Baseball EDU

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...