Baseball Development AMA

[Anonymous]

This happened to our kid. He was assigned to minors by his LL.

He played some games with the assigned minors team but also signed up for Arlington Babe Ruth and got better experience there (ABR does not care about residency). He also played for an (admittedly bad) travel team.

The following year he was drafted into majors by the LL. He made All-Stars for two years and was named LL MVP his final year. Almost every other boy on the All-Star team was a coach's son. Me? I can't even throw properly. I sure as hell didn't coach my sons.

LL is replete with stupid politics and Daddyball, and always has been. One year Ryan Zimmerman spoke at my son's high school and was asked about youth baseball. He replied that it was good but that LL was too political and not really reflective of how baseball operates. He said that his own LL experience was terrible.

So yes, just play minors, but play club or somewhere else to continue to develop. At some point the Daddyball coaches stop being relevant and your boy will shine!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a question for anyone familiar with LL draft rules. We are brand new to an area, went to the LL tryouts, and son was assigned to a Minors team, not Majors. He's almost 11 and has been playing club for years.

Checked out the Minors practice only to find little kids who could barely throw or catch and the Coach wondered why son wasn't on a Majors team. Coach thinks it's too dangerous for him to play with such little and inexperienced kids. League says draft is final and teams are full (not true) and won't reconsider.

What we think happened is all the Majors passed on him b/c they don't know him even when son smoked all the other kids at his tryout who made the Majors.

What gives? Is this typical for LL for coaches to only pick certain kids and blackball newcomers? Should we just stick to club?

LL here is politics. The only consolation is watching your kid smoke the dadball kids in a couple years in hs and travel ball

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened to our kid. He was assigned to minors by his LL.

He played some games with the assigned minors team but also signed up for Arlington Babe Ruth and got better experience there (ABR does not care about residency). He also played for an (admittedly bad) travel team.

The following year he was drafted into majors by the LL. He made All-Stars for two years and was named LL MVP his final year. Almost every other boy on the All-Star team was a coach's son. Me? I can't even throw properly. I sure as hell didn't coach my sons.

LL is replete with stupid politics and Daddyball, and always has been. One year Ryan Zimmerman spoke at my son's high school and was asked about youth baseball. He replied that it was good but that LL was too political and not really reflective of how baseball operates. He said that his own LL experience was terrible.

So yes, just play minors, but play club or somewhere else to continue to develop. At some point the Daddyball coaches stop being relevant and your boy will shine!

Do you know the bolded for a fact? If so, I know a couple leagues who may have an issue with that. Here is ABR’s statement on boundaries:

http://www.arlingtonbaberuth.com/site/ClientSite/article/1461188

[Anonymous]

PP here. Memory was fuzzy. I should have said that the ABR boundaries are broader than the LLs. There are at least 4 LLs that fall within ABR.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Memory was fuzzy. I should have said that the ABR boundaries are broader than the LLs. There are at least 4 LLs that fall within ABR.

Yes, people need to recognize that Cal Ripken (for the 12 and under set), a division of Babe Ruth is a competing organization to Little League. In NOVA there are three Cal Ripken Leagues (Herndon-Reston Youth Baseball (not to be confused with RHLL), Pioneer (Alexandria area) and ABR).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened to our kid. He was assigned to minors by his LL.

He played some games with the assigned minors team but also signed up for Arlington Babe Ruth and got better experience there (ABR does not care about residency). He also played for an (admittedly bad) travel team.

The following year he was drafted into majors by the LL. He made All-Stars for two years and was named LL MVP his final year. [/b]Almost every other boy on the All-Star team was a coach's son.[b] Me? I can't even throw properly. I sure as hell didn't coach my sons.

LL is replete with stupid politics and Daddyball, and always has been. One year Ryan Zimmerman spoke at my son's high school and was asked about youth baseball. He replied that it was good but that LL was too political and not really reflective of how baseball operates. He said that his own LL experience was terrible.

So yes, just play minors, but play club or somewhere else to continue to develop. At some point the Daddyball coaches stop being relevant and your boy will shine!

For our league, All Stars is going to look like that based on all the new dads coaching this season. Some of these kids are good, but some of the others are clearly stilled upset about their playing time from All Stars in 2019.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input on LL leagues, my son was the one blackballed from the Majors. We don't have time to invest in this org since we're moving before next Spring so we'll probably just quit and demand a refund. I figured the issue was Daddy Ball and cliques and can see that is confirmed.

We played in a Pony league before but the kids were sorted by age like 9U, 10U, 11U and they did not combine age groups so this sort of thing never happened. Seems like that's a better way to go about it. The overlap in the ages of Minors/Majors definitely gives an advantage to the friends and family of Coaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the input on LL leagues, my son was the one blackballed from the Majors. We don't have time to invest in this org since we're moving before next Spring so we'll probably just quit and demand a refund. I figured the issue was Daddy Ball and cliques and can see that is confirmed.

We played in a Pony league before but the kids were sorted by age like 9U, 10U, 11U and they did not combine age groups so this sort of thing never happened. Seems like that's a better way to go about it. The overlap in the ages of Minors/Majors definitely gives an advantage to the friends and family of Coaches.

I think this is an opportunity for your son to be a leader, build confidence, and learn how to overcome bitterness. I’m one of the pps who was in the same boat years ago, and that year was extremely motivating for my son. That was the year he got serious about baseball, and that hard work ethic never left him. He sailed past those kids after little league and learned a valuable lesson about not quitting when things don’t go his way, and that hard work does pay off in the end. I would hate to have robbed him of that by letting him quit because he didn’t make the highest team.

[Anonymous]

The way the draft works in LL is that they have to draft ALL 12 years old first. So even if your 11 year old was way better than all the 12 year olds the coaches have to draft the 12 year olds. Then there are 2 different options little leagues can use. One version they draft all the kids who played majors last year. So if there were 11 year olds who played in majors last year then they have to keep them in majors. It could be last year there were 10 major teams but this year due to Covid there are 6.

So just wait a little bit because guarantee at least one kid in majors drops out and they will have to call up a minor player. Once word gets out how good your son is they will be moved up. If your kid pitches then after the first game with your son pitching parents will complain if he throws too hard. Just be patient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The way the draft works in LL is that they have to draft ALL 12 years old first. So even if your 11 year old was way better than all the 12 year olds the coaches have to draft the 12 year olds. Then there are 2 different options little leagues can use. One version they draft all the kids who played majors last year. So if there were 11 year olds who played in majors last year then they have to keep them in majors. It could be last year there were 10 major teams but this year due to Covid there are 6.

So just wait a little bit because guarantee at least one kid in majors drops out and they will have to call up a minor player. Once word gets out how good your son is they will be moved up. If your kid pitches then after the first game with your son pitching parents will complain if he throws too hard. Just be patient.

PP here. Yes, I agree - play in the minors but look to travel or go to Ripken to get development. If the LL doesn't move your kid up after a couple of weeks, then just tell the LL to go to hell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the input on LL leagues, my son was the one blackballed from the Majors. We don't have time to invest in this org since we're moving before next Spring so we'll probably just quit and demand a refund. I figured the issue was Daddy Ball and cliques and can see that is confirmed.

We played in a Pony league before but the kids were sorted by age like 9U, 10U, 11U and they did not combine age groups so this sort of thing never happened. Seems like that's a better way to go about it. The overlap in the ages of Minors/Majors definitely gives an advantage to the friends and family of Coaches.

I think this is an opportunity for your son to be a leader, build confidence, and learn how to overcome bitterness. I’m one of the pps who was in the same boat years ago, and that year was extremely motivating for my son. That was the year he got serious about baseball, and that hard work ethic never left him. He sailed past those kids after little league and learned a valuable lesson about not quitting when things don’t go his way, and that hard work does pay off in the end. I would hate to have robbed him of that by letting him quit because he didn’t make the highest team.

I also agree with this. Most Daddyball boys crack under the pressure of accountability when they get to HS. The HS coach has no time to coddle Daddyball boys. Like the PP wrote, the real world doesn't lay everything out neatly for you, and this is a chance to learn that. Your son will be much better off as a result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a question for anyone familiar with LL draft rules. We are brand new to an area, went to the LL tryouts, and son was assigned to a Minors team, not Majors. He's almost 11 and has been playing club for years.

Checked out the Minors practice only to find little kids who could barely throw or catch and the Coach wondered why son wasn't on a Majors team. Coach thinks it's too dangerous for him to play with such little and inexperienced kids. League says draft is final and teams are full (not true) and won't reconsider.

What we think happened is all the Majors passed on him b/c they don't know him even when son smoked all the other kids at his tryout who made the Majors.

What gives? Is this typical for LL for coaches to only pick certain kids and blackball newcomers? Should we just stick to club?

Oh yuck. I’m so sorry! I think what happens, is coaches go with the “known” player and possibly don’t take tryouts into account as much. And since your son is new....they didn’t take a chance on him even though he had a great tryout. That is really a shame. Hopefully once word gets around, he will me moved up to Majors. As someone else said, there is sure to be an injury or someone will drop out. Hopefully he can pitch etc and be a star in the Minors in the meantime. Surely he will make All Stars too? I’d aim for that- then he will be playing with Majors kids. Little League is such a mixed bag. Ultimately I feel coaches want to win (especially in All Stars) but seems to take forever for “new kids” to overcome pre existing bias. As you know, LL is pretty irrelevant in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Better to be on travel team playing more at lower/mid level NVTBL than upper level and maybe riding pine?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Better to be on travel team playing more at lower/mid level NVTBL than upper level and maybe riding pine?

If we are talking about middle school travel or NVTBL teams, this depends on whether DS is going to a be a pitcher or a position player in the long run.

If DS is already approaching 6 foot tall and pitches, he needs to see the best hitters possible, whether high level NVTBL or travel team. Also the better teams are not going to burn out your son's arm in search of meaningless trophies (Daddyball has this issue).

If DS is going to be a position player in HS, then more playing time is better. DS needs to learn defense, baserunning, etc., and you don't learn that on the bench. Eventually he will grow into his playing body but that usually takes longer for position players (unless you are Juan Soto, and if you are Juan Soto as a 13U player you will not be riding pine). If DS starts hitting with a 85+ exit velocity, you can shift him to a better team later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the input on LL leagues, my son was the one blackballed from the Majors. We don't have time to invest in this org since we're moving before next Spring so we'll probably just quit and demand a refund. I figured the issue was Daddy Ball and cliques and can see that is confirmed.

We played in a Pony league before but the kids were sorted by age like 9U, 10U, 11U and they did not combine age groups so this sort of thing never happened. Seems like that's a better way to go about it. The overlap in the ages of Minors/Majors definitely gives an advantage to the friends and family of Coaches.

I think this is an opportunity for your son to be a leader, build confidence, and learn how to overcome bitterness. I’m one of the pps who was in the same boat years ago, and that year was extremely motivating for my son. That was the year he got serious about baseball, and that hard work ethic never left him. He sailed past those kids after little league and learned a valuable lesson about not quitting when things don’t go his way, and that hard work does pay off in the end. I would hate to have robbed him of that by letting him quit because he didn’t make the highest team.

I also agree with this. Most Daddyball boys crack under the pressure of accountability when they get to HS. The HS coach has no time to coddle Daddyball boys. Like the PP wrote, the real world doesn't lay everything out neatly for you, and this is a chance to learn that. Your son will be much better off as a result.

I'm the OP of the LL Major/Minor drama. We aren't going to do the Minors team. Son is already on a club team, we were just looking into LL to meet some new kids, have fun, but at the first practice there were just so many kids who couldn't catch or throw that it wouldn't even really be fun for him at that level. He played that way a few years ago, so nothing to really gain going backwards. We'll look into other club opportunities. Son wasn't really disappointed either way. Coming from Pony leagues he didn't really know what Majors/Minors meant or that there was some parent politics behind it but he saw that the other kids were much younger and inexperienced than he is.