Latest / Dugout Dish Baseball Recruiting Podcast powered by EMD Baseball / What College Coaches Are Actually Recruiting Right Now — Defense, Athleticism & the Complete Player | Ep. 189

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What College Coaches Are Actually Recruiting Right Now — Defense, Athleticism & the Complete Player | Ep. 189 · Dugout Dish Baseball Recruiting Podcast powered by EMD Baseball

• 0:02
  Speaker A: Hey parents and coaches, are your kids using the right glove? The most important skill for youth athletes to learn is how to play proper catch. The problem is most youth gloves are made with bad leather and are too big for small hands. They actually make it harder to play catch. That's why former Major League Baseball shortstop Kevin Smith created Cali Gloves. Cali Gloves are crafted from 100% Japanese kip leather and are the perfect size for kids. All Cali Gloves come with palm slits, finger loops and elastic wrist lacing that encourage proper hand placement. The right closing patterns and give kids more confidence to go make plays. Cali Gloves even allow parents to break in the glove without stretching out the fit. It's the glove Kevin wishes he had growing up and the glove all his teammates want for their kids. Visit caligloves.com to learn more and help your kids play better catch. Cali Gloves K a l I gloves.com
• 1:10
  Speaker B: welcome to this week's edition of the Dugout Dish podcast. I am Andy Kirakidis, joined as usual by my Wonderful Co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How we doing sir?
• 1:19
  Speaker C: Great. How are you?
• 1:21
  Speaker B: Back at it, Back at it. We've been running around, have had the pleasure and have been fortunate enough to to bump elbows with a lot of old friends, made some new ones, but have been talking to a lot of coaches. We had that really awesome episode that we got some really good feedback from last week with Coach Grass. I think this is a little bit of an extension of that conversation, but really kind of want to unpack what we're hearing from coaches consistently across the board regarding evaluation. Probably a little bit less about timelines because I think we really covered that quite a bit last week, but some detail and some nuance to things that coaches are really focusing on right now. And then also some takeaways from some conversations around the fall for some of these guys and what they are constantly having to coach younger guys up on, which I think bleeds into some of this conversation. So we're going to, we're going to take a little bit of time and unpack some of that. First thing that I want to tackle is the velocity conversation. And make no, make no, make no mistake about it, velocity is, is a major factor in the recruiting evaluation. Had the pleasure of talking to some ACC guys as well as some like really high mid majors talking about how velocity matters and it will matter and it'll always matter, but they are not in a rush to commit guys who can't do the other things that are really, really important. Some of them Far beyond throwing the baseball, some of the things that need to be done, prefacing the hurling of the ball to home plate and then some of the other things that happen kind of in conjunction with it. But this has been a common theme. It's. It was a common theme while I was driving, talking to some guys. It was a common theme at an event that we were at, talking to some guys who are really, really good at their jobs, guys that I consistently call to pick their brains on pitching stuff just to make sure that I'm up to speed on stuff. But this is. Seems to be a major focus and I think generally the coaches think that velocity can get built. Obviously, you know, you have to serve a certain level, you know, foundation and ability. But let's unpack that a little bit because I know there's. There's quite a bit here.
• 4:08
  Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think that it's. It's something we've kind of. I think. I don't want to say we've talked about. We have, but I think we've alluded to what our thoughts on this, of the pendulum swinging back the other way in a lot of different factors of the game. But I think that after having conversations with a lot of guys over the course of this fall and even the summer, and the reality is, you know, we're doing this the majority of days talking to coaches that the Velo thing is not. They're not going to take the chance on the guy who's 89 and 92, who's not throwing any strikes, who's just spraying and praying, who is a 1-8-17-18-19 to the plate, doesn't have a move to first at all, right? Like, there's no, like, we don't even. A move, right? Like, you know, you'll talk about A moves and B moves when you. The college and being able to hold runners and inside turns and jump spins and, you know, you just. Or even just being the ability to just hold, right, to mix your holds and mix your timing up. So it's not like set and go, set and go, like set, hold, go. And those things matter I think, a lot more in the recruiting process. And it's. I think it's always mattered, right? Like, I think it's something that, you know, we did 10, 15, 20 years ago when we were coaching. I think it's always mattered. I think over the course of the last couple years, I think it's. It's become less of a of it less important in the recruiting process because there's the transfer portal. You had 40 plus guys on rosters. You know, we've gotten back to the 34 man roster where you can't really afford to miss on, on this type of stuff, right? Like you can't have 4, 5, 6 guys that are going to be 1 7, 1 eights that are just going to spray and pray because, you know, you might be able to bring one along. But it's not going to be four or five or six because those guys have to pitch at some point in time and God forbid, like, you know, someone who throws a lot goes down or two guys go down, like all of a sudden more guys have to throw. You can't miss on guys that aren't going to be able to throw strikes, that are not going to be effective, that aren't going to be able to get outs, that can't hold runners, where it just becomes a merry go round. And you know, their guys are going to make sure that they have the requisite skill set outside of the throwing of the baseball or the hurling of the baseball, as you so eloquently put earlier, that they like, they have other skills that go with it that are going to be able to play up. And I don't even know if play up is the right word, like just to legitimately be able to play right. Like, if you're watching the brewers game tonight as we record this on the 12th of October, you know, they like, they dumped two runs on a botched pick off and they couldn't feel the position on a bun and threw it down the right field line. Like that stuff is going to matter because in, like it matters here in the playoffs because it's, as we've talked about before, it's the closest you get to the college season. Like that dude threw it down the right field line and they were out of the dugout and got him out of the game because those games matter. So, like, you're going to have to feel your position, you're going to be able to pick, you're going to have to hold runners, you're going to have to be able to throw strikes. There's so much more that goes into the art of pitching than just am 88 to 91. And I, you know, God bless me with a lightning bolt in my right arm and I can, I can throw fuzz. Like, you're going to have to be able to spin it, you're going to have to be able to fade it, you're going to have to be able to cut it, you're going to have to be able to, you know, do something more than just throw the baseball hard. And it's got to be around the zone and you got to be able to get out and you got to be competitive and you have to do the other things if you want to go play at a high level.
• 7:53
  Speaker B: Yeah, there were, there were two other conversations that I had specifically that are extensions of this conversation. Like diving into the idea that there's a lot more there, but one guy who I love to death and I wish I could name these guys, but I think it's corny so I'm not going to. But he actually this direct quote. I feel like the last couple years, the first month that I have freshmen on campus, I'm teaching them how to function in a college baseball game. And that when he says that some of the things that he specifically mentioned were what you talked about. Can you vary looks like really simple stuff that seemingly is not getting taught very well at the level at the high school and travel level. Being able to vary looks, being able to deliver the ball to the plate in an acceptable time. How to manage a running game, Just basic stuff running game wise, not even like high end stuff, but like can I put you in a game without worrying about it turning into a merry go round, not balking because you aren't comfortable coming to a stop, not tipping pitches. Big one high school guys like college coaches and college video and they are all diving through this video to find little tips. And that's something that happens with high school guys very frequently. So that all that kind of game within the game stuff, none of these guys have any issues with arm talent. But if you want to pitch in a really competitive program that is playing in regionals, that has guys drafted, that has guys in the big leagues, you have to be able to do some of that stuff. And he actually went as far to talk about why the Portal has been important to them. And they're not a team that can go crazy in the Portal and go spend on guys like this isn't. This isn't a team that goes into the Portal to be real, rebuild their roster. But they have had some success grabbing graduate Division three guys, graduate Division two guys. And one of the things he talks about is those guys, their stuff might not be quite as good. They might be 88 to 91 or 89 and 92 versus the high school kid that we recruit might come in and be 90 to 93. But they're ready to pitch immediately upon getting on campus because they've already been through that. They've already played at the college level. And I think that's one of the things that's kind of unspoken with the Portal. Everybody thinks it's just, you know, it's just trying to go find guys that aren't high schoolers. But that's part of the reason why is that a lot of the high school kids who were stepping on campus lack some of the polish. So, like, if you're a high school kid listening to this, like, we just gave you the freaking playbook. You want a chance to pitch as a freshman. When you get to college, if you can do some really basic stuff, you can pitch as a freshman. But if you can't do that stuff, it just doesn't matter. The other one. And I'll keep this kind of short.
• 11:21
  Speaker C: I think that, that, like, not to cut you off.
• 11:23
  Speaker B: No, go, go.
• 11:24
  Speaker C: That matters at all levels like that. That we're not just specifically talking about this really good program at the division one level. Like, this matters at all three levels.
• 11:35
  Speaker B: 100.
• 11:36
  Speaker C: Like you, you. If you want to pitch even at the Division 3 level, you got to be able to do these things. It's not just Division 1.
• 11:44
  Speaker B: Eventually somebody's going to be on base and it can't turn into disaster. Like, your stuff can't disappear. And that, I mean, that's another thing too, is that a lot of guys, they get in, they get into the stretch and they can't pitch. Guys who can command the ball out of the wind up and they have. You'll see the. You'll see the stuff tick down, and then you'll see the command tick down because they haven't really focused on the fact that your most important pitches as a pitcher come out of the stretch. They always do. The other thing that got mentioned, and I haven't thought about this a ton, but it's 100% true, is guys who throw high school strikes and guys who throw college strikes. And with trackman being introduced widely throughout college baseball, almost every single facility now seemingly has some sort of video technology that tracks balls and strikes and spin rates and all that kind of good stuff. These umpires, their zones are tight. In a college strike zone is way different than a high school strike zone. And when you're used to in high school getting a ball and a half off the plate and you're getting punches out there, and all of a sudden now that's just an easy take for a college guy. That's another big adjustment for. For high school guys coming in is not Understanding that a college strike is a very. Being able to pitch in a college strike zone is very different than being able to pitch in a high school strike zone.
• 13:18
  Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's probably one of the bigger adjustments. Right?
• 13:21
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 13:23
  Speaker C: I think that, you know, we talk about it a lot on here. When you have freshmen that go in and, you know, they. They make their first fall appearance and they're getting ball up left and right, and they're not used to it, and they're getting, you know, it's. It's one thing to be able to get barreled. It's a whole other argument where you're realizing that these, these balls that used to be strikes at the high school level are no longer strikes at your level, like, or at the college level that you're pitching at. The hitters are better, the umpires are better, the zones are tighter, you know, And I mean, I used to strap it on and get behind home plate and call balls and strikes for that reason, you know. But even if you're using. Even if you're using Rap Soto, right, Like, if you don't have Trackman, you have Rapsodo, like, that zone is tighter than what you're used to, you know, so guys all of a sudden are, you know, 20, you know, they're 30, 40% strike guys, and it's like, that's not gonna play at this level. You're gonna have to be able to throw more strikes than this. But I think it's interesting, like, the one thing that not a lot of people want to talk about that you brought up is the stuff that ticks down out of the stretch, right? Like, you know, and it's. That's why, you know, it generally ticks down because you need to be a 1718 to keep your VLO. But you're gonna give up the Velo and you're gonna give up a ton of runs and stolen bases on the tail end, you know, and the, you know, whether you're gonna slide step or knee knock or, you know, the, the lefty Reed guys, right? Like, I can't tell you how many guys I saw from a high school standpoint that are lefty read guys that don't actually read the runner. Like, if you're gonna lift as a lefty and he takes off, like, you gotta pick. You know what I'm saying? Like. Like that matters if, if you're not going to be able to slide step and do that from a. A baseball standpoint, from a pitching standpoint, as a lefty, like, if you're gonna be a read dude, like, you gotta hang and read and then go. So like, yeah, you can be a little bit later as a left hander, but it's because you're gonna read and see the guy, John Smith, you know, someone that we played with who I thought was exceptional at being a reed guy from the left side, you know. So like all of that stuff, I think, like it's again, I think the pendulum is swinging back to like this stuff matters because this stuff wins games and, or keeps us in games longer. That gives us an opportunity to be able to win a game in the back third of that game versus like, all right, we're just gonna roll out a bunch of dudes who are one sevens, one eights and it's probably going to be a merry go round and we might lose by four or five, you know. So like, you know, we, I know we talked about last week with Jonathan with The, you know, 50 of the games are in that one run within one run. Like I think you're gonna see more that are going to get a lot tighter. But the, you know, the margins are getting so thin. Like we had those margins when you had a lot going on, right? Like more players, more opportunity to have kids on your roster. All those things where now it's like we have 34. We can't, we have to mitigate risk as much as possible. Like, I think those numbers are going to rise and you're going to have a lot more tight games at the collegiate level than I think you've seen in the past couple years. Because they're, they're willing to wait longer on guys that can do these types of things and say yes to them once they once feel comfortable that they're, they, they fit into that, that model of college baseball.
• 16:51
  Speaker B: This next part that I'm going to try to spin this off of, the pitching thing and we've definitely talked about this, but I feel like it was even a deeper conversation with a lot of guys this weekend. Specifically some of the guys at the Division 1 level with 20, 28 and kind of how they're viewing them. But athleticism is at a premium. And interestingly enough, where I want to start this is with the pitchers is that this came up with multiple guys around pitchers that are athletes. And I don't mean just like they are like good movers on the mound, but like a kid who can go out and take ground balls at shortstop and look like he can do it or a kid who can swing a bat or a Kid who plays another sport, they tend to make adjustments better, they tend to have higher ceilings, they're better movers or better athletes. Like it's a huge emphasis with, with guys when they're really nitpicking dudes around the mound. Now obviously if you're a bad athlete and you can fill up the zone at 90, like okay, go ahead. But this was like a conversation across the board with pitching guys around the value of like, yeah, I've seen that kid play positionally and he's like a pretty good position player but on the positional side, the 2028 specifically. But this is a conversation with, with a lot of the Division 3 and Division 2 guys who are kind of finishing up their 27s was if you can't play in the middle of the field, they have to be, the process is going to be a lot longer for you as a recruit because they need to really, really feel good about what that bad is going to be. And the reason the athleticism is so important is because when you think about the middle of the field, you're talking about like your premium defenders and that's the guys who go early in the process. And there's a lot of guys who play in the middle of the field in high school that aren't going to play in the middle of the field in college. And these guys that are recruiting right now, division one in the, in the 2028 class, they are erroring on the side of this guy can stay in the middle of the field this early in the process versus I. He's a high school shortstop who, who might have to go to first base or we might have him to move him to the outfield or he's a high school center fielder that's probably going to have to play left in college like they're not unless you have an extraordinary hit tool. Defense is at the forefront of the evaluation process right now and a lot of that is tied to athleticism.
• 19:52
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• 20:46
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• 20:48
  Speaker D: To learn more, visit diamond collegeshowcase.com
• 20:54
  Speaker C: yeah, I think that again, I'm not going to sit here and pound our chest that we are the four seers of a lot of this. But I think defense, and rightfully so, is now the pendulum is swinging back again to where you have to be able to defend to play in college. There's no if, ands or buts about it. But then we're going to take it a step further. Like your athleticism is then going to dictate where you are going to be playing on the field, right? Like, if this dude can't play short, can he play second? Is that a yes or a no? Or can we put him in center? Can we put him in left? Can we put him in right? Is he more of a third baseman? Because maybe he doesn't get off the ball well enough and he reacts a hell of a lot better. You know, there's a lot that goes into it, but I think that you're sorely mistaken if you're going to be going through the recruiting process right now thinking that your bat is going to be the thing that's going to get you recruited. Like, you have to be able to defend at some point in time, very soon in your career, you are going to have to put a glove on your hand, whether it's right or left handed, and head on out to the ball field in that 92nd window between the last, the third out being made and you guys having to make a pitch. So, like you're going to have to be able to defend and if you're a below average defender, it's going to be a really hard time for you to be able to find meaningful innings of playing in college baseball. It's going to be something where, you know, you might be a dh, you might be a pinch hit late in the game, things like that. But for the most part, like you have to be able to defend and it's the easiest and fastest way for you to be able to get on the field.
• 22:45
  Speaker B: And it's apparent when you show up to workouts, showcases, practices, games, it's apparent that kids spend way more time hitting than they do working on the defensive side of the ball. And not that you shouldn't spend a lot of time hitting right? Like, you know, you, you're going to need to hit at some point for sure. But I think oftentimes it gets the defensive side of development gets put on the back burner. And in reality, I think that that's the thing that can actually really move the needle for a kid because it's way easier for me as a coach to go, okay, well, I feel like the kid who can play shortstop has a chance to get stronger, add some bat speed, and I can help that kid be a good offensive player. Then he's a bad mover, he's a bad thrower, but he can really hit. I don't know where I'm going to play. That guy becomes a little bit of a log jam. So even if you're not going to be a shortstop, maybe you're not going to be a third baseman. Like there needs to be something else besides the bat that makes me feel good about your future. Right. Like maybe you have a really good hands, but you're a bad thrower and you're in your below average mover. So we can get you over to first, but you can actually be a useful defender there or you can't throw, but you can really, really run in the outfield and you can hit. So like there's some stuff that you know that you can make up for it. But it was the topic of conversation with coaches. It's one of the easier things to evaluate early is just, okay, that kid can play in the middle of the field or he's not going to be be able to play in the middle of the field. And early on in the process, the guys who go off the board are the guys who can play, who can catch, who can play shortstop and who can play center field.
• 24:46
  Speaker C: I had a, a famous scout coach whose grandson played for me and he had a rule. He was with the Yankees for a very long time, but he had a rule that if you had a guy that you thought had very, very good hands but maybe not the best footwork, he had a position for him and it was catcher. And there were some FL famous catchers that went through the Yankees organization under this gentleman who were exactly that. They started as shortstops or third baseman and they had plus plus hands. But maybe their footwork was the step slow that they turned into catchers. And some of them are borderline, if not will be hall of Famers in the, in the future. George Posada, one of them is him. No, but like I, I think that it's, it's so true, right? Like I think that in the recruiting Process, right? Like, I think you always want to say, like, I am. Like, you go through it. It's like, I'm a shortstop and I'm gonna go play shortstop in college and so on and so forth. And I would probably make the argument that outside of, you know, if we're. We're talking strictly positional players outside of catchers, like, I don't necessarily know how. True that. And first baseman, right? For the most part. But, like, you, like, you're going to be moved around the field at some point in time. Like, even you, like, you were a high school shortstop who had a phenomenal career playing shortstop for three years at Mares. You didn't start out playing shortstop at Marist. Like, you. You were a third baseman your freshman year who eventually moved. Like, we're. We're capable of moving over and playing short. And I think that's. That. That's true for a lot more people than people want to actually think that it is, right? Where, like, you come in and then we kind of see how it all unfolds, and then the coaching staff is going to decide, like, okay, like, we're recruiting you. Like, And I. I think nowadays, like, it's there, it's relatively more open. The conversation is more open where, like, hey, like, we think you can play shortstop or, like, hey, man, like, I don't know if you can play short, but, like, we think that you can play third or second. Like, we'll certainly give you the opportunity, but, like, you know, this is where we're at, but you're gonna be moved around the field. And here's the thing. It's not. It's not a bad thing, right? Like, I think some people get hung up on the fact of, like, well, I'm a shortstop in college, so I'm going to go be a short or shortstop in high school. I'm going to be a shortstop in college. Like a. That's not true. Like, you might be playing second, you might be playing third, you might get a bigger glove, put on your hand and put in the outfield. But if your athleticism is good enough and you're a good enough baseball player, like, you're in the lineup and you are playing, like, that's the ultimate goal of being able to be a. A large contributing member of a program that is going to go win games and potentially do some pretty cool stuff, right? Like, if you're hung up solely on, like, well, I only want to play shortstop, you're probably going to miss some opportunities that are going to be provided to you over that course of time. But it's, it's the nature of it, right? Like you have to be able to defend at a high level and you're going to be confronted with some guys like we've talked about before. This is an uber competitive environment that you're stepping into where there might be a two time all American or two, three time all league player playing shortstop by the time you're a freshman and you get there. Like, I can guarantee you if there's a, if there's a senior in front of you who is a three time all league player, he's probably a pretty good baseball player. You're gonna have to be exceptional to be able to get that guy out of his spot. But if there's an opportunity for you to go play second or go play third or go play left and you can get 100 at bats and play every day, that's a pretty good freshman year. Not to say that you can't play shortstop in the future, but hey man, like you're on the field and you're playing, it's a hell of a lot better than sitting on the bench and not playing at all. But I think, and the other side of this too is like you, I think you have to understand that there's a certain level when you get to college that you're going to have to maintain and be able to do every day. Right? Like being the starting shortstop at Marist College is not necessarily an easy proposition. And I'm not saying just Maris. Like I'm just in general being a Division 1 shortstop every day. Like you have to show up every day and do it. You know what I mean? Like you lift it. So like it's, you have to be able to do it like I caught for a living. Like you have to be able to have the overwhelming majority, if not that entire staff to be like, that's the guy I want to throw to. And you got to do it every day. It's bullpens, it's catch play, it's being able to understand the game, it's all of that stuff. And I think there's way more from a college perspective that goes into it that people don't understand that it takes you a little, it could take you a year to understand what it is to play my position or play X position in college. I think catching is a little bit more difficult and it's just because you're involved in every facet of the game. So you have to have a broad understanding of everything that's going on. And I think that can be a little overwhelming at times. But I still think like you, you know, if you're the shortstop, you're running the infield, like you need to know where everyone needs to be positioned on every single, shouldn't say every, but pretty much every single thing that's going to go on on that field, right? Like if we're running double cuts, like you need to know that, you know, Sarge is trailing you at X amount of feet so that if it sells you, it hits him in the chest and it can go and trust in, you know, in that process and like, hey, it's going to double cut down the right field line. Where am I going? Like, am I floating? Am I saying, like, where am I going? And I think that a lot of those things, it takes time and experience in order to understand what that is. But it all matters. If you want to play in college like that, that defensive side of the baseball needs to be a priority for you if you're, if you want to go play baseball in college. Like, it's just, it's going to be, it's always been a non negotiable. It got ratcheted up in the, like in the last year.
• 31:30
  Speaker B: Yeah. The other thing that popped up a bunch of times, right, because you, you talked about like kind of the grind of it and what's expected of you when you get there. I heard several guys this weekend at an event look at each other and be like, how can you come here in front of all these coaches and not play hard and that it's the only thing that matters. Like, like from a coaching philosophy perspective, I think it was the only thing as I got older then you start to realize that, you know, there's certain things that you can actually get mad at a player about. Right. Nobody's trying to make errors. Like, nobody's trying to do that type of stuff. So like blowing up a kid because he kicks a ball in third inning, like, doesn't really do anybody any good, right? You get back to work, you coach it up, trying to get better, all that kind of good stuff.
• 32:33
  Speaker C: It's called coaching.
• 32:33
  Speaker B: It's called coaching not yelling that ball
• 32:36
  Speaker C: didn't get to him. And he was like, you know what? I'm gonna dump this one. Right, Exactly.
• 32:39
  Speaker B: But not playing hard is just a, it's just a non negotiable thing. You're not a big leaguer. You don't have to go through 162 games. It's not, you know, when the Ball hits book. He bets his glove at shortstop and gets like it's an out. 900, 990. Two times out of a thousand. You might. You can get away with running a four, a four or five instead of a four. Three. Right. Let's not pull a hamstring on the two Hopper. They just hit him in the chest, right? And I, in high school and in college, like, it's just unacceptable. And I think something that people don't understand is that coaches are constantly timing how fast you move through space during a baseball game. How fast do you get from home to first? How fast do you get from home to first on a turn? Like you hit a, a base hit through the left side and do you half ass that turn, or are you busting your ass around that base and putting a little bit of pressure on the left fielder? Like, these are things that coaches are looking at. And if you're not at least meeting the basic standard of playing hard. Right. Maybe you're not the dude who plays with your hair on fire. Right. But if you don't show legitimate effort, you're. Nobody has time for that. Nobody has time for it. Nobody has time for that. And nobody has time for guys having really shitty body language all the time.
• 34:26
  Speaker C: And body language is a big one.
• 34:29
  Speaker B: It makes me. It's such a turnoff and seeing some kids with some really good arms just act kind of like little jerks on the mound and have standing there with guys being like, I want to like this kid. But like, I just, I don't like watching him throw. Problem.
• 34:54
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 34:55
  Speaker B: Or like, I really like this kid, but he only runs hard down the baseline. One out of every three times I see him run. Like the level of talent, you have to, have to overcome those types of deficiencies. I don't think people understand how good
• 35:12
  Speaker C: you need to be.
• 35:14
  Speaker A: No.
• 35:14
  Speaker B: For me to go, I can coach that out of him or I'm willing to deal with that because he's that good.
• 35:23
  Speaker C: Yeah. But I think you have to be.
• 35:25
  Speaker B: You have to be exceptional.
• 35:26
  Speaker C: You have to be exceptional for people that deal with that nowadays. Because I think that it's never been easier to be able to go get the, to get a player that's going to do it. Now I think it's interesting you bring it up. My, my. My first coaching job at West Alabama, my roommate, he played at middle. He was a juco bandit and then played at Middle Tennessee. And the head coach's name escapes me. He was, he was really, really, really good. He had been at middle for A really, really long time, won a ton of games, had a bunch of big leaguers like they were, they were good. But he would, they timed everything like coach, pitch, inner squad games, everything was timed. So when you would like if you ran a, like let's say you're a four two down the line and you roll out like a four six, you'd be in the office on Monday and he would be like, hey, I have, I have 47 times of you getting down the line for at 4:2. And in this situation you got down there at a 4 6. Like what was going on? And it was just the, the standard that was being upheld, right? Like, but to your point, like we time all that stuff. Like the, the stopwatch that these guys have in their hand is not for show. Like we're trying to see how fast you, like how fast you get to first base where you want to turn. What is your time on a steal, right? Like we, we're going to time that stuff. Like I want to see how quickly on a steal your break to get to second bases. Because that gives me an insight into where you slot in on my team, right? What are you first, the third. Like those things matter. And the playing hard thing, like it, I get in some regards. Like, you know, hey man, you're in the ninth game of the weekend in July when you're into game 47 and you know you hit a two hopper, the short stop, you don't necessarily run it down the line, like, okay, like I can get behind like whatever. But like if that's every time you hit a scorching two hopper and you just jog down the line, I don't know how fast you are. I don't know how. Like to me it indicates a, an effort level there. An effort is completely within your control. Right? Like I, and I've said this before in this podcast, like I stole it from Coach Baretti, who probably got it from someone else. But you know, when we would practice and do stuff like we ran to second base every time on, on pop ups on balls we hit in the air that were outs. Like you had to touch second base and you had to be within your, your time range. Like it, it just had to happen because we wanted to. We were thinking too out of the box on everything it is that we hit. You know, we had things posted in a dugout of what our steel times were, right? Like from first movement to second base. Like I had that stuff posted in a dugout so that we could add the, the pitchers time when the catchers pop time together and like, hey, these five dudes are greenlit. These seven dudes are greenlit. Like, you don't need to, you don't need to wait on me. Right? Like all of that stuff matters. So I like that effort piece, especially in a showcase setting. Like if you're going there to showcase and you want to be recruited and you don't have a high motor or you're not excited to be there, like, what are we doing? And we want high motor kids. We want kids that are, that want to be there, that, that want to be coached, that want to put forth that effort. And you know, I, I, I always struggled with that towards the, you know, when I was coaching of like, if you're going to be here, like, at least give me some semblance of effort. Like what, what are we doing if you're not, if you're not fired up to be here? You know, so it's, I, I just think that more awareness, I should say is probably the better thing, which is why we're doing this, that people need to understand that like it matters. And we're splitting hairs in the recruiting process. You having a high motor over someone who might not have a high motor might be the difference with them going with you. Because it's like, well, hey, you know, maybe he's a, he's a step, half step behind these guys, but I mean, damn, that motor is non stop. Like that's a kid that we want to bring into this program because he's going to make our program better.
• 40:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, it's just it, it's a shame to see, to see it happen in those, in those situations because it is so controllable and I'm sure we're going to harp on it again at some other time, but yeah, you want to get cost off somebody's list, don't play hard or act, or act like an idiot out on the field with bad body language or being really demonstrative.
• 40:35
  Speaker C: But bad body language is the easiest way to get crossed off a list. It really is. Like, and I'm not saying to be hyperbolic, like I, if you go out there and you have horrible body language, it's the easiest way to get crossed off of somebody's list.
• 40:50
  Speaker B: Yeah, I just, I saw a kid get really demonstrative with, he didn't say anything, but the body language just was really bad after an infielder made an error. And you know, you could, you can coach a younger kid, like, you can coach him up on that stuff a little bit. But it's one of those things that I don't want to have to coach it when I'm in college. Just like I don't want to have to coach effort. I don't want to have to coach body language. Can you deal with it sometimes? Yeah. Can kids get better at it? 100%. It's why we're talking about it because there are some kids who are going through this process right now that I'm telling you they're probably one of the biggest things they need to do is you need to control your emotions in your body language when you're out on the field. But it's just, it's tough to watch and if that's one of the first impressions I get of you, it's really hard for me to forget that. Right. Wrong. You, you can talk about it to your blue in the face and maybe you caught a guy on the, on the wrong day. I get it. Right. They're 16 year old kids. You try not to hold that stuff against them. But it's also really hard to get rid of a bad first impression. It's the, the other side of it is that it's easy to fall in love with a kid that you've seen really good and that was your first impression and not be able to back off of him when you haven't. When he doesn't do it again and you're kind of sitting there going, man, I've seen him do it. It's in there. But you're like 14 at bats in waiting for that other double and you're like, shoot maybe. So there's two sides of it.
• 42:45
  Speaker C: Yeah, fair.
• 42:48
  Speaker B: You just don't want to have that. You don't want to have that be the thing that gives a coach pause as to whether they think they. You can play in their program or not. But.
• 42:59
  Speaker C: Couldn't agree more.
• 43:02
  Speaker B: Anything else you want to add to this one, coach?
• 43:05
  Speaker D: No, sir.
• 43:05
  Speaker C: I think we nailed it.
• 43:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, it was a good weekend. It was good catching up with some, with some old friends and, and just kind of getting the lay of the land. I think between the conversation we had last week with, with Jonathan which I, if anybody's listening who didn't listen to that one, I encourage you to, to give it a listen. Some really good insight, really good conversation around kind of the current state of affairs for 28, which we touched on a little bit today. But yeah, I feel like part of our job is to not just have some opinions on this but try to distill down some of the actual information we're getting from guys. And these were some really common themes that have that have popped up the last couple weeks and glad we got a chance to talk about them.
• 43:53
  Speaker C: So absolutely.
• 43:55
  Speaker B: All right. Well, thank you everybody for listening. Tune in next week. We'll talk to you then. Thank you. Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button for us. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MD Baseball. If you want to find out what me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com take a few minutes to check out our new online academy. I promise you'll get some good information information out of that. Thanks again for listening. Check in with you next week.