so far (with 50 at bats) batting 488.(both stats coming from his summer season) He is relativly fast. Pop time on average 1.9 to 2.0. He can throw the ball on average at 78 mph but can hit 82. He has never been to any showcase events or anything like that. I would like anyones opinion on if he has a shot to play baseball in college if he keep working and if so what should he do next to better his chances. Thanks.

With all due respect and please don't take this as me attacking you because that is not my intention. You're new here and this is a great place to find out about all levels of baseball. It may say high school baseball but it's really for all levels.

Now the mean stuff - I find it difficult to believe he has a 1.9 - 2.0 pop time throwing high 70's and low 80's. In my experience the guys who can throw 2.0's are upper 80's at least. I don't know the exact correlation between pop time and MPH but I would gather a pop time for a 78 - 82 would be around a 2.3 - 2.4 ish. While on paper that might not seem a huge gap once you put it on the field it becomes a huge gap. A 2.0 pop time puts you on almost any varsity team in the country. Could you tell us how you arrived at those numbers please?

Now can your son play at the next level - hard to say because we can't see him play. He's got a great frame size wise being at 6' 180 as a 16 year old. He's athletic which is a huge plus and the fact he plays catcher is another plus. Colleges are always looking for good defensive catchers so that is a possibility.

Forget the stats because colleges don't usually care for them. You can have a .450 hitter against horrible pitching but he can't hit water against good pitching. A coach will want to see what your son has to offer for himself.

As for bettering his chances to play at the next level he has to be seen by college coaches. I'm a HS coach and I love HS baseball and you will find people on here who pretty much dismiss it. But the reality of the situation is no matter how much I love HS baseball he needs to be on a very good summer team that will play in good tournaments.

My best advice is making a list of schools he would like to attend (make sure academics weighs heavily in that list) and start finding out when they are offering camps. If you can go to their camp and let them know ahead of time (usually email the recruting coordinator) that you will be there and are interested you can get on their radar. If they are interested they will let you know. Another thing to do is contact those schools and ask which showcases / tournaments they will be at and go to them. Obviously if it's a tournament you got to be on a team - that's where the good team comes in.

The great thing about this if you have a list of 5 schools and all 5 are at a showcase there might be another 15 - 20 schools there as well. So basically you might pique the interest of the 5 you want but another few schools might like him as well.

Don't settle for JUST D1 schools. If you have that talent that's fine but overall D2, D3, NAIA and JUCO has some great baseball. Find the right fit for your son and enjoy the heck out of it.

thnak you verry much for the input, and as u asked we came to the numers for his pop time by testing it aboat 30 time over a few week period so it is a verry accurate for the other numbers like mph that is not nearly as accurate he was clocked pitching aboat 6 months ago in a tournament and he was consitently upper 70 hit up to 82 but that was a while ago he has matured quite a bit from that. We will do as u said and go over a top 5 schools he would liuke to go to thankyou verry much for ur input. I am glad to have another opion especially from a highschool coach.

PS. he is not a varsity catcher with his pop time becaues the program we are in is extremy senior oriented program where no matter the skill seniors play first

once again thanks for ur time.

My son had pop times as a sophomore in the 2.0 range with a 76mph throw.

Current University of Florida starting catcher was clocked at several PG events over his high school career and had pops average 1.8 on 78 - 82 mph throws.

I can find many more examples to cite from the Perfect Game player profiles.

Pop time has less to do with mph and more to do with how quick the release is. Sounds like your son has a very strong arm to be able to throw 78 out of the catching crouch as a sophomore.

Keep working on the footwork and speed. Some say speed doesn't matter for a catcher - that is true after they get to the bigs. But a better running catcher will have better footwork.

And lastly, to be able to play after high school, no matter where you go to college, you gotta be able to hit for average to get in the line up. Power is good too but not as important as average for a good catch and throw guy.

Eh - I could be wrong on the pop time MPH. Definately not the first time.

At this point what can he talk to college coaches about?

I would be more concerned with getting stronger and better---JV feats mean nothing

quote:

Pop time has less to do with mph and more to do with how quick the release is.

Pop time has less to do with mph and more to do with how quick the release is.

That's why stop watches are important, not so much to get a time but to see where the improvement can be made.

Guy throwin 83 with a 2.10 pop needs some help with a release.

Guy throwin 2.10 with 68 mph throw is exceptional release and needs to work on arm strength.

This is a common misconception about catcher's arm strength, makes you look good, but safe'is, safe.

Justbaseball, coachmay and coach2709,

A followup- we decided that for this summer my boy had played enough games (16) and begining last Thursday we got him with a speed/agility/core training program 5 days/week. This will go to the end of august when school starts, then it will probably cut back to teice per week with the other three days working at home. He will do long toss a couple times per week, maybe some flat gorunds and a bullpen scattered in there as well.

He is very excited and loves the workouts. Eagerly anticipating tryouts in the spring when he goes back to show the coach that he is a completly different ballplayer.

Thanks so much for the advice!

FWIW...

Arguably the top two high school catchers in the 2002 class were Brian McCann (Braves All Star now) and Jeff Clement (Now with Pirates, first round pick out of S Cal)

Best pop time we ever got on McCann was 1.88/82MPH

Best by Clement 1.91/82MPH as a soph. his best was 1.95/76MPH

Also Clement actually threw in the 90s from the mound.

Best tool by both were hitting and power. Still is! Clement has moved to 1B, McCann is a star with Atlanta Braves.

quote:

Originally posted by Backstop-17:
My son had pop times as a sophomore in the 2.0 range with a 76mph throw.

Current University of Florida starting catcher was clocked at several PG events over his high school career and had pops average 1.8 on 78 - 82 mph throws.

I can find many more examples to cite from the Perfect Game player profiles.

Pop time has less to do with mph and more to do with how quick the release is. Sounds like your son has a very strong arm to be able to throw 78 out of the catching crouch as a sophomore.

Keep working on the footwork and speed. Some say speed doesn't matter for a catcher - that is true after they get to the bigs. But a better running catcher will have better footwork.

And lastly, to be able to play after high school, no matter where you go to college, you gotta be able to hit for average to get in the line up. Power is good too but not as important as average for a good catch and throw guy.

this is a wonderful post. As the father of a catcher I thank you very much. It confirms much of what I suspected but just wasn't totally sure about.

Good topic. I will add my two cents that applies to both players, and any other young high school kid for that matter.

A great travel team is helpful to keep you game ready and help you to continue to work on game situations. My son is on an outstanding travel team. The only problem is that we have been on the road traveling and playing tons of games in tournaments and have little time to practice. I just watched a video tape of infielder drills put on by the University of Clemson. The coach repeated one primary message.

"Games are great, but kids need to practice. PRACTICE TIME IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN GAME TIME. If a kid has a bad habbit in a certain part of his game, he will only repeat that bad habit in a game situation. It is not until practice will he be able to correct the bad habit"

You see it all the time.

Outfielders who drift to the ball, rather than drop stepping and sprinting to a spot.

Infielders and catchers with poor foot mechanics.

Pitchers with poor throwing mechanics.

Middle infielders who do not know how to turn a double play.

The list goes on and on.

These mistakes will not correct themselves in a game. You need to practice to change bad habits. My son will be a freshmen next year and for my money, I think that a few week long, intense camps would be a lot better than another half dozen tournaments.

To date, his team has played nearly 50 games and maybe 7 outdoor practices. Not the ratio that I am looking for at 14.

Listen to Coach May and others who talked about development. Exposure is for late 16's and 17's.

gap2gap

Well said !!!

I have a question about travelball. I play on very legit 2012 team that gets lots of looks from colleges. They tell me I am legit player who should go D1. (I already have had 3 unofficials and one school is very interested but needs my sat scores before they offer, thats what they said).

The club team told me and dad in meetings that its not about winning but about playing. My question is I do not get the play time that the other say 3B gets (who has verballed as a 2012). In tourneys he gets to start every game, and I come in. I get maybe 2 of 7 innings. Recently in a local tny I played 2 out of 14 innings and DH one game. I love the team, the players and even the coaches. I love competing to play and earn a spot which I felt I did. There were other 3B but they left so now just us 2. My dad asked the coaches and they said I'm legit D1 but the other player is a top guy like a mlb top 5 round draft pick.

It seems like they tell me one thing and then do another. We are equal with the glove but he throws 90 and I am at 82. Hitting , well I think we are equal and size im a little taller hes faster runner.

They say they are for all players but I am not feeling that way. I would like to start once in awhile and feel like the guy they tell me I am and that I belive I am.

Oh yeah, the dad gets them their field to practice and play on.

I really want to stay but just am confused, any suggestions?

4daplayers....

First of all, welcome to HSBBW site. You have come to a great place to learn and grow from.

You are in a situation that we have seen many, many times and unfortunately, it's never an easy answer.

Did you go on this team knowing that this kid was already at 3B? Is there another position that you might can start and play at regularly? Lots of colleges only need to see your talents no matter the position. Once they have dialog with you is the time you can tell them of your desire to play 3B.

I think it's too late this summer to change teams so I dont think that is an option for you.

One lesson you can take away from this is when sitting down and selecting a college. This is exactly the things you need to go through when choosing a place to play, i.e. who is in front of you, how much playing time will you get, etc.

Good luck

YGD