Summer 2009 Reporting Thread

Hey Cleveland, sorry about those Cavs...Shaq will take you to the next level, I'd almost move back to watch that...anyway, we are happy as our soon the be sophomore son was asked to stay back on campus this summer and work specifically on strength. He started 50 games at SS this year but "physically broke down" a little mid season and lost 10-15 lbs over the busy spring. He needs to get bigger and stronger (He's 6', 170ish) and he is into it. Says its the hardest he's ever worked in his life. No baseball to watch this summer for us (cept the worthless DBacks) but happy that he is doing what it takes to keep improving and some day hopefully reach his dream of pro baseball.
BTW....AZ beat a tough Ohio team this week in the Connie Mack Qualifier in AZ, any connections to that team??

It's hard to know when its appropriate to speak about ones son in a public forum. As the seasons roll on I become more sensitive to that.

My oldest guy is up in Fayetteville playing with the Swampdogs in the Coastal Plains League. He started off slow, trying to change his hitting approach that he was required to use during his college season (freshman) back to the swing he developed over years of practice. It has been tough to get his muscle memory back.

It looks like he has finally turned the corner and now hitting .338, up from .172 about 10 days ago.
He has started 20 of 24 games and played SS, 2nd and 3rd. He looks to have found his home on this team at 3rd.

We hope to get up there to watch a few games in July. This has by far been his best baseball experience ever.

It is a grind, but one that he loves. He gets up around 10AM goes to the gym and works out for a couple hours, then heads to the field to take BP and warm-up. Gametime is everynight around 7:00PM in front of a few thousand fans(!). The games end around 10:30 or so and by the time the post game meeting is over it going on midnight, then since he is the youngest player on the team he gets laundry duty until around 1:00AM. The off to bed and do it again! I am so happy that he has had this opportunity.

I also have a son that is a rising senior in HS this year and heard from him last night. He is over in Panama City Florida playing in a tournament and started on the mound going 5 innings with 9k's 3bb and gave up 1 hit. He also went 2 for 3 at the plate and got the win! Nice outing for him, it was a good baseball day for our family yesterday!

Good stuff floridafan. Its good to hear that both of your boys are doing so well.

You really have to admire the dedication these boys have to play baseball (diamond dogs son included). I'm sure they love the game however when you think about all the normal things they give up to pursue the love of their sport it really is inspiring.

There was another post here yesterday and it was excellent! Please re-post the report and btw, there is no need to apologize for letting us know about non-baseball issues as well.

No one out there is playing this summer?

DiamondDog - I doubt I have any connections to any teams at this point. Was the team you are referring to named Midland?

quote:

No one out there is playing this summer?

Unfortunately not. After 3 games in his summer league, son was just getting the hang of hitting with a wood bat when he irritated his labrum. Nothing serious, thankfully, but he is still out. He is doing work with bands and I think he gets to resume throwing tomorrow. Sure hope he is back in action before the end of the summer season!

Well this summer – no baseball for 17 for the first time in lets see – 14 years (can that be right?) He had the opportunity to play in the Hawaii Collegiate League as one of their catcher’s went down (he was on a wait list as he had not played in college yet) but by the time he got the call, we had invested in a personal training program for the summer and the cost of flying there for 3/4 of a 45 day season didn’t seem the right thing to do.

We figured that following Coach May’s advice from another thread to work out and take a break from baseball before his college freshman year may be a good thing to do. After a long HS season that included winning the state championship, he was ready to recuperate and rebuild.

We agreed to split the cost of the training program and it is intense. He began by being evaluated for flexibility, strength, speed, and body fat. The trainer has specific milestones for range of motion, speed, body fat and strength that are evaluated weekly. He now has a strict diet centered around high protein, low fat and a moderate carb intake. He is in the gym 4 hours a day for 4 days a week supervised by his trainer, and runs 2 miles 2-3 times per week.

I always thought he was in great shape for his position as a catcher. At the beginning of the program he ran about a 7.2 – 7.3 60, weighing 200 lbs at 6’ 1”. By the time he shows up for college in late August, the trainer projects him to be 194 lbs. The goal is to lose 16 lbs of body fat and gain 10 lbs of muscle. We learned that the average professional catcher body fat is around 10-11%, with most pro baseball athletes targeting the 7-9% range. There is a specific focus on his core development and his speed. I have never seen so many baseball specific work outs before. He also enjoys training amongst a few professional football and basketball players in their off season and seeing their work ethic, as it has a very positive effect on 17’s motivation.

Between preparing his own meals, doing lawn work, hanging out with friends, and working out in the gym he has about 2-3 hours a day left for relearning his X-Box skills.

We are looking forward to the fall with great anticipation, and I enjoy reading about all the kids on their summer accomplishments.

Backstop17 - thanks for reposting that!

If your son tears it up next fall, you'll be the expert around here about following that strategy

If he doesn't, I wouldn't read anything into it

Wow, Backstop! Sounds like your son has a tremendous work ethic. I'm sure his college coach will be thrilled to get him in the fall!

As for my summer, I am playing with the same 14u team. I had a rough JV season losing my spot after one bad hitting game so I am trying to gain back confidence and my swing as my JV coach changes everything about my swing. I'm still working out the kinks. Overall for my hitting I have done ok since my first tournament where I struggled. On my birthday when we played a rival team I hit my first ever homerun. That's been no doubt my most memorable moment. During the Fall, we won all but one tournament. This summer we have yet to win a tournament and actually went winless last weekend when we played 2 13u teams. It was a rough weekend. We had the weekend off(It was state weekend and we didnt have enough to play). I have only 2 errors which are 2 I shouldn't have at all. I'm still working at it.

Backstop,

I know it's none of my business but I like you and I really think your son should be playing. Personally I think this would be one of the most important summers to play. At least enough to stay sharp if not continue to improve. Training can be incorporated with playing. Preparing meals, doing lawn work and playing XBox are not what I would call baseball development. Just trying to be honest.

JMO and believe me when I say... Either way I wish the very best for your son.

My sons summer has been both very satisifying and very disappointing.

On the disappointing side, his hitting has been horendous. Just can't seem to get things going. Hits like a demon in the cages and pregame, just can't get it done on the field. I think it has seriously affected his play time in the field. I have just started taking him back to get lessons and see what is wrong. I have noticed a couple of things and I think we can work on that. His summer team coaches say his swing is fine, it is just his mental approach at the plate that is the problem. I think his mental approach needs work as well, but there are a couple of mechanical things that need work too. We'll continue to work on it and see what happens.

On a positive note, his pitching has been very good. He has established himself as the #1 pitcher on a pretty good summer travel team. He has pitched 33 2/3 innings and has an ERA of 1.46. We are a 15u team, but have played only 1 15 yr. old team all summer. We have played a number of HS varsity teams as well as some 16 & 17 yr. old travel teams. I know the varsity teams are not true varsity teams in that usually the top studs are playing travel, but son is a rising sophmore and he is still pitching against rising Jr.'s and Sr.'s and has done very well.

We'll continue to work on both hitting and pitching and hope pitching stays hot and hitting gets hot.

We just got back from Jupiter - the USA Baseball 16U national championship. My body is at work, but my brain is still at the field! 2B's team did OK. They won their first three games, were the #4 seed going into the fourth game, then lost close games the first and third seeds, and the wheels kind of fell off after that. I think we probably finished in the top 25, but I'm not sure. 2B didn't hit as well as he wanted to, but he was perfect defensively for the second year in a row, got dirty and bloody and even pitched a couple of scoreless innings in relief. It was fun! This week, they're headed to ProspectWire, then to East Cobb in July.

I'm not usually one to post on this or similar threads, but I just had to this time. I just returned from watching my son's team, the North East Mudhens participate in the East Cobb Yankees Summer Classic as the only entry from up north. They started out well. They were 3-2 and could have been 4-1 but for a six-run rally by the DBat Mustangs in the bottom of the seventh in a then 7-2 game. After that a thin pitching staff and the heat took their toll. Son had a huge tournament, going 9-20 with 4 BBs, a few RBIs and a bunch of runs scored. It's nice to see him compete at that level and hopefully that portends well for fall tryouts. This week it's the WWBA, but I had to come home and go to work.

P.S. The Yankees organization did a terrific job putting together and running this tournament. The fields were great and the games were mostly on time. The level of competition was great.

lebanonbb, congrats on your first HR! How exciting. I hope your parents were there to see it.

Our summer has been very busy. I'm really involved with the local wooden bat team, and my son has been hitting on JV and pitching for varsity. (School has a year-round baseball program.) He's been pitching well, but they've all been wooden bat games, so sometimes you wonder... Plus team has work-outs 2-3 times a week. A lot of driving. The hardest part for me has been when he has a work out at school and then a varsity game after. School is half hour away and the game is usually 45 minutes away in a completely different direction. All the varsity kids drive over and give rides to the non-drivers. None of the varsity kids have helicopter moms who drive back to the school to drive their sons to the game... so I won't... but I worry about him the entire time.

LHPMom

quote:

Originally posted by PGStaff:
Backstop,

I know it's none of my business but I like you and I really think your son should be playing.

Thanks PG. I really respect your opinion and also thought that if he had the opportunity to play under some good hitting instruction over the summer would have been a very good idea. That was our intent in getting on the collegiate league waiting list last fall. We felt that playing against college competition would be great, as he would get pitched to and be able to work more on his hitting, the part of his game that he and his coaches want to see improved.

However, upon having his body benchmarked, we have seen how much improvement can be made to his athleticism, primarily in core strength, flexibility and speed. His trainer is someone that comes highly recommended by several professional players in the Tampa area. Agree that he could have played and trained, but the results would not be anywhere near the same IMO.

He won't forget how to catch in this amount of time (during the spring season he was at 1.8-1.9 poptime range, only 17 stolen base attempts against, 41% CS -- while our team had 72 steals on 80 attempts. He had 2 errors, .992 fielding percentage and 1 passed ball.) He is the first to tell you he can get better in all areas related to baseball, but a big part of that gain should come from losing body fat, gaining muscle through specific training, and then repetition in hitting and playing the game with the new fitness level.

The fitness workout program is teaching him principles that he will continue to work on in his college program. He is also learning eating habits that can be carried for a lifetime, especially when faced with college cuisine that we all know leaves a lot to be desired. His personal trainer has worked with his college team, so the trainer's expectations parallel the college expectations.

It may or may not be as beneficial as a 45 game summer season, but having the best possible body and fitness level when he lands on campus cannot be a bad thing. His college team is made up of mostly transfer athletes (either JUCO or D1), and he can't make up those years of baseball experience in one summer, but he can work to bridge the strength and fitness gap as much as possible. We'll let you know how it all works out next spring in the "College 2010 Reporting" thread.

Backstop17 - thanks for posting that!

I think these are personal decisions and time will tell whether one decision is better than another. For my son, playing the game was the best choice but we'll never know if a conditioning approach would have been better.

It sounds to me that you have put great thought and planning into this and that can only benefit your son. One area that I would encourage your son in is with running. That first college fall practice season is like a Marine boot camp. Freshman are often shocked with how much conditioning is involved. Coaches like to test the will and the heart of their players when they make them run. This will be the first opportunity for your son to turn a coach's head. Show up to fall practice in better shape than the upper classmen and he will indeed turn heads. That is easier said than done however

quote:

but I had to come home and go to work. Frown

Stinks, doesn't it! What a great tournament for your son. Congratulations!

The photographer in Jupiter was selling these little keychains where you can look inside and see an action photo of your player. It's hard to explain - kind of like a little telescope. Anyway, my husband bought me one so that if I'm having a bad day at work, I can look inside and remember - "Oh...that's why I'm working."

Summer has meant going from almost no pitching to too much pitching. He's been throwing 2 or 3 innings an outing 3 times a week for the past few weeks. The velocity is down by about 2 or 3 mph more often than not and he's hinting at some forearm soreness so we pulled him from pitching this weekend and limited him to one light pen. We'll also limit his innings and make sure he has multiple days rest between outings for a while. He's pitched well when he's had the good velocity and not so well when he hasn't.

CD,
Mine showed up a bit out of shape due to reasons beyond his control for his HS preseason and took 2 attempts to make the required 6 minute mile. Interesting thing about it was that he finished first at just under 6 minutes and several players reported faster times.

quote:

None of the varsity kids have helicopter moms who drive back to the school to drive their sons to the game... so I won't... but I worry about him the entire time.

Wow...tough crowd here...now I'm a helicopter parent because I give the kids a lift to the games....

Our summer season is almost over. A DH tomorrow is the last one so no HS baseball until next year. He's going to play some fall baseball with his old club team in a few showcase tournaments...

quote:

Originally posted by 2Bmom:

quote:

but I had to come home and go to work. Frown

Stinks, doesn't it! What a great tournament for your son. Congratulations!

The photographer in Jupiter was selling these little keychains where you can look inside and see an action photo of your player. It's hard to explain - kind of like a little telescope. Anyway, my husband bought me one so that if I'm having a bad day at work, I can look inside and remember - "Oh...that's why I'm working."

Ha! I need to get one of those!

CD,

17's 4 year long range goal is the same that your son attained, getting a shot at playing pro ball.

The real eye opener was when the trainer said that 17 would be competing against athletes with body fat X, strength Y, and flexibility Z, different sets of numbers for college and pro. That is based on his current athlete clientele and a very detailed set of information. This last 3 month MiLB offseason, the trainer took a 2008 2nd round draft pick we are friends with who weighed 165/5% body fat and added 15 lbs muscle and increased body fat by 1%, all with maintaining his sub 6.4 speed. The speed was what got him drafted, but it was the strength with the wood bat that would keep him there.

17's evaluation was a X+u, Y-v and Z-w. Even with advanced baseball skills, it is hard to compete over a long season (college or pro) against finely tuned athletes. You can get away with it in high school as mechanics, sheer eye/hand coordination and average power with an aluminum bat can dominate a typical league. As you move up the baseball pyramid, the equation changes and the remaining players pay attention to the body. I was watching Yankees/Mets last night and the ESPN team commented how the pro game is now dominated by athletes who work their bodies year round versus in the past when the January/February spring training was the time to work out.

I hope to get to see your son at one of his games, I just need to get to the fields here in Tampa when they come to town.

Backstop, I believe you are making a good choice, not that playing is by any way a bad choice. As I said, I thought my son was in pretty good shape if not just a little skinny going in. Body fat was next to nothing 6', 170lb, and aside from Asthma, was pretty well prepared heading to his freshman D1 season. He found out that ball starts right away, (he was in the cage the first day we took him to campus) and does not end until late spring. The schedule of a freshman leaves very little time for recovery. Sleep, eat, weights, eat, class, practice, eat, study hall, eat sleep...and do it all over every day. The better physical shape you are in from the beginning ...the better off you will be in the long run. He will swing a bat and throw a ball more then he ever has in his life next fall believe it or not. He will love it but will also discover sore muscles he never even know he had. Not only must he preform in the fall to make the team, he must be able to stay consistent throughout a very exhausting spring schedule.
I would suggest he stays on some sort of throwing program, long toss on a reglar basis... but giving the back a break from the batting cage can only help.
Good Luck and as we say in Phoenix, try to stay COOL this summer....

Son's team the Fayetteville Swampdogs beat Wilson Tobs and get to advance to the Coastal Plains League Championship later this summer. This has been a very exciting season for him and he is loving every minute of it!

I'm so glad your son is having fun in Fayetteville! I grew up - there several decades ago - they have worked hard to improve the city and bring positive activities. Go Swampdogs!

It used to be a hot bed for baseball in the 20s and 30s. My uncles played against some major leaguers in the sandlot games. That must have been so much fun! My mom used to sneak down to try and watch some of the activity. She remembered a rough crowd, but I don't recall if she was ever caught.

.

Great news GunEmDown.

As great as it is right now, I really think you will enjoy that Blog in the future, as a way to look back on his experiences. Make sure you can archive it and save it for GED10's children. And remember, by the time he has children, the electronic media storage methods might have changed!

BKStop17 - Great news and congrats on the State Championship for 17son!!! Awesome year, looking forward to hearing updates on his fall season.
GED10DaD

Son is playing for the Forest City Owls (NC) in the Coastal Plains League. He is truly enjoying his summer. Playing with a great group of guys on a team that is having an unbelievable run (25 -3) so far.

In previous summers, he stayed home and played in a local summer wood bat league. Had fun and was successful, but this is a whole new experience.

I think being in a town that idolizes these players is certainly contributing to his enjoyment. Doing well on the field too. He's a RHP, currently 4 - 0 with a sub 2.0 era. Hope he keeps working hard!

Plan to make the trip to Forest City in mid July. Can't wait to see the field and the crowd. They say it's awesome.

Figured I'd help keep this thread going.

Son (14yrs old) finsihed off his Middle School career with another state title. He tied a couple of school records for pitching (LHP) and missed by 2/3 inning of getting another. He will be a Freshman in the fall.

His Babe Ruth team is playing in the City finals tonight and his 14U All Stars start up next weekend. Hopefully that will take him into August with a strong run through districts, states and hopefully Regionals. We shall see.

He is also working out at the school every morning this summer with the football players. He will probably play football in the fall. first time doing workouts so should be a positive for him.

AAU team has a few games sprinkled throughout the summer but nothing major tournament wise there, just playing local teams.

quote:

Originally posted by GunEmDown10:
It's been a great summer, so far! GED10 moved back to the Blacksox Academy, in Burkburnett, on 06/03/09. After dominating league play and making the championship bracket the first two Texas Showcase League tournaments, the Blacksox 17's played poorly this past weekend at Oklahoma State during the Pastime Tournaments Best of the Southwest. We were 1-2-1 with our only win, a 8-0 run rule victory over the 18U Maurer's A's. Hopefully we can get back to playing good baseball as we get ready to go to Marietta, GA for the WWBA 17U Nationals.

We have a news Blog on the BeRecruited website. If you are interested in reading the daily entries it is at....

GED10's BLOG

I hope everyone else has a great summer too!
GED10

I never knew that was your son GED10! I've watched his footage before and read alot on his blogs. He has a gorgeous swing.

My guy is having a great summer. Tonight they played in front of 5300 fans and had fireworks after the game. This has to be the most fun he has ever had playing baseball!

quote:

I never knew that was your son GED10! I've watched his footage before and read alot on his blogs. He has a gorgeous swing.

LebanonBB,
Thank you very much, I'll tell him you said so. He's a good boy too!! He leaves in the morning for Georgia. Even though he just turned 16, I hope he gets on someones radar!

Thanks for the nice words!GED10DaD

Son's team played yesterday at Davidson and plays today at UNC Charlotte. Tomorrow, we are also heading down to Georgia.

Good luck in GA to golfson. What team?? I see you are fron Fairfax VA., I love that area. I spent the summer of 2000 at Quantico. I saw 95% of the Prince William Cannons home games that summer. Good baseball memories!

GED10DaD

Well it is only Babe Ruth but Mother Nature finally let us have our city championship last night. Son's team lost the first game 4-0 to force the second game which they won 2-1. Son scored the first run and knocked in the winning run. Now it is All-Star time. Not quite playing in East Cobb but it is summer ball against some decent competition from the area.

Congratulations, redsox! Good luck in the All Star tournament! I remember those days - so much fun.

2B's team finished second in the Prospectwire 16U tournament in Florida. For the first time, the boys really played as a team and looked great. To get to the finals, we beat a very good, very big, very scary team with very loud parents, then the boys just ran out of gas. We only had 11 players - every year a few of our players opt out between Jupiter and East Cobb - but the ones that showed up played like they wanted to be there.

The tournament recap called our semifinal win "the upset of the tournament." 2B pitched five innings and had his mojo workin', combined with some nice defensive support, and held them to 2 runs. Then a real pitcher, a very promising 2012 lefty who goes to the same HS as 2B, came in with his offspeed stuff and shut them down. Our offense scored 7 runs, which was more than all teams combined scored against this opponent for the entire tournament. Sometimes it all comes together. But the boys were toast after that and lost the championship 7-0.

Next week, it's East Cobb. We are looking forward to it!

Awesome, 2Bmom. Enjoy!

Thanks!
The coolest thing was that the IF coach from one of 2B's top five schools of interest was there for the whole tournament, and he most definitely was watching. You never know.

Busy Summer as well. National Showcase in MN, followed by TOS. Son will be returning Sept 12 as one of 18u invites. Now at WWB in GA. Keep te frequent miles going for the summer.

Great day for baseball is everyday!!