Summer 2009 Reporting Thread

Tough summer so far win-lose wise but very productive to development. We are slightly over 500 but have played up 16U over half our games. Son has really matured as a player and I couldn't be more proud. His hitting is around 400 and is hitting lefties and breaking balls very well (he is a R). His fielding at 3b is great, he has played a lot of OF and I must say is very good, he is aggressive,(a few diving catches and over the shoulder running), and reads balls well-0 OF E's. His pitching has really come on as of late. His off-speed and mvt. have improved greatly as his fastballs have always been good with great competition comes great hitters he has shutdown some very good teams latley really mixing it up and the change-up and curve have been almost un-hittable (at least for last couple games ).Anyway we go to East Cobb for the 15U WWBC. I know there will be some great teams there, just want our boys to play there best and not beat themselves . Hope everyone is enjoying there summer baseball as much as my family and I are.

CASon finished off his Connie Mack season with 3 shutout innings as a pitcher against a team that scored 28 runs against their other pitchers in 17 innings and as they were short on players got a chance to hit over the weekend. Despite not having swung a bat for a few weeks he went 3 for 7, drove in a couple runs and scored a couple runs.

Son's team played in the WWBA 17u tournament last week. The team played well (3-1-1) but did not make it out of pool play. The team we beat the first night at the East Cobb complex ran the table winning all four of their other games. Kudos to them. Playing at the EC complex in front of the college coaches and scouts was quite an experience for the kids(and me). Son will definately go back to this event next year.

Here is an update on 17’s summer workout program. I had earlier mentioned that he had signed up with a personal trainer to get in better physical shape for his college freshman entrance and not playing baseball this summer, training 4 hours a day 4 days a week, also running 2-3 miles on 2 of the other days.

His baseline as of June 15 was:

Height 6’ 1”
Weight 200
Body Fat 22%
60 time 7.2 – 7.3

His end of summer goal as plotted by the trainer:

Weight 194
Body Fat 14%
Lose 16 lbs of body fat and gain 10 lbs of muscle
60 time As fast as possible (remember he is a catcher)

As of this last weekend (after 3 full weeks of training) his statistics are:

Weight 194
Body Fat 18%
Lost 10 lbs of body fat and gained 4 lbs of muscle
60 time 7.0

Trainer says he is ahead of schedule but is keeping the pedal to the medal. His body improvement along with better running techniques has shown up in his reduced 60 time. When he goes back to catching regularly again that time will be affected but the June 15 baseline is good to measure against.

A significant part of the program is to prepare and weigh all his food and log exact grams of protein, carbohydrate and fat intake daily.

Before he went to the trainer I would have never guessed two things – 1) That he was that unbalanced in body composition (as a catcher he always appeared “fit” in HS ball as compared to peers) and 2) That a focused program like this could have such positive results.

Will his missing 80-100 live AB’s for the first time this summer, be worth the added strength, speed and flexibility? Only time and his performance later this fall will tell, so we shall see. He will resume long toss, catching drills and hitting BP again come August 1.

We are at the East Cobb 16U tourney. The team is 4-0-1, and is one of the wildcard teams to get into the playoffs. The boys are playing just great. 2B has been playing 3B, but pitched today. This is from today's blog:

Hardballers Post Shutout
7/18/2009 3:20:07 PM

RHP Josh Stewart (2011, PK Yonge HS, FL) (aka 2B) pitched a complete-game, six-inning shutout for the Florida Hardballers today at Pope HS, beating the Tri-County Bulldogs, 8-0.

Stewart totaled eight strikeouts and allowed just two hits — a pair of singles.

The Hardballers also had some solid production on offense. 2B Joey Roig (2011, Buchholz HS, FL) went 2-for-3 with a single and a triple while 3B JT Gilliam (2011, Columbia HS, FL) went 2-for-2 with a single and a double.

Three other Hardballers went 2-for-3: CF Blain Courson, RF Kyle Ecker, and LF Tyler Ledvina.

(2B also went 2 for 4 with an RBI, but who's counting? )
Not bad for an infielder.

2Bmom, we were there as well, too bad we didn't run into you. We are a 15u team and wound up 3-2 in pool and won our consolation game. Two teams we lost to went 5-0 and 4-1. We did pretty good for playing up. Games we lost, we didn't play well. Hitting went dead and defense was not good. Picked it up for the last 4 games, but against good teams you can't make mistakes. Good luck rest of season.

Mine made the American Legion "A" team this summer. At our High School players are forced to play for the Legion teams A,B,C run by the High School coaches. He is a rising Jr and for the most part year after year that age plays B's.

He is a catcher and played very well behind the plate and was just starting to get his confidence at the plate against some strong pitching from some muture pitchers.

He injured his ankle (severe high ankle sprain) stepping on 1st base wrong and is is now out for the summer in a boot until August. We are hoping he is ready for fall ball.

Good luck to everyone else.

Good Season for son. Won 6 games in the regular season. Pitched last night in playoffs, 8Ks, 3 hits over 6 innings. Still lost 2-1. But my son was a happy camper - a D1 coach was in attendance and liked what he saw. You just never know.

He is a tall kid (between 6'4" and 6'5" now) who cruises at 82-83 and has been clocked at 85. He is still working on puberty (just turned 16)- doesn't shave yet - chest and arms still look spindly. He has been overshadowed by more physically advanced kids - but that seems more like a motivator than anything else.

It seems like that for all the talk of projection, so many can't see beyond the here and now. Keep working hard, stay tough, good things will happen. Obviously having a D1 coach praise a performance is a long way away from playing D1, but the positive reinforcement will last a long time!

bballman, congratulations on a great performance for your team. Having had the experience, they should do really well next year.

We won our first playoff game against the #2 seed, then lost to Team Georgia. They jumped out in front 4-0, then we came back and tied them, and the very next inning we just ran out of gas and they won 8-4. But we were very, very proud of the boys. We're done for the summer, and really looking forward to the fall.

Son just finished his sophomore year and played with the local Legion team they played for the District Championship, double elimination. Lost the first game but did not lose again until the champ game. First time team ever made it that far. We had back to back comeback games to make it. Team we played in the first game, #3 seed, had beaten us something like 21-3 and 12-0 in our last meetings. We were down 8-5 with one out in the bottom of the 9th and won 9-5 with a walk off hit. In the second game, #2 team, we were down after the top half of the 1st inning 5-0 we won that game 12-8. For the tourney son had about 7 hits 3 walks 5 rbi and played a flawless 3rd base. This was his first season playing 3rd but I talked about that in another thread. About 60 games in 60 days, doubleheaders. He loved it. It was a productive summer.

Bum, Jr. now 5-2 in the Prospect collegiate league, 1.36 ERA. 2nd in league in K's with 58 in 47 ip. But my favorite statistic.. four consecutive shutout performances and now 35 consecutive shutout innings.

.

Congratulations to Bum Jr. ...excellent!

He's pitching like a machine!



I'm sure he's still got a lot of Zeros© still stored up in him!





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Well, been a long while since I've posted here. Since last year's CWS I think.

First a little background. After the '08 CWS the pre-season held much promise as the BigFella did well enough in the fall and winter to earn a shot at the #2 starting job. Unfortunately, once the season started he struggled surpisingly with offspeed command in his first few starts and soon found himself low in the bullpen foodchain. Offspeed location hadn't been an issue previously, so everyone, Sean included, was a little baffled. He made adjustments in his mechanics and had pretty much sorted it out by mid-season. I try to avoid inappropriately subjective comments as a parent. So I'll just state factually that opportunities to work those adjustments in game situations were few in the 2nd half of the season, pitching only 3.1 innings thru the final six weeks, none in the final three weeks thru into the post-season.

Fast forward a couple weeks to the start of the summer ball. Sean went away to play for the Crystal Lake Cardinals (Chicago Suburban League) with one goal: demonstrate consistent command of all his pitches. The good news is he did exactly that. I don't want to over-emphasize numbers since it's always dicey to compare one situation to another, the skill level of conference hitters vs summer league hitters, etc. But the numbers that count most for his summer homework assignment ended up pretty good. A strike/ball ratio of 2.16. 35 Ks and only 8 BB in 36 IP. Only 1 HBP. OppAvg of .205 and an ERA of 0.97. He went 22 consecutive shutout innings before allowing his 1st run of the summer. A fair number of his Ks were on his offspeed pitches meaning he had confidence in locating them to use them as an out pitch. Summer Goal accomplished.

Report I got was the team radar gun had him cruising high-80s low-90s, touching mid-90s occasionally when he chose to juice one up a bit.

His last start of the summer is today. He then returns home for some much needed family and down time. He returns for his final season at Fresno in the fall on a mission: demonstrate continued command and earn the opportunity to play a key role in the team's success next season.

It's so nice to read this post, especially after what Sean endured last season. College coaches vary greatly in their approach to motivating players. Some players get coddled, some are ignored, and others get kicked in the teeth. I think Sean got the later 2.

In the end, we all know it's all about capitalizing on the opportunities you get. Sometimes you have to wait long and hard for those chances. College baseball is life, and life ain't fair.

Every good college team has at least one senior pitcher that steps up and leads the others to success on the mound by example. Sean could very well could be that guy for Fresno State next year. If I were his coach I'd give him every opportunity to show the way. He's earned it.

Son is a 2010 HS Grad and he just finished his second season of summer ball in one of the oldest leagues in the country at 115+ years old. the "Atlantic County Baseball League" in Southern NJ. The league is made up of mostly college grads and current college kids home for the summer. He finished this season with a team high .415 batting Avg.

He just finished up last week at the Univ. of Florida Prospect Camp and did really well and he received high praise from Both the H/C and A/C. They told him they want to see him again next week at a showcase that he is attending. He is starting to get some good looks from other schools also. We'll see where it all leads.

Just returned from 15U WWBC. Went 3-2 played well in all but 1 game (was a real stinker 0-0 up to 5th then the wheels fell off-- our catcher top player ran into 1st baseman and had to leave game with 10 stiches inhis head boys heads werent in rest of game and lost 10-0). Son pitched 5 innings agianst very good NJ Mariners team, gave up 1 E.R., 1 walk, 5 Ks and I beleive 5 hits, 3 wer infield hits. Best thing was bballman showed up at game, I got to meet him and he watched my son pitch , stayed whole game was really nice, hope I get a chance to watch his son up in Illinois some day. My son came out after 5 innings with score tied 2-2, we ended up losing 3-2 but was a good game and they just got a key hit with 2 outs. Won both cosulation games so ended season on a good note. Will be back for WWBC 16U next year.

Dad, it was great being there. Your son pitched a great game and the game itself was a good game. It's a shame you did not come out on the winning side. It was pretty cool finally meeting someone else on the board. I wouldn't have missed the opportunity.

Just to let you know, my son's shoulder is fine. He pitched yesterday in our tournament. Went 6 2/3 innings of great ball. Then he ran out of gas. Went into the 7th with a 5-1 lead and left tied 5-5. Wound up losing the game in the 8th. Played the Excel Blue Sox. Pitch count got high and really should have been taken out earlier. Coach just didn't feel he had anyone else to get the job done. Didn't pitch bad in the 7th, gave up 3 seeing eye singles, getting two outs in between. Then gave up a fisted blooper just over the 3rd basemans head to allow two, then a ground ball single up the middle for two more. Nothing hit hard, he just lost enough off his fastball to allow them to get the bat on the ball. Anyway, very happy that shoulder loosened up and he is OK.

Hope to see you at another tournament again.
Maybe at the 16u WWBA next year.

bballman-- glad to hear your boys shoulder was fine. Sounds like he did well, to bad coach didn't get a releif in there. I think that is the same team that knocked off the team that beat us, small world. Anyway, hope to see you at the WWBC 16U--East Cobb Astros took the title up here in the CABA World Series beating the Scaumburg Seminoles 11-4 in the championship, wish I could have made that one.

I think it was the same team. We should have beaten them. Problem was that we had one of our better pitchers injured and another couldn't make the tournament till the next day. Either one of those guys are there, they come in relief and we win. Coach just didn't trust other pitchers enough to put them in.

We've been trying to play the Astros all year and there's always a reason they can't do it. At least according to our coaches. We'll meet them sometime. See ya.

Sorry messed up on CABA World Series--Astros did win but not agianst Seminoles. Wished they had stayed in Ga. for the WWBC though see if they could have repeated after there 14U win last year.

florida fan,HSBBWeb old timer,
Required hitting approach from his college coach, was he hitting well with his required approach? If so why was he required to change his approach when he went to the "Swamp Dogs"? If not was he hitting well before college? we had a young player here in Springfield who played for our Springfield Generals in the Mink league, He was hitting very well with his rotational hitting until he got to college then the coach demanded that he change to linear hitting and was also told that he would go to the outfield unless he started making side arm throws at his shortstop position, it took him half the season to finally get to making good hard contact again and good throws,it I hope your son is now finally on top of his hitting and doesn't have to go through those same changes again,Iplayed some minor league ball and have learned a ton of both sides of the game, the mental and the physical side from some of the most knowledgeable teachers in sports , I teach the most successful approach to hitting which is the rotational approach which was taught to the whole baseball world years ago by the most intelligent baseball person and hitter of all time, Ted Williams,and I have learned to never dictate my beliefs no matter how right they may be to any player I coach although I will do my best to get them to see it my way only when and if they are having serious problems which will be worked out in practice first, I see absolutely no reason to get an athlete or a group of athletes mental mind confused by making changes unless there are serious problems, if there are the athlete is usually receptive to change, not always though, how long did it take your son to mentally accept the change making process? positive Mental mind acceptance is the most important element to positive body actions.
"YOUR MIND LEADS YOUR BODY""ALLOWING NEGATIVE THOUGHTS TO ENTER YOUR MIND""CREATES NEGATIVE ACTIONS WHICH CONTROLS YOUR BODY""THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO IN BETWEENS HERE."
Don Ervin.
kom_ervin@yahoo.com

Son's Legion team (Laurel MT Dodgers) are on a roll having captured Eastern A district and State A titles and now have won their first two games at the Legion A Regional in Salt Lake City.

After a narrow opening 6-5 win over Roseburg OR we were expecting a very tough game against a Fairbanks AK squad that looked very good in their opener.

The last thing I expected was to jump out to 5-0 and 12-2 leads and win 23-4. What a crazy game.

Son did not hit particularly well, 2-for-7 in the 1st two games but has three walks and one HBP.

His teammates are picking up the slack though and the team is now 53-12-1 on the year.

Son is batting .404, 8 HR, 72 RBI on the year.

Fun to read about everyone's experiences. I remember going to many of those HS touraments with my son. Remember it's all about development.

Son went up to the Western Major Baseball League in Canada hoping to work himself into the starting rotation. It is 350 player wood bat collegiate league consisting of 13 teams with mostly US kids.
Ended up being named all league as a starting LHP, and pitched before crowds up to 3200. Very fun and highly recommended as a summer experience.

Son's team (VA Barnstormers) won the NABF 17u World Series in Lynchburg, VA a couple of weeks ago. They played the semi final and final games at City Stadium, home of the Lynchburg Hillcats, single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

My son played 54 wood bat games on a 16U and 18U scout team. I guess we can say he hit a legit .340. He still got two out of the park. After a summer of wood the sound of metal is really annoying. This fall he has five showcase events and three camps.

On the flip side I wonder how his 2.42 ERA will hold up against metal. A pitcher can make more mistakes pitching to wood. At least his K/IP and K/BB ratios were good.

quote:

Originally posted by golfball:
Son's team (VA Barnstormers) won the NABF 17u World Series in Lynchburg, VA a couple of weeks ago. They played the semi final and final games at City Stadium, home of the Lynchburg Hillcats, single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Kelly, CONGRATS on the WS Championship! Are ya'll going to either Ft. Myers or Peoria in October?? We are headed to Ft. Myers.
GED10DaD

This summer at the IMG Academies wood bat league I had a 1.98 ERA through 35 innings, and emerged as the ace of my team.

I made my fall pitching debut yesterday. 3 IP, 2 H, 2 K, 0 BB, 0 R. Nobody got farther than 1B.

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If you get the chance to go, IMG is a special place.

We finally received our 2009 AABC Texas State Championship rings on 12/04/2009! GED10 slept with his on last night, just like he used to sleep with his catcher's gear on!!



It was a good day!!! GED10DaD

Congratulations to GED10!