Episode Transcript
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[00:01:11] Speaker B: welcome to this week's edition of in the Clubhouse with EMG Baseball. I'm Andy Kirikidis, joined by my Wonderful Co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How we doing?
[00:01:18] Speaker C: Great.
[00:01:19] Speaker D: How are you?
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Good.
[00:01:21] Speaker E: We got a question via the gram
[00:01:24] Speaker B: from one of our loyal listeners that asked us to talk about and just touch early, but I think it's still a relevant conversation. Gives you some time to prepare and start to have some of these conversations. But you're a 2026 graduate. You're committed. You know where you're going and you know where you're playing this fall.
What are some of the things that you need to think about and plan for as far as the summer goes? Which I think is a really valid question. You know, you're talking about, you know, what stuff do we need to make sure that we're doing in order to prepare for, you know, that first fall season as a college player, which we've talked about many times on this podcast. Whether you're playing in the SEC or you're going to junior college or anywhere in between, you know, it's a pretty big transition and you want to make sure that you're prepared and you've done everything that you can to put yourself in a position to go and have, make a good first impression and go and have a good fall and give yourself a chance to get in the mix for your, you know, your first college season. So I'm going to take a couple minutes and, and talk about that and some, some recommendations that we have and some things that I think, you know, people should be considering and at least starting to plan for. So I mean, on my end I'll start with the pitch and stuff.
I think the pitching stuff requires a little bit more communication and I think that the coaches that you're going to go and play for should, should certainly have some say in this, right? Depending on how much you throw in the spring, the volume of innings, the number of pitches, how late do you go? You know, some states in the northeast they can, you know, guys can be pitching into mid June and you know, you might be going onto campus at the end of August and coaches may have different plans for you, they may want to try to find you some innings in a local league. You know, maybe you're a guy that they think could go fit into a college league potentially to fill some innings.
But I think having some conversation and you don't need to do this today, these guys are just starting their season.
But I think as you get towards the middle of your high school season, making sure that you're touching base with that coach, understanding kind of what their expectations are in terms of what do they need you to show up on campus ready to do? Do they need you on campus? You know, 45 pitches ready so you could potentially throw three innings? Or is there going to be a build up time when you get there? Do they have a throwing program that they want you to get acclimated to? Do they have a weightlifting program that they want you to get acclimated to. So I think that communication from a pitcher's perspective, I think is really important and you're going to want to take that initiative and make sure that you reach out to the coach and just have a good understanding of what the expectations are, maybe even start to get comfortable with some of the verbiage and some of the other things that they're going to want you to pay attention to and be ready to do when you get there in the fall. So that's my opening thought on pitchers. I don't know if you have any thing that you want to add to that.
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[00:05:22] Speaker D: no, not particularly.
I just think the communication needs to be there.
How you feel, you know, how you feel coming out of the, the spring season, what, what your load should be going into the summer.
And obviously, you know, I think the one thing, maybe I will add one thing. You know, this is likely going to be one of the longest years of your life as a commit going into college baseball in the fall. So you're going to have your build up in the winter, into the spring. You're going to play spring and then summer baseball. Then you're going to play a full college fall into off season for college, which depending on the level, right. You could have individuals, you might not, but you know, there's going to be a whole, it's gonna be a lot more of a load than you've been able to kind of carry for the last however many years. So you're going to want to be smart about it, but you also want to be, you know, communicating with your coaches as you know, how you feel, what you need to be doing. You know, I think the weight room for position players and pitchers is obviously a huge component to make sure that you're continuing to get bigger and stronger in the weight room.
But you know, communicating with how you feel, what you're, you know, where you're at and what the expectation is of you when you get to campus. And I don't mean, you know, what, you know, yeah, we expect to be good and compete. Like what's the expectation?
You know, when I get there, do I need to have to, you know, could, could you build in a shutdown period, right, Andy, at the end of the fall or, excuse me, the end of the summer where you can take an abbreviated two week break and then ramp back up because hey, we're not actually going to start the fall until the end of September, beginning of October and we're going to have a couple weeks of individuals on the front end to build you up. So really we're just, you know, we want you to be able to Throw on day one of practice of 15 to 20 pitch bullpen at high intent, you know, okay, you know, so what does that look like for you building backwards from there and that's where you Know, your college coach can help you kind of, you know, parse that out and figure out what that plan kind of looks like, you know, But I, I think that, you know, depending on how you feel, what you're doing, what you're going to do in the summer, how many innings you're going to throw, all of those things, and just be mindful that the fall is likely going to be a lot more than what you're used to from a throwing perspective, from a practice perspective, so that you want to make sure that you're, you're, you're going to be healthy going into and coming out of the fall, right? Like, there, there's a lot of younger kids that are going younger, arms that'll go into the fall and, you know, three, four weeks in, all of a sudden your arms hanging and, you know, you're not throwing the bullets. It is that you're, you're anticipating yourself or the coaching staff is, and it could be due to the, the previous six, seven, eight, nine, ten months of what you've done over the course of, you know, from now until October, you know, and if you think about it, right, if you're listening to this, you think about it like it's, it's. We're recording this on February 17th, there's a high likelihood that if you're a Division 1 commit, like, you're, you're throwing into mid October, right? So you got March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October. That's another eight months. That's a lot of throwing. If you're, if you're doing it over the course of, if you never shut down, even if it's just an abbreviated, you know, two week, like, I'm just going to pick a ball up and move my arm, but I'm not doing anything. High intent bands, weight of balls, whatever it is, your, your thing is, you know, so I, I think the communication piece is big, but just understand that the fall is going to be a lot more to undertake from a freshman perspective to make sure that you talk about how your arm's feeling, where you're at, what you're doing, and be honest about it, right? Like, I, I think that's one of the things that sometimes as, as younger kids, you want to kind of go in and prove yourself and maybe your arm isn't at one and you're afraid to say something like, you're better off saying something in July of like, hey, I'm feeling pretty tired over my last three or four starts. Like, is there any way I could, like, Shut it down for two, three weeks, give my body about a chance to recover, and then ramp back up so that I'm good to go for the fall.
That's better than trying to throw through it, get to the fall, throw two bullpens in an outing and be like, yeah, I can't.
I can't throw. Because then you're now you're behind the eight ball, right? So. So be honest about it and, and how you're feeling and where you're at.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's a really good point.
The goal is to get there healthy. And what do you need to do to. To get there healthy? I think you're trying to thread the needle of how do you continue to develop from a pitch ability perspective, which much of that, you know, you can do quite a bit of that in the bullpen, but at the end of the day, that compete level, you know, if you have the ability to do that and you can stay healthy through it and you're able to control your volume and you have a good setup where you can go and throw, you know, that's great. And I think a lot of coaches would be fine with that. But there will be some coaches who are simply going to say, hey, you threw 50 innings this spring.
We think you're better off really controlling volume and intent and the timing of which you're going to throw these bullpen. So we want you to kind of go into, you know, quasi offseason mode and make sure that when you show up in the fall, you know, you're ready to go.
From a position player standpoint, if you have something convenient and you have something that's available to you close.
And there are quite a bit of, you know, quite a few local leagues with college players. There's, you know, some that are more competitive than others. But if you have the opportunity to go and get at bats and you're healthy and you're not banged up, I think most position players will benefit from that. The only thing that I would, that I would add from, from a caveat perspective is you need to be able to stay consistent in the weight room.
And obviously we harp on this. It's a huge piece of the puzzle, but you need to make sure that when you get there in the fall, you're the strongest, fastest, and most physical that you've ever been. And you don't want to sacrifice that for 30 or 40 at bats. So just make sure that you have some sort of a schedule in place where you are able to get into the gym three or four times a week, you're able to do your mobility work, your speed work.
So you're kind of treating it like an off season, but you've got games intertwined because at the end of the day, when you get to college, you're going to have to learn how to balance this anyways. You're going to be lifting during the season, you're going to be lifting consistently and it's going to be a little bit more taxing. But eventually you start to build up some calluses and you're able to do it. And you know, you, your body benefits from it. It helps you stay healthy, it helps you stay strong, you maintain bat speed, foot speed, all that good stuff, all the stuff that we talk about. So if you have the opportunity to get some games in and it's not stretching you too thin, traveling a bunch of hours to try to go and get three or four bats, I don't think there's many coaches out there are going to tell you not to play. So that would be my thought. From a position player standpoint, as long as you're healthy, go get it bats and go get some game experience.
[00:12:26] Speaker D: I don't think there's, there's anything that's going to hinder your play as a position player other than your health.
You know, I think the, again, to hammer the point home, make sure you're in the weight room, make sure you're in good shape, make sure you're getting your conditioning done. The, you know, the, the workouts and things that you're gonna, that'll trickle in, make sure you're doing them so you have an idea of what it is that you're getting yourself into for the fall.
But I think from a straight up playing standpoint, like, try to play as many games as you possibly can, try to get as many a batch as you can. You know, there's no real detriment to being able to do that stuff. And you know, conversely, try to get as many innings in the field as you possibly can. The more reps you get at game speed, the better, you know, the better you're going to be when you get to campus. So, you know, other than health hindering you, you know, I don't necessarily necessarily think that there's a downside to playing. I would say, you know, along the same lines as arms, you're going to want to make sure you're obviously in shape, your body feels good, you know, you don't necessarily have to play all the way up until school starts, you know, it's not a bad idea to have a two week break in there towards the back end of the year where, you know, you can go hit, you know, three, four or five times a week, but it's not the constant gameplay every single day just to kind of give your body some time to recover going into the fall, obviously staying in the weight room and doing that stuff. But you know, if, if the summer season ends, you know, July 28th, you're good.
Like, take the rest of the summer, enjoy it because you're going to college, enjoy it with your friends and then just make sure that you're getting your work done. Wouldn't tell you to just pack it in and do nothing for three weeks because it'll be readily evident when you show up on campus that you haven't done anything for three weeks. But from a gameplay standpoint, it's not like you have to go play all the way up until school starts.
Leave that for college. Somerville.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah, and if, if you don't have the ability to go play games, I think the weight room becomes even more important and you've got more time to do it.
But there are other ways to get some game type looks, right?
I think there's a ton of facilities now with pitchers that guys will be in and out during the summer.
Go in there and ask them if they're going to throw live pens and if you can stand in and get some swings off.
You know, it never hurts to ask those types of things and you can kind of get some live looks if you're not able to do that. Make sure that you're challenging yourself frequently from a velocity perspective and try to get some, try to get as close to a game look as you can so you're not just kind of coasting through taking bat and practice and going through your lead up work, but you have some moments during the week where you're, you're cranking it up a little bit and you're starting to test yourself against some spin, you know. So try to pursue some of those opportunities as you can and try not to make that dead space where you're just taking bat and practice every day and you're, you're lifting like, see if you can find those moments where you can stand in with somebody's throwing a bullpen, maybe even get some swings off or you know, go find a hack attack or someplace that has a hack attack and get in there and, and crank it up a little bit and start to see some stuff that you're going to see in the in the fall.
[00:15:51] Speaker D: Yeah, I think that's the easiest way. Right. The most obvious way to, to try to get some, some game speed stuff that you can see hone in your swing. You know, I think the biggest thing too is making sure that you're, you're, you're dialed in defensively.
And if you're a catcher, if you can find a hack attack, you can catch off the hack attack and hit off the hack attack. So you're, you can kill two birds with a proverbial one stone, you know, but if you're an outfielder infielder, like do do get out through the course of the week and take ground balls, take fly balls and you know, if you same thing. If you can get to a place where if they have a hack attack and it's outside, you can set that thing up to throw fly balls and ground balls and you can get some, some live space speed ground balls, fly balls that you can get reads on and make sure that you're sharp because it'll be, it'll be evident if you haven't really done much over the summer. You know, I wouldn't necessarily say, like, if health is hindering you, then obviously, you know, that's a conversation. You know, I think it's on the same lines as arms. Like that's conversation you're gonna have to have with the coaching staff. Right. Hey, you know, my legs, you know, my hammy's all jacked up. I hasn't been right since the spring. You know, I don't know if pressing it through the entire summer is a good idea. Like what, what are some options for me to be able to do here and at least that, you know, you're upfront about it and they know, you know, nothing negative is going to happen. It's just like, hey, let's manage this so that you don't blow your hammy out. And then you can't do anything until the spring. And at that point we don't really know what you're capable of doing. And you've missed nine months.
And you know the common theme there, right? Like we worry about in college of missing that time frame from a development standpoint to get these guys better and ready to play. It's the same thing when you're, you're finishing your high school year into college. Like these next seven, eight, nine months are critical in what it is that you can do when you set foot on campus to, in order to, you know, compete for playing time as a younger player in the program. You're going to and it holds true, I should say as a caveat to all of this. This holds true at Division 2, Division 3 and JUCO and NAIA too, right? Like all of this is the same. The only difference is your fall is going to be a little less in Division 3 than it is in the other ones.
But you still want to be healthy going into it so you can give a good account of yourself.
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[00:18:48] Speaker B: yeah, it's the first, it's the first opportunity you have to make an impression and you want to make sure you go in there as close to 100% as you can. You want to present the best version of yourself and go in there and compete and, and be ready. What for? You know what you're about to undertake, which is your first year of college baseball. And you know we've spoke about it before, it's the longest, it's the longest year from a baseball perspective that you're ever going to experience end to end. So making sure you're physically ready to go is probably priority number one. If you have the ability to throw those innings, if you have the ability to get those AT B, wonderful. Those reps are always going to be beneficial for you. But at the end of the day it's about being able to show up whenever you're asked to report to school and make sure that you're ready to go.
The the only other, and this is for a smaller percentage of this group, this is generally going to be kind of the upper levels of Division one, but it is a more common theme these days is, and you probably have already had these conversations with your coaches if this is what their intent is, is that they are bringing players onto campus in the summer, they get their weight program, they get access to the facilities and you typically take a three credit course and you're able to kind of get some of that stuff out of the way, figure out where you're going to go on campus, what your day to day is going to look like. So if you've got that built in, that's going to check a lot of boxes for you already. They're going to get you acclimated to the verbiage. They use the weight program.
You're going to get a chance to move around campus a bunch. So if you've got that going for you and you're in one of those programs where they bring players on campus in the summer, then you're good to go. Just do what you're told to do and do it well and, you know, dot your I's and, and cross your t's on a day to day basis. That would be the only other scenario that I could think of that we really need to kind of account for.
Yeah.
[00:20:37] Speaker D: And there's more, there's more schools out there doing that.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a more common thing for sure.
[00:20:42] Speaker D: It's a lot more common in the last three, four, five years. And I assume that it's going to be even more common rolling forward.
And it, you know, it's not a, it's not a terrible idea to where you can, you can get ahead from an academic standpoint, slash, you know, maybe take a lighter load in the spring because you're going to be traveling a lot more. Right. So, you know, Instead of taking 15, you can take 12. But just know that you can't drop below 12. 12 is where the, the eligibility line is drawn.
[00:21:13] Speaker B: And if you need more details on that, go back to our episode of Alyssa Gates.
We cover that in detail, but I don't really have anything else to add there. I mean, I think it's, it's about being there healthy and anything that you can add on to that is going to be a bonus.
[00:21:29] Speaker D: I concur.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: All right, well, thank you for listening, everybody. Tune in next week. We'll have more for you then. Thank you.
Thank you for listening. This one week, if you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button for us.
[00:21:44] Speaker E: Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google
[00:21:47] Speaker B: Podcasts, as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MD Baseball.
[00:21:53] Speaker E: If you want to find out what
[00:21:55] Speaker B: me and Keith do to help families and players navigate the recruiting process, go
[00:21:59] Speaker E: ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com
[00:22:02] Speaker B: take a few minutes to check out our new online academy. I promise you'll get some good information out of that. Thanks again for listening. Check in with you next week.
