What makes a D1 recruit?

Hapi....I think Braves is saying it was a good post!

Seriously, great post!!

 

Keep Working

BaseballMan, four years ago I knew a position player in a situation that sounds similar to that of your son. A 3 tool guy passed over by the D1's because they had doubts he could play at that level with 7.1-7.2 speed. He went to a D2 college and the sweat, weight training, plyometrics, running, etc., has paid off. He's a 6.6-6.8 runner, so the speed was there but hadn't been developed to full potential. As your son grows and becomes stronger, he may add velocity, but I think most college recruiters evaluate on what they see, and you can't blame them for that.......they won't risk signing a low 80's pitcher or low 7 runner hoping he will add 4-5 miles to his velocity or cut half a second off their 60 time. The biggest difference that I have seen between D1 and D2 pitchers is not velocity, it's control. D1's seem to be able to spot their pitches and throw more strikes than the D2's. I agree with catamount......your son may want to consider a D2 school. They play good baseball, and he may get more playing time. Good luck.

 

BASEBALLMAN

I feel you Baseballman. Your son is a heck of a player and he will pitch in college. But more importantly your son is a heck of a young man. His time will come. It is early and he will get plenty of opportunities. It may not be one of the so called big schools but there are plenty of schools out there that will want Mac on their roster. Life is not fair and neither is baseball. The bottom line is if he was a couple of inches taller and 4 or 5 mph faster everyone would be knocking his door down. But the bottom line is he can pitch and he is a winner on and off the field. Whoever gets him is going to be lucky. Not the other way around.

 

D-1 vs D-2

I disagree papabear. In Macs case he can spot it with the best of them and change speeds as well. Most of the guys on those D-1 rosters got the attention of the D-1 coaches with their velocity first. Not by their ability to spot the ball. You can spot 80 all day long but you will not get the looks of the kid throwing 90's. Location and changing speeds is and always will be more effective than just having the ability to throw hard. But the bottom line is velocity gets attention and coaches feel they can work on mechanics and teach a kid to throw strikes vs taking a kid and teaching him to throw 90. If they could do that everyone would have a stable of flame throwers that could locate. And we all know that aint the case.

 

DBacks - I aint so sure what he said either. Isnt that a Christmas flower? I can bet you this - spell check was involved

 

Thanks

Thanks for all the great responses. Coach May, you are right. Velocity is the ONLY thing that gets one noticed (at least in the early period). They funny thing is that the guys that throw 90s and can really pitch may not even show up at the schools that are drooling all over them. Its a funny game. Anyway, my original post was to point out the hypocrisy. Mac (and I) are fine. He is taking a couple of visits in December and we will go from there.
Coach May, a question. The real issue here is whether a low-to-mid 80s LHP with exellent command can get major D1 hitters out. I believe they can. You?

 

D 1 hitters Heck, they do it in the majors!!!!!

 

Baseballman

I totally agree with Braves. It's great for some kids to get the signing stuff out of the way, but for the large majority things get done in March-April. And later for some others. I'm not sure if your fixated on D1 or not, but I encourage you to research past schedules of different teams and you might be amazed as I was as to how competitive a lot of D2 schools are against the D1's. I'm not saying Limestone beats Clemson, or USC regularly, but some of the other match ups are great games.

Good luck with your patience, from what others have said about your son things will work out fine.

 

Luckily for Baseballman, and his son, he has a great back-up that I think is a large part of the quandry. Mac isn't just a very good student, he is one of the best. Therefore, he is also looking for the best possible education out there to go along with his college baseball career. There are tons of good D2 schools that offer great academics, but there are probably far more D1 schools that do the same.

 

SouthernNo1

I understand, and he might have to broaden his search and look in some areas such as the Northeast. There are at least 10 to 15 D2-D3 schools that are tops in the country academically and they have the money to boot for the academic financial aid.

Is he going to the camps at Wofford?