1st Fall ball game is less than a week away!

[scorekeeper]

Well, today marks my conversion from summer baseball mode to something else, and that something else is HS Fall Ball mode! Sometimes its hard for me to believe I look forward with such anticipation to something with so little meaning, but I do.

After a summer of watching so much pro ball, its like I need a fix of reality, which MLB doesn’t provide. Something as simple as seeing a ball that merely touched the dirt on a pitch being thrown out of play in a ML game seem like fantasy, while balls that are bouncing off of concrete and asphalt continue to be tossed to the pitcher in reality.

Manicured fields as opposed to catch as catch can fields are also examples of fantasy vs reality, as are crowds numbering in the thousands, even for the worst of ML teams, while having 100 total fans for both teams would be considered quite a crowd.

Of course for me as a scorer, it’s a little different that I can score a MLB game using Gameday a year after its played, so there no reason to pay attention to each and every pitch or what happens on the field. No, now I have to get used to actually watching to see who comes to bat, who’s out in the field, not to mention actually having to check and double-check everything that takes place.

But the most trying thing will be having a roster of 28 players, many of whom I’m not at all familiar with, getting shoved in and out of games, often breaking substitution rules at the expense of getting some reps for everyone. IOW, its much more of a “playground” atmosphere than anything else anyone could experience for kids this age. Its truly the last bastion of opportunity and fun on a baseball field that has little or nothing to do with winning or losing, and I suppose that’s why I like it so much.

[skipper5]

sK,
28 players on one team? If so, why not create two teams?
Our fall HS-level has 12 on the roster, with 1/2 dozen on the taxi squad (kids that didn't want to commit).

It's truly the last bastion of opportunity and fun on a baseball field that has little or nothing to do with winning or losing,
We play to win.....within the constraints of free-sub/bat the full line-up/each pitcher throws 2 or 3 innings.
At HS-age, if you're not going for the win, you're not having "fun".

[scorekeeper]

sK,
28 players on one team? If so, why not create two teams?
Our fall HS-level has 12 on the roster, with 1/2 dozen on the taxi squad (kids that didn't want to commit).

Well, I don’t choose who gets put on the team, so I can’t answer your question. I know this much though. Fall ball is open to any student who wants to go out and participate, so we always have at least a few players who’ll never make it to the regular V team.

I also know that the games are really not played to fill some win/lose scenario. The weekend games will all be scheduled doubleheaders, but in reality it will continue until every pitcher on both teams has thrown, and every hitter has had at least 2 PAs, even if they have to both come in the same inning.

We have no Fr team, so the JV has I think 25 on it as well, and they do the split team thing. But the VHC has been around a loooong time and knows what he wants to see in the fall, and however he does that, its fine with me. It makes it a huge PITA for me because its pretty much impossible to keep up with all the moves and subs, but this is really only practice for me so I get to know the kids and their parents. The 1st thing I do after the last game is print off all the numbers, then delete everything off the computer because it means so little.

We play to win.....within the constraints of free-sub/bat the full line-up/each pitcher throws 2 or 3 innings.
At HS-age, if you're not going for the win, you're not having "fun".

Well I suppose no matter what, everyone plays to win in any sporting contest. But I can tell you this. No one on either team gives much of a flip whether the fall ball games are won or lost, and there is more experimentation going on than the law should allow. There’s one thing that’s an absolute though. The only people really caring about the “typical” metrics, are the parents. The coaches are looking at metrics, but not the ones that make people’s hearts flutter during the season.

[raptor]

The coaches are looking at metrics, but not the ones that make people’s hearts flutter during the season.

SK
You keep some comprehensive stats..what metrics do the coaches look at in the Fall?

[scorekeeper]

SK
You keep some comprehensive stats..what metrics do the coaches look at in the Fall?

They’re looking for improvements over what was seen in the summer program and over what was seen last season. Our coach hasn’t felt it necessary to share with me what specific things he’s interested in, but he has shared that things like OBP, BA, ERA, etc.. don’t mean squat because the players are trying different things, like a different approach at the plate, new pitches, new strategies, etc..

My belief is, he already knows the core team he’s gonna be putting on the field in Feb, and he’s known that since the day the 2012 season was over. What he’s doing over the summer and fall is move the pieces around the board to see how the different combinations work, plus give opportunities for those unexpected diamonds to show up, which usually happens at least once a year.

This year, we’ve got to replace every pitcher who started more than 1 game or threw more than 10 innings last season except 1. That’s a pretty massive overhaul by itself, and a lot of time was spent in summer ball taking a good look at the new kids, and I’m positive the same will happen in the fall.

[The Flush]

Has anyone ever suprised the coach and made the team because of their fall performance?

[scorekeeper]

Has anyone ever suprised the coach and made the team because of their fall performance?

If you’re asking me, I couldn’t say for sure, but other than someone new who’s transferred in after summer ball was over, I’d seriously doubt it. Remember, this is the V, not the JV or Fr team where it’s a lot more likely the VHC hasn’t seen very much of them before. I can’t picture many HSVHCs who don’t have a really good “handle” on their players by the time fall ball gets going. I sure could be wrong, but its really unlikely that a player will improve so much between the end of summer ball and the start of fall ball that he’ll vault himself from a backup player to a front line player.

But in reality, it really doesn’t make a lot of difference because the real team isn’t picked for sure until at least a month into the spring season, at least in this program. I’ve seen us go from as few as 15 players after final spring cuts, to as many as 27, and can’t recall more than one or two cuts in any year, so this coach doesn’t seem to let any possible diamonds fall through the cracks.

What’s going to be interesting this season, is that last year we won our 1st league crown, and it looks like this year’s squad is going to be a superior pitching and hitting squad, judging from summer ball. Fall ball will sharpen that vision for me, but so far I’m really enthused. It’ll be fun watching to see how the boys come together.