Crystal Lake Babe Ruth 14U

14U Players and Parents-

Thank you to everyone, players and parents, for a fun and successful 2014 tournament season! We had a lot of success achieving many of the goals our team set, both at the start of the year, and by winning a few games against 15U teams at the end of the season. The coaching staff and I were very proud of how hard the team worked together to achieve our goals and the overall growth of the team dating back to our last Fall season.

A few of the team goals accomplished include:

• Support our teammates whether we win or lose (everyone contributed all season)
• Have a fun and successful season (accomplished almost all our goals)
• Have a winning record in MCBL League (14-3)
• Win the MCBL Championship (beat the Warriors in the bottom of the 7th)
• Win more games than we lose (18-13-1)
• Win a game against a 15U team (won two games, including an elimination game)
• Over 70 percent of players had 10 or more hits
• Over 85 percent of players had .900 fielding percentage or better
• Have our pitchers throw a shutout (Mizell, K. Noonan and Becker combined in a 5-0 win)
• Have the pitching staff average less than 6 walks per game (less than one per inning)
• Make less errors as a team in 2014 compared to our previous season

That is an impressive list of team accomplishments and I know that does not include every area of our team’s success. Most impressive is that all of these goals were achieved while playing as a complete roster for only June and July.

I am very proud of how our players improved using our goal driven program and believe that all players, whether they are on the 2015 team or not, will continue to achieve his goals if he works hard and makes sure his effort and energy remains focused and positive.

I will have our 2014 team statistics in another email this week before 15U tryouts. I will include offensive, defensive and pitching stats that were complied during the MCBL season and tournaments. Please make sure to focus on three main categories: On-base percentage (OB%), Fielding percentage (FLD%) and Earned-run average (ERA). Those are the three areas that were driven by our goal based system and worked on throughout the year and I believe they best reflect the success of our team as a unit.

Tryouts for the 2015 season are Sunday, August 10th from 5 PM to 6:30 PM at Lippold Park. If you are not able to attend that tryout, we will also hold a tryout Tuesday, August 12th from 630-800 PM at Lippold as well. Please let me know if you will be unable to attend either tryout date and I will make other arrangements with my coaching staff to complete an additional tryout. All players must attend some form of a tryout for the 2015 season per our league by-laws, however each player should understand that at this point there is very little that one tryout will show that would possibly replace the one or two seasons of successful goal achievement we already have on each player.

As a final stage in our second season together, the coaching staff and I complied comments on each player’s “competitive advantage (CA),” or a key area of contribution to our team, and each player’s “team building (TB),” or a key area of focus to better prepare each player to help his team in 2015. Player information is below.

1. Becker:
CA) Focused on a key area of the field and became a top pitcher. Solid bat continued. Excellent improvement
TB) Focus on hitting his pitch and taking more consistent swings across every at-bat
2. Cormier:
CA) Worked on pitch location and secondary pitch and became a top pitcher. 1B skills impressed. Excellent achievement
TB) Must continue to build bat speed and plate discipline to become a complete player.
3. Dominski:
CA) Focused on catching skills and was teams most consistent catcher. Hitting improved tremendously. Excellent focus
TB) Must continue to build arm strength and work on footwork to help throw out more runners as a top catcher
4. Gadjzik:
CA) Consistently handled multiple fielding positions well. Excellent plate discipline and had solid at-bats.
TB) Must build arm strength to be able to contribute consistently on defense and bat speed to improve hitting.
5. Haskin:
CA) Worked hard and improved aggressiveness at shortstop.Drove the baseball consistently all year. Excellent success
TB) Focus on building confidence as a pitcher and make adjustments to swing to help drive the baseball consistently.
6. Kovack:
CA) Improved arm strength and bat speed and found multiple positions in the field to contribute.
TB) Focus on building swing strength to better drive the baseball at the plate.
7. Michaelson
CA) Strong pitching upside with starting pitching skills. Worked hard to improve at every defensive position.
TB) Work on finding a spot on the field to own defensively and much more consistent swings at the plate
8. Mizell:
CA) Focused on a key area of the field and became a top pitcher. Excellent all-around defensive skills. Great improvement
TB) Work on knowing the best pitch to swing at and to swing hard to drive the baseball in every at-bat.
9. Noonan, D:
CA) Strong arm and excellent improvement at 3B trusting his defensive ability. Threw well at the end of the season.
TB) Work on driving through the baseball with every swing and increased bat speed.
10. Noonan, K:
CA) Tremendous outfield improvement and excellent plate discipline. Threw quality innings on the mound.
TB) Work on driving through the baseball with every swing. Improve pitching arm strength and secondary pitches.
11. O’Donnell, L:
CA) Exceptional center field work and outfield leadership. Improved greatly at the plate. Excellent achievements
TB) Focus on driving the baseball with every swing and building arm strength to complete the outfield skill set.
12. O’Donnell, S:
CA) Fundamental catcher with excellent blocking ability. Strong bat capable of changing the game with every swing.
TB) Improve arm strength/grip on the ball to increase catching skills. Work on overall fielding to keep bat in lineup
13. Tanzillo:
CA) Excellent 1B skills and great plate discipline. Gets the most out of every swing at the plate. Excellent focus
TB) Work on arm strength to secure a pitching role and work outfield skills to keep bat in the lineup.
14. Weber:
CA) Dominant player who worked hard to improve every element of his physical and mental game. Amazing dedication.
TB) Continue to develop infield skills to lock down a position and keep bat in the lineup every game.

Please let me know if any player would like more details about our Program Goal Analysis or would like any more details on the specific statistics when I send them later this week.

Thank you again for a wonderful 14U season and I look forward to helping every player achieve their goals in 2015.

Thanks-
Coach Justin

14U Players and Parents-

The coaching staff and I are very proud of how well our team played this weekend in the 15U Mickey Sund Classic. We were competitive in every game and winning that first game Sunday against the 3 seed and full-time 15U travel team was a tremendous accomplishment. We reached more Team Goals this year than ever before and I am excited to continue our Player Development Program in the Fall.

We are going to play our final 14U game together this Thursday, July 24th at 6 PM at Veteran Acres against our 15U team. This will be a chance for the 15U team to get real game experience before they play in the MCYSA Summer International Championship and give our team a chance to compete one more time against a a 15U team before our 2015 15U tryouts in August.

Please let me know if you will not be able to attend that game. Otherwise I look forward to our final game together this season and will have our team statistics and Final Season Message with all our team goals that were accomplished completed very soon!

Thank you,
Coach Justin

14U Players and Parents-

Congrats again on accomplishing a major team goal – Winning the McHenry County Baseball League South Division! We played an amazing Championship game and it was a great way to cap a strong MCBL season. Every player on the team should be proud of how well we competed this year. 14-3 overall in MCBL is a statement to the hard work and dedication that began during our Fall Season in 2013 and the coaching staff and I believe this is just the start of success for our team.

We have the 15U Mickey Sund Classic this weekend as a final tournament before our 15-year old tryouts in August. There are 6 teams in this tournament and we will have two Pool Play games on Saturday and will play single elimination Sunday. An important note to all the players and parents about this weekend:

With the in-house playoffs happening during our Mickey Sund Classic (as they have for the past 6 years we have run the tournament), the coaching staff and I will be monitoring the innings pitched by every player on our team. This means that we will discuss with all in-house managers still competing for the Championship before we pitch anyone from those teams. This also means that we will need every player ready to pitch in order to compete in every game during the weekend.

The schedule for Saturday is below:
Crystal Lake Babe Ruth vs Bartlett Rebels 15U 3:30 PM Lippold Park NW
Crystal Lake Babe Ruth vs DTA Wildcats Red 6:00 PM Lippold Park NW

After that we will go into single elimination with the first game on Sunday at 10 AM. Win and we will play again at 1 PM. Win that and we are in the Championship at 4 PM. Remember our goals for this tournament were set at the beginning of the season and the main goal was to compete every inning against 15U players and understand the skills we need to continue to focus on during our Fall League to compete with every team at the 15U level.

Good luck to everyone still playing in the In-House Playoffs! I am sure I will see everyone this week.

Thanks
Coach Justin

14U Players and Parents-

Once again, congrats on a fantastic MCBL regular season and a great job in the playoffs. The coaching staff and I are very proud of all that our 14U team has accomplished this season and how far we have come as a Program. We believe that with continued hard work and dedication to our goals that this is just the start of success this group of players will achieve with our goal based program and Babe Ruth Baseball.

We play our Championship Game today, Friday July 11th at 7 PM at Lippold. Please have the players arrive at 6 PM. We are the home team, so please wear their Blue Jersey.

We will have a few more games together after tonight including playing in the 15U Mickey Sund tournament July 18th – July 20th. As soon as I have the details for the tournament and additional games, I will pass along the information, but plan to play Friday July 18th for sure.

See everyone tonight!

Thank you,
Coach Justin

14U Players and Parents-

We had some unfortunate weather this weekend and I do wish we would have been able to play more baseball, but we did have a lot of fantastic team building time and I really appreciate all the player and parent support both this weekend and throughout the season.

We technically finished second in MCBL as although we had two more wins and beat Huntley twice, Huntley was unable to get their final games in due to weather related issues and therefore finishes with one less loss. As the second seed, we will start the tournament tomorrow (6/23) with an 8 PM game against Top Tier Red. All games are played at Lippold.

When we win our game Monday, we will play again Tuesday at 8 PM. When we win that game we would play in the championship game on Wednesday at 6 PM.

Please let me know if you will be unable to make any of the games. I am aware of the in-house conflicts and I hope that everyone who has in-house will be able to still make it to our game, but please let me know if that is not the case. Otherwise we should start with ten players on Monday and have all fourteen by the end of the game.

Thank you,
Coach Justin