Down Year?

[Old man scout]

This year in Fresno/Clovis has to be the weakest that I have seen in years errors walks and weak hitting has really blown me away can't really explain it don't want to be negative but not good baseball Bullard won Easter Classic on lost ball in lights infield pop up not caught and dropped fly in outfield two of those in 1 inning. Plus Bullard made according to the scoreboard 5 errors. Interested in what people think maybe I am biased not sure. Very interested.

[CWClassof2007]

This year in Fresno/Clovis has to be the weakest that I have seen in years errors walks and weak hitting has really blown me away can't really explain it don't want to be negative but not good baseball Bullard won Easter Classic on lost ball in lights infield pop up not caught and dropped fly in outfield two of those in 1 inning. Plus Bullard made according to the scoreboard 5 errors. Interested in what people think maybe I am biased not sure. Very interested.

Last year was pretty week too.

[tru guru]

It's been trending down for 7 or 8 years now.

[SparkPlug]

It's been trending down for 7 or 8 years now.

Could it be because of bad private instruction, which is easily accessible to our youth these days? Seems as if parents would rather pay an "expert" $100 per hour, rather than listen to the high school coaches.  Not saying all private instruction is bad, but just because they charge $$$, doesn't mean it's good.

[Governor]

It would be helpful for parents if there was a list of the best private instructors in each town.


I know Red Sox coach Josh Labby does them. He would be a good guy to go to. Jamo is good too as my son has worked countless hours with him. Worth the money for both I would say.

[SparkPlug]

It would be helpful for parents if there was a list of the best private instructors in each town.


I know Red Sox coach Josh Labby does them. He would be a good guy to go to. Jamo is good too as my son has worked countless hours with him. Worth the money for both I would say.

I've heard Labby is good as well...what about this Lamppost fella?  I see he's very active on twitter.  How much does he charge?  It seems as he might be one of the best around.  He's proud of his gadgets which measure stuff in his hitting laboratory.

[chingata]

Lampost has Jake Gatewood as one of his clients.  That tells me he's one of the best in the valley. 

[BallGuy]

I think the talent is so spread out this year. Rise of social media and travel ball is kind of hurting the Fresno/Clovis area. Kids are getting adequate exposure from the smaller schools, and playing higher comp in the summers. The question is whether this is a blip or a trend, and I'm not sure what the answer is.

Also, I feel like the talent in Clovis/Fresno is getting hurt by the lack of consistent success at the next level.  We have guys like Jones lighting it up for Stanford, etc but of the say 30 kids that have gone d1 out of high school, only a handful have excelled there. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but just some things bouncing around in my head.

Note: I had this written last night, and didn't hit send, so missed out on a lot of the other posts.

[BallGuy]

Could it be because of bad private instruction, which is easily accessible to our youth these days? Seems as if parents would rather pay an "expert" $100 per hour, rather than listen to the high school coaches.  Not saying all private instruction is bad, but just because they charge $$$, doesn't mean it's good.

I just don't see it this way, as it's not exclusive to the area. There's good and bad instruction everywhere. You have Labby who was a fricken stud, you have Jamo who was a fricken stud, and you have Lampros who wasn't good. Idk where I stand in terms of instruction of these guys because I never had a lesson from them, but success (or lack there of) does not always breeds success. Some of the worst sales leaders were the best salesmen. Some of the best instructors are guys that weren't great. It's how they communicate that make them good/bad.

All that being said-it's dumb. The game has been around for 200 years, innovating it now like we are splitting the atom is dumb. Round ball, hit by a round bat, turn left. We don't have to be rocket scientists to figure it out, and parents fall for this stuff all the damn time.

[Timmy Winn]

I've been pretty disappointed by what I've seen too. Lots of sloppy baseball. Too many errors. I watched CN's catcher argue a dropped third strike while the CW batter took first base and the next hitter doubled him in. It cost CN the game. Bullard's D looked brutal too. The players that has impressed me the most is Georges out of Clovis High. No one else has blown me away. Even Schneiders no hitter against Clovis was so-so. I think the valley is wide open and anyone can win.

[Timmy Winn]

Lampost has Jake Gatewood as one of his clients.  That tells me he's one of the best in the valley.

Gatewood had the MOST suspect hit tool I've ever seen on a highly regarded prospect. I think he was the third or fourth best hitter on his high school team. I'm not shocked he hasn't made it past AAA. Hopefully Lampros can figure something out because I always root for Clovis guys. But I wouldn't crown Lampros as one of the best because he works with Gatewood. That's fuzzy math.

[Governor]

Lampost has Jake Gatewood as one of his clients.  That tells me he's one of the best in the valley.

Fair point.

[GoDogs]

I think the talent is so spread out this year. Rise of social media and travel ball is kind of hurting the Fresno/Clovis area. Kids are getting adequate exposure from the smaller schools, and playing higher comp in the summers. The question is whether this is a blip or a trend, and I'm not sure what the answer is.

Also, I feel like the talent in Clovis/Fresno is getting hurt by the lack of consistent success at the next level.  We have guys like Jones lighting it up for Stanford, etc but of the say 30 kids that have gone d1 out of high school, only a handful have excelled there. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but just some things bouncing around in my head.

Note: I had this written last night, and didn't hit send, so missed out on a lot of the other posts.

.

I agree with this...colleges don't recruit from high schools like they did in the past.  They recruit from Travel Ball or get info from the MLB Scouts like Labby from Fall scout ball.  So kids from smaller schools don't need to transfer to bigger schools to get exposure like in the past.  So the talent level is definitely spread out more evenly without a really dominant team.  I also think the sloppy level of play is partially due to the fact a lot of teams just haven't had enough practice time with the weather and it's showing.

[Timmy Winn]

.

I agree with this...colleges don't recruit from high schools like they did in the past.  They recruit from Travel Ball or get info from the MLB Scouts like Labby from Fall scout ball.  So kids from smaller schools don't need to transfer to bigger schools to get exposure like in the past.  So the talent level is definitely spread out more evenly without a really dominant team.  I also think the sloppy level of play is partially due to the fact a lot of teams just haven't had enough practice time with the weather and it's showing.

Completely agree about the weather impacting practice time and leading to sloppy play.

[Timmy Winn]