Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] 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.
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[00:01:10] Speaker B: welcome to this week's edition of in the Clubhouse with EMD Baseball. I'm Andy Kirikidis, joined by my Wonderful Co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How are we doing, sir?
[00:01:18] Speaker C: Great.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: How are you?
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Today's question to play fall ball or not to play fall ball Specifically directed at the 28.
So let's try to unpack this a little bit.
Sure. I think like many of these things it is circumstantial, but give me your, give me your thoughts.
[00:01:43] Speaker C: I mean, I think if you're the obvious one is that if you only play baseball, you should probably play some semblance of fall baseball.
I also think there is some, some nuance and some caveat to that. If you are an arm who has thrown a ton of innings, maybe don't throw a ton of innings in the fall, maybe just start, you know, play the first half and then shut down so that you can recover and get what you need to get done and stay healthy for the off season and then have a safe ramp up into the spring.
If you're a position guy who's healthy, like go get as many at bass as you possibly can. If you're only playing baseball, you know, and if you're playing other sports, awesome, keep doing it. If you have the opportunity to steal some at bats on weekends, then you know, and it's fine for you to do, then, you know, and you can swing it, then go do it. You know, I think anytime you can get more at bats and more defensive innings in the field, the better it is for you from a straight up gameplay standpoint. You know, if you're an arm and you're playing multiple sports, I would make sure that you're, you're getting your throwing in, in between during the week so that you're not just, you know, not throwing Sunday to Friday and then picking up a baseball and throwing on Saturday. You know, try to get some semblance of throwing in there.
But I think if you're, you know, the generic, if you're, you've made the decision that you're, you're only playing baseball and you're focusing on it this, this year, then yeah, get out there and play some fall ball.
Go to some camps if you can, on weekends maybe where you don't have some, some fall games going on. Go to some camps, see if you can get in front of some coaches and get some feedback as to whether or not, you know, where you're at, what you got to work on, what you need to get better at, what are you good at, those types of things, you know, but if you're, you know, if you're also playing football or soccer or, you know, another fall sport that's out there, you know, hey, that's up to you. You know, sometimes it's, you know, I think that it's a really good idea to step away from time to time, especially after playing spring and summer baseball. If you, if your game's piled up and there's a lot going on, it's a good time to kind of step away and take a couple months off and play another sport and you know, work secondary on, on baseball stuff and then use the off season to get better.
So, I mean, that would probably be my knee jerk intro salvo to this, this conversation. But I, you know, I think it just kind of depends. You know, the big I elephant in the room, I suppose is whether or not you're, you know, you play another sport or not and then make a decision from there.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you know how I feel about the multi sport guys. Like if you play another sport and you enjoy it, go play the other sport, you know, four weekends in the fall.
For me, I think there's a couple scenarios that I kind of want to highlight because I'm as big of a fan as anybody is playing as much baseball as possible. Because I do think it, it helps you get better. Right. And that's why, you know, when we're in college, you try to practice as, and play games as much as you can in the fall, get those live reps and all that. But what I will say is that you need to have an honest conversation with some People that you trust. Because I do think there are a, there's a decent group of kids out there that I can make a very strong argument that fall baseball is not going to move the needle for them.
And it's important to really understand where you fit. Like if you're a fringe Division 1 guy and you don't play another sport and maybe you're getting some fleeting interest or like, yeah, going and playing in a couple tournaments, like it might get you a little bit more steam going into the off season.
I'm good with that. I understand that.
But there's a lot of kids who I think go out and they play football because they think they're supposed to play fall ball because there's an opportunity to play football and they might not play another sport.
But I'll outline a couple scenarios that I think people need to really have an honest conversation about whether it's worth their time or not. If you're the right handed pitcher who's 70, 70, 76 to 78 right now and you're still competing, right, you're getting guys out. Like you're not some, you're not some kid who's that far off.
I think that kid going and throwing in the fall probably hinders their ability to play college baseball. Not in the short term, but if you're 76 to 78 or you're a lefty and you're 75 to 77, I can make a very strong argument. And we've had some college coaches on the podcast recently that have echoed similar sentiments. That you would be better suited with focusing on getting physical, adding weight, moving better, putting down the baseball, or cutting back your volume significantly. There's different trains of thoughts on this. Not going to go into that, but that you would be better off dedicating yourself three months earlier than everybody else to getting bigger, faster and stronger so that you have that time to make up that ground, add the velocity to get you into that conversation.
I think that that group of individuals needs to really think about is getting 12 innings over the course of six weeks.
Are those 12 innings going to make you better?
And for a lot of guys, I think the answer is actually no.
From a positional side, if you're a skilled kid, but you weigh 150 pounds and you run a 73 because you're just not physically strong enough.
I think you need to think about are the 30 at bats I'm going to get, are those going to get me closer to being recruited or is an 8 week or 12 week head start on everybody else that I'm competing against in the weight room, nutritionally, is that going to give me a better chance? And I think for me, ultimately, that's the question that parents and players need to answer as we get closer to the fall is like, where do you fall?
And you need to be honest about it because reality is the kids who are going to get recruited this fall, they're Division 1 guys there. You'll see probably zero Division 2 guys commit this fall and you won't see a Division 3 guy commit this fall.
So understanding where you are and where you want to go and maybe having to make a short term sacrifice of, hey, I'm not going to play fall ball and I am going to go all in on my body for a lot of people out there, I think that's the right choice to make.
But it's a difficult choice to make because it goes against.
It kind of goes against the crowd.
And there's a lot of kids who will be running around this fall playing, and they're going to be that 75 to 78 mile an hour righty.
And those six to eight weeks that you're traveling and playing fall ball, if you don't get any better physically during that window, you've lost eight weeks, 10 weeks, whatever it is that you could have spent in the weight room and like, really maybe pushed yourself into a different category or firmly got yourself into the conversation to get recruited. So that'd be the only thing that I, I really have to say about the decision around fall ball is, is that.
And I love kids that play, I love kids that want to play.
But I think when you're, if you're 28, it's time to really think about where you're going and what you want to do and what you need to do to get there. Not so much what's the next thing I'm going to do, but look at the long term goal and start to do the math of like, all right, well, what do I need to do to get to where I want to go?
[00:09:51] Speaker C: Sure.
I don't really have much to add. I think you, you nailed it.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: I appreciate that.
You're welcome.
Well, thank you for listening. Tune in next week.
Thank you for listening this week.
[00:10:08] Speaker D: 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.
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