This Year's College Freshman Players

I guess Little Crawdad is doing fine at Navarro. He has made three appearances in relief and has gotten two saves so far this season. So far in 6 innings of work he has not given up any runs and only two hits. He only has four K's - the K's don't come very often anymore. But on the other hand, his defense makes ALL the plays.

I have not actually seen him play - I have seen three games but they weren't the ones he pitched in. Navarro is a very good team (9-1 so far) and they have alot of offense and good defense. In other words, a very good team to pitch for.

He is very happy he went there and is extremely happy with Coach Whoa Dill. He has taught him alot about pitching since he arrived on campus.

One other thing - at 6'2" 200 lbs, Brian is one of the smaller players on the team. College baseball players have sure gotten big over the past 20 years.

My son is going to Furman University a member of the Southern Conference. The main feedback that I haved recieved back was the difficulty of the school work. He tells me that so far reading 20 books this year is more than 18 books he has read his whole time in high school. The schedule is brutal- it starts every week day at 6AM for weight lifting and class begins at 8AM and finishes up at 2pm with baseball practice at 3PM. Baseball is usually over at dinner time. Mandatory study hall begins at 7Pm three nights a week.

He has been playing well in the fall and in preseason. He was one of the homerun leaders on his team. Hopefully as a Freshman he will get some playing time in the field or as a DH. He needs to turn any opportunities he gets to quality at bats.

The team opens the season on Monday February 25th against Tennessee in Knoxville. He is excited about his team and seems to be adjusting well so far.

I remember dropping him off at the end of August praying that he would be happy. I called him up a few days later and asked him how he liked it so far, he replied, "I like everyone I have met on my team so far except one person." I said who is that, He replied, " My Room mate."

My son is at El Paso CC, played 62 games in the fall and have already played 10 this spring.

He's platooning in right field and hitting the ball well.

To tell you the truth, I think he's burnt out on baseball. We'll see how it goes once they start conference play and the games start meaning something.

Josh Choate from Lewisville is the starting catcher and hitting the ball hard, like real hard. Josh should play his way off of the team this year and on to a D1 squad.

Justin Tramp is platooning at DH and trying to get healthy from a shoulder surgery. He should be released to start throwing soon. My son says that he hasn't lost his timing on his swing and doing great at the plate.

John Coin was converted to a submariner in the fall and is trying to regain some velocity.

Thanks for asking OP,

Adam is a LHP at UTA and is getting ready for their opener Friday vs Arkansas-Little Rock.

Through the Fall and early Spring he has thrown pretty good. Well...he has a uniform and hasn't signed any redshirt paperwork yet. From what I have been told, they plan on using him as a middle reliever.

So far, Adam is loving the college life and is building a great relationship with his teammates.
He really enjoys playing for Coach Thomas.

The one thing Adam has told me OP, is he has never worked this hard in his life. Tons of running and conditioning along with weights and alot of fundamental work.

One other thing, I would like to echo what Steve said, the difference in the high school and college player is great, a bunch of big boys (men) swinging and throwing.

I have given Adam a bunch of advice over the years, but this year he has to listen to his coaches. The only thing I told him was show his collegiate maturity and pat the young kid on the head, tell the fan in the stands thank you, and hustle in and out of the dugout, all when chasing and retrieving a foul ball.

My son is lucky enough to have Adam Boydston as his room mate at UTA. Adam has pitched lights out last fall and this spring, he should pitch a lot of innings this spring at UTA, he is a smart pitcher who makes a lot of hitters look bad, even at the D-1 level.

One of his biggest surprises is how well the upper classmen at UTA have treated the freshmen this season. The team has a very good chemistry which is somewhat surprising based on some of the rumors we had heard in the past. But it is a credit to Coach Thomas and Coach Sirianni who have worked very hard to improve things this year.

Although the requirements of a D-1 athlete can be difficult (early morning weights / mandatory study halls / practice, individual work outs / team activities / ...) , I will say Nolan Catholic prepared Mark very well for the academic side of college life. He worked his butt off for 4 years of high school, so far college had been easier than Nolan was. He knows the academics will get tougher as he get further into his major, but so far he has not had any problems there.

Probably the toughest issue Mark has had to deal with is burnout, not necessarily being burned out on baseball, just being burned out on all of the requirements placed on the team every day, you just don't have a lot of time to chill out every week. You really have to love to play to put all of the work that college baseball requires. The good news is the season starts Friday, playing games will be a lot more fun than practicing and lifting every day!

quote:

Originally posted by KellerDad:
My son is at El Paso CC, played 62 games in the fall and have already played 10 this spring.

He's platooning in right field and hitting the ball well.

To tell you the truth, I think he's burnt out on baseball. We'll see how it goes once they start conference play and the games start meaning something.

Josh Choate from Lewisville is the starting catcher and hitting the ball hard, like real hard. Josh should play his way off of the team this year and on to a D1 squad.

Justin Tramp is platooning at DH and trying to get healthy from a shoulder surgery. He should be released to start throwing soon. My son says that he hasn't lost his timing on his swing and doing great at the plate.

John Coin was converted to a submariner in the fall and is trying to regain some velocity.

KD:

Give the boys a hello from me. I always thought Josh would make a great catcher. Glad to hear that he and the other boys are playing well and enjoying their college experience.

quote:

the K's don't come very often anymore. But on the other hand, his defense makes ALL the plays.

quote:

I have not actually seen him play - I have seen three games but they weren't the ones he pitched in.

Welcome to college baseball..............

I picked on crawdad, here, but enjoyed all ya'lls updates very much.

quote:

extremely happy with Coach Whoa Dill

Yep, he's a good one.

A VERY good career path to Austin, TX...............

Good luck to all of you.

My son's really enjoying his experience. He has said the time and commitment involved are huge-I think more than he actually expected. He's made the comment if, last year, he knew half of what's he's learned so far this year, high school baseball would have been a whole different ball game. It's been great having an actual pitching coach, strenth/conditioning coach, etc.

When he was setting up this semester's schedule, his regular academic advisor set up his schedule-a really tough one! The baseball academic advisor saw it and said "I don't think so..." and completely changed it. It's nice having people there looking out for academics as well as baseball.

They leave for California this afternoon-luckily he doesn't have any classes on Fridays except one online. They get back Monday morning around 3:00am and they've already been told they WILL be in class on Monday morning. They turn around and leave again Wed. and will be gone until the following Wed.(luckily down here in Texas so we get to see some games!) I guess this is when this can really start getting kinda chaotic-sure hope he can handle it!

quote:

Originally posted by KellerDad:
My son is at El Paso CC, played 62 games in the fall and have already played 10 this spring.

He's platooning in right field and hitting the ball well.

To tell you the truth, I think he's burnt out on baseball. We'll see how it goes once they start conference play and the games start meaning something.

Josh Choate from Lewisville is the starting catcher and hitting the ball hard, like real hard. Josh should play his way off of the team this year and on to a D1 squad.

Justin Tramp is platooning at DH and trying to get healthy from a shoulder surgery. He should be released to start throwing soon. My son says that he hasn't lost his timing on his swing and doing great at the plate.

John Coin was converted to a submariner in the fall and is trying to regain some velocity.

Why do you think he is burnt out? Looking back is there anything you would do different. Anything he should have done different?

FO,

I'd love to hear from you on this. I actually put "pro" in my first draft of this thread, but didn't think there were too many of those out there and took it out.

If you feel comfortable, please let us know how ol' Mattie is doing.

OP - I just went to the McKinney North website for the first time - are you the web master ? That is a really nice website, very well done.

Yes, I am!! It's a lot of fun!

Thank you.

(I'm being EXTRA nice)

OP I noticed the thread was going to be "Pro" and you changed it, I would like to know how BB and others are doing.

quote:

Originally posted by Ben There:

quote:

Originally posted by KellerDad:
My son is at El Paso CC, played 62 games in the fall and have already played 10 this spring.

He's platooning in right field and hitting the ball well.

To tell you the truth, I think he's burnt out on baseball. We'll see how it goes once they start conference play and the games start meaning something.

Josh Choate from Lewisville is the starting catcher and hitting the ball hard, like real hard. Josh should play his way off of the team this year and on to a D1 squad.

Justin Tramp is platooning at DH and trying to get healthy from a shoulder surgery. He should be released to start throwing soon. My son says that he hasn't lost his timing on his swing and doing great at the plate.

John Coin was converted to a submariner in the fall and is trying to regain some velocity.

Why do you think he is burnt out? Looking back is there anything you would do different. Anything he should have done different?

My son has had a rough time of it the last year. We buried his favorite aunt, a father figure and now his brother in law and neice.

His heart isn't in baseball right now, and throw in 60+ meaningless fall baseball games and you get a young man burnt out.

Like I said, once the games start to mean something again, I think it might light his fire. If not, he's been accepted into UT for the fall.

It's interesting to observe the changes as players pass into the college world.

Sobering, ain't it?

Hard to really imagine beforehand, but astonishing once you do.

The talent level and work requirements step up.

Parents see it in their son's, and, I see it in parents posts here.

Juco is very, very good baseball...............

Ol' Mattie has been working very hard.

He hits with some other players about 9:00AM every morning, yoga after that, then works out with weights or runs from about 1:00PM to 3:00PM.

Sometimes he works out with MHS, and, I think, yesterday, he worked out with North.

He catches pens quite a bit.

Just got two new Wilson A2000 mitts in the mail to get ready for ST.

They keep three ready.

He pays for them, but gets a pretty good price.

He got a brand new set of catching gear when he left instructional in the fall.

Always big bags of catching gear at our house. Usually matched up to the team the current team somehow. Tigers, Wizards, MHS, Texas Tech.

Now it all says Oakland Athletics.

But, it does not seem strange at all.

He goes to Scottsdale on 3/3.

Then, if I get my work done, we are going out there for about a week from 3/13 to 3/19.

I noticed that they arrive on 3/3 and have games within just a few days.

First, major difference that I see, is that physical fitness is on your own. You've got to be in shape and ready to play when you get there.

The time off has been good for him. Not having to deal with school has been good for him.

Some of you are just now really gaining an understanding of what the college players go through.

He's wanted to be a ball player since he could pick a ball up and throw it.

It was truly ingrained in him by the time he was 10-12.

He played at Towne Lake, Mouzon, Cedardale, Arc Park, and I think every high school ball park in the entire metroplex, many more across the state, and in states across the country from California to Florida.

All for the chance that he gets in about two weeks.

I've said this to a few friends over the years as he moved to the high school level and then to college.

He is a very quiet kid, but I can sense a fire and determination in him like I did when he moved up to high school and college.

I didn't know if he would play in high school, I didn't know if he would play in college, and I don't know if he will ever play in MLB.

But, there won't be any doubt that he gave it his best shot..................

Sorry, I got a little nostalgic.

KD,
I hope you son gets it all sorted out. I have only talked with you and your son once but I have enjoyed seeing him play several times. More importantly I have heard from several people what a good kid he is. I am sure he will make the right decision for him.

OP -- I agree with BT that you've created a great website for the Bulldogs -- and I'm not just kissing your arse.

quote:

Picture of LIONS

Posted February 20, 2008 06:22 PM Hide Post
My son is going to Furman University a member of the Southern Conference.

LIONS,

How does your son like Coach Smith and Coach Shade? I'm interested in any other details you'd like to share.

And for those who haven't seen the Furman campus ... it is absolutely gorgeous!

"LIONS,

How does your son like Coach Smith and Coach Shade? I'm interested in any other details you'd like to share."

And for those who haven't seen the Furman campus ... it is absolutely gorgeous!

RPD, He likes the Coaching staff. Coach Smith is a no nonsense guy who puts a large emphasis on fundamentals and Academics. Coach Shade looks out for all his players and is a very good person for the players to identify with. Coach Shade attends most study evenings.

The academics are extremely difficult. The students that go to Furman are high achievers. The SAT and ACT scores are off the charts. Students call it the Harvard of the South.

My son enjoys the team and the players stick together on and off the field. If your son wants to play quality baseball and receive a quality education, Furman is the place. Furman plays a great schedule featuring South Carolina, Tennessee, Clemson, Charleston, and others.

Before I start my list of Good Luck I wanted to pass on a quick story:

Best chills this season was when I talked to momandcpa a few weeks ago via phone during her son's first college game. Her son had just had his first college at bat and lo and behold it was a Home Run..... I just broke out in a smile and had chills. It doesn't get any better than that in my book.

Lions,

Good Luck to your son this season, I have Furman on my favorites list so I can see how he is doing...

TGUF:

Good Luck to Adam, I can't wait to read about him this year. Email me or call me w/some updates! That crafty Lefty has a great season ahead of him!

KD

Tough year for you and your son I just hope you can both enjoy this season and gather strength in knowing how loved and supported you are by this community. Good Luck to Nick, Josh and Jon!

OP,

Love your updates. I enjoyed talking with you last year when our boys were playing together with the Marshals. To bad I was coaching when they were 12 as I could have learned a little more about the big picture from you but being around the boys was fun.

Went to Nashville last weekend for the first series. Started the first two games, came in in the 7th in the third. Who knows if he will play much from here on out but you were right, it is a different game at that level. I remember you telling the story of how you felt when Matt made his first debut. Puckered up as I recall. I now understand. Many firsts for him this weekend, first error, team win, start, hit, RBI, assist, put outand playing new positions. All in all reflecting on the weekend the baseball was fun but seemed to get lost by all of the emotion realizing that he is really gone and started his own life.

Schedule is grueling, managing time is a must, social life is with the baseball team. All in all as of now he absolutley loves it and could not be happier with school, baseball and his teamates. Time will tell but I feel really good about where he is and who plays for.

Other than taking a foul; ball to the neck from 50 feet away the experience was awsome.

glhamda...I think you meant to put "FO" instead of "OP........I don't think I could help anyone with the BIG picture. I'm still trying to figure it out after 44 years!!

I'm glad things are going well with your son this year. Best of luck to him.

OP

Eased over to Fort Worth tonight to watch former McKinney Nawth star, Trent Appleby.

Trent had another awesome outing tonight.

Against DBU.

Probably 10-12 kids playing tonight....

That played with or against my boys at some point.

Haney, Wilson, Kervin, Bloodworth, and more.

Watched the ball game with my son.........

And, got a update report on the glhamdason.

I'm glad you were coaching when Andrew was 12.

I wasn't capable of coaching.

But, I observed a lot by watching.............

Got to update my bookmarks.

Fun, ain't it?

FO it is! Sorry.

One more first. Got a call yesterday. The flu bug hit. Quarantined for a few days. Oh well. Such is life.

O.P. I just wanted to throw one thing in there.
The college game has been a real eye opener for
CUson.Not much time for anything but books and baseball so it is a real grind. He has a starting job at second base ,got his first college home run (never hit one in high school)and has been contributing alot.
I just can tell that he is not enjoying it like he did in H.S. Over time i think he will adjust but these guys have played alot of baseball over the years so let them be kids at least for now while they are still in high school because it becomes a JOB after that. If he were not playing then i could attribute it to that but he is and hopefully the fun and excitment will come back to the great game.

quote:

Originally posted by theygrowupfast:
OP I noticed the thread was going to be "Pro" and you changed it, I would like to know how BB and others are doing.

Well since no one has answered your question about BB, I thought I would give you an answer. He left to Suprise 11 days earlier than the report date because he was eager to get started. Right now he is doing the same thing he has done since the end of December. Following the schedule that the Texas Rangers have set out for him to prepare for spring training. He is very excited about getting his Professional Career started as we are! A little note from MOM: I asked Blake if he has seen Nolan Ryan yet, he says, "Well I got to meet him today", (Saturday). I said, "You Did", Blake says, "Yea, Mom, I was walking to my car, and Mr. Hicks called me over and said, "Blake, I would like to introduce you to Nolan Ryan", well I don't know about you guys, but I would have just become frozen in my tracks, but not Blake, Nolan says, "Blake, so what are your goals, Son"? Blake says, "To stay healthy and get to the bigs as fast as I can", NR says, "Well, I hope to see you here real soon". Just found out that info today, so had to share. Hope everyone is doing great. We are just truly living a dream at this point and pinch ourselves on a daily basis to make sure it is real.

Good luck to all of your sons this season! I have just googled all the kids I know so that I can keep up with everyone. Looking forward to keeping up!

Gotta luv Baseball!!!

Congrats on everything that Blake has accomplished so far. Hopefully he will stay healthy and everything else will take care of itself.

Does Blake know where he will start out this year?

quote:

Originally posted by reggie-3-77:
Congrats on everything that Blake has accomplished so far. Hopefully he will stay healthy and everything else will take care of itself.

Does Blake know where he will start out this year?

We will not know where Blake goes until the 1st of April. I will update after we know. We are going to Surprise Mar 22 thru 31st. Hopefully we will know something then. Thanks for asking!

Went out to watch TCU play last night against Texas State University. Saw Trent Appleby pitch 4 or 5 innings. He is doing the same thing he did in High School for McKinney North.

CS has played all the select ball that everyone elses kids have played, East Cobb, Florida, Etc. He says Appleby is the best pitcher he has ever faced. That says something to me.

Bobbie S -- that's an interesting subject in itself. I think I'll ask PSIII to name the toughest pitcher he has faced. My guess is that he will say Kyle Handcock, Craig Italiano, or Michael Russo. In 6 at bats against Russo in 2005 he had 5K and a HR.