When Coaches Lie
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Anonymous
Sorry, what is your point, exactly? |
Anonymous
Not PP, but isn't this to go back to the thread that most people who reach the MLB have basically always been Bryce Harper? That seems untrue to me, since PP literally only mentioned some absolute stars and glossed over all the professional baseball players who are way better than even the majority of college players but yet still won't even reach the MLB. But I think the point is supposed to be that you can tell a kid who will make their high school team very young always. Which again, I don't agree with and I don't think most people here agree with. |
Anonymous
That’s not at all what was said. This is what was said: “The actual point is the average Little League superstar is not going to grow up to be another Bryce Harper or Freddie Freeman.” And it was said in response that the Bryce Harpers and Freddie Freemans of the world have been dominant since they were 5 years old. That might be true, but who cares? They are extremely rare talents. But yes, I think your conclusion is correct. I’m honestly have no idea what the all-star high school team poster is even arguing. |
Anonymous
I assumed the poster that was quoted with the response "What is your point" is also the one who said, "Although...it is exceedingly rare that a professional athlete didn't dominate at every age. You will hear of them form time-to-time...a player like Jackson Merrill who barely made the JV team as a HS freshmen, but then went on to be a first MLB pick after his senior year in HS. 95% are players like Messi (trained at FC Barcelona starting at 5), or Freddie Freeman or Bryce Harper or again nearly all pro athletes that were dominant players at 5, 10, 15, etc." Not the one who said what the above posted, but rather that 95% of MLB players (or any pro athletes) have always been amazing. And I just don't think that's true, but even if it was it certainly doesn't mean that every kid on a high school baseball team was amazing at 5. And also 5 is not 12 year old LL all-stars. |
Anonymous
+1 I have two high school aged sons who play/played (and are two years apart) and my DH coached LL a couple of seasons- we know or know of most of the baseball kids around my sons’ ages. I’d say nearly all kids who make varsity showed some potential at age 12 but they didn’t necessarily make the all star teams. A lot of kids might be super athletic, have a great arm, super fast or whatever- and be noticed for that but not make the all stars teams at age 12 for various reasons. Often they just aren’t as polished, or just aren’t particularly focused on baseball at that age. Nearly all kids who eventually make varsity were in the above group one way or another, but the reverse is definitely not true. 80%+ of the little league all stars never make varsity for various reasons. There aren’t enough spots. The x factor in terms of who does make varsity (of those who want to do so- many kids drop baseball on their own before then) is puberty/size/athleticism etc which you can’t really tell at 12. A lot of good youth players just don’t grow much or end up having the physical attributes (speed strength etc) needed. In the meantime a lot of other kids (maybe the tall awkward kid with a great arm or the extremely athletic kid who wasn’t super into baseball at 12) pass them by. |
Anonymous
It's kind of hard to list the names of 1000s of athletes that fit the profile of a star at nearly every age group. You have Michael Jordan as the #1 example of someone that was cut from the 9th grade HS basketball team...but that is countered by hundreds of athletes like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Cooper Flagg, Caitlin Clark etc. that dominated when they were 8, 12, 16...etc. The ratio is like 100-to-1. |
Anonymous
Jordan had a late growth spurt. It's only inspiring if you expect your kid to grow 4 inches the summer after freshman year |
Anonymous
| MJ didn't nake Varsity as a freshman, he wasn't "cut". |
Anonymous
So you're saying there's a chance.... |
Anonymous
|
Some of you are thinking about this backwards. I’m sure most (not all) professional athletes were also talented when they were kids. But the argument is that the vast, vast majority of “all-stars” or “elite” pre-pubescent children will NOT be professional athletes. The vast majority will not even play in college. Many won’t even play in high school. And many kids who were “average” will pass them by.
And a kid who is on the path to making MLB is not going to be hindered in the slightest by riding the bench every once in awhile so his fellow 10 year buddies can have a chance to play. Being a good teammate is (or should be) part of an athlete’s development as well. |
Anonymous
| My kid played on a 10U travel baseball team. Coach had his kid and his friends start. Benched a good, not great kid who had a lot of heart. This kid left the team. Coaches kid and friends played HS ball but weren't recruited. Bench warmer just got drafted. |
Anonymous
+1 My kid played on a travel team for former MLB coaches (DS was middle school aged at the time). Two former MLB guys each with a son on the team. And guess what? Their own talented kids sat the bench as much as the rest. They’d have their gigantic, talented sons splitting time with my mediocre little 100lb son and other teammates/friends. Why? They knew it didn’t matter. It was YOUTH ball and until high school, it is about fun/reps/learning to be a good teammate. And youth ball success is totally irrelevant later on. They knew that. It is the “regular dad” types who rarely seem to understand this. And I appreciate those guys too- there would not be any youth baseball with them!- but they often have the wrong perspective. |
Anonymous
You guys have 25 players on your varsity team? WTF are we doing wrong, we have like 15. I am looking at the last year's roster now and there are 7 All stars but the starting 8 position players includes only 3. Only shortstop, catcher and 3b were on their little league all star team. The rest are mostly recognizable solid players when they were little leaguers but not all stars. It does looks like there's a lot of pitchers are former all stars. |
Anonymous
DP here. Some of them don't grow and can't compete on the big field at the high school level. Some of them were only all stars because they were big and strong to begin with but only had middling talent. Some of them go to basketball, football or other sports. Some move away, some get burned out, some decide they can't afford the time commitment. This opens up space for other kids to take those varsity spots
They mostly played travel.
Then can you try to restate your point because it is absolutely normal for to be able to know the best players in the area if you are a baseball family. Especially if you coach. |
Anonymous
| A lot of high school teams have rosters of 25+ players. We are not pursuing those schools for DS. |