Fall baseball teams for D1 hopeful
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Anonymous
Yes…#1 HS team this year…though they are all 19. Bunch of MLB draft picks as well. |
Anonymous
It’s amazing that SJC finished higher ranked than Corona in several polls. I don’t know how cold weather schools can come close to competing in baseball with TX, FL, and CA schools. But somehow they do it almost every year. Impressive. |
Anonymous
I don’t see SJC ranked higher than Corona anywhere…what poll has them higher? Highest I saw SJC was #5 and Corona isn’t ranked lower than #3. |
Anonymous
https://www.maxpreps.com/news/6QwORGFOek-odFuBClcibQ/st-john-bosco-climbs-to-no-3-in-maxpreps-top-25-high-school-baseball-rankings-after-semifinal-win-over-corona.htm |
Anonymous
James Wood went there. |
Anonymous
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D1 Baseball is going to DRAMATICALLY change.
It has been that you could be on a college baseball team for five years total and compete for 4 of those years. JUCO (junior college /community college) counted for two years. So students who went to JUCO and played from typically 18-20 would then transfer and play in a D1 school from around 20-22/23. ' Due to a recent court case it looks like JUCO is NOT going to affect D1 NCAA eligibility. So students can play for two years at a JUCO (18-20), redshirt for a year at a D1 (age 21) then play for four more years 22-26. At the end of any of those years this player would be draft eligible! So your 18 year old is going to be competing for roster spots with 20-21 year olds. Hmm, who do you think is getting the spot? So you need to start asking how tall your kid is going to be at 18, are they going to have completely grown and filled out? So if you think your kid is really going to go D1 and you aren't knowledgeable about baseball, odds are that isn't going to happen. There are too many dads and moms in the know. So many of the best players have dads still throwing them pitches. Here is an article about Freddie Freedman from the LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/story/2023-08-21/dodgers-freddie-freeman-father-elite-swing On most days of his childhood, Freddie Freeman and his dad, Fred, would drive to an open baseball field by their house in Orange County with a bucket of exactly 48 balls. For about an hour, father would throw son batting practice. And pitch after pitch, bucket after bucket, day after day, and year after year, the swing of a future MLB superstar began to take form...The left-handed hitter never had a full-time hitting coach growing up... Every time they went to the field, Fred would throw Freeman three buckets’ worth of balls. On the first bucket, Freeman would try hitting exclusively to left field. The second, he would attempt to line back up the middle. Only on the third bucket would Freeman go to all parts of the diamond, launching the 48 balls from foul line to foul line... One day, when Freeman was still only 6, Fred noticed another baseball father he knew throwing batting practice to his two boys: Former Angels All-Star Bob Boone, with his future big league sons Bret (an eventual three-time All-Star) and Aaron (a one-time All-Star who is now the manager of the New York Yankees). By that point, Freeman was already ahead of the curve as a player. The youngest of three baseball-playing brothers, he’d swung a bat practically since he could walk. He was also bigger than most of his peers, sprouting early into what is now a lanky 6-foot-5 frame. |
Anonymous
| What is a desirable size (height and weight)? Everyone keeps saying hope your kid gets tall but how is "tall" defined? |
Anonymous
Over 6 ft and a wide frame (185 plus). |
Anonymous
| This thread has been really insightful. To try to summarize, HS freshman should play for any team with individual coaching and working to fill out their frame? Should they avoid showball or just the Fall showball? OP didn’t mention SJC so assuming the boy isn’t going there. What if he’s going to a public school like JR? |
Anonymous
Travel coaches doesn’t necessarily mean a high level travel organization to which the kid was recruited, which is what the first PP confidently asserted. |
Anonymous
My DS just graduated from college where he was on a top ranked D3 baseball team. His team was nationally ranked for most of his 4 years. They played in the post season for 3 of his four years. Why am I telling you this? 1/3 of the starting roster were D1 "drop downs." Guys who had signed and showed up to D1 schools when they were freshman. Two lasted a full year at their D1 and actually saw some playing time (an inning or two when their team was in a blow out.). The third guy never saw the field. We had another D1 drop down (a pitcher) who was expected to play but got injured very early in the season and had TJ surgery. Had he been healthy, he probably would have been our #1 pitcher. He transferred into the school in January after he was cut after his freshman fall season. We also had two D2 drop downs. One of our sophomore pitchers has entered the transfer portal to see if any gets any interest. He had a fantastic season and is big - over 6'3". When our team played, he definitely was bigger than most of the other pitchers the team faced. College sports have changed dramatically with the immediate play rule change. Now guys jump schools every year. If they don't get enough playing time, they drop down to a lower level school - either same level (D1) but from a Power 5 school to a low mid major. Or D1 to D2 or D3. Or they are studs in their current home and move up: again from a mid major to Power 5. Or D2 or D3 to D1. I've also heard that JUCOs are becoming even more competitive. It is becoming really difficult for a good athlete to get recruited as a freshman and stay and play at a D1 school. College coaches can get guys who have college playing experience and they play immediately. Their job is to win and they'd rather fill their team with guys who have played college ball, who understand the commitment (Baseball, school, social life) than an unknown freshman. Ivy League and the military academies are probably the only schools that are immune from the movement. |
Anonymous
+1. This is the baseball reality, unfortunately. Not to derail the thread, but baseball was the huge loser in the post Title IX NCAA world. There were never enough scholarship slots for boys who play baseball relative to the HS participation rate of the sport when compared basketball and football. And, it’s only going to get worse as more schools eliminate baseball programs that are no longer viable in the NIL world. As was said upthread, unless your HS junior is a stud pitcher or projectable generational middle infielder, he’s not playing D1 ball anymore. College coaches will increasingly grab proven corner players from the portal or as grad transfers. So either stop reading this thread and get DS into the weight room, or just make peace and enjoy the last few magical years of his playing career. |
Anonymous
I don’t disagree with your conclusion…but the recent settlement significantly expands the number of baseball scholarships from 11.9 to 34…and I don’t understand why NIL would cause colleges to eliminate baseball programs. Now, lower D1 teams in poorer conferences probably won’t explains to 34 scholarships, but I don’t see the colleges getting rid of their teams. Someone above was correct that Ivy schools will be the exception because the coaches can’t really get kids from the transfer portal…and even if someone wants to transfer, they have to apply to transfer by April…they aren’t like other D1 kids picking up transfers on August 20 who show up on campus on August 21. They may spend more time trying to encourage kids to apply for law or business school that have eligibility remaining…but it’s a much smaller group. But yes…unless a college coach thinks a high school kid can be a starter no later than sophomore year, they won’t bother. Nobody thinks much about developing players because there is always a “better” program a kid can transfer into if you do develop into a star at UMD and now UTK comes calling. Clearly there are some amazing high school players considering 40% of the first and second round MLB picks are HS players, including two kids (Ethan Halliday and the the lefty Corona pitcher) that are favored as the #1 overall MLB picks this July. |
Anonymous
If a school goes up to 34 baseball scholarships that means they have to add 22 more female scholarships. Which means they would need to field a completely new female sports team because you’re not adding 22 more softball scholarships to an already generous allocation. Thats 44 more scholarships total. Plus equal NIL money to avoid Title IX litigation. For many smaller colleges, the math will no longer pencil for baseball. It’s sad. |
Anonymous
Yeah…and Power 4 schools are going to 100% scholarships for like every sport. UT just announced they are going to 100% crew scholarships as an example and the rest of the conference is matching. I don’t understand “equal NIL” money. That doesn’t exist and isn’t part of the settlement. Do you mean the need to pay athletes direct? I don’t even believe that has to be equal. The random D1 conferences like Patriot League or A10 just will opt out…they don’t have to do the above and they won’t because they don’t have the $$$s. |