Want to play college ball? It's all about pitching ability -- and timing

This is the time of year when you might be beginning to think about the fall and the start of school. (I know, I know: It's not a great thought.)

For some of you, it's your senior year in high school and you've got the the opportunity to play "big stud" on the varsity team.

But for those of you entering your sophomore and junior years in high school, it right now, this upcoming season that you will need to carve out the path you want your career to take. This year is the year that sophomores and juniors make themselves known -- and earn college baseball scholarships.

That's because the NCAA early signing period for baseball is in the late Fall of a player's senior year in high school. This, of course, precedes the spring season. Coaches therefore don't have the opportunity to see a pitcher pitch his senior year in high school before he's got to make a decision on whether to sign him early or not. So what do coaches do? They rely on potential -- and on what a player did during his sophomore and junior year. That's all they have to go on.

Most of the "scholarship money" college teams have to spend on players is spent in the fall. What's left over is used to sign "late bloomers" after or sometime during the spring season.

So it's important for seniors to have a good showing next spring -- but it most important for sophomores and juniors to kick it into high gear and show some people what you're capable of doing on the pitcher's mound this year. Your scholarship is out there on the mound. Go get it.