My report on the Jr Oly event.

You ask if I think the best shot is pitching. All kidding aside, I really believe that the best shot an individual player has is catching! Let me throw around some quickly computed numbers.

Let's say you have a pitcher who can get the ball from the 1st movement in the stretch to the plate in 1.0 second which is pretty darn good. If he throws a pitch at 82 MPH, the ball's getting to the catcher in just about .5 seconds. If the catcher throws the ball to 2nd at 86, it will be in the infielder's glove just about a second later.

Allowing for slight variations that keep the numbers even, we're looking at 2.5 seconds from the pitcher's 1st move, to the ball arriving at 2nd base. Now let's put a runner on 1st who is a 7.0 guy for the 60yd sprint. If we give him a 15' lead, he's gonna get to 2nd in just about 3 seconds.

The kid who was the quickest to 2nd in this Jr. Oly catcher's skills happened to be our catcher. His time from the ball hitting the glove to 2nd was 1.98. All things considered, can you see that everything has to be absolutely perfect to get just a good runner?

Now look at all of the variables. If the pitcher doesn't throw the FB, use the glide step, or throw the ball where the catcher can get rid of it quickly, there's little chance of getting the runner. If the catcher doesn't get the ball cleanly, get that great grip, the batter doesn't do something to distract him and the ball isn't thrown right on the money, there's little chance of getting the runner. If the fielder has to reach for the throw or isn't in the correct receiving position, there's little chance of getting the runner.

Most of those things are totally out of the catcher's control, but the one's that are, can be fine tuned. Just like any fielding position, transfer of the ball is a skill that can and should be worked on to excess! The same goes for arm strength and accuracy. But, there are 2 skills that a catcher must have that no other fielder needs.

One is footwork. Not that all of the other positions don't require proper footwork, but catching requires very fast and very precise movements to the point of it being a "mechanic". Since its a mechanic, it can be learned and improved.

The other skill no other fielder is required to possess is calling a game. That one is much more difficult to acquire, especially with modern coach's having a penchant for calling pitches. In this recent tournament, I saw very few coaches calling pitches. There were two that I saw do it that I talked to and they both said the same thing. Their catchers didn't really know the pitchers because they were relatively new to the team.

It appears that this level must be the start of the realization by coaches that they have to let the players use their skills. The unfortunate thing is, most of the catchers haven't been allowed to develop those skills.

Our catcher happens to go to a HS where the coach allows the catchers to call games once they have a year of varsity experience, but that is a rare exception. What troubles me is, that's something that can be developed beginning at the very lowest levels, but for the most part isn't. The reason most HS coaches won't let the catchers call games is because HS ball is not a teaching environment! The coaches either don't have the time, the knowledge or the will to teach a catcher how to call a game.

The good news is, its fairly easy to find a tournament, legion, etc. team where the coach is willing to either work with the catchers or at least let them learn on their own. In fact, if I had a son with catching skills, I'd make sure that any team he had a choice of being on allowed him to call games over one that was a winner. IMHO, in youth sports, the emphasis should be on skill development, not winning!

All that together is why I think the best shot is as a catcher. That's the position where the talent pool has the least depth.

Yeah, the measurable skills in this instance have to take precedence and that may not be to everyone's advantage. The little things a coach sees every game like hustle, attitude and leadership are not really part of the equation, but those are the things that often win games!

You asked if there was any way to see a kid dominate at the plate or get recognition. Get recognition yes, any way to really see a specific kid dominate, no way! There were I think 12 fields used, 7 at one location and 5 at another. The scorers/evaluators stayed at their locations or fields.

That means the chances of more than 5 or 6 scorer/evaluators getting to see any specific hitter for more than one at bat is almost nil. About the only way to really separate the hitters is by what the scorer writes down and then later remembers. Since these kids are so close as far as skills go, that probably means there are a lot of "mistakes" made.

To tell the truth, these guys were pretty reluctant to discuss subtitles. They would talk all day in generalities, but wouldn't say much specific at all. My best guess is that they somehow marked whether or not a batter hit the ball solidly or some other thing that might separate them, but I really believe the numbers were given the lion's share of the weight.

If you haven't seen one of these things at one of the ML facilities, they usually have 4-5 fields around a "tower". From the tower you can get a look at any of the fields, so that's generally where the scorers/evaluators were located. A couple of evaluators with guns continually wandered around, stopping for a few minutes at each field to take a look at the pitchers who were throwing.

The guys in the towers were gunning the pitchers too, but my best guess is, those speeds were only used to gauge the pitchers, not to get accurate readings. When the evaluators were behind the catcher, they told me they were looking at the movement on the ball, the spin on the hook etc.. Those things can really only be seen from ground level, not in a tower 40' high and 150' away.

You can imagine how difficult it really is for those guys when there's 4 games going on. the scorers can't possibly see everything because they have to score the game and take notes on the different players. The guys who aren't scoring are looking at one game one minute and another the next. They might try to look at a particular hitter or fielder, but the chances of actually seeing that player perform more than a few times is pretty low.

I have to give them a lot of credit though! Unless you've tried to take care of all of the support things like prep the fields, make sure there's water in the dugouts, check the umps in and out, score the games, do the seedings, analyze all of the data and on and on, its difficult to appreciate just how good a job they do!

No one had to tell me that there was a lot of politics going on. Coaches lobby for players and tell little white lies. In the official book, my son was 6'0 and 165lbs. That's 4 inches and 35 pounds just to make him look good on paper!

A lot of these coaches have been bringing teams to these events for 10 years and know everyone on a 1st name basis. A subtle hint here, a dropped name there over a steak dinner or trip to Hooters is not uncommon!

We had a left handed boy on our team who was well known based on his performances over the last 2 years as a 13 and 14 YO. We only saw a couple of evaluators for the 1st 4 games, but when this kid pitched in the 5th game, all of a sudden there were 6 guys in the tower looking at our game and the "wanderers" came around each of the 3 innings he pitched!

2 evaluators sat right next to me talking to each other and saying how good this kid looked, how hard he was throwing for a young 15, how his curve had a nice break, etc..

Here's how they talked about this kid. In the 1st inning he threw, he walked the 1st batter and then picked him off. Then he hit the next, got a ground out, walked the next gave up a single, walked the next and got the last looking. They commented on the pick off move, how he had upset the timing of the #7 batter to get him looking, and how he had only given up 1 run in such a bad inning.

They came back for his 2nd inning. After a ground out, the #9 batter hit an 83 MPH FB so hard, it hit the fence at the 375' sign and bounced all the way back to the left fielder so he could hold the batter to a double. A grounder moved the runner up and a wild pitch curve scored the run before the last batter took one to the warning track in right. BTW, the backstop at that field was 25', so that should tell you how wild that pitch really was.

They talked about the 2 grounders he got and how the curve that went wild really bit and had great tight spin. They didn't mention that it only traveled 58' or that the ball the kid roped for a double was straight as an arrow and right at the belt.

They came back when he started throwing his 3rd inning. As he was warming up they got him at 84 and commented that now he was loose. Of course he was loose, he'd already thrown 46 pitches!

Ist pitch over the batter's head, ball 1. Next pitch a 82 MPH FB hit like a bullet to 2nd that the 2nd baseman dived for and knocked down, but threw the ball over the 1st baseman's head for an error.

Next batter, 1st pitch curve that came in like a balloon and ended up hitting 2/3 of the way up on the 30' high dark screen in center field 400' away for a triple and a run. 1st pitch to the next batter went low and wide but hit the backstop and came back to the plate. Next pitch hit on a sinking rope to center that wasn't caught. Error, run, batter runner ends up on 2nd.

Next batter gets ball 1, then fouls off an 82 MPH FB. Next pitch is a FB that's pulled into the gap and one hops the fence for a ground rule double and another run. 1st pitch to the next batter is ball 1. Next pitch is another 82 MPH FB at the belt that was last seen going over the 375" sign and still climbing! Call to the pen.

So, that kid pitched to 16 batters in 2 innings and gave up 8 runs, 6 of which were earned. He threw 61 pitches, 27 for balls, 23 for strikes and 11 that were hit into play for a strike percentage of 56%. He gave up 1 single, 3 doubles, 1 triple and a home run while walking 3, hitting 1, throwing 2 wild pitches that scored runs and struck out 1 batter.

The evaluator's comments were how well he kept his speed up and how his curve still had a very sharp break and was about 10 MPH slower than his FB. That was the last time we saw those evaluators that game. You can come to your own conclusion from that.

http://www.usabaseball.com/jr_olympics.html

I certainly don't want to give anyone the impression that I'm sour on the experience! I was disappointed that my son didn't get to play more, but on the whole it was a very big eye opener and is an experience that every parent an player who aspire to go to the next level should definitely have! Even if you have a child who is truly 1 in 10,000, unless you get to see something like this, you don't know what to expect!

My boy threw the final inning of our tournament and struck out the side. That probably did more for him than anything because it proved to him that he had the talent, but now he needed to do those extra things to make him stand out.

Yesterday afternoon, he went to a tournament game his HS team was playing in not expecting to get anything but bench time since they were playing the #1 seed. I didn't go because I needed to spend a little time with our daughter, besides, I can't stand watching him ride the pine!

He came home and said the coach asked him if could throw a couple innings so he did. 5 innings, 2 runs, one was a jack, but they won their 1st game of the summer season after playing 11 games, and he got the victory!

When I asked him what he thought of the #1 seed, he just laughed. He said he made a mistake with the pitch that went out, but the other run was unearned. He only allowed 4 runners to reach in the 5 innings, 2 on errors, 1 HR and 1 single and 6 K's. That was against a team that had 10 runned 1 team on Thursday and 2 on Friday.

The bottom line is, physically he's the same kid who went to Tucson last week, but in his head, something changed! I hope he keeps whatever it is intact, because I believe that's the kind of thing that will make the difference in the final outcome. Those are the subtle things I see!