Friday, August 20, 2010

Time to get serious

It's official...I am going to Arizona!

Now that I have made the committment to go to the Arizona Junior Fall Classic, I have decided to get serious with my training. This will come as a pleasant surprise to everyone around me. I am getting connected with my old pitching coach Justin James, who is now coaching at Point Loma Nazarene College. I will be working on my hitting at San Diego State University, will be playing in a fall high school league, and have a daily work out routine geared for pitching.

Feels great to be motivated.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Great report

On Thursday, August 12th, Patrick Wuebben from The Baseball Factory called with my evaluation from the tryout. I wasn't sure what to expect, though I had thought the tryout went pretty well. His report was very encouraging.

Since I didn't have a chance to train before the tryout, I decided to pass on the infield review and focused my energy on the following:
60 yard dash
Pitching
Hitting

He said my running wasn't too fast, which came as no surprise. He said my hitting looked good and that I appeared to have a plan. I remember thinking during the hitting that I was pleased at how well it went since I hadn't picked up a bat in weeks. Nothing too long, but all solid line drives to the whole field. But it was my pitching that really got their attention.

I never have been checked for speed, but he said my fastball was at 84 mph. Based on their comparisons, that is pretty good for a 16 year old. They liked my change up, but wanted me to to increase the differential a bit more. I was pretty happy with that report since I have never worked too hard on that pitch. They liked my curve the best, saying the tight spin, late break, and speed differential made it a real plus pitch.

They also liked my form too. I was tall, my arm motion was clean, and I finished really well. They said a lot more than what I am writing (but I recorded it), but all in all it couldn't have gone much better, especially since I was not very prepared for the tryout.

The icing on the cake was their invitation for me to attend the Arizona Junior Fall Classic on Oct. 20-24. Apparently this is a great training event that exposes players to scouts and college coaches. It is a pretty big step and something that me and my parents will have to discuss.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

National Tryout Event

On August 10th I attended the Under Armour® Baseball Factory National Tryout at UCSD. I wasn't sure how it was going to go since I had been away on vacation and returned just before the event. It was a four hour event where they scouted us on all the areas of the game. Here are some photos from my pitching tryout.

Warming up while I wait my turn. I'm the guy on the left.

My dad told me later that '27' was his lucky number

Coaches taking notes on technique and checking speed with radar gun.
 

Monday, August 2, 2010

From here to where

I will be a junior in high school this fall. Baseball is my sport. And I want to play in college. I thought it might be good to have this blog to help people see what I am doing. Because it is going to get interesting. I hope.