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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
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What if coach's own kid isn't remotely good enough to play SS but constantly be placed at that position (most kids' favorite position), and there are 2 other boys who are outstanding at SS on the team.  Is this how it is done to be "gross about it"?  Or in order to hide coach's son's lack of qualification, you keep 6-7 best travel players on your team to be his training mate, and boom, now your son wins all the games.  What a nice dad.

Let’s assume the coach’s kid is the worst kid on the team.  Where do I play him.  Like everyone he has to play some infield (typically 2 innings) and 2 more innings for a minimum of 4 in a 6 inning game.  Let’s assume I have 13 kids on my team.  My kid sucks so I can’t play him at 1st or Catcher.  And he is not going to pitch because he sucks.  So my choices in the infield are 3rd, SS and 2nd.  If I am looking to protect him from embarrassment I will play him in the infield when I can get a good pitcher throwing.  Ideally when my good pitcher is facing the lower part of the batting order.  Chances of a kid in the lower part of the batting order hitting a decent pitcher are maybe 3 in 10.  Most of the time the kids at the lower part of the order will swing late so 75% of those hit balls will go on the right side of the infield.  Of the remaining 25% - half of those can likely be fielded by the pitcher.  The rest are scattered.  SS, 3rd OF (mostly ground balls hit through the middle).

The odds of a good 11/12 year old SS cleanly fielding a ball and making a good throw to first are maybe 90% if it is hit at him.  If he has to move to his left more than 5 feet - that is dropping to 75%.  If he has to move to his right - 50% and I am strongly hoping he does not throw the ball wildly.  If you cut those odds in half for my worst player kid - the odds he ever has a chance to field a ball hit generally towards him in 2 innings are maybe 1 in 10.  A good fielder converts that 1 chance to an out let’s say 80% of the time.  My not good fielding kid does it 40% of the time.  So, if you are betting, the odds are that in 2 innings at SS my kid is not going see a ball hit his way.  If it happens there is a chance he can field it and make an out.  Much more likely that a better player could do that, but it’s a risk.

And, if I’m coaching, I did the required safety meetings, got the required sportsmanship training, did the background checks, meet with the coaches for the pre-draft stuff, attended the tryouts, participated in the draft, dealt with the assigned fields, scheduled pre-season practices, communicated with parents about the team, practices, game schedule, sent reminders the day before, did the practices, spent a couple hours the night before the game making sure the field and equipment are all good, and preparing a lineup, and, of course, arranging my work schedule.  Then every game day leave work in time to get to the field early, set things up, do pre-game warmups, coach the game, make sure everything is picked up and put away, and then head for home.  Sure - if it looks like my kid can play a couple innings at SS without getting hurt or embarrassing himself - then he will play SS.  Or did you think all that stuff magically happened when the baseball fairy came by the field that day?

Teams can be uneven.  Mostly that happens when you have inexperienced local leaders combined with inexperienced managers.  By 11/12 managers are not so inexperienced.  But, the two best 11 year olds are not as good as the two best 12 year olds.  And, if you pick friends of your kid over kids who are better then teams can get lopsided.  The league folks go over that before the drafts.  There are rules for kids who do not show up for tryouts, and records are distributed of the kids who made the prior year all-star teams.  Yes, a new kid can be a surprise.  But, managers know what kids are pretty good, and what kids are playing club and they get divided up.

As a parent aside:  having your kid be one of the weaker players on a team is never good unless the status is largely due to age.  An 11 year old can easily understand that they will not be as good as a good 12 year old.  That’s not a problem.  They get that their turn will come next year.  Sometimes cool things happen though.  My oldest, at 11, played in a local rec league that was 11&12 kids.  His team had good 12 year pitchers and the 11 year olds were all okay for 11.  They could largely catch, field, throw and hit a little.  So the team did well and got to play in the “league championship” game.  Mind you we are talking a league of maybe 12 teams.  It was a close game for the first 4 innings as both teams had 2 good pitchers, but the hitting improved as they got to their 3rd pitchers.  My kids team was losing by 3 in the last (6th) inning and the last 4 in the batting order (1 being my kid) were the first to bat.  All 4 got clean hits scoring 2 runs before the top of the order kids came up.  They easily won the game.  So - over the course of even a short season kids do improve if you work with them.

I've never met a kid who said their favorite position was SS![/quote]

Really?? All the kids on our travel team want that spot- its usually the most athletic kid,[/quote]

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