Reply to Baseball Development AMA

Forum Index » Sports General Discussion

Reply to "Baseball Development AMA"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have one..

Better to play on a mediocre club team where you are one of the top players, or better to play for a top club team where you will be in the bottom half of the team (and may or may not have to fight for playing time)? This is for 13U, both rosters would be 12-13

12U son is on a mediocre team this year (he is their best pitcher, bats at the top of the order, never sits, plays C/SS/CF when not pitching). He likes the kids on the team, and loves his coaches (all young guys in their 20s who played college ball). He is starting to get frustrated with losing so much, and feels some pressure as a key player. As his parents, we would like to see him pitch/catch a bit less, though he has not been used inappropriately thus far. We don’t really feel he has improved all that much this year. The coaching seems very solid but they just don’t have the talent level to compete at a high level (very weak at the bottom of the roster, not enough pitching)

There is another club team nearby (where he knows many of the players already from LL) and he (and we) have kicked around the idea of moving to that team next year. He would definitely make the team but would highly likely play a lesser role...how much lesser we aren’t sure! (Never can be) But he’d be in bottom half of the team for sure. Coaching seems very solid (former pros). Some kids from his LL who were “good” hitters before, have improved SIGNIFICANTLY this year- absolutely smashing the ball when they weren’t before. This team performs really well in tournaments while DS’s current team does not.

Both teams are similar cost and DS is friends with several kids on each team already.

Any thoughts on weighing playing time vs level of competition at the 13u level? We would be going from the known situation (likely to gets lots of playing time and ABs) to the unknown (he may indeed still get a lot of quality playing time- just bat a bit lower in the order and play more OF- but what if he doesn’t? I have seen some very and situations where the 12-13th kid are treated like the red headed stepchildren...Then he’d be stuck for a year). We aren’t ones to switch teams over playing time issues so we’d stick it out with the new team either way through a full season.

Thanks! [/quote]

Not the OP, just another parent (but curious to hear OP's response!). I would switch to the better team. Your son will get better playing with better players, and he may end up surpassing them. I do think it is unlikely that the good hitters who have improved significantly this year are hitting better because of the team. I would bet that: (a) they are getting bigger (especially at this age) or (2) good hitting coach or (3) both. Good luck. If your son is a good pitcher, he will always have that opportunity. Every team needs pitching.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics