travel baseball questions from a newbie

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread seems very NoVa focused but for much of Maryland, no one cares about or plays Little League.

Check out the schedules for teams in the MABA, CBA, and CRAB league. But they also tend to play on Sundays sometimes, Saturday sometimes, weekday games, and tournaments. Unlike NoVa teams, these teams go hard in the spring with 35-50 games but very light in the fall, maybe 8 games or something.

The NoVa teams have to play LL in spring, so fall is the more competitive season.

I am jealous of the Maryland teams that see higher quality pitching 2-5 times a week. It really helps develop hitters. They can do it because LL isn't a thing at all.

Montgomery county LL is the largest one in the country. Everyone plays it at 12u.

That's just MoCo and the 12U kids dropping back in for 12U? And does it extend to the northern part of the County?

What about Calvert, Anne Arundel, Howard, St. Mary's, Charles, Prince George's? If they have LL teams I don't know how the best travel players hit the minimum requirements for regular season games and those travel teams play travel through June and into/through July.

I believe MoCo has two LLs divided by southern and northern MoCo.

Most LL kids that play All Stars don’t play travel in the Summer.

I think Southern MoCo won the state championship last year and went to Bristol.

MoCo LoCo went to Bristol in 21 and 23. They were eliminated both times by the DC champions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread seems very NoVa focused but for much of Maryland, no one cares about or plays Little League.

Check out the schedules for teams in the MABA, CBA, and CRAB league. But they also tend to play on Sundays sometimes, Saturday sometimes, weekday games, and tournaments. Unlike NoVa teams, these teams go hard in the spring with 35-50 games but very light in the fall, maybe 8 games or something.

The NoVa teams have to play LL in spring, so fall is the more competitive season.

I am jealous of the Maryland teams that see higher quality pitching 2-5 times a week. It really helps develop hitters. They can do it because LL isn't a thing at all.

Montgomery county LL is the largest one in the country. Everyone plays it at 12u.

That's just MoCo and the 12U kids dropping back in for 12U? And does it extend to the northern part of the County?

What about Calvert, Anne Arundel, Howard, St. Mary's, Charles, Prince George's? If they have LL teams I don't know how the best travel players hit the minimum requirements for regular season games and those travel teams play travel through June and into/through July.

I believe MoCo has two LLs divided by southern and northern MoCo.

Most LL kids that play All Stars don’t play travel in the Summer.

I think Southern MoCo won the state championship last year and went to Bristol.

MoCo LoCo went to Bristol in 21 and 23. They were eliminated both times by the DC champions.

Isn't there a thread on the DC Little League and some shenanigans going on with that team? Did DC forfeit their wins?

[Anonymous]

There are lot of options.

Lets also be honest.

If your kid is truly rec material, forget travel baseball. Focus on LL and enjoy your Sunday service and save money. Kid can continue with senior BR until like 17.

There is close to zero chance that your son will get in any reasonable travel team or HS team w/o being in strong travel baseball teams in early years like 9u or 10u.

It is fantasy land that kid will simply jump at 11u into good travel baseball team.

However, if you are looking at ANY travel ball team, there is so many that will gladly take your money. It is not even funny. I say there is travel baseball team for everyone as long as there is cash!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are lot of options.

Lets also be honest.

If your kid is truly rec material, forget travel baseball. Focus on LL and enjoy your Sunday service and save money. Kid can continue with senior BR until like 17.

There is close to zero chance that your son will get in any reasonable travel team or HS team w/o being in strong travel baseball teams in early years like 9u or 10u.

It is fantasy land that kid will simply jump at 11u into good travel baseball team.

However, if you are looking at ANY travel ball team, there is so many that will gladly take your money. It is not even funny. I say there is travel baseball team for everyone as long as there is cash!

Bolded is simply not true. If kid has been playing rec baseball and has some talent, there is zero benefit to having been on a “strong” (whatever that even means) travel team before the kids even hit puberty.

Little kids should be playing baseball for fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are lot of options.

Lets also be honest.

If your kid is truly rec material, forget travel baseball. Focus on LL and enjoy your Sunday service and save money. Kid can continue with senior BR until like 17.

There is close to zero chance that your son will get in any reasonable travel team or HS team w/o being in strong travel baseball teams in early years like 9u or 10u.

It is fantasy land that kid will simply jump at 11u into good travel baseball team.

However, if you are looking at ANY travel ball team, there is so many that will gladly take your money. It is not even funny. I say there is travel baseball team for everyone as long as there is cash!

This is definitely not true at ALL. 9/10u means absolutely zero in baseball in terms of long term development. Size, puberty, speed, athleticism etc changes EVERYthing. Many of the “best” players at 10u never even make the high school JV team. Some “not very good” 10u players do, if they stick with baseball.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget that youth baseball is played on a softball sized field. A full sized baseball field if huge and most kids, travel player or rec, simply don't have the athleticism to compete on the big field.

95% of of 9U travel ball players will never take a varsity at bat. Save your money and play rec until 13U. Puberty is the great equalizer. Anyone who says you have to play travel at 9U is an idiot and probably trying to justfify to themselves the amount of money they spent.

[Anonymous]

If LL is your Rec option, I would consider a local travel team to get on the bigger 50-70 field with Major League Baseball rules. Longer throws, leads/pickoffs, 1st/3rd plays -- a lot more baseball. Especially beneficial if you have a knowledgeable coach.

People are focusing on Varsity, but you gotta make teams before that to get there. Coaches love smart ballplayers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If LL is your Rec option, I would consider a local travel team to get on the bigger 50-70 field with Major League Baseball rules. Longer throws, leads/pickoffs, 1st/3rd plays -- a lot more baseball. Especially beneficial if you have a knowledgeable coach.

People are focusing on Varsity, but you gotta make teams before that to get there. Coaches love smart ballplayers.

Coaches love physically mature baseball players and in our experience prioritize size along with throwing and hitting velocity over smarts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If LL is your Rec option, I would consider a local travel team to get on the bigger 50-70 field with Major League Baseball rules. Longer throws, leads/pickoffs, 1st/3rd plays -- a lot more baseball. Especially beneficial if you have a knowledgeable coach.

People are focusing on Varsity, but you gotta make teams before that to get there. Coaches love smart ballplayers.

This there’s so much nuance to baseball and so many rules. By 11, kids are throwing 50+ MPH. By 13, some are close to 70. It gets much harder to hit, and even if you do get a hit, you need to be a smart base runner so you don’t get picked off or caught in a pickle. I don’t think kids can get the reps they need by just playing rec in my area. I can think of trades players who didn’t the JV this year. It is very hard to make JV at one of the 3 ApS high schools. They have so many kids who would easily make the weakest school’s team and maybe even the average school’s team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If LL is your Rec option, I would consider a local travel team to get on the bigger 50-70 field with Major League Baseball rules. Longer throws, leads/pickoffs, 1st/3rd plays -- a lot more baseball. Especially beneficial if you have a knowledgeable coach.

People are focusing on Varsity, but you gotta make teams before that to get there. Coaches love smart ballplayers.

Coaches love physically mature baseball players and in our experience prioritize size along with throwing and hitting velocity over smarts.

If the Coach only goes for size/velocity AND those players aren't smart ballplayers, then he's not a good Coach at any level. If he's a youth Coach, then not a good Coach at all.

Baseball games aren't won, they are lost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If LL is your Rec option, I would consider a local travel team to get on the bigger 50-70 field with Major League Baseball rules. Longer throws, leads/pickoffs, 1st/3rd plays -- a lot more baseball. Especially beneficial if you have a knowledgeable coach.

People are focusing on Varsity, but you gotta make teams before that to get there. Coaches love smart ballplayers.

Coaches love physically mature baseball players and in our experience prioritize size along with throwing and hitting velocity over smarts.

+1000

And speed.

Now, yes- even those kids will need to play some travel before high school, but they are totally fine to wait to start until 12-13. They may need to start on a lower level team at first, but will rise through the ranks rapidly. The coaches will teach them what they need to know.

Little kid travel ball might help the average sized averagely athletic kid a bit (when compared with another kid with similar attributes) but only in a “tiebreaker” type of situation in terms of making teams. That’s it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If LL is your Rec option, I would consider a local travel team to get on the bigger 50-70 field with Major League Baseball rules. Longer throws, leads/pickoffs, 1st/3rd plays -- a lot more baseball. Especially beneficial if you have a knowledgeable coach.

People are focusing on Varsity, but you gotta make teams before that to get there. Coaches love smart ballplayers.

Coaches love physically mature baseball players and in our experience prioritize size along with throwing and hitting velocity over smarts.

If the Coach only goes for size/velocity AND those players aren't smart ballplayers, then he's not a good Coach at any level. If he's a youth Coach, then not a good Coach at all.

Baseball games aren't won, they are lost.

Sounds like you have a small kid who plays travel...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are lot of options.

Lets also be honest.

If your kid is truly rec material, forget travel baseball. Focus on LL and enjoy your Sunday service and save money. Kid can continue with senior BR until like 17.

There is close to zero chance that your son will get in any reasonable travel team or HS team w/o being in strong travel baseball teams in early years like 9u or 10u.

It is fantasy land that kid will simply jump at 11u into good travel baseball team.

However, if you are looking at ANY travel ball team, there is so many that will gladly take your money. It is not even funny. I say there is travel baseball team for everyone as long as there is cash!

Just jumping in with some of the others that this is terrible advice and completely untrue.

Play youth travel ball or don’t play youth travel ball, but that is a decision you should base on your finances, family life, and child’s desire. Many kids develop nicely in those early programs and many thrive pursuing multiple rec sports. HS and college baseball rosters are full of both. There isn’t one way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If LL is your Rec option, I would consider a local travel team to get on the bigger 50-70 field with Major League Baseball rules. Longer throws, leads/pickoffs, 1st/3rd plays -- a lot more baseball. Especially beneficial if you have a knowledgeable coach.

People are focusing on Varsity, but you gotta make teams before that to get there. Coaches love smart ballplayers.

This there’s so much nuance to baseball and so many rules. By 11, kids are throwing 50+ MPH. By 13, some are close to 70. It gets much harder to hit, and even if you do get a hit, you need to be a smart base runner so you don’t get picked off or caught in a pickle. I don’t think kids can get the reps they need by just playing rec in my area. I can think of trades players who didn’t the JV this year. It is very hard to make JV at one of the 3 ApS high schools. They have so many kids who would easily make the weakest school’s team and maybe even the average school’s team.

The better 9U (and a couple of the best 8U) travel teams have kids throwing 50+ already… from 46 feet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If LL is your Rec option, I would consider a local travel team to get on the bigger 50-70 field with Major League Baseball rules. Longer throws, leads/pickoffs, 1st/3rd plays -- a lot more baseball. Especially beneficial if you have a knowledgeable coach.

People are focusing on Varsity, but you gotta make teams before that to get there. Coaches love smart ballplayers.

This there’s so much nuance to baseball and so many rules. By 11, kids are throwing 50+ MPH. By 13, some are close to 70. It gets much harder to hit, and even if you do get a hit, you need to be a smart base runner so you don’t get picked off or caught in a pickle. I don’t think kids can get the reps they need by just playing rec in my area. I can think of trades players who didn’t the JV this year. It is very hard to make JV at one of the 3 ApS high schools. They have so many kids who would easily make the weakest school’s team and maybe even the average school’s team.

The better 9U (and a couple of the best 8U) travel teams have kids throwing 50+ already… from 46 feet.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

I am so far removed from kiddie ball that I don’t even know if these speeds are plausible (or good for age)

But please get back to us when they are 12U, 14u, high school JV, & HS varsity. You won’t see much correlation with speeds in 9U kiddie ball (or heck, even 12U), one way or the other. That, I can promise.

LOL