What's your take on this?

dazed,

I want to apologize for my tone.

In your OP, I got the impression  that parents of two or more players were going to make a joint visit with the coach. What I pictured was a "cabal" of dissatisfied parents meeting with the coach, all at one time. For me that is a negative image.

During the rest of my reply,  my intended tone, believe it or not, wasn't sarcastic. I'm sympathetic to the difficulty of bringing up PT issues with a coach in an acceptable way, and the difficulty of a Jr. competing for playing time with name brand Sr. athletes when the only way to prove yourself is to make high-pressure cameo appearances as a DH or pinch-hitter. That's a tough row to hoe. I don't blame it on the coach or on the sport. It's an unavoidable situation.

Within the confines of a short season, coaches (myself included) often rely on name brands, seniority, and hunches.  Btw, I do not mean "name brands" in a negative sense.

So your son is a Jr. And you want him to be DH for pitchers?  

You want the Jr to be seen by scouts coming to see Sr. who are D1 comitts, and hopefully get discovered?  pleask correct me if I have it wrong.

Trust me if your son was a a great hitter the coach of this talented team would have him in for a P who cannot hit.

your son will just have to get on a good summer team and "get discovered" or go to school showcases and get on their radar. 

We? Are you on the team? Is this your baseball experience? You had your turn. Now it's time to sit back, watch and advise. But you are not a high school player agent. If a player has an issue with playing time it's his just to man up and have a private talk with the coach on earning more playing time. It's not a job for mommy or daddy. 

Typically there aren't a lot of college coaches at high school games. They're busy coaching baseball. If there are coaches at your games it's due to the degree of talent on the team. However, typically the best way to be discovered by the colleges that are the best fit is to make a list and figure out what summer showcases and camps will get the player in from of them. 

I'm going to take a wild guess a winning high school coach probably has a decent idea of how to make out a lineup. I've seen exceptions. The perpetual stream of talent at my high school carried an ordinary coach to the state high school Hall of Fame. My son's high school coach had his faults. But he had the lineup right by a third of the way into the season. He had a tendency to overrate up and coming prospects versus existing talent after one big year of up and coming talent.

dazed,

I'm going to take another jump into these waters.

Let's say your son's skills and attitude this year convince the coach that your son deserves to be the front-runner for a full-time position next year, when he's a senior.

If your son is unfortunate to get off to a slow start, but the coach stands by him while the parents of underclassmen grumble in the stands,  please remember this thread.

My take is coaches do things based on their own biases.  You can have different ideas, but the coach gets the call.  At least you're winning.  What if you are loosing?  I had to endure an entire season of a "defensive" minded basketball coach who kept is best shooters on the bench, even as the losses mounted.  It was tough to watch and made your eyes bleed.  Not much you can do but grin and bear it.  Good luck.   

I'm attempting to answer all the questions posted my way through the evening yesterday - forgive me if I miss something.

There are both juniors and seniors not playing - and more than just one position is affected. So, any number of parents could be sitting here asking these questions right now.

There are also both juniors and seniors on the field.

There are pitchers who DH for other pitchers and pitchers who are playing other positions thereby also hitting or attempting to hit in the lineup.

It's not about "discovery" of anyone right now. We...oh EXCUSE me...HE...is playing on a well known and decently high profile team this summer. (Yes I tend to say "we". Please don't split hairs.)

Scouts: I don't know if any COLLEGE scouts have been poking around...doubtful. These have been PRO scouts because of several guys out there. So, no, we aren't looking to get discovered, just get opportunities to play and produce when others aren't.

DH for pitcher? Sure! Start at a position over a pitcher? Sure! All of the above.

After years of preaching "do the work and you'll get your shot" or "just hit the baseball and the rest will take care of itself" and other apparent lies at this point from us to him...it burns that it just doesn't seem the case now.

This is purely about getting opportunities to show your stuff in game situations when others have had double digit games to do so and have not. When do you say when?

The theory that maybe a coach needs to let the pitchers hit to keep them happy is an interesting one because we suddenly cross a dangerous line in that it looks selfish for one guy (or two or three) and less about the team. Do you stop asking a guy to bunt in certain situations because he doesn't want to?

Others mentioned baseball as a life teaching tool. I agree it should be. We've all seen situations in life where the "star" whatever maybe gets away with being less of a team player, maybe gets away with being unethical etc. all in the name of money/sales/production/you name it. Where does this mentality originate in certain people?

Anyway, back to baseball. The original question was if/when/how to broach a delicate subject and you guys have basically done a good job of talking me down off the ledge. Here is another WE..as in WE his parents...are going to continue doing and saying absolutely nothing.

One last point was made by someone about our player being in the line up next season and not hitting but being afforded the same courtesy of getting multiple ABs anyway. Ask me again next year...

dazed&confused, I think your just kind of in one of those situations that will have to play itself out.  I'm sure your son is very talented especially if he is on the same roster as the D1 type players you speak of.  The only advice I can really give you at this point is don't give your son a reason (or excuse) to stop competing for a starting position.  What I meen by that is, don't speak poorly of the coach/team/school/program within ear shot of your son (not that you cant, just don't let him hear it).  All that will do is undercut his desire to compete because "mom and dad" have already confirmed that he is a good player and the coach/team has it all wrong.  You seem like a pretty level headed guy and I'm sure your not doing that, but its worth posting if at least for other parents who may be in a similar situation that are reading this thread. 

Good luck this season and keep us posted.  Welcome to the High School Baseball Web.

If they pitch, play a position, and/or DH, calling them "pitchers" is a misnomer. Why not call them a centerfielder who also pitches? This is high school baseball.

And kids get their opportunities in practice. No one is owed an opportunity in games. Practice time effort/results/attitude may need to be looked at as well if we're decrying the lying of playing time in games. Not saying it's an issue or not, but it has to be evaluated.

You're right.  This can be one of the biggest lines of BS around.  In the short term, it may not matter to a particular coach.  Hopefully, over the course of many coaches it will work out.  The coach may have a bias towards a certain type of player.  That type of player may not fit you.  Nothing you can do will change that. 

While I agree, you just can't fool the kids these days.  Kids who have been exposed to "high level" travel teams, professional lessons, ESPN, MLB Network, etc. know good coaching/programs when they see it.  And that is a gigantic problem -- everyone knows a school has a "bad" program except the coach.

dazed, you are in a difficult situation.  And from experience, it is one you may well find yourself in again if your son moves on to play college baseball.  So, you and your son learning how to deal with this could serve you well in the future.  

I'll say this to start.  When you have kids that are D1 material, they are usually very good athletes.  A kid who is recruited as a D1 pitcher has usually played other positions as well and is often times better than most at their "secondary" position as well.  So a coach playing their recruited D1 pitcher at a position as well isn't very surprising to me.  As others have stated, a hitting slump in the beginning of a HS season isn't a reason for a coach to start panicking yet - especially when they are winning.  I believe I am from your neck of the woods.  And if I'm thinking correctly, your team probably plays some pretty stiff competition with many other D1 recruits as well as some D2, D3, NAIA and JUCO recruits.  And your team is probably seeing all their best pitchers.  So, the deflated batting averages are probably a result of that as well.  Just trying to put things into perspective.  With a stacked lineup and many options, I'm sure the coach is doing everything he thinks he should to win.  

In college, things could be very similar.  I'm going thru it right now and it is not fun.  Last year, my son was at the top of the heap for relief pitchers on his team.  This year, he is getting almost no innings.  He has an inflated ERA because of one bad inning and isn't getting much time to rectify that.  He's not the only one and it has the parents and players wondering what the deal is.  Can't prove yourself without the opportunity.  Do my son and I talk about it?  Of course.  It is frustrating for both of us.  What do I tell him?  "Hang in there.  Keep working hard.  At some point, you will get another opportunity.  When you do, you need to be ready and show what you got.  In the meantime, your job is to be a good teammate and be ready when opportunity knocks."

I don't think this is a case of politics or unfairness.  I think it is a case of a stacked team having too many good players to get all of them the PT they probably deserve.  I can't say anything to my son's college coach.  You shouldn't say anything to your son's HS coach.  Just encourage your son to be ready when the time comes.

If you've been telling him that everything will work out, then yes, you have been "lying" to him in a sense. The message should be "your effort is the only thing you have control over". It's not always going to turn out the way you want, even when you do everything right. You have no control over the coach's decision making. But if you do all the right things, you can look yourself in the mirror and be satisfied with yourself. As with most of the topics here, as he gets older he'll face similar circumstances in many other aspects of life.

News Flash: It becomes very competitive at the highest levels of baseball. One of the reasons it becomes more competitive is that players mature and begin to realize that if they don't work extremely hard at the game, they'll fall behind the others. So, in this type of environment, it's not a "lie" to tell a player that he needs to work hard to have a chance to earn playing time. Rather, it's usually that if they don't, they'll almost certainly fall by the wayside.

College coaches have the benefit of Fall Baseball, team workouts prior to the regular season, and small group sessions to assess their players. Normally, a very small fraction of this is observable by outsiders. Meanwhile, parents are not only "outsiders," they are very rarely "baseball people."

"Baseball people" make their living from baseball. If they do it poorly, more often than not, they lose their livelihood. In other words, their ability to feed, house, and clothe their families suffers. There's something primal and powerful about that dynamic.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of parents do not rely upon baseball for their day-to-day existence; and, they are not nearly as practiced and skilled at evaluating players. They also tend to have a fairly primal attachment to their sons; a factor that is exceedingly powerful, itself.

So, when you see the results of a decision made by a coach in a game situation, you can be reasonably certain that the decision comes from a deep-seated inclination to win; along with hundreds of hours of skilled assessment available only to him and his staff.

For this set of reasons, when I hear parents start talking about "bias," "politics," even "bad coaching," my antennae go straight up. The signal they usually pick up I usually categorize as "whining." At that point, the antennae retract; and that parent gets tuned out indefinitely.

While that is true at the college level and above, it is equally untrue at the high school level.  Most high school coaches make their living as teachers.  Some may be retired with pensions to live off of.  No high school coach is earning at living with the few thousand dollar stipend they get.  Much more comes into play at the lower levels. 

You missed my point. I didn't call anything unethical as it relates to baseball.

Great post!  I think you pretty much covered it...

Do you know if there is any data on how many HS baseball coaches, and especially head coaches, are teachers?  I don't doubt that this has been your experience -- but mine has been the opposite.  I think the conclusion you reach based on your assumption is debatable, but there's not much point in going there unless the underlying assumption is valid.

I hear what you are saying, but some of it depends on the HS.  If the OP is where I think he is from, while the coach may not get a ton more money to do this job, the competition is fierce.  And the atmosphere is much closer to college competition than the average HS team.

Welp. Ours are teachers who coach other sports as well.

Thought I might should give a little update on how things are progressing...

We (his parents) didn't say anything to anybody and let things marinate just to see what would happen. While he is not yet a confirmed starter, he has proven himself by hitting .500 so far since the original post on 3/23 after a kid went on the DL opening the opportunity door. Good hits too...not bloopers, not borderline "errors", not grounders that got through, not swinging bunts. Hard line drives and deep gap balls and one homer. The kid knows how to hit. Deep breath...exhale.

Still dazed&confused as to why he's not the #1 guy at his position as the other alternatives are hitting a collective .140, but it's progress.

Guess I'll be back in 3 weeks with another update.