The Goat Pen

Notre Dame cancelled, replaced with Indianapolis. Oh well.

Kev - hope you are doing well - I was gone all last week and just saw your post.

Turns out it doesnt matter but if you find yourself in South Bend again - we stayed in Chicago and spent most of our time there. We spent the day of the game touring the campus and all the sights and had a great time - it is a wonderful place.

But other than that we werent really there long enough to be too helpful.

No doubt you put a strain on the local food chain...

There's supposed to be another Notre Dame tournament later in the summer. We were at Valparaiso this last weekend, which is only 50 or 60 miles to Chicago, but the boys decided they'd rather play around at the local amusement park than drive to the Windy City for some deep dish. Oh well. The boy had a good tournament, reached base 11 of 13 plate appearances (should have been 12 of 13 but one of the kids let a slow roller hit his foot). The Valpo scout had interest in him and several of his teammates but their baseball facilities aren't the greatest.

Notre Dame is about another 40 miles farther from Chicago. Seeing the campus is nice but South Bend doesn't have a ton to offer other than that, especially since they've moved the CFB Hall of Fame to Atlanta (I think). If you do end up going to Chicago I can give you a lot of suggestions.

Yeah, Chicago is a great city, hard to get bored there. And there is an Alabama football-themed bar near Wrigley!

I've been to Chicago about a dozen times but mainly stuck to the Magnificent Mile area. I love the city but it's rough in the summer and winter - heh.

I doubt we'll have the opportunity to do a day trip in the future. Usually these tournaments have 2-3 games per day on the weekends...it was an anomaly to have a single Saturday morning game. He's playing in Indy this weekend, then at Central Michigan and back to Indy.

Back in Cary, NC this weekend for the USA Baseball tryouts again. My son improved slightly in the 30yd dash time (still an "elite" time) and slightly in arm strength (still has a long way to go here). He performed very poorly in the hitting evaluations due to a fear of failure, but hit very well in his first game. There are 300+ kids trying out for the last 12 slots so it's unlikely he'll make the team but he seems on track for a college scholarship. He's on the 16U team - the 17U coach said in 5 years, he's not had an uncommitted kid not leave the weekend without a scholarship offer.

Very nice, Kevin.

hey kev - has #11 talked to your son?

Heh - no, and I don't expect him to. FSU recruits at an elite level and he's not an elite player (yet, hopefully).

He had a...decent...weekend. In speed testing he did quite well and a couple of coaches asked for the kids who ran <4.0 in the 30yd (which he did). In arm strength testing he did much better than last year but he still needs work here to reach the next level (some of those kids have absolute cannons). In the games he went 2-3 in the first game, was a late sub in the second game and didn't bat, and played the whole game on Sunday but only went 1-5. Unfortunately his girlfriend back home pissed him off Saturday night and, being a 15 year old boy, he let it affect his performance on Sunday. His team played pretty poorly overall, going 1-2 over the weekend, and were abysmal on Sunday.

FWIW, coaches cannot contact prospects until September 1 of their junior year and he's a sophomore. I really have no idea how much interest he'll see. In some ways it's a small world - the coaches announced that one of FIU's coaches would be the third base coach; as it turns out, he also coached my son at IMG the previous summer (and he's been begging my son to come back). So the fact that he's performed well on several stages (Goodwill Games in Australia last year, IMG MVP last year, etc.) is hopefully enough to get him on some coach's lists.

damn women

they're fine, as long as they are in the kitchen making me a sandwich....

I seriously doubt you would survive being made a sndwich

Kev - Shouppe is starting his 2nd season as the Rattler HC - he is also ivolved in 18U - any interest there?

Coaches can't contact prospects until September 1 of their junior year so we have no idea if anyone has any interest in him. He dug a hole academically last year, and grades are more important in baseball than football. Because scholarships are very limited (11.7 total for D-I, 9 for D-2, etc.), a coach might offer a 33% athletic scholarship then go to the academic office and get the other 67%. That's doable for a kid with a 3.5 but not a 2.5.

FWIW, his coach went to college at UMich with Danny Hall of Georgia Tech and has been pumping my son up to him. That would be ideal geographically and athletically but probably not academically.

If he keeps getting better do you think he has a shot at being drafted out of High School even in the late rounds? If his academics are a question I'd have my kid sign for a bus ticket to rookie league.

I honestly have no idea. I'm just not connected in those circles.

We have some friends who are a baseball family (3 brothers). One of the brothers has been pretty successful in the MLB, and the youngest bounced around the minor leagues for 8 years or so before retiring. If you're not a high draft pick, it is a very tough path. You have to be exceptional, not just good, to get noticed by the organization....and even then, broken promises and political maneuvering is the norm. The more successful brother went to college four years and turned his 2nd round draft position (~$900K) into a 4th round draft position (~$450K). So his education cost him almost half a million bucks in addition to whatever salary/advancement he could have earned in those four years.

Another kid that my son has played with was drafted early in the second round this year, and wisely choose the $1.3M signing bonus over college.

I would have no qualms pushing him to sign a contract if drafted, especially since many of the contracts stipulate that the club will pay for your school after your career is over. The only way it makes sense to go to school if you're drafted is if you are drafted much lower than you think you should, or you feel like your career is on the upswing.

Just wondering because low draft picks make it as well. Hopefully a team will see raw talent there that they believe they can develop. If school is not his thing I'd do it. Better he develop as a full time pro than a part time student/player more worried about keeping his grades up just so he can play a few months.

I was talking to another dad last weekend during the tryouts, and he said one of the pitchers at his son's high school had been drafted fairly high - 4th or 5th round. They had offered him a very high signing bonus relative to his draft spot (over $900K) but his dad refused to take it. Even though the club offered to pay for the kid's education after baseball, the dad opted to sign with UMich on a PARTIAL (2/3) scholarship. So instead of having almost a million bucks in the bank and a free education later, he chose to fund $50K-$60K out of his pocket over the next 3-4 years, risk blowing out his arm, on the gamble that he'll do well enough to move into the first round ($900K is approaching 2nd round money). Crazy...