June birthday. Play 13u or 14u baseball?

[Anonymous]

Have him play with his grade level. It won’t be a pleasant year at the plate, but in the long run it will make him a stronger player and better prepared to compete for a JV roster slot. The quality of pitching between 13/14/15 increases exponentially so the sooner he adjusts to the velocity and breaking balls the better for long term success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re in NVTBL, I believe starting at 13u, you can roster a certain number of older players as long as (I think) 60% of your team is the actual age group age. For example, you can have a couple of 14u players on a 13u team but the catch is tournaments require you to play at the 14u age level then.

If your son skips the transitional 13u year on the big field and plays with 14u kids who already have a year of that under their belt, it could be hard. But on the other hand, if your son wants to play high school ball, it would be more helpful to have him play with the faster pitching of his graduating class.

PP is correct about the mixed ages for NVTBL teams above 12U. So playing either 13U or 14U is an option -- just keep in mind that the 14U team (and the teams they play) will have a sprinkling of 15 year olds.

Does your son have any experience on the 60-90 field? If he only turned 13 recently, was he playing Little League last spring? What did he do in the fall/this spring -- 50-70 intermediate? Or has he made the step to the big field? (And how is he doing with that?)

Ultimately, you want him playing with his graduation year. But if that is in flux and/or he needs more work to get his timing and strength adjusted to the big field dimensions, keep him at 13U while you figure out your high school plans.

[Anonymous]

Another thing to consider- not a dealbreaker, but something to keep in mind- in NVTBL, there is no bat weight requirement to use BBCOR bats until 15u, but I can’t think of any tournaments that don’t require BBCOR at 14u. I’m sure there are some that allow -5 but even the regular local run of the mill tourneys seem to require BBCOR.