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January 17, 2006
I'm going to rant a little this morning so I'll
try not to be too verbose.
I see probably see a couple of hundred baseball
games over the course of a year. There's not many things that shock or
surprise me anymore, and I tend to take everything in stride with a been
there- seen that attitude.
One of the things that is fairly common is the
parent or fan who is overly vocal to the point of approaching obnoxious.
This doesn't bother me too much as I still find these people preferable to
the parent who rarely attends their child's activities, whatever they are.
Where I draw the line and have huge issues is
with the coach who consistently behaves in a boorish manner. Berating
umpires, protesting every call and mouthing at opposing coaches is bad
enough, but making comments to opposing players is absolutely forbidden in
my world.
Unfortunately this type of behavior exists out
there, and it makes me wonder: WHY ARE WE ALLOWING OUR CHILDREN TO
ASSOCIATE WITH THESE PEOPLE?
I find it impossible to believe that these type
of coaches are the best available option for your young players. The vast
majority of coaches, parents of players or not, are solid people with the
best interest of the kids at heart.
Remember, it's easy to become a victim of guilt
by association. Do your young players a favor and hook them up with
coaches who reinforce positive attitudes and acceptable behavior.
On another topic, I saw something yesterday that
bothers me to no end. I saw a young man pitch yesterday in a local
tournament. I'm quite familiar with him and have seen him multiple times
in both high school and summer/ fall competition. He tossed several
innings in relief and according to the official scorekeeper threw 71
pitches.
I left the complex to have lunch and returned an
hour later when the next games were starting. To my surprise the same
young man was on the mound as the starting pitcher and proceeded to throw
3 more innings. He took the mound after not only having thrown 71 pitches
earlier, but waiting an hour before returning to the bump. What
made this situation even more troubling is that the coaches in this
situation are guys that are involved in the game at a high
level and definitely know better.
This young man is a front line starting pitcher
at a local 5A school. I suspect the high school coach would not approve,
particularly with the HS season looming a few weeks down the road.
Parents.....they may be teenagers now but you
can't close your eyes to how they are being handled.
A message was posted on the message board this morning regarding the
recent article on unsigned pitchers. The poster apparently disagrees with
my list and feels some names were missing.
For starters, there's little doubt that, on any list, names will be
omitted that are probably deserving of mention.
The content of the list in question, and most of my player ratings, are
based on how I perceive a potential college coach seeing this player. To
say the process is subjective is a huge understatement.
The evaluation of baseball talent is an incredibly inexact science.
Witness professional baseball for evidence with its fifty round player
draft and multitudinous layers of minor league baseball.
Projectability, a term not found in Webster's, refers to the concept of
projecting a player's future performance at a higher level of competition.
In baseball, the measurable commodities (tools) are easy to see and are
always at the forefront of evaluation. For example, speed, be it 60 yard
dash time or home to first time, is a widely coveted tool that is also
easy to quantify.
Other tools, in particular hitting ability and future power projection,
are more difficult to assess as we don't have a stopwatch to validate our
findings.
With pitchers, the one quantifiable commodity is velocity. The radar
gun rarely, if ever, lies. With right handed pitchers in particular,
showing an acceptable velocity is necessary to separate oneself from the
herd.
Projecting future velocity is tricky, and everyone has an opinion. Body
type is a huge factor in the projection of a pitcher's future velocity.
It's for that reason that height is such a huge consideration when scouts
write reports on young pitchers.
Now back to my ratings. I don't consider myself an expert, nor do I
trust those who consider themselves experts. I think I know better than
most what coaches want to see, and I quantify velocity by carrying a radar
gun and not believing 99% of what I hear from others.
When I'm rating players, I take little note of their statistics in high
school. My thought process is simple: I'm trying to point potential
coaches in the direction of players I think they may have interest in. I'm
also trying to put myself in the shoes of a coach who gets a very limited
look at a player.
This is by no means an absolute, but I think its pretty accurate: To
be an attractive scholarship candidate as a RHP at a Division 1 program,
you need to show consistent velocity over 87 MPH.
There are a boatload of very good young players who are very successful
high school pitchers, but will never get a sniff from big time college
baseball due to the above statement. That does NOT mean that these players
can't have a future playing after high school, it means that their chances
of being recruited to a D1 program are very slim.
There are also many players who develop to a certain point and then
"hit the wall". It's the reason I'm very reserved about
underclassmen, and why I don't list names of sophomores or freshman until
I see them against better competition and get a gauge for their growth
potential and their desire to improve.
A very good example of the concept of development is RHP Nick Salahub
from Deer Valley.
Now I don't know Nick or his family...never met them. However, I've
seen him throw on several occasions and he's hard not to notice. At 6-8
and 230 pounds he's the embodiment of "projection".
Nevertheless, Nick was always one of those guys who I had in the low 80s
velocity wise and therefore maybe wasn't "on the radar screen"
as others were.
This off season, Nick has dedicated himself to strength improvement and
arm care. He's been participating in a velocity improvement/arm care
program and has gained several MPH in velocity as a result.
It is my understanding that Nick will sign with one of our top JUCO
programs this week, and if he continues to progress, has a very bright
future in this game.
Comments to the points made here are always welcome on the message
board.
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