Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Welcome to this week's edition of Dugout Dish podcast. I'm Andy Kira Kittis, joined by my lovely co host whose beard is looking magnificent this week as usual, Keith Glasser. How we doing? Great.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: How are you?
[00:00:23] Speaker B: I'm good.
This week we are slowly creeping up on the end of the quiet period.
So we're going to talk about what this means.
We're going to talk about what players should be focused on. Try to add a little bit of context around what the contact period opens up and we'll see where it takes us.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Cycle.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Happy hunting.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Yeah, happy hunting.
Happy hunting. So despite some tweets that were out there, we're going to rectify some false information that was spewed across the Internet by somebody the other day.
The quiet period ends February 29th. We're in a leap year. So March 1st is the first day of the year where coaches can leave campus to evaluate players.
Right. Quiet period is defined by no face to face contact off of the college campus. The only evaluation you can have is on your college campus. Right. So that's why you see schools holding prospect camps and hitting clinics and catching clinics and pitching clinics. Division 1 schools are allowed to do that on their own campus during the quiet period. Once a quiet period ends, coaches are now able to leave their campus to go and evaluate guys so they can go to events that different companies may be holding, they can go to high school games, so on and so forth.
So that's an important piece of the puzzle to recognize in terms of what the rules actually are from a contact and an evaluation perspective. Did I miss anything there?
[00:02:07] Speaker A: I don't think so. I was drinking water. For those of you that can't see me on camera.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: It's good. It's good to know that you're getting hydrated. Coach never too.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: It's never too late to hydrate.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: It's never too late to hydrate.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: So now you nailed it all. The. The quiet period is, you know, coaches can do stuff on campus they can't go off. Yeah, it's the. The nuts and bolts of it.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: The.
So let's tackle this first, right? Because contact period opens up March 1, right. You can go and evaluate. Coaches can leave campus. But one of the things I think gets lost sometimes is that coaches don't have during the season. Right. Like March 1, Division 1 schools are. They're three weeks into their season and they don't have the ability to just go anywhere anytime to go evaluate kids. So, yes, high school season is incredibly important. It's important for you to develop, it's important for you to go out and have success. It's important for you to go out there and showcase yourself and compete and try to win games for your high school. But it's also important to understand that coaches don't have the ability to just go out seven days a week and go evaluate kids like they do during the summer. And for most college coaches, Monday is going to be the day where you spend time going out and trying to see high school kids that are a priority for you.
And for most schools, I think at this time they're going to be trying to go see priority 25s if they're done with their 25 class, which, you know, nobody's really ever like completely done. Like, if somebody really good pops up, you're obviously going to go look for talent, you know, specifically from an arms perspective. But they're going to prioritize guys that they know are, that have been on their radar or somebody that a coach has called and said, hey, this kid made a jump this off season.
But they can only really do it when they're available to travel. And typically that's Monday. Right. And I, we used to, we used to do it.
Case was super organized with this and we would sit down every Monday and plan out the next two weeks and we would say, all right, so. And so's pitching scheduled to pitch on this day.
He's pitching at 7 o'. Clock. I'm going to leave Pratt, I'm leaving right after practice to go watch him. Or hey, we've got two games on this Monday. Here are the two kids we need to go see. And we were planning that out and it'd be really targeted and we would adjust accordingly based on weather and all that good stuff. But, you know, that's how we handled it is that you go for priority guys and you're trying to get in game evaluation on kids.
The sooner the better.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, that's pretty much how everyone's going to do it. I think the other point to make there is the vast majority of that is going to be localized to campus.
You know, that doesn't mean that coaches won't, you know, take a couple hour trip to see a high priority guy that's pitching that they want to see who's throwing on Monday or whatever it might be. But you know, by and large a lot of that, you know, kind of in season recruiting is going to be done fairly local on all the guys they got to kind of check up on. And you know, they, the Point I'm trying to make is like, guys aren't necessarily most, the vast majority of coaches are not jumping on planes and going from the east coast to the west coast to watch someone play. Or, you know, they're not driving six, seven, eight hours to go watch someone play, you know, three, four. Well within the range. Range if it's high priority, guys. But, you know, it's not necessarily something where coaches are going to be, you know, going astronomical distances to see guys, you know, during the high school season. So, you know, it's one thing to keep in mind too, you know, if you're a east coast kid and you're looking to get recruited by, you know, teams from Florida, like the likelihood of them coming up during your high school season to watch you play is, is pretty slim, you know, so it's, it's to keep in mind that type of stuff. Like you're going to see a lot more localized recruiting during the high school season and then the summer will roll around and that's when everyone's going to get out for, you know, the bigger tournaments and travel a lot further because they have the capabilities to do so.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Yeah, huge point there. Like, you've only got so much time in a day in order to drive and go see guys. So, you know, understanding who's in, who's in striking distance to come and watch it play is important and, you know, kind of dovetailing into that. If you're a high school kid, coaches can only go see if they know when you're gonna apply.
Right. So if you're, if you're already in contact with some college coaches and you've begun the process with some of these schools and we're speaking about 20 fives, you. It's on you to make sure the coaches know when you're going to play. Right. Like, if I'm a pitching coach somewhere, I can't come and watch you pitch if I don't know when you're pitching.
Right. Obviously I'm going to do my due diligence and try to figure that information out. But if you're a player, make it easier on a coach. You know, if you've been talking to so and so school and they're two hours away from you and you're pitching on a Monday, like give that coach a heads up, let them know that you're pitching. Post it on social media like there's nothing wrong with that. Throwing, you know, throwing Monday at 4 o' clock at such and such field, you know, post a little bit of video Yourself throwing like, you never know who might show up, but you got to take the. You got to take a little bit over, a little bit of ownership over this. And make sure that coaches have your schedule and that you've done your due diligence and reaching out to coaches that may have a chance to come and see you during the high school season and do a good job of communicating with those guys and make sure that if you are talking to coaches that they know exactly what's going on. Send a video from your games, send us some stats, get them the information they need in order for them to come and see you. They're not just going to sit back and randomly show up at games.
They need to know when you're playing, period. And it's on you as a player to make sure that you're giving coaches what they need. Don't just rely on these guys coming to you. You need to. You need to make sure that you're putting the effort in and taking the time to send this stuff out and make sure that these coaches know what's going on.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, that's first and foremost in anything, whether it's the high school season, the summer season, the fall season, whatever.
They have to know when you're going to be playing and where.
So, you know, I think that's obviously one of the most important things that you need to be able to do is communicate that. But also, you know, know, in doing so, you need to understand that, you know, if you're playing on a Friday and the coaches that you're reaching out to are also playing on that Friday, like, they're not going to be there to watch you throw, you know, so being able to have maybe a little bit of video or, you know, something to be able to show them if you kind of show up and show out is, you know, something that you're. You're likely going to want to be able to do, you know, So I think that that's where, you know, a lot of people will get the summer ball stuff. And, you know, I think it's just as important to get some high school at bats and pitches and some defensive stuff in there so that, you know, coaches can kind of see the progress of where you started in April and where they are. Where you are when they see you play in July, you know, they can kind of see how you've done in April, May, June of four and a half months. Ish.
So, you know, I think that's just as important. And I think one of the things that really needs to shine through. And I hear a lot of people say this to me, you know, when we talk to families, like, you know, I, well, we send it to high school coaches and, you know, no one really shows up. Like, again, like the most important thing you have to, like, they're playing too. They, their most important thing is to be winning games. And like, they'll get to the recruiting end of it when they're, they're kind of, when they have the opportunity to in their off days and then also when, you know, the summer rolls around. So, you know, they can only get to a limited amount of games during the season because, you know, if you're at the Division 1 level, you're playing 56 games, 52 at Division 2 and 40 at Division 1 or 3. You know, so it's, there's a lot of baseball being played. You're practicing every day. You only have one off day. You know, Monday is generally that one. That's why we're talking about Monday specifically here. But you know, it's, it's just understanding that that, that part of the in season stuff is, is a reality of college baseball.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: And if you're 26, you can still email coaches, right? Don't expect a response, don't expect them to do anything else but send you, you know, a camp invite. But once again, coaches, you know, especially at the Division 1 level, like, they're starting to identify 26s that they need to prioritize in the summer. And there's nothing wrong with sending your schedule out. It just, you know, you need to be thoughtful about who you're sending it out to. Like if you're, you know, if you play in the Albany area and you send an email to the University of Texas, like, they're probably not flying up to watch a play. But there's nothing wrong with reaching out to some schools that are in driving distance and letting them know that, like, hey, here's some video of me. Here's my high school schedule. I'd love for you to come and see me play. Here are the coaches that you can reach out to if you have any questions posted on social media. You know, once again, kind of going back to like, they can't come and see you if they don't know when you're playing.
The other, the other piece of advice I would give during the quiet period is it's the first opportunity you have to really start collecting in game video.
And there's a couple different reasons why I think this is important. One, you need to start to collect a library of video that you're able to put together and send to coaches in some capacity.
A lot of times that's the first contact you'll have with the coach, and they need to see how you move.
And that in game videos is really important. And it's something that you can use to help get yourself on the radar of a college coach, whether it's sending them an email with your YouTube video link or posting some clips from your game on social media. So if you're a parent, your kids playing like video, they're at bats, you don't need some National Geographic quality camera to do so. Like, your iPhone's plenty good enough. Just, just get up in there, get close to the field, grab some video of your kid. If you can get metrics from a, you know, a pitching perspective, that always helps. But get that video from a. For recruiting.
But the other part of it is I think it's really good for self evaluation and you can start to look at what you're doing as a player and continue to use that information to help develop.
Right. If you, if you've got a bunch of video of you pitching, you can go back and watch yourself perform and go, okay, like, here's the things that I did really well this game. Here are the things that I need to work on. And now you've got some video evidence and some stuff that you can go back to to not only identify the things you need to improve on, but you can reinforce the things that you do well and kind of go back in memory around, well, I felt really good this game and I threw really well. What do I need to do to repeat that type of performance and continue to build on the success that you have in your high school season? So I think the video piece plays can be used for two pieces, and it's collecting it for recruiting purposes, but then also using it for, for development to send to some of your, you know, your coaches. Like, if you've got a pitching guy that you work with that you really trust, get your pitching video and send it to them. Good, bad or ugly, like, let that guy help you.
Same thing with, with your hitting coach.
You know, get those offensive at bats and get a chance to ship them out to some people that could continue to help you get better.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Yeah, and I think you hit on the other part of what you can do during the quiet period too, which is the development piece.
You know, the quiet period always coincides with the winter months where there's not a whole lot of baseball being played. So what are you doing in order to make sure that you're developing yourself? And we've talked about this quite a bit on here.
There's a lot of multiple sport athletes and kids who play hoops and kids who wrestle and volleyball and track and field, whatever it might be. So you want to make sure that you're still doing something, and I think it's great you can compete in other stuff and you can really continue to keep that competitive fire going while you're still trying to train a little bit more from a baseball standpoint, you know, taking a little bit more time and especially depending on how old you are, like, sinking a little bit of, you know, investing in yourself. I, you know, as Charlie said on a couple podcasts ago, a couple months ago, I guess, at this point, but, you know, kind of investing in yourself during that time so that, you know, you can be the best version of yourself when you show up to try out for your high school team and put up good high school numbers and then parlay that into a really good summer season where you can start to become recruitable. You know, I think some of the times, you know, a lot of, A lot of times, and I think, you know, families kind of get caught up in this. Like, you know, it's. It's hoop season, and then all of a sudden baseball season's on you, and you don't necessarily have a great cup, first couple months and then you're behind the eight ball. You know, it's. If baseball is something that you want to do, you want to at least make sure you're keeping up some sort of frequency of hitting and throwing and making sure that your arms in shape and your body's in shape. And, you know, hitting is one of the hardest things to do, arguably the hardest thing to do in sports. You know, if you're not going to hit for three or four months and then think that you're going to be able to turn around and become recruitable, you know, there's not a lot of people that can do that. So you want to make sure that you're. You're doing something during, you know, the offseason, even if you are playing hoops and all that stuff. Like, I know you're going to be tired. I know it's tough to do, you know, but I can promise you that it's just, it's going to be just as tough and you're going to be just as tired if you want to go play college baseball. So, you know, trying to, you know, figuring that out a little bit early on and, you know, being able to do. And I'm not saying you have to go hit seven days a week, you know, but, you know, if you're hitting twice a week and you're. You're throwing and you're being able, you're. You're able to do a couple of things. And, you know, look, when I talk about throwing, like, you know, throw for 20 minutes, take 20 minutes out of a couple of days a week and just grab your glove and somebody and go throw. Just keep your arm in shape, you know, but being able to do that will put you further ahead when you get into your high school season and when the quiet period ends when guys can get out and actually watch a play, you know. So I think being able to give yourself a little bit more of an advantage at a younger age in doing those types of things can. Especially during the timeframe when coaches can't even go out and see you. And there's not a lot of baseball being played, depending on where you live in the country, especially if you live in the Northeast or the Midwest, you know, you can really kind of give yourself an advantage going into the high school season of being prepared if you're. You're doing a little bit more than other people. And it's. It will allow you to be recruitable faster during the high school and summer season.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Yeah, spot on.
The other thing I'll add about the quiet period is you.
We focus on the recruiting and the evaluation portion of it, which is obviously what most people are concerned with. Like, what does it look like? How often can coaches get out? How do they leverage the high school season from an evaluation perspective? And I think we've covered most of that. But one of the other things that's important to recognize is that when the quiet period opens up, that means college baseball's going right. Every level by March 1st will be starting to play games.
And if you're a high school kid on March 1, you're probably not playing your high school season, you know, especially if you're in the Northeast, it usually opens up in April.
Take a Sunday trip and go watch some college baseball.
I think it's. And we've talked about it. I think it's an incredibly important thing to do.
It allows you to see what college baseball looks like. It allows you to see the different levels of play. It allows to see what the players look like, how the game is played, the atmosphere, the competitiveness, the speed of the game.
And I think it's one of the biggest Gaps in the education process for people is that they've actually never really gone and seen a bunch of college baseball. Right. Like, obviously we lived it. We've either coached or watched thousands of college baseball games and evaluated thousands of high school games. That's not hyperbole.
If you're a high school kid and you haven't seen a college baseball game, you need to go see one, right? If you're in, you know, New Northern New Jersey or call it just like the, the Mid Atlantic, like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York area, like, go see a Rutgers game, go see a Delaware game, go see, you know, a game at Montclair State. You know, go see a game at Sienna. Like go see a game at Marist. Like, there's so much college baseball within a couple hours that take a Sunday afternoon and go check this out and take advantage of a time when college baseball is up and running and get a feel for what this stuff looks like and try to see different levels, Try to see Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, and you'll come away with a much deeper respect for what it takes to be there. And you'll come away with a better understanding of the type of players that play in different programs and you'll be able to educate yourself on where you potentially fit. And you know that that can be an eye opening experience for some, for some people. And it can also be an experience where people come away from it and they're like, wow, I think I can play at this level. Like, I think this is a place that could be a good fit for me. I really liked how the coaches acted, the team played super hard. I liked the facility. And all of a sudden you might walk away with a school that could, you can add to your recruiting list that you wouldn't have otherwise even really considered because you didn't know anything about it. Like, you didn't know that miserable Accordia is legit. And you go watch a miserable Courier game and you're down in that area, or you didn't know how good Rowan and Montclair State was because you never saw on a scenic game and you go there and you're like, oh, darn.
Like, this is the type of place where I, I think I could get in the mix or, you know, a place that I could find myself being successful. And you'll realize how competitive it is. And I think that's a really big takeaway that a lot of people miss out on is they're so caught up in the recruiting process that they miss out on the ability to educate themselves. And one of the best ways to do it is go get in the stands and go watch it happen. Because one, it's fun and two, it's a great way to get a better understanding of what college baseball is.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: Yeah, the vast majority of them are free, if not all.
So it's not even gonna cost you anything to get in the door.
You know, the one caveat I will say to that and I, we talk about watching college baseball quite a bit on here and you know, I watch way more college bas baseball than I do pro baseball.
But the one thing I will say, especially if you're looking to be recruited by those types of schools, you know, it's fine to tell the coach that you're going to be there, but understand like game days are for the players and for the coaches, like they don't necessarily have a ton of time, you know, to really be able to just sit and chat with you for a couple of minutes. You know, if you want to swing by and just say, hey, how you doing? Like that's about all you're going to get. Because there's, there's a lot of things that are going on game day with BP and getting the field ready and making sure your players are ready, things like that, where coaches are not necessarily, you know, they're, they're going to be pretty locked in. There's not really a whole lot of distractions that they're, they're looking for. So it's the one caveat I will say, but you know, if you're younger kids and they, you know, they can't talk to you, it's, it's a phenomenal way to be able to kind of gauge where you're at and what college baseball is. Because I think a lot of people kind of have a little bit of a misunderstanding of what, what it takes to play in college baseball, what the skill level is at all levels. So being able to get out and see as many games as you possibly can look like it's, you know, depending on where you live. But you know, you live in the capital district where I grew up. You know, I've said this before, you got multiple division ones, division threes, division two, juco. You know, you live in the Philly area, There's, I mean there's, name it, they have it. Same thing in the Boston area. You know, you can go watch a bunch of Division 1, 2 and 3 baseball and find, you know, really top end college baseball that you can go see. So, you know, I think if you have the ability to do it.
And you have a Saturday or Sunday or even a Friday night to go see. Like, I encourage you to go do it so that you can, you know, one, see how awesome this game is, especially at the college level, but also kind of see where you. Where you think you might be able to fit in and see how good it is.
[00:22:08] Speaker B: Yep, yep.
Going to watch BP is great. So if you have a chance to get there early on a Sunday or something like watching, I think for high school kids, it's really good for them to watch how college players go about their business and getting a feel for, like, how a batting practice operates. And then it's not just a collection of guys taking swings on the field, but understanding that people are working on base running and they're working on defense. And you got pitchers who are going through their pregame routine and you got bunting going on. Like, there's a lot that goes into it. And it's actually a cool. A really cool thing to watch, especially when you have a team that runs a really quality batting practice. It's fun. I mean, maybe I'm a nerd about it. Yeah, I guess we probably are. But I think watching BP operate, like a really good one.
It's fun. And, like, you get to see that these guys are working on more than just trying to hit the ball out of the park. Like, you'll see that there's structure to what they do, and it can help you frame up how you go about your business before a game. Like, you might get early, get there early, and watch the starter get ready for his game. And if you're a high school pitcher and you go to a Rutgers game or something, you might watch Rutgers Sunday guy get loose and go, oh, shoot, maybe I should incorporate that into my routine. Like, he was doing this to get himself ready so you can learn a lot from it.
So take advantage of that to. To close this out.
I don't want to lose sight of the fact that as a high school kid, yes, coaches can get out when the quiet period gets lifted on March 1st, but your job is still to go win and be a good high school player, right? And don't lose sight of that.
Don't make the recruiting portion of it the main focus of your high school season.
Make winning and being a contributor and being a good teammate and doing things that helps your teams win, make that your sole focus, and you'll put yourself in a position to be recruitable. Because if you do the things selflessly and you go out there with the Intention of putting a good performance forth in helping your team win. A lot of times you'll do the stuff that impresses coaches, and it's not always about getting four hits, but it's about how you show up every day and being able to consistently show up. Right. Because you don't know what day a coach is going to show up. You don't have any control over that.
And what you do. Control is how you prepare what you do. Control is your attitude what you do. Control is how to have a good team HR and how you prepare for that. And if you do all of those things, you'll set yourself up for success. So, yeah, we've talked about the rules and how they work and coaches can go out and the timing of it and what they're looking for and how to reach out to them.
Yeah, you need to understand that. But don't lose sight of the fact that the goal is to win.
And you want to make sure that you're doing everything you can for your high school team to go out there and win some baseball games.
[00:24:59] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:25:01] Speaker B: winning is fun, coach.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: Winning is fun.
So I think, yeah, being ready to play and actually playing in your high school season is important.
Yeah.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: Get in the field. Make yourself undeniable. Go. You know, it's tough to get recruited if you don't get a chance to get out there. So, you know, make sure you have a good preseason. Make sure you're. You're doing the things in between, in between games, having good practices, and give that coach a reason to put you out on the field. And then when you get that opportunity, do, do the best you can to take advantage of it. And, you know, hopefully there's some coaches there to watch you do it and it ends up being a good result for you. So. But control what you can control and make sure that you're. You're prepared for those games and coaches will be out.
If you're listening to this, I hope they're out and I hope they watch you and I hope you play well on the day they show up and hope it ends up in a good result for you. So anything else you want to add?
[00:25:54] Speaker A: Nope.
[00:25:56] Speaker B: All right, well, once again, thanks for listening, everybody. Go ahead and hit the subscribe button, if you will. We appreciate the support.
We'll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening. Thank you for listening this week. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead 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.
