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What summer vacation?
Back to work for Elk Grove baseball
By John Hull - Citizen Sports Writer
For a high school baseball player, the season isn’t really over in mid-May.
It may stretch another week or two if his baseball team makes the playoffs. In all, that’s around 30 games for the average high school program in California.
Those are the team records that count, the ones for which trophies are handed out, banners are awarded and, for at least one team, a big dogpile in the infield after a Sac-Joaquin Section championship.
But, most coaches believe the real preparation for the spring season actually begins right now, in the heat of summer. That’s when varsity, junior varsity and even freshmen baseball coaches dip into the ranks of fresh faces and start building for the next real season.
The typical varsity summer baseball program may include as many as 30 additional games, usually in a series of tournaments. Coaches typically empty the bench, letting lower classmen have playing time with returning upperclassmen, seeing how they do in special situations, try players in new positions and basically see what kind of team they’ll have come next January when spring baseball workouts get underway.
The highly-successful Elk Grove High School program has its usual routine: early June in a Davis tournament, usually a stop-over in Woodland, to the Bay Area and a highly-competitive tournament at Archbishop Mitty High School, then host their own tournament around the Fourth of July before driving south to Redondo Beach for the popular Wood Bat Classic.
Of course, they make certain there’s some quality time on the expansive beaches in Southern California.
This past weekend, 20 high school teams, including Mitty’s and the always-competitive Valley Christian program, along with local squads from Laguna Creek, Franklin, Pleasant Grove and Sheldon, joined the Herd in the annual Gary Dreher Memorial Summer Classic.
Elk Grove head coach Jeff Carlson spent much of the tournament with one of his son’s baseball teams, competing in a Cal Ripken Youth Baseball state tournament in Concord, so he left the job of running the Herd to his top assistant and Elk Grove’s new athletic director, Zack Leach.
“The purpose of summer ball is to evaluate, position-wise and line-up –wise, where everybody fits, “ Leach explained, prior to a game last Saturday. “A lot of guys may be coming up from JV and they are a middle infielder or a catcher, or whatever, and we may not have a spot for them, but if they are, say, a good hitter, then we’ll evaluate if they might be good at another position to get their bat in the lineup.”
Elk Grove is trying this summer to find the diamonds in the rough, hoping to improve on its 15-12 record last season. An early exit from the playoffs, which happened this past spring, might be avoided for the Herd in 2009 if it finds a few pitchers that might match the quality of some of its hurlers in previous seasons.
That’s something team leaders Jake Rodriguez and Justin Charles admitted prior to a tournament game late Saturday against Johansen High School. “We’re working on really building our pitching up this summer,” said Rodriguez, a junior-to-be with two letters in varsity baseball already and a verbal commitment to Oregon State University. “We really haven’t had the great pitching since David (Freitas) and Troy (Watson) left.”
Charles said the program has capable arms.
“There’s a couple young pitchers, Alex Brown and J.D. Davis, and a couple other guys that once they get some innings they’ll be able to help us during the season,” he added.
Leach said that one of the biggest purposes behind summer ball is team building.
“We want the varsity guys to get familiar with the guys coming up and vice-versa,” he said. “Definitely, it’s to get the varsity guys some reps, too.”
For both Rodriguez and Charles, they’ll be playing baseball right up to the start of the school year in late summer. Rodriguez is leaving next week to try out for the age 16-and-under USA National team. He’ll be going to Florida at the beginning of August to try to make the squad that will tour South America for most of the month.
Rodriguez, who started at fullback for the Herd’s football team last fall, said he won’t be suiting up for new coach Chris Nixon this season.
“I want to spend more time working out for baseball,” he said. “I want to work more on my speed and a few other things so I’m more ready for baseball (next spring).”
Charles, a senior, will play for the Area Code All-Star team that will compete in Long Beach and hopes to get the chance to try out for the 18-and-under USA National team in Arizona.
The Herd split its squad because of the odd number of teams entered in the Dreher Classic, so they did not qualify for the semifinal round in their own tournament, but they won the tournament at Mitty High School in June and went 3-1 in the Davis tournament earlier in the month.
“We’re seeing a team that can hit the ball well and we’re also pitching pretty good at times,” Leach observed. “We’ve seen some pretty good teams along the way. We’ve beat Santa Cruz, which is pretty good, we’ve beat Pleasant Grove and we’ve beat Valley Christian. So, we’re doing pretty good.”
It may stretch another week or two if his baseball team makes the playoffs. In all, that’s around 30 games for the average high school program in California.
Those are the team records that count, the ones for which trophies are handed out, banners are awarded and, for at least one team, a big dogpile in the infield after a Sac-Joaquin Section championship.
But, most coaches believe the real preparation for the spring season actually begins right now, in the heat of summer. That’s when varsity, junior varsity and even freshmen baseball coaches dip into the ranks of fresh faces and start building for the next real season.
The typical varsity summer baseball program may include as many as 30 additional games, usually in a series of tournaments. Coaches typically empty the bench, letting lower classmen have playing time with returning upperclassmen, seeing how they do in special situations, try players in new positions and basically see what kind of team they’ll have come next January when spring baseball workouts get underway.
The highly-successful Elk Grove High School program has its usual routine: early June in a Davis tournament, usually a stop-over in Woodland, to the Bay Area and a highly-competitive tournament at Archbishop Mitty High School, then host their own tournament around the Fourth of July before driving south to Redondo Beach for the popular Wood Bat Classic.
Of course, they make certain there’s some quality time on the expansive beaches in Southern California.
This past weekend, 20 high school teams, including Mitty’s and the always-competitive Valley Christian program, along with local squads from Laguna Creek, Franklin, Pleasant Grove and Sheldon, joined the Herd in the annual Gary Dreher Memorial Summer Classic.
Elk Grove head coach Jeff Carlson spent much of the tournament with one of his son’s baseball teams, competing in a Cal Ripken Youth Baseball state tournament in Concord, so he left the job of running the Herd to his top assistant and Elk Grove’s new athletic director, Zack Leach.
“The purpose of summer ball is to evaluate, position-wise and line-up –wise, where everybody fits, “ Leach explained, prior to a game last Saturday. “A lot of guys may be coming up from JV and they are a middle infielder or a catcher, or whatever, and we may not have a spot for them, but if they are, say, a good hitter, then we’ll evaluate if they might be good at another position to get their bat in the lineup.”
Elk Grove is trying this summer to find the diamonds in the rough, hoping to improve on its 15-12 record last season. An early exit from the playoffs, which happened this past spring, might be avoided for the Herd in 2009 if it finds a few pitchers that might match the quality of some of its hurlers in previous seasons.
That’s something team leaders Jake Rodriguez and Justin Charles admitted prior to a tournament game late Saturday against Johansen High School. “We’re working on really building our pitching up this summer,” said Rodriguez, a junior-to-be with two letters in varsity baseball already and a verbal commitment to Oregon State University. “We really haven’t had the great pitching since David (Freitas) and Troy (Watson) left.”
Charles said the program has capable arms.
“There’s a couple young pitchers, Alex Brown and J.D. Davis, and a couple other guys that once they get some innings they’ll be able to help us during the season,” he added.
Leach said that one of the biggest purposes behind summer ball is team building.
“We want the varsity guys to get familiar with the guys coming up and vice-versa,” he said. “Definitely, it’s to get the varsity guys some reps, too.”
For both Rodriguez and Charles, they’ll be playing baseball right up to the start of the school year in late summer. Rodriguez is leaving next week to try out for the age 16-and-under USA National team. He’ll be going to Florida at the beginning of August to try to make the squad that will tour South America for most of the month.
Rodriguez, who started at fullback for the Herd’s football team last fall, said he won’t be suiting up for new coach Chris Nixon this season.
“I want to spend more time working out for baseball,” he said. “I want to work more on my speed and a few other things so I’m more ready for baseball (next spring).”
Charles, a senior, will play for the Area Code All-Star team that will compete in Long Beach and hopes to get the chance to try out for the 18-and-under USA National team in Arizona.
The Herd split its squad because of the odd number of teams entered in the Dreher Classic, so they did not qualify for the semifinal round in their own tournament, but they won the tournament at Mitty High School in June and went 3-1 in the Davis tournament earlier in the month.
“We’re seeing a team that can hit the ball well and we’re also pitching pretty good at times,” Leach observed. “We’ve seen some pretty good teams along the way. We’ve beat Santa Cruz, which is pretty good, we’ve beat Pleasant Grove and we’ve beat Valley Christian. So, we’re doing pretty good.”
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of egcitizen.com.
Baseball Observer wrote on Jul 18, 2008 9:56 AM:
" Good points. Also, there was so much drama with the coaching staff and the prima dona players who thought they didn't have to practice. The effects of a new pitching coach, and coaches who thought it was better off being buddy's more than actually coaching the whole team. Perhaps the program should go back to the basics, especially since they have so many young players. "
RandyO wrote on Jul 16, 2008 1:11 PM:
I do not think the caliber of pitching was any greater or worse than the years before. It is almost as if you are blaming the Senior pitching staff for not winning in the playoffs. Please remember that there are eight other players on the field and they have to do their part, both on the field and with the bat, in order for a team to be successful. "