What do you think of this?

premier summer baseball after the sophomore hs season is a very important time frame for a young player

This is bad?

My suggestion, relax.

He's getting his at bats in JV and catching experience in varsity. No one cares about his sophmore stats, or his name in the papers, trust me.

Good suggestion from above, go find a good summer ball team to play on.

Spring and summer after junior year are what's really important and by then, the senior catcher will be gone.

If you're intent on compiling stats, just give his BA from JV games.

quote:

just chalk it up to paying his dues.

His time on the stage is coming...........

First of all, Congrats to him on starting on Varsity as a Soph. That is a huge accomplishment right there.

Stats from high school are not going to matter - especially not from Soph year. As long as he is getting his reps in BP and therefore is ready to play this summer, he will be just fine.

College coaches will want to see him play - and that is where the summer ball is critical. This summer he needs to find a team that will play a lot of games - and he should do a showcase or two so that he knows how they work and gets his feet wet. If there are particular colleges he has interest in, he should go to their camps if possible. As a rising junior, his goal should be to get himself on the radar.

Next year, as a rising senior, that is the big summer. That is where he should be making the rounds of the showcases, playing in the bigger events where the college coaches go, and attending the college camps.

But for now, enjoy the season and good luck to him.

08

Thanks for the input. Hearing from others really puts things in perspective.

pudgemom31,
Sounds like your son is getting to play alot of ball. That is key right there!

Its an exciting time and many times us parents dont always understand what the coaches are thinking. Coaches usually have a bigger picture in mind for the team as a whole.
I understand your concern for your son. You are trying to look out for his well being. ( us mom's naturally do that,.....comes with the job description when we sign up. )

With that said,
it has been our personal experience that stats from sophomore year haven't even come up while in the mist of the college recruiting ride, so I hope that eases your mind some.
Most college questionnaires ( from a variety of levels ) that we have come across have not asked for my son's playing stats. What they have asked for is his arm speed, his 60 speed, home to first speed, pop up time for catchers, etc....those kinds of things. Some have included a rating system to be filled out by the highschool coach.
Some of the criteria on those rating systems went like this:
Dear HS Coach,
Rate your player 1-5 ( 5 being the highest-one being the lowest ) )
1. grades
2. coach-ability
3. attitude
4. fundamentals
5. leadership ability
6. work ethic
..........those kinds of things.

A new trend that I have noticed is that some colleges also look at the SPARQ testing as a guideline for potential athletes.
Have your son continue to work his rump off batting at BP and at home. He's going to get his chance, just make sure he's ready when it presents itself.

He's going to pick up on alot of things this year playing up at the Varsity level. He'll probably be working harder than he ever has before and he's going to be hungry! It will be a combination of the best times and one of the hardest times for him. He will grow right before your eyes and looking back it will appear to have happened overnight. Dont miss it. Watch carefully.

Us as moms have to be prepared. We have to get our game face on and act calm, cool, & collected, even if we aren't. Why?
Because one day your son is going stop for half a second to look for you up in the stands and he's going to be waiting for that reassuring " I believe in ya kid - show em' what cha got! " mom wink.
When it happens, and he gives you the nod,.....remember to breath.
Your best days are just ahead.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TPM:

No one cares about his sophmore stats, or his name in the papers, trust me.

QUOTE]

That's not entirely true TPM. Pudgemom does. She's a parent like the rest of us. And that's ok.

Pudgemom, you mention I think that you've only played in 5 games thus far..?? If so, it sounds as though your season is still young. When a team isn't winning or putting together some consistent outings the Coach will begin to look for some hidden gems to crank things up. I'm sure this not being able to bat right now is probably bothering you more than him. It's imperative that he keep his chin up and keep working hard.

Paying dues is all a part of the process of sports especially at a young age.

Listen very good at what others have recommended about finding a very good competitive summer team to play on, and attend choice showcases when possible.

Last bit of advise. I would stop now trying to understand the coach. Remember this: It is his team and he will make choices/decisions/moves based on what he deems right. He won't be perfect at times but then again what he may be trying to accomplish is outside our realm of thinking. After all, what he says goes.

The parent said how can they report the stats to college, showcases, questionaires if he has none in varsity. It doesn't matter.

If it makes a parent feel good about seeing their sons stats in the local paper, it matters.

[ scratching my head ]

Isn't that what I just said?

You know,
it isn't that it makes me feel good to see my son's name in the paper (it does, but not the point), but more so that we HAVE been asked to provide stats from this season and I am not sure how to compile these. The premiere teams here request varsity stats as a requirement for tryout consideration, a couple of the showcase apps we have seen have asked for them, and my son has been sent a couple of college questionaires that have asked for stats. So while I completely understand that his junior year is going to be much more significant (and while he feels very fortunate to be getting so much playing time as a soph), I posed the question because I really needed advice on soph stats (because they obviously DO matter to someone besides "mom"). Also, I do realize the season is young and things could change, so my son is remaining hopeful. I appreciate the thoughtful responses by most...

The stats are worth zilch !!!

The big problem is for a summer/fall team to take him they will have questions---why???

When you DH for position player flags go up, at least for me.

Too many on here post that when a kid gets cut he should go play for a solid travel team---that is all well and good and greatly encouraging for the kid but let me tell you folks that is not that easy---solid travel teams have rosters with those who are starters on their HS teams, regardless of the level-- are we setting the kid up for another failure, provided he is invited to tryout ?

Like it or not this is the way it is


I also get very upset with the fact that a mom would come on here and claim the team is "tanking"---with that attitude I am not sure I want that family around my team

Pudgemom,

If these questionnaires etc. are asking for stats, then give them as they are. Make sure you mention your son is playing varsity. Leave his coach's number as a reference.

He is a sophomore playing " up ". That says something right there.

I think the best way is the truth. Let it stand for what it is.

It's my opinion that a credible coach will make sure someone sees the player and/or talks to the player's present coach.
Theres a heck of alot more to a good player at this age than just his stats.
I believe good coaches will dig deeper.

This thread got me to thinking, and its a lazy Easter morning, so figured I'd throw this out there for what its worth, if anything.

I remember when my family was where you are pudgemom. Varsity was whole new can of beans in and of itself ( son was young ) and college interest/questionnaires were almost alien.
Son's first questionnaires I left sitting on counter. Son didn't fill them out because they were from schools/teams/organizations we had never heard of and some were located out of state.

Then I found the HSBBW and everyone ( including TR,...who quite honestly was the most vocal about this, although I spent too much time trying to get over his tone and not enough time listening to his actual advice ) said " FILL OUT ALL QUESTIONNAIRES".

We finally did.
It turned out to be beneficial down the road.

We also at this time were faced with some immediate decisions. What type of stratedgy/approach were we going to take with this new adventure?

First off, how to fill out the questionnaires???

Some asked for a Pro Scout recomendation.
( We didnt have one. Wouldnt have been able to recognize a scout if he had a sign labeled
" I'M A PRO SCOUT " posted to his forehead. )

Some asked for SPARQ testing stats.
( Didnt know what SPARQ was. )

Some asked for times that my son had never been timed in.
( Wondered if a mom's stopwatch time out on a field counted?
Figured we could go out to the local ball field and give it a whirl. On your mark, get set, run son ruuuuuuuuuun!!! )

Some asked for # of homeruns.
( Son had only 1. )

Some asked for stats.
( Our stat person was the younger sister of one of our players. Ummmm,....not sure she would have even been able to find the actual stat book, let alone give me an accurate stat count. )
I had never even thought about keeping track of the stats myself at that point.
We ended up guess-timating and wrote on the questionnaire with stars around it: " We dont have official stats at this time. Here is a mom's & player's best guess ".

On paper,..well, honestly son looked pretty pitiful.
I kept asking myself, " Are we really supposed to send these out looking like they did? "
And if we did, would it sabatoge son's chances of moving on to the next level??

We thought long and hard.
Decided to let it all stand on its own merit. What the heck.
Better to tell it how it was, than to not say anything at all or to fudge about it.
It was what it was,..and if it wasn't good enough, better to find out sooner than later.

Son knew he had more to give. Knew he was going to learn more with time and that he was going to get better. He also knew that if doors closed, it would be up to him to go back up to those doors, and kick em' in. He was calm,..I was the one questioning everything.

Then Itsinthegame kept saying over and over,..its about the game. Just play and let it be about the game.
TPM said relax and enjoy yourself. I think one time she may have even told
me to " CHILL ".

It took a while for those words to sink in,...but once they did I realized how very right they were.
The ol': " If I only knew then, what I know now " story.
Isnt that always the way? ha!

I'm still learning with each & every day, with each new adventure, and thank those who cared enough to pound some of those lessons into my head!
It may have hurt my brain in the beginning, but makes for less of a headache and more time to enjoy the game, in the end.

Most every questionaire we received asked for stats. One of them actually asked for sophomore stats also.

Good luck to your son pudgemom.

Here is my two cents worth:

First - congrats to your son for getting a call-up as a sophomore. It is obvious that the coach thinks highly of him or he would not make that move. The coach is probably thinking (perhaps wrongly)that your son may need a little time to get his bearings before he puts him up at the plate. I will say that it has been my own experience that most freshmen and sophs are ready to play at the varsity level defensively before they are ready with the bat. This may or may not be true in your son's case, but is often the case.

Also, this exact same thing happened to my son as a HS sophomore. It was very frustrating. He went on to play that summer for a low visibility Legion program, but did OK. He attended no showcases. He won a starting job as a junior and went on to have a fine season. Likewise in the summer for a little higher profile team. Other than a perfect game tournament one weekend, he did nothing other than write letters and fill out questionaires. In spite of having better stats than a lot of other kids at his position, the local papers and coaches gave the league honors to the kids on high profile teams (which ours was not). In spite of all of that, he signed an NLI in the fall of his senior year to a lower tier D-1 program and had two other D-1 offers and a couple of 2s and 3s.

The reason I go through all of this is to tell you that there is no need to panic. If he is as good as it seems, it will work out. Enjoy the ride - every minute of it. It is over in a flash.

quote:

Originally posted by playersmom:
Most every questionaire we received asked for stats. One of them actually asked for sophomore stats also.

I can tell you from my experience as a HS coach dealing with college coaches, Sophomore stats don't matter. We have had many cases where sophomores either didn't hit, or had poor stats. But, stats do not tell the story about a young player, and college coaches realize this.

Regarding college questionnaires, I tell my young players to show "Please contact high school coach" in the stats section. We have had several D1 recruits and draft picks who had mediocre or even poor stats as sophomores. Don't sweat it. It doesn't matter. Talent is talent, regardless of stats, and college coaches and scouts notice talent.

pudgemom31:

We were in your position last year with two minor differences: he started the season at V (bumping the then junior catcher who as a senior is now an infielder and my son is catching) and he did get to hit for himself. His offensive stats were so-so. When asked on questionnaires, he has referred them to his HS coach - even now he does this. This is because the HS Coach has/should have the official stats anyway, and should be able to/can explain his reasons for everything/why he is making the choices he is making, etc. Perhaps have your son talk with his coach and get an idea for what the coach may say? The suggestions you are getting here are excellent and valid. I think college coaches/summer coaches will see talent when he plays. As for summer play, a college coach just told my son, when asked his opinion of where to play for the summer..."[first] you should play where you will [get the best/most playing time] and [second] you should play at the highest level possible." His big year will be next year for him - kind of beginning this coming summer and throughout next summer, and he will mature a lot over the next year. This is what a recruiter see and it sounds like your kid is off to a brilliant start....good luck!!!

Ooops by "His big year will be next year" I meant "Your son's big year..."