Piecing Together The Player Development Puzzle

Regardless of ability level, athleticism, measurable strengths and analytics reports, baseball players still have to continue to improve in order to progress to the next level. Whether it’s a youth player aiming for success transitioning to the 90-foot diamond, the high school player trying to earn a varsity spot, or a Triple-A pitcher trying to make the majors, if you don’t get better, you get passed by other players.

At Baseball Factory, we feel that an important piece in the player development journey is having self-awareness of your strengths and weaknesses. Our coaches are tasked with helping to teach players how to self-assess. It isn’t always easy to look in the mirror, but honest information is paramount here.

Here are important items for players looking to create a new player development plan:

Be honest with yourself.

Understand your own game. Write down a personal evaluation of your skills, tools and playability—the good and the bad. Consider your workouts now and how you prioritize things. Think about ways you can improve your weaknesses and further improve your strengths. The longer we live in denial of our abilities, the longer it takes to correct them. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Seek professional evaluation/help.

Now that we have a decent feel for what we see as our own strengths and weaknesses, it’s time to get feedback from coaches and scouts. These opinions need to be unbiased. Our professional scouts evaluate every player who attends a Baseball Factory event, allowing you to know how you compare with players your age throughout the country. That type of national-scale evaluation combined with the evaluation of your local coach will give you an excellent feel for where you stand.

Plan your work; work your plan.

Armed with the right information, it’s now time to formulate an improvement plan. You’ve assessed your own ability, and you also have one or more evaluations completed by an unbiased source. With this information, you need to formalize your own individualized development plan. Spending more time on your weaknesses without forgetting to polish up those strengths is the way to go.

Attaining information is an important thing you can do in any facet of life. Baseball is no different. Evaluate yourself honestly, get informed, make a plan and get to work. Use this outline and good results should follow.