Actually yes, the first team at this club is a top 10 the in the country with a large roster. So yes best kid second team would be first team at nearly all other clubs. Geography is limiting here or she would leave. Regardless, my point is that my kid is actually theoretically recruitable, but you’ll really have to be on a first team. Second teams get no support and it’s an exhausting uphill battle.

The bolded is the absolute truth - I remember head coaching youth baseball, both T-ball and coach pitch for Fall/Spring seasons and as well for the coveted Summer All-Stars for years in a volunteer role. I never got the "nod" ever for coaching the 'A' teams, only the 'B' teams (I have my suspicions why, but that's another story). First observations, I always recieved the kids who were a bit raw however they were pretty good athletes, but from more disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Second observation, our team had to consistently fundraise way more aggressively to support summer travel. Third observation, any kid who the 'A' team whiffed on and overlooked during evaluations or just simply they developed ahead of schedule could be taken from my team and moved up to 'A' team with very minimal notice given to me and whether or not this hurt my 'B' team was an afterthought.

My 'B' team actually had a better win/loss record than our 'A' team and more tournament wins against other rival parks' 'B' teams - You think our home park cared? Nope! They were only laser-focused on what the 'A' team accomplished - Their posts, social media, and overall engagement was just so much higher and they were respected more.

Point of my post is that I don't think it's ever worth it to "stick it out" on a 'B' team with the hopes of moving up to an 'A' team as changing initial impressions of your youth athlete is very difficult - I believe it's best to either accept the 'B' team offer to gain the additional development reps then promptly move to another park/team/organization to be reevaluated or decline a 'B' team offer althogether.

Even the most seasoned and experienced baseball players will tell you that you never truly get comfortable with an object being thrown at you at over 80-100+ mph...not even taking in to account being good at it (base hit minimum, let alone hitting a HR) - You just learn to mentally lock with each pitch so the mental aspect is huge.

This point alone is why most will tell you starting kids at 9 or 10 is too late and puts them at a significant disadvantage, due to the amount of time required to establish a decent comfort level with live pitching because things can and will go wrong at times.

Yes, but aside from a goalie, the difference is there are three individuals (Pitcher, Catcher, Pitching or Head Coach) working in coordination to ensure you're unsuccessful.

Anonymous wrote:Any sport that has an aspect of individual performance is highly stressful - golf, gymnastics, any goalie,

Yes, because it's a mano a mano duel between the batter & pitcher for the entire audience to see and no one can save you (coach teammates etc) if you're in over your head or in a slump.

Personally, I consider baseball to be both a team and individual sport due to the fact that rarely can a teammate assist you fielding, or catching a difficult pop fly that gets lost in the sun or requires one to sprint full speed to grab...only the individual can make that play - The team aspect comes into play when it requires 6-3-4 double play for example.

Only sport where succeeding 1/3 times makes you great and it's very competitive at even the youth levels.