Andy Barkett's Page

High school games around the state of Florida crank up very soon and another championship season is upon us. Excitement is in the air as players and coaches set their sights on district and state titles.

There is a sense of pride everyday as you put your school's colors on. But there is an unseen element in the air that is more p

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Happy New Year to you all. It has been awhile since my last blog. I have been spending a lot of time with my family and with an almost two year old walking around during the day, and doing homework and throwing the ball around with the 6 and 8 year old, I haven’t found much time to blog. The collapse of the Florida Winter League, although painful, has been a blessing for my family and I. I have been able to spend a bunch time with them. Spring training is right around the corner, hard to believe… Continue

Welcome to this three part series of, “How Can I Help My Son Play College Baseball?” We will hopefully cover all aspects of the journey from pre-teen to senior year baseball players with dreams of playing at the next level. From my experience in dealing with parents and players, they are very uninformed and confused about what it takes both academically and athletically to move beyond high school baseball. We will cover a wide range of topics including skills, recruiting, summer/fall teams, camp… Continue

It has been a rough day to say the least. I am not sure what was tougher, telling 23 young men that their young winter baseball season was coming to an end or laying in bed with a sobbing 6 year old boy trying to explain to him that the players will all be ok and that although his heartfelt, generous offer of all the money in his piggy bank was appreciated, it was not enough money to save the Florida Winter Baseball League. It is a shame. The only thing I agreed with in CEO Mickey Filippucci's s… Continue

Well. the Florida Winter Baseball League is almost two weeks old. The Naturals are hanging in there so far, at 6-6. Our pitching and hitting has been outstanding, but our defense overall has not been good. We would be 10-2 if we could catch the ball better. But, ifs are ifs and errors are costly! That is a definite area that needs improvement on our club. The good news is, defense is something that can be worked on and improved. So, we need to keep working hard on that. The players have been gre… Continue