Baseball Players Are Made, Not Born

The thing that always drew me to baseball over football or basketball is this: anybody can play. You don’t have to be born a certain size. Being big and athletic helps. However, unlike those other sports, baseball will still let a kid with some athleticism and a will to work become a high-level player.

If the goal is college, his training has one job: move The 3 Measurable Tools — running speed, arm strength, and exit velocity — as far as they will go. Test them. Write them down. Then train on purpose. The chart is in The 3 Measurable Tools for you to review.

A D1 infielder is usually somewhere near a 6.8 sixty or above, 85+ from the infield, and 90+ exit velo. If he’s at 7.3, 78, and 86, you now know the work. You are not guessing. You are not hoping a new bat solves it.

You need to get your son in the weight room. If he is still young, even getting him to fall in love with pullups, pushups, pogo jumps, etc will help him begin to develop fast twitch muscle fibers. Size and strength are the big separators between high school and college. College athletes are men and look like grown men. Study the game while he’s playing it. A smart player with average tools beats a talented one who doesn’t know what’s coming.

He is not required to be the most natural athlete on the field. He is required to know where his tools need to be and to work toward those numbers. Being the hardest worker on the field is more important than being the most talented. That’s a dad’s job to keep simple — not to overcoach. Stack the 20 minutes daily and let the tools move.