Baseball EDU

What is your intent on a daily basis? Are you getting better? Are you practicing deliberately? Or are you just going through the motions and letting life happen to yourself? I think this is something I have been thinking about a lot recently. I want to make sure that I am making the most out of myself and others that I am around. Having INTENT is one of the biggest and best things that you could associate yourself with. Think of this, have you ever written anything down knowing that it would come true? That you would work so hard until you had what you wanted? That is intent. That is having a clear goal for yourself. If you aren't trying to point to what are you honestly looking at? What do you want to be in 5 years? How will you get there? You need to be focused with one thing in mine. I have been mulling this idea around. What is my own intent? I think that I am getting closer to identifying exactly what I want to get done in the day, and what I want to do to get there. So ...

Someone who hasn't made a play like this might think that this is nothing. In reality this is difficult for any catcher. A foul ball straight back to Sandy Leon might seem typical but don't think this for granted. Big play by the catcher to realize the foul ball stand up, identify where it is and how it is spinning which is toward the pitchers mound. Most high school or college catchers might find it a habit to go straight up to the ball and not wait for it to move backward to them. This is good training by anyone who has worked with Leon. Identify the ball, move slowly toward it. Toss the mask. Simple to see but when it comes to execution of the play it can be more difficult.

High school or college catchers are always looking at how they stack up to one another. Watching high level baseball you might be thinking how good is my arm? How does my pop time stack up? How about the exchange from glove to throw? Interesting to think that not all catcher in MLB are throwing 95 MPH fastballs to second base. Consider the following clips: Both catchers only throwing between 80-85 MPH. Very reasonable. This tells me that coaches don't care as much for rockets for an arm and are MUCH more concerned with catching ability, receiving, blocking, calling a game, and many other things that go into the position. I was shocked when I first saw this. Think about that for so long I as consumed with thinking that catchers were throwing 95 MPH to second base but in reality it is much slower than that. 

Want to be clear about this. No one is an instant success. The only people who have instant success are people who have worked long and hard to get to where they need and want to be in their lives. If you aren't willing to put in the work to get to where you want to be, expect to be where you are forever. You as a person need to be willing to grow, learn, and adapt to the best of your abilities. I think that this is one of the strongest things that we can do as human beings. I think that by allowing yourself to fail, learn, and grow only enables you to do it more. Fail and fail often. Learn to accept challenges and push yourself to your abilities. I always make a to do list to start each day, and as successful as I feel those lists are at organizing myself I often find myself looking back at them and thinking that I could have gotten more done. I have started to look at to do lists as if they are lists that truly never get accomplished. What I need to begin doing is looking at wh...

At the beginning of every season coaches lay out their own goals, style of play, rules, norms, ideas and many other items. I put anything that coaches do to "set-up" their own team under the blanket of "Team Structure". This idea of how a team is structured in my opinion goes along way in to how successful a team can/will be. Team structure goes in many different directions and how a coach handles different instances ultimately sets up how a team functions. Each team structure is built in a different way. I can almost guarantee how I handle one years team will differ from how I will handle the following year. I keep my own set of rules pretty straight forward: Show up on time Care while you are on the field Have respect both on/off of the field.  There is zero tolerance for any kind of "knucklehead" who might be on his own plan. As a coach I can say that I want to help build a students character through sports but ultimately if they are consistent...

Happy Monday everyone hope that everything is going good! Today's thought includes looking at building a sports program from the bottom up. I know the occasionally I like to focus on struggles that I am encountering and share them with everyone. As an assistant coach I find it difficult sometimes to try to fit in or find my way. This isn't a social thing but more of a finding where you fit in the team or coaching "tree."  For instance I find that when varsity coaches are looking at their team they seem to put a greater emphasis on the varsity level (Often times rightfully so). Especially early in the season this is a great time for all three levels to really get acclimated to the whole program. Whether that means learning or reviewing tactics or schemes or even plays that might pop up. This might be valuable time for senior or even upper class men to show or teach the underclassmen different things. (Hopefully this goes beyond the field and relates to them perso...

MLB Musings Bryce Harper Nationals  With the trade deadline approaching I find it very interesting that a lot of teams find themselves at a crossroads in their long term development. Teams every summer make a statement to fans about where they believe that they stand at the July 31st trade deadline. Over the past several season I have found that every team seems to be trying to adapt to baseballs financial realities of trying to hoard young prospects who they can control for several seasons at league minimums. There does come a time though when teams must look at themselves in the face and come to terms with the fact that prospects are nice but the real deal can be sometimes just as good if not better than prospects. I loved the move that the Athletics made in going out and "sacrificing" the future for a real time big pitching in Jeff Samardzija. They gave up what might be a nice shortstop in order to contend now. It seems as though the idea of going for the champio...

I have said before in this space that I don't think that I make a great freshman baseball coach because of my absolute competitiveness that I have. This summer was a blessing for me because I was able to coach a Junior Legion team. In my mind this was going to be a great opportunity because of the fact that it matters. There are playoffs, more strategy, more excitement. Things are on the line, and in my mind that is a good thing. The stage matters to me. It makes me tick as a coach. Every decision that I make matters! This is a simple fact of anyone who plays, coaches, or watches baseball. If the game doesn't matter then why bother. As a coach this summer during the regular season it was about maintaining pitching staffs, and managing the roster of players. The most fun that I had all summer had to be in the playoffs. Making it through a one game playoffs was extremely exciting for me. But the fact that we got to go into a three game series against the number one team ...

It happened again. I might not have been the best decision that we made all season but it was one that we most likely needed to make at the time. With our top two pitcher able to throw in game one of the playoffs we had decided to hold off one day and go with our third pitcher. Let's just say that it didn't work out for us. Five runs in the first included five walks in a row did us in for good. It was going to be an uphill battle all game long but the idea of giving a solid team a five run cushion right away was not the way in which you wanted to start a game. After switching pitchers in the first inning (Which is something I try not to do at all cost) we cruised through the rest of the game. But not able to overcome the five runs which were surrendered in the first inning. Lessons To Learn Attitude:  What was nice to see is that the majority of the players on the team stayed in to it. The problem with that is a couple of players seem to have given up or just lost hope in...

As much as the team struggled, slogged, and lost throughout the season I knew that if we played our best heading into the playoffs that we had a great chance to compete and challenge the higher seeds in the playoffs. It wasn't easy to get to this point in the season, but I believe that the team is peaking at exactly the right moment. After coaching for a couple of seasons I find myself being more and more honest with the ability of players on each of my teams. I feel that when the season breaks and the teams head into the grind of the year it becomes pretty clear whether the team has talent or not. From the get go with the Junior Legion team that the talent was there. The key would be putting it all together. One of the biggest obstacles that the team had to overcome was something that I did not anticipate at all, staying focused, positive, and alert. Throughout the season the team struggled to put together big wins sometimes falling 1-2 plays short of victory. Throwing strik...

Champions Field One of the biggest problems that young hitters face is coming to the plate with an idea of what they are doing at bat. This ends up being one of the biggest problems that young hitters can have when it comes to a variety of other things which go right into hitting in general. To simply if you swing at bad pitches you are going to have a tough time hitting.  Nice Open Air Dugout I have seen it a lot this summer for the Legion team. Some hitters seem to have a clear idea of what they are doing at the plate mentally while other struggle to obtain what it means to be at bat. I have seen hitters get frustrated after taking a strike call, I have seen hitters look defeated after a called strike two. In young hitters I think it would be too much to ask them to have a clear plan of attack but I think that keeping it simple works for them. My simple approach is that any hitter in order to be able to drive the ball and have a chance to success they need to control...

That pit in your stomach that you get. That feeling that you just are not good enough. Possibly even that feeling of questioning what you are doing. In my opinion those are all what I think about when I think of losing. I have always said that losing is my not biggest problem when it comes to anything. It is the idea of not winning. I honestly don't even think that I enjoy winning unless it is the championship of something. Don't misunderstand me winning is what I strive for but I always believe that I should be winning no matter the situation. The problem that I always face as a baseball coach and this is something which I think I enjoy the most out of coaching is that I have no control about so many factors in the game. I can only do so much to help the players and the rest is out of my hands. This fear of letting go and losing control can scare many people but to me this is what makes me want to coach. This idea that I need to have my players ready for different situations...

Winning=Buy In It doesn't always take winning to show the team that they should buy into your philosophies and what you are trying to do, but it doesn't hurt to win early. Winning early can give you a ton of credibility early as a coach. You can do all the building of relationships, and joking, teaching, along with quality coaching that you want with a team if it doesn't turn into W's early then you might have a problem on your hands. Now I am in no way saying that you must win to have buy in to your program, but what I am suggesting is that winning helps with your credibility as a coach. Winning early helps player buy in to your program and it can also lead to another level of involvement from the team. Tensions can be high as you enter the season and player may be unsure about a particular coach and what they might consider doing for a given season. I have seen coaches lose a team before the season starts due to a variety of different issues, but winning ...

Joe Maddon was nice enough to take 30 minutes out of his busy day in order to talk with my Sports and Social Media class about pretty mich whatever they wanted to talk about. The thing that struck me was how genuine he was as a person he was able to speak with students with the same tone and excitement as he would with a season veteran group of reporters.  It was awesome to be able to talk with someone who is able to manage on the highest level of baseball. He talked about how a lot of what he is doing on a daily basis is simply managing a group of individuals who happen to play baseball. He talked a lot about good leadership, defusimg situation and having an open dialogue and be open to learn from anyperson who you come across. He also taught me that it is good to reach continue to try even though we might not achieve success right away.  As a class we have tweeted at a ridiculous amount of players coaches and analysts. All of which have turned us down or ignored our request....

As we go from Spring to Summer the transition for a new season is upon me and my coaching staff. The change excites me! Not to say that I was getting stall with baseball in the first place. The switch to a new team to learn from, teach, manage, and just enjoy is an exciting time for me! I know that I speak for my whole coaching staff when I say that the thought of baseball during the summer is a very exciting one for all of us. Not only are we back together as a staff but the enjoyment that we get out of discussing, dissecting, improving, and solving problems is really what drives us as coaches.  The start of the year is always an important moment for the team. It is the first time that we come together to see what we are capable of. It is important for coaches as well because this is our moment to show the players what we are expecting, what we want to accomplish, and what our goals are for the season. The plan is always to lay these rules down with the team prior to th...

This much is clearly obvious when coaching, you will make tough decisions. What needs to be most obvious is that those decisions needs to be focused on what is best for the TEAM. When any decision is being made the coach must always be concerned with what is best for his team in the short term and try to balance it with what is best for the long term. I have faced this recently with the Legion program that I am coaching. As a coaching staff we need to narrow the squad down to 16 or 17 players for this summer. The difficulty comes from the process or narrowing this number down. First off tryouts were clearly more difficult than I had thought. Getting a good look at players in the field as well as at the plate is a difficult thing to do with only a couple of hours to spare.  Decisions need to be made and I find myself dreading the idea of telling a player that he is not good enough to play on my team after only seeing him for 4 hours and potentially 40 swings again...

Swing Analysis Miguel Cabrera Miguel Cabrera Inside Swing Today I am going to be analyizing Miguel Cabrera's swing. More importantly I will be looking at a couple key parts of effective hitters swings over the next couple of weeks. I am extremely interested in looking into what makes these hitters so effective and trying to take what they can do and pushing these concepts onto my own teams.  After looking at Cabrera's swing a couple obvious things pop up right away. 1. He is an absolute stud 2. He is super calm with his swing. 3. He is a monster when it comes to attacking the baseball. In the Gif above you can see him just pulling in his hands to make room for inside fastballs. What is interesting about this is what he does not lose power when he does clear his hands for the baseball. Head is down on the ball, and he uses his hips to clear out for his hands.  Here is another view of his swing. This time from the side of it. Notice how he is able to l...

Managing a pitching staff is going to be the most difficult thing that any manager does on a given day. For High School Baseball this can be even more difficult to think about and manage. As pitchers progress to higher levels in baseball they are asked to specialize at one particular job. You will not get many pitchers who are also playing the field come freshman year of college. High School baseball brings any difficult and specialized problems for managers to deal with. For the most part pitchers in high school can be some of the best athletes on the team. These players can often times play some of the most valuable positions on the field. The problem is exacerbated when you consider pitch counts, multiple games in a week, and a small and relatively ineffective lower end of the "staff". I have noticed that pitchers do struggle to go deep into games making this problem even worse for the pitching staff. To manage an effective staff I would suggest that you need at ...