CASon's Progress

[CADad]

Now that there's a forum for this type of thing I thought it would be a good idea to get one going for CASon rather than hijacking 4thgen's.

CASon took most of the week off to stretch and condition his shoulder not throwing from Monday thru Wednesday and then only played some light long toss on Thursday. On Saturday he went to a pitching camp at USC. That was a bit of a mix. Once they got done with some fielding drills they split the 8 pitchers into two groups of 4 who were split between the visitor's and home bullpens. CASon's group went to the home bullpen where an assistant whose background I don't know supervised a bullpen. He really didn't know what was going on and two of the kids threw a 60 or 70 pitch bullpen while CASon and another kid sat and watched. The time was supposed to be split evenly between the kids but this guy thought they were going to spend the entire time in that bullpen. Halfway through the session they then switched over to the visitor's bullpen where USC's pitching coach had the kids take turns throwing pitches so all of them got about an even amount of throwing during that half of it.

On the good side the pitching coach seemed pretty capable and was able to make a couple pretty good suggestions for CASon to work on. CASon's fastball command was surprisingly good and he seemed to be throwing reasonably hard for him, though I really can't judge the speeds well without a gun. His command of the changeup although improved was pretty poor and his command of the curve wasn't too good either but that wasn't surprising as he hadn't had the bullpen session to work on it at all.

The pitching coach seemed mildy interested in CASon mostly because of his size at 15yo and possibly because of his fastball command and movement. We'll probably go back to some more of their camps, not that CASon is likely to be a USC caliber player, but if he makes a good impression on their pitching coach he might be able to help him catch on elsewhere.

[tannerlorenz]

Thats good news...having USC interested or looking at him will attract other top colleges...

[CADad]

Tanner,
I have to stress the mildly at best part here. USC is not interested in him at this point. He'd have to improve a whole lot before a school like that would take a serious look. I went through their media guide and every pitcher they have was all-league in HS at the very least with the exception of one pitcher who was however highly rated by perfect game.

The good news for him is that his shoulder was fine come Monday and he was able to throw a pen on Monday with no soreness. He also had improved on his shoulder flexibility at PT with the internal rotation being normal now. Combined with being more than normally flexible in external rotation that actually makes him hypermobile and we'll have to pay attention to strengthening the rotator cuff.

[tannerlorenz]

[Roger]

[CADad]

Roger,
Figured he'll probably start a new one.

[CADad]

CASon threw an inning today against the strongest hitting team in our JV league. He started against the #3 hitter in the lineup. He got behind 2-0 then came back and got him on a fairly hard grounder to third. Their #4 hitter who I have no idea what he's doing on JV has always owned CASon and today was no different. Fortunately the wind was blowing in so he only hit a long double when CASon got one up in the zone. CASon then got the number 5 hitter to hit a bouncer to short and the #6 hitter to hit a bouncer to second. He only threw fastballs despite throwing a couple nice curves while warming up.

The wind was blowing straight in and it was pretty windy so he didn't seem to have much movement on the ball. In his case having the wind behind him really doesn't seem to be a plus.

[tannerlorenz]

[tannerlorenz]

as for cason, sounds like hes really starting to get his arm strength up and hopefully he can make varsity sometime soon!

[CADad]

Tanner,
Thanks, though I don't think that's very likely this season. They kept a pitcher on JV as a junior one season who was throwing mid to high 80s and ended up signing with a D1 before he ever played varsity. He was a freshman all American at the D1.

Different situation in most ways as CASon isn't likely to throw that hard next season as a junior and he has better control. This year they have a couple seniors who are solid pitchers at the varsity level so the varsity's weakness is hitting, not pitching. It will be interesting to see how much of a shot CASon gets during the summer and winter. All three of the kids who threw today are good pitchers with real potential.

[CADad]

CASon's Friday game was postponed until Monday due to rain. They had a doubleheader today against a pretty good JV team from Orange County. The coach started a kid who hasn't thrown in a while. He did fairly well for 3 innings but was clearly tired. He got hammered in the 4th and 5th. They brought CASon in with 2 outs and one on in the 5th after the kid had thrown 95 pitches. CASon threw a fastball for a strike, a curve in the dirt and then another fastball that was flared into left by a lefty for the third out. That was his pitching for the day. He finished the game at first base and didn't get to hit. The next game he sat until playing the last couple innings at first with the score 10-3 in the other team's favor. He got one at bat. No other player got as little playing time although one player who played 12 of the 14 innings didn't get to hit and one kid only played 5 innings in the field but also DH'ed in the first game. They only had 15 healthy players and one of those was hit in the elbow and had to come out. I had him ask the coach why he got so little time and he got lies about not wanting him to get hurt. Oh, did I mention they also started a pitcher in the second game who had played the entire first game in left and was dead tired before the game ever started. He got hammered in the first, had no control and went 4 innings throwing 88 pitches after having not pitched for several weeks. Oh and the pitcher who started the first game and threw over 90 pitches played the entire second game in center field.

I guess the coach was really focused on protecting his players today.

[Roger]

Some coaches just don't get it.

My younger son's school volleyball team played in a tournament yesterday and today. Between two matches today, I see one of the kids wearing a knee brace and I hear him tell someone that his knee is killing him. He clearly is limping. Next match, he's in the starting line-up. And he's not even what I would consider starter material when he's healthy.