What to do for HS games...

My older son (college ball at Stanford, now a pro player) played at a HS that sounds similar to your son's.

College coaches and scouts know how to separate this stuff and can even see positives in watching your son deal with adversity.

Invite the coaches anyways....they'll figure it out. It will be fine.

My son is in a similar situation. We live in the Western Carolina Mountains and play for a 1a school. Can't tell you how many times college coaches have questioned my son's stats due to the league he is in. He eventually broke through. He did this by playing competitive summer ball, good grades, camps, camps and more camps.

I say go ahead and invite the coaches to your son's games. Most coaches worth a flip won't hold errors and poor comp. against him. If he has decent velocity, size, projectability, command, mound presents, and any number of other things only they know what then he will get his shot.

When it comes to college recruiters, the high school season tends to be less significant than summer and fall seasons. The reason, of course, is that college coaches are in the midst of their own season; making it a lot tougher to take the time to see games.

A tip: Since the NCAA requires that all players have an off day from workouts and games, most colleges don't hold practice on Mondays. If your high school plays some of its games on Mondays, your chance of getting a recruiter to a game improves.

Recruiters and scouts don't take scores and teammates errors into account when evaluating a pitcher. Like Big Ed said it's about stuff, projectability and mechanics.

His job is not to strike everyone out but to pitch effectively and be the best teammate he can possibly be. His job is not to be worrying what the other guys are or are not doing. I would advise you to leave the angst alone as well. Your son is not perfect and I am sure he'll make a mistake one day as well.

The most important thing in baseball is to focus on those things you can control. For your son, those things are his attitude and effort. If someone makes an error after a perfectly executed pitch, encourage him to look over at that guy and pick him up by saying something like "We'll get'em next time, keep trying on the next one and I'll get you another ground ball..."

You can't perfectly control wins and losses as a pitcher even though that stat applies to the pitcher. Pitch effectively and be the best teammate he can possibly be and try not to show attitude toward less than stellar play. Worry only about his position/effort/attitude and let everything else alone. It's the coach's job to worry about those other guys.

As a parent, I wouldn't even mention the errors and sloppy play after the game. Focus on building a positive attitude in your son no matter the circumstances. That alone can take him a long ways in baseball.

Sounds like you're more upset that your son didn't get his name in the paper for a "no-hitter" than you are him getting looks from colleges. As others have said, college coaches are looking at the pitcher...not the infielders. If your son knows there are scouts in attendance, he has to get away from his (or your) "strike everyone out" mentality and pitch the way he would pitch with a goof infield. Pitching to "strike everyone out" is a horrible mentality...and will only lead to more problems.

quote:

Originally posted by OKbaseballDad:
Last year my 2013 had several near no-hitters, but lost several of them due to double-digit fielding errors (no, I'm not kidding) and virtually no run support.
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Out of curiosity, how do errors and no run support make your son lose no hitters?

Sounds like your bad attitude towards his high school team might be rubbing off on him. I think I remember you saying he had some offers from JUCOs or some NAIA schools? I suggest you enjoy his high school experience for what it is and if he needs exposure, get it during the summer, when he can be on a better team that will get him the exposure.

Errors and sloppy fielding are part of the game , all pitchers have this . Your son should concentrate on throwing strikes , make good pitches and stay focused after a bad play , he will get noticed by college coaches . I teach pitchers to keep the same reaction , same attitude , if they give up a 3 run bomb or strike out the side . Coaches look for kids that can handle adversity and be ready for the next pitch .

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Originally posted:
It happens, Mizzou. Bad defense can make pitchers throw more pitches and face more batters until someone finally does get a hit after 21 or more batters should have been retired.

For sure...

My son had a game last season (14U) where he gave up 1 hit, didn't walk anyone, and yet hit his pitch limit (75) before the end of the THIRD inning. Don't try to do the math on that one - it will just hurt your head.

quote:

Originally posted:

quote:

Originally posted by Mizzoubaseball:

Out of curiosity, how do errors and no run support make your son lose no hitters?

It happens, Mizzou. Bad defense can make pitchers throw more pitches and face more batters until someone finally does get a hit after 21 or more batters should have been retired.

I dont think that is what he was getting at with this.

When RHP was pitching a high school game, he went into the bottom of the 5th inning with a 10-0 lead, 11 K’s, and was 3 outs away from the game ending with the mercy rule. 2 errors and 1 hit later, it was 10-1 forcing the game to more innings. RHP ended up setting a state record of 20 strikeouts in a 7-inning game. He even had 4 in the last inning since the catcher was unable to handle a 3rd strike and the batter made it safely to first. Needless to say, he was “happy” for the errors.

quote:

Originally posted by OKbaseballDad:
What do you do if you're at a small school and the best athletes don't even go out for baseball?

Last year my 2013 had several near no-hitters, but lost several of them due to double-digit fielding errors (no, I'm not kidding) and virtually no run support.

He even had multiple strikeouts where the catcher would drop the third strike and after reaching 1st base and several fielding errors after that another unearned run.

I'd like to invite college coaches to come watch his games, but it seems counter productive with teammates dropping balls that you'd chastise a 4th grader for missing.

He had a college coach ask him on a visit "what is your goal when you pitch?" My son answered "strike everyone out". Of course the answer was to pitch as few pitches to get out of the inning, but with this HS team he HAS to strike them out.

college coaches also want to see your attitude and demeanor when things dont go well.

When my son was in middle school the high school had its seventeenth losing season in twenty years. Some privates expressed interest in him for sports. My son decided he wanted to stay with his friends. He also figured with the players that would go through though high school with him, they could be part of something new. His three years of varsity ball they came in second the first year and followed with two conference titles. It was the first conference title since 91. The team went the furthest in the playoffs than any baseball team in school history.

If the team is as bad as you say it can be used as a mental building block for when he's on. Better summer team. Unless he's a 90+ throwng stud chances are he'll be discovered in summer ball.

The moral of the story is a bit harsh ... Shut up and play. Get out of your sons head. If he's that good let him be a leader.

Our 2013 RHP had the same concerns. His high school teams is poor in skills, which is opposite of his summer team. Early in his jr season he had a college recruiting coach at a high school game. Our son's travel coach reminded 2013 RHP before the game to "Do your job and play the game as you always do. Stay within yourself. The recruiting coaches are looking at your mound presence, mechanics, composure, velocity,command and how you handle adversity. RC is there to evaluate you, not your teammates ". Leadership, passion, confidence and maturity. Spot on. It worked that day and carried over to following games when RCs were there.

This will be 2013's 4th year as a varsity starter, enduring some pretty bad varsity baseball. As bad as his they play sometimes, he still loves his school teammates. As parents, we bite our tongue to not criticize the poor play and attitudes of some of the kids/parents... But being part of a good summer/fall program can help you overlook a lot of petty high school stuff.

Put it in perspective and keep focus on the goal of baseball beyond high school. If your kid is like mine, he puts enough pressure on himself. He doesn't need you to remind him that the kid in right field looks like he can't even catch a cold.

This post reeks of bitterness from player and parent by throwing the rest of the team under the bus. My son played for a HS varsity team that struggled and no matter what the situation, he would never blame a teammate and always said it was the team loss. Even if he had a good day, if they lost, that was what mattered. Not that some player or a group of players caused a no hitter to be lost. What players like this forget is errors are part of the game. Otherwise, they wouldn't be part of the game. They also fail to realize that the next play, they could be the one who pulls a rock and they wouldn't like it one bit if they were singled out. No one needs to remind players when they err. They know it. They don't need some player or parent throwing them under the bus for their own selfish reasons. This stuff drives me nuts.

he may have lost the gamebut he still had a no hitter---- recruiters see that

quote:

Originally posted by zombywoof:
This post reeks of bitterness from player and parent by throwing the rest of the team under the bus. My son played for a HS varsity team that struggled and no matter what the situation, he would never blame a teammate and always said it was the team loss. Even if he had a good day, if they lost, that was what mattered. Not that some player or a group of players caused a no hitter to be lost. What players like this forget is errors are part of the game. Otherwise, they wouldn't be part of the game. They also fail to realize that the next play, they could be the one who pulls a rock and they wouldn't like it one bit if they were singled out. No one needs to remind players when they err. They know it. They don't need some player or parent throwing them under the bus for their own selfish reasons. This stuff drives me nuts.

You have no idea what you're talking about. My son will do everything to help his teammates...encourages them, asks them to stay after practice, etc. He's even turned down playing with spring travel teams to stay with his teammates. Yet, some of these players aren't even going out for the team because the baseball coach asked those that aren't playing basketball to have workouts in January and February. My son asked his basketball coach for special permission to workout with the baseball team after basketball practice, so know before you open your mouth.

quote:

Originally posted by OKbaseballDad:


You have no idea what you're talking about. My son will do everything to help his teammates...encourages them, asks them to stay after practice, etc. He's even turned down playing with spring travel teams to stay with his teammates. Yet, some of these players aren't even going out for the team because the baseball coach asked those that aren't playing basketball to have workouts in January and February. My son asked his basketball coach for special permission to workout with the baseball team after basketball practice, so know before you open your mouth.

You posted that the team messes up behind your son and you posted he told a coach he has to strike everyone out. If that don't sound like throwing other players under the bus then I don't know what does. I replied to what you posted, not something I don't know.