Youth baseball players learn on the job skills

About 20 participants attend inaugural one-day event to receive evaluations of their skills.

GLENDALE — A group of nearly 20 participants were set to be put to the test, knowing they would be evaluated following the completion of nearly 10 drills across the expansive baseball field at the Glendale Sports Complex on Tuesday.

From hitting ability to arm strength to running speed and more, the contingent took part in the inaugural My Pro Day, a skills evaluation conducted across the country by the United States Baseball Academy for players 5-18.

With radar guns used at practically every drill station, the players looked to accelerate their learning curve before receiving a detailed report on what skills they have mastered and where they need to improve after attending the one-day event.

"It's not your typical baseball camp you go to in the summer," said Joe Cotti, the chief evaluator of the workout at the Glendale site and a former Hoover High baseball coach from 2010-12. "You are not receiving instruction.

"Instead, it's a complete evaluation process and you get tested for velocity, agility, hitting and speed. You go from station to station and you get a better idea of where you stand."

Prior to the start of the four-hour event, each participant was given an evaluation sheet chronicling every exercise they would encounter. Following the completion of a drill, the participants' marks were recorded on the scorecard.

It proved to be the ideal course of action for each member in their quest to advance to the next stage of competition. The event was attended by high school players and Little Leaguers from around Glendale and Los Angeles and as far away as Louisiana.

Devin Aure, 8, came prepared to showcase his skills.

Aure, a Los Angeles resident, went to the bullpen down the right-field line to test his pitching skills. The right-hander threw five pitches at an average speed off 44 miles per hour.

"I'm usually an outfielder or infielder," said Aure, sporting a blue baseball cap and uniform. "It doesn't hurt to know how to pitch, either.

"I want to be a baseball player and this is a good camp because you find out where you stand in different areas. I felt like my pitches were good and fast. I also wanted to see how fast I could run."

Amari Yolas, 9, appeared confident after he stepped into the batter's box and hit five balls of a tee. Four of the balls Yolas hit went to the right side of second base and one landed in the outfield.

Each of Yolas' hits clocked 80 MPH off the bat.

"I think it's a great drill," said Yolas, who plays on a Little League all-star team in Baldwin Hills. "You get a better idea of how fast you hit the ball.

"I'm also looking to get better at tracking down balls. I usually play shortstop. You try to find ways to get to the ball quickly and this [event] helps you get a better idea."

Julian Corral, a Glendale resident, came to the competition looking to improve his speed on offense and defense.

Corral, 7, said the drills will help him as he plans to pursue playing baseball for a while.

"There are so many things you can learn, like learning how to throw and run faster" Corral said. "I think it's cool that you can come here and learn."

Cotti, who coached last season at Milken Community, said the participants' results are entered into an international database and divulge how they measure up against players their age around the nation.

"They find out where they stack up and they know where they will compare with others," Cotti said. "You get used to the exposure and you keep learning.

"The more things you can do, the more comfortable you'll get."
Source: http://www.glendalenewspress.com/sports/tn-gnp-sp-youth-baseball-players-learn-on-the-job-skills-20140625,0,3067137.story

Summer Instruction Series: Switch Hitting - Mark Teixeira

One of the best switch hitters in college baseball history was 3B Mark Teixeira of Georgia Tech, now a first baseman for the New York Yankees.

He hit .427 in 2000 with 18 homers, 21 doubles and 80 RBI. Lou Pavlovich, Jr. interviewed him at the beginning of the 2001 college baseball season about how he learned to be such a great switch hitter.

Here is the story that was published in the January 5, 2001 edition of Collegiate Baseball.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

Rarely has college baseball seen the likes of Mark Teixeira. The All-American third baseman for Georgia Tech is living proof that work…gut-busting work…will get you where you want in life.

Considered one of the finest switch hitters in college baseball history, he put up staggering numbers in his first two seasons with the Yellow Jackets:

• In 2000, he hit .427 with 18 home runs, 21 doubles, 80 RBI along with a slugging percentage of .772. He collected 103 hits, scored 104 runs, had an on-base percentage of .547 and was extremely disciplined at the plate with 67 walks as he was named National Player of the Year by several outlets. His 67 walks (which included 17 intentional passes) led the Atlantic Coast Conference and was only nine shy of the ACC all-time record.

• As a switch hitter in 2000, he had virtually the same power numbers from both sides of the plate when you factor in the number of bats he had. As a left-handed hitter against right-handed pitching, he batted .405 with 12 homers in 163 at bats. As a right-handed hitter against left-handed pitching (in less than half the at bats, 78), he hit .474 with 6 homers.

• Even more remarkable was that Teixeira had an on-base percentage of .633 when leading off an inning and hit .457 with runners on base.

• A year earlier as a freshman for Georgia Tech, Teixeira hit .387 with 13 home runs, 18 doubles and 65 RBI which earned him Freshman National Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball.

“Mark is right in line with some of the greatest hitters I have ever had the privilege of coaching,” said Georgia Tech head Coach Danny Hall.

Hall has closely observed the development of future Major Leaguer Barry Larkin in his days as a coach at the University of Michigan as well as Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek with the Yellow Jackets, plus other high profile hitters.

“Whatever the challenge is, he (Teixeira) is able to meet it head on and separate himself from the pack in terms of performance and skill level. He is a very dedicated, focused guy as well as being extremely mature. He has the whole package.”

Hall said Teixeira led the NCAA Division I hitters last year in runs scored at 104 which many people don’t realize.

“Most people think of Mark as a switch hitter with power who knocks runners in. But he can steal bases as well and is a smart runner,” Hall added.

Learning To Switch Hit
How did Teixeira become such a polished hitter from both sides of the plate? It all began at the ripe old age of three.

“I was barely walking when I began swinging a bat,” chuckled Teixeira.

“We have a unique history of baseball in my family. My dad played baseball at the U.S. Naval Academy and my Uncle Pete played baseball at the University of Florida and in the Atlanta Braves’ organization. Because of the history of baseball in my family, I got an early start. We played Wiffle Ball all the time and kept playing it until I began high school. Obviously, I hit plenty of real baseballs as well. But my friends and I played home run derby a lot with Wiffle balls. I had a special group of friends in the neighborhood who enjoyed playing this game for fun. Swinging the light bat helped your eye/hand coordination and was very important to my early success.”

Teixeira said he has always been a good hitter.

“It just came naturally to me. But I never took it for granted. I kept hitting all the time. My dad would throw me batting practice daily at a young age when he got home from work until dark. At the age of five, I began switch hitting. But I got frustrated and stopped doing it. I was a natural right-handed hitter and stayed that way until the age of 13. Then I started switch hitting again and worked and worked at it.

“After a period of time, hitting from the left side became natural and more power came. It took a long time. It probably wasn’t until the sophomore year of high school that I was completely comfortable with switch hitting. People might think it is easy to do if they are successful switch hitting in a batting cage. But it is light years different from a real game. You see curves, 90 mph fastballs, change ups and a whole assortment of pitches. To learn how to hit from the left side, you must learn to hit the ball the opposite way. Once I got that down, hitting from that side became much easier.”

Teixeira said he is not ambidextrous but was skilled with his left foot when he played soccer as a youngster and made layups with his left hand in basketball without any trouble. He has never thrown a baseball left handed.

On learning to be a disciplined hitter, Teixeira said, “Once I was in high school, pitchers know how to pitch well. You didn’t see fastballs down the middle. It forced me to learn the strike zone. My coach (Dave Norton of Mount St. Joseph’s H.S. in Severna Park, Md.) kept after me to not swing at pitches not in the strike zone since pitchers were trying to get me to chase bad pitches.

“I have never thought a walk was something bad. Some hitters hate to walk, but not me. I know a lot of hitters who would rather ground out than walk. But that is crazy. Walking helps the team and helps you. If you swing at balls, you will get yourself out.”

Teixeira was asked if he likes to take the first pitch to size up pitchers and get a feel for them, or if he prefers going after first pitches. “If the pitch is in my zone, I go after it immediately,” he said.

“Good pitchers try to get ahead in the count. If the ball is right there, why not drive it? If it is a great pitch that paints the corner, I let it go. My strategy on the first pitch of an at bat is just like the count is 3-1 or 2-0. It must be a great pitch where I want it.”

As far as his thoughts in the on-deck circle, he keeps it relatively simple.

“I prepare myself for my at bat beginning in the on-deck circle. You must know what type of pitcher he is.

If you faced him in the past, you have a base of knowledge on how he will pitch you. If you don’t know anything about the pitcher, you study him and try to pick up what you can in the on deck circle and in the dugout as well. Since I am a switch hitter, I study how pitchers throw to left-handed or right-handed power hitters. Once I get to the batter’s box, all I do is see the ball and hit it. I don’t think of anything else. I trust myself to react the way I can.

“You can’t over think in the box. You can’t have the voice in your head ask questions such as: What if he throws a curve, fastball in or away or a change up? If you do that, you are sunk. If I find myself doing that, chances are I will get myself out. It’s important for me to rely on my given hitting ability and simply to see the ball and hit it.”

Seeing The Ball
Teixeira said he doesn’t do anything unusual visually when he steps to the plate such as fine centering on the pitch.

“I look the pitcher straight in the eyes when I get to the plate. Once he breaks his hands in the delivery, I pick up the ball and drive it.”

He was asked what he does to get out of rare slumps.

“Usually nine out of 10 times, it is mental. I am usually trying to do too much. I may not be getting many pitches to hit, jumping at the ball or letting my back shoulder come down. To help get out of a slump, I use a batting T and hit balls or hit soft toss until my basic swing feels comfortable once again. For me, slumps are mostly mental. If I don’t feel comfortable in an at bat, I just won’t hit well.”

On being able to perform so well in a clutch time and time again, Teixeira said, “When nobody is on base, pitchers can be much more fine with you. But when runners are on, it gives hitters a huge advantage. I unusually get better pitches with men on base because pitchers must throw strikes. There is no room for error for them. I don’t bear down any harder with men on base. I just realize that the odds become better for me when these situations come up.”

Mental Skills Crucial
What also makes Teixeira so unique is that he has dissected the mental part of baseball and feels this knowledge is crucial to high performance.

“I purchased The Mental Game Of Baseball (written by Harvey Dorfman and Karl Kuehl) because the mental part of the game is so important to ball players.

“I feel properly utilizing the mind separates good players from great players. A lot of players have talent. Tapping the productivity out of the talent is the real key. If you have the mental edge, it can help propel you to the next level,” he said.

He discussed an American Legion game in which his team was down 11-0 in the third inning. However, the game was stopped due to rain and resumed the following day. His team came back the next morning and going into the ninth inning were only down by one run.

The first two batters struck out and the third batter walked. Teixeira came up to the plate and hit a 2-run homer to win the game.

“I learned a huge lesson in that game that you never, ever give up until the last out,” he said.

http://baseballnews.com/summer-instruction-series-switch-hitting/

Specialization: Does it Ensure a College Athletic Career?

5-year-old prodigy raises question: How young is too young for fame?

The video sensation of little 5-year-old Ariel Antigua has everyone stunned and amazed. This petite version of what every major league baseball team wants poses a question: How young is too young?

Antigua looks like any other 5-year-old boy from New Jersey. However, put him on a baseball field and he is no longer like any other boy his age. This kid can hit pitches that are going roughly 86 to 88 mph — and they are not just flimsy hits. These hits are strong. Any kid at that age would not even try to hit a moving pitch, let alone a pitch at that kind of speed. In addition, Antigua can bat well on both the left and right sides of the plate. To top all that, he can field the ball almost perfectly.

This kid clearly has great hand-eye coordination and endless potential, but does that mean his future should be decided for him? Should a 5-year-old have to decide now that he wants to be a professional baseball player in about two decades? Of course, he does not have to literally think about his future. But with all of the hype and attention, this kid is most likely going to continue this route. I mean, why stop doing something that you are great at? And, hopefully, he likes it too.

The larger picture here is whether Antigua is going to grow up normally. Since his personal instructor, Edwin Ortiz, created this video and posted it on the Internet for everyone to see, Antigua’s development as a baseball player will most likely be monitored. Scouts are going to want to see how much better he gets and, if he does continue to improve, when they can sign him. But what people forget is how much pressure that can be. I’m sure all of this attention is more than welcome to a 5-year-old kid. But in a couple of years, that attention will die down and the only thing left will be the pressure to show improvement in order to keep people interested. This level of pressure for a 5-year-old is unbearable. Even professional athletes today who get paid to perform have issues with pressure from their teams, organizations and fans. Arguably, it is this pressure of satisfying everyone else that leads to the desire to use performance-enhancing drugs that has struck even the best players in the league.

However, pressure is not the only issue here. The idea of morality is apparent, too. In regard to child stars like Antigua, no one really knows what the appropriate age is for a child to be smothered with this kind of attention. Should Ortiz have waited until Antigua was ready to be exposed as a prodigy? When is a young boy truly mature enough to make decisions on his own? By posting this video, not only did Ortiz indirectly force Antigua into a career that he may or may not want, he also used the kid’s skills to advertise his own facility. Through the video, Ortiz was able to show how his own ability as a trainer can help your child be the next Alex Rodriguez. It would be nice to hope that Ortiz has Antigua’s best interest at heart, but a kid with this much potential can mean a lot of money.

Regardless, Antigua’s future is already laid out for him. All we can do now is wish him luck and hope his status as a child prodigy fulfills itself in the future. But most importantly, above all of this hype, let’s hope he continues to enjoy playing baseball at whatever age.

Source: The video sensation of little 5-year-old Ariel Antigua has everyone stunned and amazed. This petite version of what every major league baseball team wants poses a question: How young is too young?

Antigua looks like any other 5-year-old boy from New Jersey. However, put him on a baseball field and he is no longer like any other boy his age. This kid can hit pitches that are going roughly 86 to 88 mph — and they are not just flimsy hits. These hits are strong. Any kid at that age would not even try to hit a moving pitch, let alone a pitch at that kind of speed. In addition, Antigua can bat well on both the left and right sides of the plate. To top all that, he can field the ball almost perfectly.

This kid clearly has great hand-eye coordination and endless potential, but does that mean his future should be decided for him? Should a 5-year-old have to decide now that he wants to be a professional baseball player in about two decades? Of course, he does not have to literally think about his future. But with all of the hype and attention, this kid is most likely going to continue this route. I mean, why stop doing something that you are great at? And, hopefully, he likes it too.

The larger picture here is whether Antigua is going to grow up normally. Since his personal instructor, Edwin Ortiz, created this video and posted it on the Internet for everyone to see, Antigua’s development as a baseball player will most likely be monitored. Scouts are going to want to see how much better he gets and, if he does continue to improve, when they can sign him. But what people forget is how much pressure that can be. I’m sure all of this attention is more than welcome to a 5-year-old kid. But in a couple of years, that attention will die down and the only thing left will be the pressure to show improvement in order to keep people interested. This level of pressure for a 5-year-old is unbearable. Even professional athletes today who get paid to perform have issues with pressure from their teams, organizations and fans. Arguably, it is this pressure of satisfying everyone else that leads to the desire to use performance-enhancing drugs that has struck even the best players in the league.

However, pressure is not the only issue here. The idea of morality is apparent, too. In regard to child stars like Antigua, no one really knows what the appropriate age is for a child to be smothered with this kind of attention. Should Ortiz have waited until Antigua was ready to be exposed as a prodigy? When is a young boy truly mature enough to make decisions on his own? By posting this video, not only did Ortiz indirectly force Antigua into a career that he may or may not want, he also used the kid’s skills to advertise his own facility. Through the video, Ortiz was able to show how his own ability as a trainer can help your child be the next Alex Rodriguez. It would be nice to hope that Ortiz has Antigua’s best interest at heart, but a kid with this much potential can mean a lot of money.

Source: http://www.bupipedream.com/archive/814/5-year-old-prodigy-raises-question-how-young-is-too-young-for-fame/

Benefits of Youth Baseball – Confidence, Communication and Patience Gained on the Field

T-ball, baseball and softball develop confidence, hone communication skills, require patience and offer a place on the field for kids of all athletic abilities and personalities.

T-ball: A Great Starter Sport
T-ball introduces children to the many benefits that playing the sport of baseball offers. Players, who are typically 4-6 years old, learn the basic fundamentals of catching, throwing and hitting, all of which require a significant amount of hand-eye coordination. They get their heart pumping when running around the bases and sprinting to catch and field the ball.

In reality, a t-ball player catching a fly ball is a rarity and is highly celebrated. Needless to say, once a catch does happen, it’s a huge confidence booster for that child! Same goes for hitting the ball. It’s a great achievement and a skill that doesn’t come naturally to many young children. Hitting a coach-pitched ball after transitioning to “real” baseball generates even more pride because in most cases a lot of practice and courage was required to gain this new skill.

Baseball has a Position for Everyone
The transition to coach pitch baseball (or softball) is usually made around 1st grade. The main difference between baseball and t-ball is that a higher level of hand-eye coordination is required to successfully hit a pitched ball. And of course, two new positions are added because the game now includes a pitcher and a catcher. In respect to positions, baseball offers nine and each requires a different skill set. This is very advantageous because children have varying degrees of ability. Those who can more accurately judge distance are better suited for outfield. Speedier kids are perfect for short stop. Catchers are typically more outspoken leaders. There’s a place for everyone on the field!

Patience, Attention and Focus on the Field
T-ball and baseball both test the patience of its participants. Fielders must wait for a ball to be hit near their position and have to accept that they might not get a ball very often. Batters need to wait for their turn at the plate. And when hitting, they must learn to discriminate between strikes and balls, which requires patience and good judgment. Unlike soccer, baseball does not require active participation at all times, but it does require a player to stay “on their toes” or, in other words, attentive and focused.

Communication is a Must for Success
Teams with players that actively communicate during games are the most successful. In order to avoid collisions and streamline the fielding process, players must talk (sometimes yell) to one another to communicate who is going to catch or field a hit ball. “I got it,” is commonly heard. Same goes for alerting fellow teammates when an opponent is advancing to another base or stealing a base. It’s a necessity to communicate every move the other team is making in order to make the appropriate play and get an out.

Finding a League
Most community education and local athletic associations offer t-ball programs during the summer months. Little League has an extensive national network of competitive programs in both baseball and softball.

Source: http://www.activitytree.com/blog/2010/dec/7/benefits-youth-baseball-confidence-communication-a/

Wait, baseball is dying?

I haven’t always loved baseball, but right on cue, as soon as I did, people said it’s a dying sport — especially in the youth divisions. According to the National Sporting Goods Association, from 2000 to 2009 the number of 7-17-year-old kids playing baseball dropped 24 percent. Other sports like football and hockey had significant growth in the same amount of time.

People attribute baseball’s decline to a variety of things: the (supposed) slow pace of the game, the increasing need for costly specialization (having the best bat, glove, etc.), and better efforts behind other youth sports organizations to recruit young players.

But if we look at what has always made baseball special, especially in Little League, it becomes clear that baseball’s decline actually mirrors a shift in more general American values.

My love for baseball didn’t grow at a Padres game or at Fenway. It came while I sat wringing my hands on the bleachers of my sons’ Little League games. Because that’s where it became clear to me that baseball is everything that is America.

First is the metaphor for home. Home plate. Home run. Home team. All of the strategy of baseball centers on getting home. When a Little Leaguer steps away from home plate, he begins a journey around the bases that is the visual and physical equivalent of narrative gold: getting home.

Some of the best literature has at its core an element of returning “home.” In Little League, that narrative arc — the suspense, the tragedy and resolution — plays out over and over again, and more so than in the Majors, where rounding the bases, surprisingly, seems like an infrequent event due to every player’s mastery of the game. And too often, MLB players go home in one hit: a home run.

But in Little League, players struggle game after game to get on first base. When they steal second, no one is sure they will make it. And when the player crosses home plate for the first time — well, you can be sure his parents, however subconsciously, are thinking about his childhood and eventual independence.

The game might still have five innings left, but that player just had his Field of Dreams moment.

Which is another great thing about baseball: team effort and personal opportunity coexist. No position on the field is unimportant, and every player has a role to fill. If you aren’t the best hitter, you can work at being a great fielder. Or maybe you’re a pinch runner. There are many ways to contribute to the team. But each inning, when a child gets up to bat in Little League, he has his moment in the spotlight. He might be in right field for four innings, but each time at bat is a new opportunity to shatter the lights in the outfield. Or so he believes. Because every kid is Roy Hobbs when he is at bat.

And when the boy returns to the dugout, sometimes defeated, that’s when perhaps the most magical part of Little League happens: Mom isn’t there to make it better. In a society where helicopter parents micromanage all the details of children’s lives, where walking to school alone is “too risky,” the Little League dugout represents one of childhood’s last places where a boy can experience defeat, triumph, and heartbreak without being under Mom’s watchful eye.

A child’s character is built as much in the dugout as it is on the field.

But perhaps our society doesn’t value these things anymore. Many American parents don’t like being separated from their child, not able to offer water and hugs. And our celebrity-obsessed culture has taught kids that being part of the team is less exciting than being the one and only star. Some kids don’t want to be patient. They need constant action and quick rewards. Waiting to “go home” feels boring.

And yet there is a reason why Hollywood has made so many movies about baseball. It’s one of the few sports where the game itself, not its stars, tells the story. It’s a narrative we all know.

That a boy’s Little League years coincide with him becoming a young man is surely part of it. A boy starts Little League idolizing the older players on his team. He hopes that in four years he will be as good as them. So he tosses a ball at the ceiling in his bed. He sleeps with his glove on. And he believes, will all that he has, that next year (please!) he will hit his growth spurt.

Not every player does. And, unfortunately, boys age out of the league around the same time they hit the really awkward years of middle school, solidifying — magnifying — for them the struggle and triumph that was Little League. It’s frozen in time as magical years, a new idea of “home” that many boys will come back to in their minds as grown men, hopefully in the backyard, when they are playing pass with their own Little Leaguer.

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/2014/06/08/living/wait-baseball-is-dying/

Development of a Superstar: Justin Bellinger prepares for draft

The biggest decision of Justin Bellinger’s life will present itself in just over a month, and the 6-foot-6, 240-pound power hitter from Weston, Mass., has explored every avenue to give himself the best options.

College or pro? Duke University or a low-level minor-league affiliate? (St. Louis Cardinals http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/high-school/post/_/id/32658/st-sebastians-bellinger-drafted-by-cardinals)

Bellinger spent hours upon hours in the batting cage last winter with his own personal hitting coach, Oliver Marmol, who also is the manager of a Single-A affiliate for the St. Louis Cardinals. The Bellinger family moved Marmol and his wife up to the Boston area for the past two winters in preparation for this year’s draft.

Marmol didn’t concern himself with adding power to Bellinger’s swing. Power has never been the problem. That much has been evident since Bellinger hit a baseball 400 feet as a 12-year-old playing in Cooperstown, N.Y. Also that summer, playing for five different teams, Bellinger estimates he hit 100 home runs in 162 games.

Marmol and Bellinger spent time together last offseason working on the hitter’s ability to read pitches. Bellinger wore strobe glasses in the cage, struggling to identify 85- to 90-mph pitches with 60 percent of his vision blocked. He worked on driving the ball to all fields and shortening his swing so that it resembles that of a player closer to 6 feet tall. The work seemed endless and tedious, but Bellinger wanted to leave no stone unturned in his quest to refine his game.

The retelling of Bellinger’s development as one of New England’s top pro prospects can, at times, sound like a science experiment. Justin is the son of two former Division 1 athletes at Northeastern. His father, David, played football in the NFL for a short stint during the strike season of 1987. Justin’s mother, Lisa, remains a competitive runner with Boston Marathon experience.

When Justin started playing Little League T-ball in Weston, his coaches found he was blessed with some natural baseball gifts. He was left-handed, he could crush a baseball off the tee, and he could pitch with velocity. At 12, he learned for the first time what it was like to outgrow the competition. He hit home runs seemingly every game, and rarely allowed a hit as a pitcher.

Recognizing his son needed a bigger stage on which to perform, David Bellinger, who owned a manufacturing company, secured a tryout for Justin with a travel team based out of Maryland.

“Every weekend, we’d go down there on an airplane and he’d play with the Maryland Cardinals,” David Bellinger said. “I wanted to see how he compared with Mid-Atlantic players.”

Justin compared favorably, and in future seasons, the trips became longer in mileage, but more frequent. He played on AAU teams, travel teams and in the most prestigious invitational tournaments all over the country. The Bellingers bought a home in Jupiter, Fla., so that Justin could play on travel teams in Florida during the summer. David Bellinger connected his son with a personal trainer, Mike Perry, of Strength of Skill out of Chelmsford, Mass.

By the summer after his eighth-grade season, Bellinger was being recruited by a host of Division 1 schools. He gave a verbal commitment to Vanderbilt, although last August, he signed papers with Duke University. He also quit wrestling — a sport in which he had lost only one match from the start of his career through eighth grade.

“People say it’s difficult to evaluate players from Massachusetts because they’re not playing against the top competition,” Bellinger said. “I rarely play any baseball in Massachusetts outside of high school. Some people say a New England kid won’t get the at-bats against the top arms. I’ve been playing against the top kids in the country — traveling everywhere — for six or seven years.”

This is when it can start to feel as if Bellinger has been created in a baseball lab. He travels to seemingly every big showcase — the Area Code Games, Perfect Game national events, WWBA World Championship events — to compete against the best. He spends 10 hours a week with a physical trainer and another 10 with a hitting instructor — a professional baseball manager whom his parents paid to move from Jupiter, Fla., to the Boston area each of the past two winters.

“I wouldn’t have moved if I didn’t think this kid is special,” Marmol said. “I live in paradise in Jupiter, and I went to Boston for two straight cold winters. This is a kid who I think will play this game for a long time. He loves to play, he loves to learn, and he’s still raw and developing.”

Here comes some more numbers. Last spring at St. Sebastian’s, Bellinger hit .396 with eight home runs and 36 RBI in 53 at-bats. He had a .736 OBP and 1.698 OPS. He was the lone player in the ISL to use a wood bat. This year, he has downsized to a 34-inch, 31-ounce maple Max Bat. Again, power never has been the issue.

Bellinger wears custom-made XXXL batting gloves, and he also can throw 90 mph from the left side off the mound. At a Power Showcase Home Run Derby in 2012 at Chase Field, Bellinger hit a ball farther than any other competitor from around the globe — 477 feet. This winter, he was named to the Perfect Game Dream Team as well as the Best Hitter for Power in the Northeast Region.

“I don’t pay attention to that at all,” Bellinger said. “Perfect Game makes you pay money to look at that stuff, and I don’t do that. It doesn’t matter. I’m not a big believer in ranking kids.”


Baseball can be a funny sport, in that superstar players at 12 rarely are still superstar players at the college level. Little League ends, and somewhere along the way, the superstar player loses his love for the game. Or he stops growing. Or he stops working. Or his parents push too hard. So many things can get in the way of a superstar player finding his way to the highest level.

Source: http://www.baseballjournal.com/news/players/recruiting/Justin_Bellinger_St._Sebastian_power_hitter