Baseball EDU

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 ...