Some background on my son

Currently my son is a Freshman at a top 30 NAIA school in the Midwest. He had 6 offers to play college baseball. 1 D3 and 5 NAIA, all in the Midwest.  He was recruited as a catcher and tore his Labrum 2 weeks after he graduated during a tryout for a summer team. He had surgery on June 30th and is still in the process of completing his throwing program after having 2 setbacks. He earned a spot on the travel squad and will likely get some at bats pinch hitting and DHing.  He is now 6'1" and 210lbs. (as you continue reading, this may not have been expected).

Below are the experiences that led him to where he is now.

YOUTH BASEBALL

My son played little league, did all stars and started playing club ball at age 10 up until age 13. During these years we lived in Gilbert, Arizona and he played with and against a significant number of kids that are playing after high school.

He was always one of the smaller players but had very good fundamentals. The best way I can say this is that he was always a starter but he never had a starting position. He usually started where the pitcher would normally play when he wasn't pitching and was a bottom half of the order hitter.

He always had a good swing, lots of contact, not a lot of power. He rarely struck out. I think the one thing that he was exceptional at was his ability to hit the ball the other way, hit a fly ball when needed, or put down a bunt. Stuff that doesn't impress people in little league all stars or travel ball. He was an excellent defensive catcher but a below average arm.  In short he was the youth version of Craig Counsell at the plate and in the field and Greg Maddux on the mound.

HIGH SCHOOL

We moved away from Gilbert, where he would have gone to one of the top big school programs in the state. Instead he ended up at a small school that had a top 10 program in their division.

He entered his Freshman baseball season at a strapping 5' 3" 125 lbs. and didn't really grow until the his Junior year.  He played on the freshman team as a freshman, JV team as a sophomore. He was the starting catcher and pitched a bit. At the plate, he was a bottom of the order guy.

His junior year he stayed on JV and ended up playing mostly with Varsity. He batted .250 with 6 hits in 24 at bats with 1 double and 2 RBIs.

His senior year he played 1st base and batted .337 with 30 hits in 89 at bats with 9 doubles, 1 home run, and 25 RBIs. I also want to mention at the start of his senior year he grew to 5'11 and 185 lbs.

FALL/SUMMER BALL

In the summer he played with a team made up of his high school team mates. They played American legion one year and low level Connie Mack the other year. The team didn't play in any showcase events or big tournaments.

In the fall he played on some decent teams but they didn't play in any of the showcase events or against any of the scouts teams. The closet thing to a showcase league/event was a 4 week league in which he hurt his wrist the 2nd weekend and couldn't play. When he did play, we signed up as a catcher and he played 3 games in right field.