2020 Little League Thread of Dominance

[Jshep34 2308]

All the best to your family Huck

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[BrazilHorn 6607]

Hope kiddo is ok my man. All the best to her and your family. 

[Huckleberry 32861]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone, and I mean that. 

1 hour ago, torre said:

Wish the best for your daughter and family.

Congrats on the game winning hit.    So you think you can hang with the other teams that the coaches knew the players during the draft  ?

It turns out I drafted a team that makes more contact than anyone else in the league. A lot of that is 3 of the 4 kids I knew from our old league but I got lucky otherwise. The other coaches drafted pitching accuracy and fielding skills which makes sense, but in our first three games the opponents have all been like 1980s shortstops. All glove, no stick. 

If we threw strikes and fielded a bit better we'd definitely be the best team in this little fall league. But we're working on that. Our most accurate pitcher has a bothersome elbow so I'm not letting him pitch right now even though his parents are trying to talk me into it. He's playing first base. Our offense is our advantage for now. Through 3 games our opponents have 5 hits and we have 21. That's based on real scoring (hits versus errors) not "little league hits". Walks and errors kill us for now. 

[Surly Bevo 24908]

You should make em run poles until they puke up their applesauce....that'll teach em to get their gloves down.

 

Kidding of course, putting it all together is the real trick but when it happens it's magical

[F250 28776]

4 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Thanks for all the kind words everyone, and I mean that. 

It turns out I drafted a team that makes more contact than anyone else in the league. A lot of that is 3 of the 4 kids I knew from our old league but I got lucky otherwise. The other coaches drafted pitching accuracy and fielding skills which makes sense, but in our first three games the opponents have all been like 1980s shortstops. All glove, no stick. 

If we threw strikes and fielded a bit better we'd definitely be the best team in this little fall league. But we're working on that. Our most accurate pitcher has a bothersome elbow so I'm not letting him pitch right now even though his parents are trying to talk me into it. He's playing first base. Our offense is our advantage for now. Through 3 games our opponents have 5 hits and we have 21. That's based on real scoring (hits versus errors) not "little league hits". Walks and errors kill us for now. 

Wishing the best for your daughter.

 

Good job on not using the kid with elbow problems despite him being your best pitcher. Protecting a kids arm health should always be the priority. Sadly, often it's the parents that need to be told no and not the other way around.

[F250 28776]

Anyone playing any wood bat tournaments this Fall?

[BrazilHorn 6607]

So the 11U team did well. Almost made it to the finals, lost on a truly amazing catch by the CF of the other team. Little BH had a great weekend and for the 1st tournament of the season was a really good showing.

The Elder lad's team didn't do quite as well but was still not terrible. He got zero help from defense when pitching. 6 infield errors across two games (one was dropped third strike combined with wild throw to 1B eg). but the team is solid and I am looking forward to their progression.

It was a tremendous weekend for baseball. Just great weather. Was so much fun watching my boys play and be with the other parents.

All the best to the Surly baseball families.

[pepper brooks 580]

we played our first 13U event this weekend with PG.  Won the thing easily. Gonna play one more  at the AA level an move to open.  The AA competition level post 10U just gets so bad. 

[F250 28776]

8 hours ago, pepper brooks said:

we played our first 13U event this weekend with PG.  Won the thing easily. Gonna play one more  at the AA level an move to open.  The AA competition level post 10U just gets so bad. 

Some of those open tournaments can be pretty a mixed bag of you never know who is going to show up and make for some wild matchups.

 

 

[bschoolprof 6254]

9 hours ago, pepper brooks said:

we played our first 13U event this weekend with PG.  Won the thing easily. Gonna play one more  at the AA level an move to open.  The AA competition level post 10U just gets so bad. 

My kids aren't very good so they are on the shitty AA teams y'all are destroying.  We play USSSA though.  

[pepper brooks 580]

11 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

My kids aren't very good so they are on the shitty AA teams y'all are destroying.  We play USSSA though.  

we were terrible when we started as well.  Team has now been together for 5 years and we are about as good as any team around at the AA level.  We are an upper lever AAA team, and not even competitive against Majors teams.  It's a weird dynamic how much better those Majors teams are.  

[Dennis Taylor 18825]

22 minutes ago, pepper brooks said:

 We are an upper lever AAA team, and not even competitive against Majors teams.  It's a weird dynamic how much better those Majors teams are.  

Puberty is an incredible performance enhancer. Its crazy how much faster and stronger kids get when they hit that stage.  For some its 12/13 ish but a couple years later for others. 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Dennis Taylor

[F250 28776]

1 hour ago, Dennis Taylor said:

Puberty is an incredible performance enhancer. Its crazy how much faster and stronger kids get when they hit that stage.  For some its 12/13 ish but a couple years later for others. 

Puberty usually isn't the explanation when it comes to the difference between the Majors level and AA and AAA.

 

 

 

[Dennis Taylor 18825]

57 minutes ago, F250 said:

Puberty usually isn't the explanation when it comes to the difference between the Majors level and AA and AAA.

 

 

 

Seemed to help the 5'8"  13 year old with stubble my son used to play with

[jkates 316]

1 hour ago, F250 said:

Puberty usually isn't the explanation when it comes to the difference between the Majors level and AA and AAA.

 

 

 

It likely depends on the age. It's certainly not the case for us as we just moved into 11U ball. Our squad has played 4 seasons together. We were 7AA, 8AA, 9AAA, 10AAA. We're starting 11U as AAA but we'd prefer to bump to majors soon and test ourselves there. We'll see. Our defense is up to the task. Half of our bats are. Most of our pitchers likely aren't. It will be fun to see the boys get challenged soon. Fall ball is sporadic. Hard to tell much. We barely practice and then show up to play against some teams that are practicing 3x/week. 

[F250 28776]

5 minutes ago, Dennis Taylor said:

Seemed to help the 5'8"  13 year old with stubble my son used to play with

Didn't help with my youngest who was 5'4 at 13 playing 14U Majors, late bloomer unlike his older brothers.

I get what you are saying but puberty isn't what makes a Majors team so dominant over the lower levels.

The primary difference is the higher concentration of talent on a Majors team. There are no weak or mediocre players. A Majors team will also pull in players from a wider geographic range with a larger roster. They are basically cherry picking and stacking the roster with talent from a large geographic region.

The difference between a really good AAA team and a Majors team is depth, particularly pitching. A Majors team carries enough pitchers to play an entire tournament and then some.

The difference between Majors and AA is simply talent.

[F250 28776]

36 minutes ago, jkates said:

It likely depends on the age. It's certainly not the case for us as we just moved into 11U ball. Our squad has played 4 seasons together. We were 7AA, 8AA, 9AAA, 10AAA. We're starting 11U as AAA but we'd prefer to bump to majors soon and test ourselves there. We'll see. Our defense is up to the task. Half of our bats are. Most of our pitchers likely aren't. It will be fun to see the boys get challenged soon. Fall ball is sporadic. Hard to tell much. We barely practice and then show up to play against some teams that are practicing 3x/week. 

The thing is most players in 14U Majors were on 11U Majors rosters which eliminates the age factor.

 

[jkates 316]

12 minutes ago, F250 said:

The thing is most players in 14U Majors were on 11U Majors rosters which eliminates the age factor.

I don't have any experience beyond the first few weeks of 11U fall ball. I think your other post is on target. Majors teams simply have a lot of talent and fewer weak spots. Our team doesn't hold tryouts, we haven't cut anyone since the transition from 8U-->9U (some of you may remember, my son was on the chopping block, but we stuck it out), so we're attempting to develop our 11 and play against teams that are often cutting a couple and recruiting a proven talent. I like our model. I don't see much benefit from being cutthroat and hyper-competitive before age 13. We hold our own and win a lot, but we also run into some Majors teams that are buzzsaws. haha

[F250 28776]

2 hours ago, jkates said:

I don't have any experience beyond the first few weeks of 11U fall ball. I think your other post is on target. Majors teams simply have a lot of talent and fewer weak spots. Our team doesn't hold tryouts, we haven't cut anyone since the transition from 8U-->9U (some of you may remember, my son was on the chopping block, but we stuck it out), so we're attempting to develop our 11 and play against teams that are often cutting a couple and recruiting a proven talent. I like our model. I don't see much benefit from being cutthroat and hyper-competitive before age 13. We hold our own and win a lot, but we also run into some Majors teams that are buzzsaws. haha

I agree. There isn't a need to be so competitive at 12U and below. Just let the kids develop and enjoy the ride.

13U is when the competitiveness is needed because there is normally a funnel at 14U (most teams worth their salt will make cuts.)

14U is when the game is played at another level and by 8th grade all those 14U players will be competing for a handful of slots on the high school baseball team the following year.

The value in playing 14U Majors is it's a similar level to high school JV. By the time those kids actually get to high school they will be more than ready to play with the older kids.

[BrazilHorn 6607]

Alright. Back at it again. Games in Georgetown for older boy and Taylor for the younger. Looks to be great weather all the way through the weekend. Little bit of normalcy back in the world. 
 

Hook ‘em Horns. One downside to fall baseball is it fucks up live football viewing)

 

[F250 28776]

On 9/26/2020 at 7:22 AM, BrazilHorn said:

Alright. Back at it again. Games in Georgetown for older boy and Taylor for the younger. Looks to be great weather all the way through the weekend. Little bit of normalcy back in the world. 
 

Hook ‘em Horns. One downside to fall baseball is it fucks up live football viewing)

 

Take a tablet with you and stream the game. That's how I survived high school Fall baseball.

Find a nice shaded spot, stream the game on your tablet, watch the baseball game as well and use your phone to talk trash on the Surly game thread. If you are going to be at the fields for a really long time and it's an early kickoff having a beer on hand really makes it enjoyable.

[Anastasis 23469]

A beer?

[BrazilHorn 6607]

26 minutes ago, F250 said:

Take a tablet with you and stream the game. That's how I survived high school Fall baseball.

Find a nice shaded spot, stream the game on your tablet, watch the baseball game as well and use your phone to talk trash on the Surly game thread. If you are going to be at the fields for a really long time and it's an early kickoff having a beer on hand really makes it enjoyable.

Going to have to do this. Long weekends (but fun)

[troph 24798]

My son in 12u first season started the season with a late swing, he’s fixing that quickly and went 2-2, 2 runs scored and a few ribbies today. Single and a legit double, hit to the fence. Both to the right side BUT he really got his bat on both.

[F250 28776]

1 hour ago, Anastasis said:

A beer?

Well, I didn't want to make it seem like I was coach Buttermaker from the Bad News Bears sitting in a pile of empty beer cans.

But yeah, beers.

[F250 28776]

1 hour ago, troph said:

My son in 12u first season started the season with a late swing, he’s fixing that quickly and went 2-2, 2 runs scored and a few ribbies today. Single and a legit double, hit to the fence. Both to the right side BUT he really got his bat on both.

I assume he is right handed. Frequently drilling the ball to right field is definitely a sign of a late swing.

Is it a timing issue or bat drag? I had a kid that developed a late swing one season when he was 10. His timing was all messed up because he switched from a no stride to a stride and it took a few weeks for him to figure out the timing.

[troph 24798]

I assume he is right handed. Frequently drilling the ball to right field is definitely a sign of a late swing.
Is it a timing issue or bat drag? I had a kid that developed a late swing one season when he was 10. His timing was all messed up because he switched from a no stride to a stride and it took a few weeks for him to figure out the timing.

We are working with a private coach and his 12u coach, today was a real improvement, from fouls and hit to first weakly to driven in the outfield and hit to the actual second base.

Not sure the cause some of it is he went from 10u with coaches pitching after a walk to 10u national for one short COVID season then up to 12u first season. I think a lot of it is massive changes in who and how pitchers are throwing. Coaches are easy. Kids not so much.

[BrazilHorn 6607]

Good weekend overall for the boys in that progress was made with their teams.

The games they lost on Sunday all boiled down to one inning where each of their respective teams (14u & 11u) decided to throw an "error party". Bad throws in IF, multiple players watching an easy pop fly drop to ground, players running into the guy calling for pop fly etc etc. Just a beating to watch, but both games ended up close at the end.

Just a case of if team can quit stepping on their own dicks they'd actually be pretty good.

[F250 28776]

15 hours ago, troph said:

We are working with a private coach and his 12u coach, today was a real improvement, from fouls and hit to first weakly to driven in the outfield and hit to the actual second base.

Not sure the cause some of it is he went from 10u with coaches pitching after a walk to 10u national for one short COVID season then up to 12u first season. I think a lot of it is massive changes in who and how pitchers are throwing. Coaches are easy. Kids not so much.

Could just be a timing issue. Just pay attention to the timing of his stride/swing and make sure he is syncing it to the pitcher. You bring up a good point about the variety of pitchers at that age, especially those kids that have a herky jerky delivery.

 

[kmac30 416]

We have a batting coach and have seen a dramatic change in hitting this year. We did the batting coach for a covid filler and it’s been amazing. The one thing that kills me is coaches trying to tell my kid where to put his elbows and feet. Thankfully my kid will tell them “this is how I was taught to do it.”(in a respectful way). My kid is also one that will never take instruction from me. And that’s ok.

[Huckleberry 32861]

We fell out of first place tonight because we still can't throw strikes. Just walking everyone, so frustrating. I'm not a pitching coach but I have a good one assisting and our kids just freeze up between the bullpen and the game mound.

But my son did hit his first bomb in a game after the close call a couple of games ago. And as expected his falling in love with baseball is now complete. On the way home he asked me what time he should set his alarm for our 8:30 game Saturday morning. Ha. Once you hit a home run you're hooked.

[Huckleberry 32861]

Follow up: any tips on improving control for a kid who's limited on arm use? My son doesn't have good control but turns out it's third best on this team. The issue is that he's also a good swimmer and swims with a USA Swimming year round club. So I limit the amount of throwing I let him do because I'm concerned about overworking his shoulder. 

And in case y'all think I'm exaggerating about the control issues, we walked 17 batters in 3 innings last night. That is not a typo. Because of schedule backlog I couldn't use either of our top two pitchers but now you know what I'm faced with. My son walked 4 and struck out 3 in his inning. The other two walked 13 and struck out nobody. In case I haven't been clear, this isn't select level baseball. Ha. 

I had a headache after the game. 

Edited October 2, 2020 by Huckleberry

[BrazilHorn 6607]

5 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Follow up: any tips on improving control for a kid who's limited on arm use? My son doesn't have good control but turns out it's third best on this team. The issue is that he's also a good swimmer and swims with a USA Swimming year round club. So I limit the amount of throwing I let him do because I'm concerned about overworking his shoulder. 

And in case y'all think I'm exaggerating about the control issues, we walked 17 batters in 3 innings last night. That is not a typo. Because of schedule backlog I couldn't use either of our top two pitchers but now you know what I'm faced with. My son walked 4 and struck out 3 in his inning. The other two walked 13 and struck out nobody. In case I haven't been clear, this isn't select level baseball. Ha. 

I had a headache after the game. 

My older son swam year round as well. Only advice I’d give is no curve/off speed stuff. Limit to a pitch count as well and you should be ok. 
 

 

[pepper brooks 580]

Pepper jr hit his first bomb for 13u tonight on a big field. Grand slam that broke the game open and allowed us to take the 1 seed. Pretty darn cool to watch. 

[Huckleberry 32861]

Set my defense for the rest of the season and the results were immediate. My team is two different teams, one when we can pitch the two kids who throw strikes and the other when we can't. We won 12-0 on Saturday against the team we were tied for first with before the game. First shutout in the league this season and our defense made several really nice plays. Three more games then the little single elimination playoff. Very doubtful we win that as it's a compressed schedule so pitching depth is rewarded.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Huckleberry

[BrazilHorn 6607]

My younger son's 11u team has finished third three tourneys in a row. They have every semi-final game the one "step on your dick" inning where the entire infield decides to commit an error, costing them the game. They are so close, they can hit the shit out of the ball and by and large play good defense. Just think they start gripping when they are close to the finals.

Been a lot of fun but frustrating to watch at same time.

[BrazilHorn 6607]

11U team won their 1st championship yesterday! He played great and the team overall did as well. They had made the semifinals in the first 3 tournaments they played but always had the total "step on your dick" inning where the kids would grip and start to let errors build on one another.

Yesterday they hung tough and never let it get to them when a mistake was made. Was great to see them growing yesterday into a team and overall really starting to flex.

My older sons 14U team battled and played in three games yesterday before going out in semifinals. Was great where they beat a team that beat them on Saturday (and were the most unsportsmanlike youth sports team I have EVER seen). The other teams coach actually came and apologized before the game for his team's behavior on Saturday. Nonetheless it was awesome to see them win and win easily.

Was great weather and just an overall great weekend to have baseball being played.

[Huckleberry 32861]

My boy's team clinched the regular season championship on Saturday with one game left to play. Very evenly matched division, we're 6-2-1 but nobody can catch us at this point. Playoff tournament is next week.

Just like a little league team, it's all starting to work now that the season is ending. Ha.

In personal news, my son hit his second homer. First one was a fly ball that landed 15 feet past the outfield fence, which would be an out on a bigger field and with decent defense. Saturday's was a laser to the opposite field power alley (left center - he's a LH batter) that is an extra base hit on every field at every level. Still got some swing flaws I tease him about every time we watch a video of him hitting, but the confidence is there now.

[Jshep34 2308]

Finished 2nd in thier second tournament this past weekend. The response kids have had to the coaching is awesome.

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[Huckleberry 32861]

Great pic, but tell him to be careful with that off hand. He's dangerously close to a horns down. 😉

[jkates 316]

3 hours ago, BrazilHorn said:

11U team won their 1st championship yesterday! He played great and the team overall did as well. They had made the semifinals in the first 3 tournaments they played but always had the total "step on your dick" inning where the kids would grip and start to let errors build on one another.

Yesterday they hung tough and never let it get to them when a mistake was made. Was great to see them growing yesterday into a team and overall really starting to flex.

My older sons 14U team battled and played in three games yesterday before going out in semifinals. Was great where they beat a team that beat them on Saturday (and were the most unsportsmanlike youth sports team I have EVER seen). The other teams coach actually came and apologized before the game for his team's behavior on Saturday. Nonetheless it was awesome to see them win and win easily.

Was great weather and just an overall great weekend to have baseball being played.

Awesome. My son's 11U team won a tournament in Houston yesterday. A lot of fun. 

[wood 11225]

3 hours ago, Jshep34 said:

Finished 2nd in thier second tournament this past weekend. The response kids have had to the coaching is awesome.

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Uh, so ... nice ring, little JShep! Can't quite make it out ...

[BrazilHorn 6607]

1 hour ago, jkates said:

Awesome. My son's 11U team won a tournament in Houston yesterday. A lot of fun. 

Congrats to your boy. It's so much fun watching the kids play. Especially fall ball with the Horns being so shitty. Great distraction from the football season.

[troph 24798]

Finished 2nd in thier second tournament this past weekend. The response kids have had to the coaching is awesome.

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Quite the 2nd place championship ring there!

[jkates 316]

31 minutes ago, troph said:

Quite the 2nd place championship ring there!

Sometimes the tournament bling is a lot. My son's team won an 11U tournament put on by Perfect Game. They handed us rings, medals, a banner, a huge trophy, an MVP plaque, and a MVPitcher plaque. I don't know what 2nd place received. I suppose if an organization has a building where it could make a trophy room that would be good, but we're just some dads who don't want to take home any of that stuff!

[Jshep34 2308]

Our team/organization has a place for trophies, banners. Most of kids on this team were part of a previous team that would win maybe 2 out of 10 games. With better coaches now they are 5-2 in just 2 months. Lilshep has won his share (district, all star, league) of championships but his teammates hadnt. As a dad/parent/coach those are the kids you are excited and happy for. Anything that helps build thier confidence in themselves and eachother.

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[Huckleberry 32861]

A loss in our final regular season game but we let everyone pitch and my son hit another bomb. Safe to say this field is too small for him but that was actually the intent. For years in league baseball he's watched other kids have more success at the plate with terrible swings and hyperlight bats as I worked on his swing for when he got older and made him use reasonably heavy bats. I wanted him to feel the success of hitting bombs and he's got 3 in 25 plate appearances in this little fall season. This one he finally got at a reasonable launch angle and it was his first no doubter where everyone watching knew instantly it was way out. The funniest part about it is that all 3 of his home runs have come against the same team in our 3 games against them. After this one their coaches asked me how many he has for the season and when I told them it's just the 3 against their team they weren't amused. Ha. In reality it's because their team has the most consistently good pitching, meaning at a reasonable velocity and pounding the strike zone. My son struggles against the softer throwers who are all over the place.

In just a few months he'll be facing a 300 foot fence so the fun will be over. But just for a little while hopefully.

Edited October 21, 2020 by Huckleberry

[BrazilHorn 6607]

One thing I have found to be funny is the kids who show in the "alternate road uniform B" shirt on Sunday that obviously are "guest" players totally brought in for that day.

 

[pepper brooks 580]

We came away with our 2nd win of the year last night.  We have won 2 and punched out in the semis twice.  Unlike past years when we beat everyone with dominant pitching and hitting we are now winning with pitching and defense.  THe move to 54 feet on the mound has mean we do not strike out as many batter, and has meant the defense has to had to get meaningfully better and it has.  Pep Jr threw the semi final game yesterday and went 6 ip, 2H, 1R, 8k, 67 pitches.  Definitely solid.  

[Had Enough 2081]

Anything that helps build thier confidence in themselves and eachother.

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I've been a stalker on these boards and its predecessors for years. My name originated due to my feelings for Big 12 refs, but I'm really feeling the same towards youth sports. But this quoted statement is huge and believe it has been reiterated throughout this thread. So I ask as you continue to progress with your kids that you continue to keep in mind all the kids. Let your coaches know that great opportunities should exist for all of them. Give them opportunities to build confidence. And memories that last a lifetime. Even if they are done with sports two to three years down the road. And I'm not a give everbuddy a participation medal guy but rather a give everyone a legit opportunity to win that medal guy. This isn't just about confidence on the field but in life.

I've got two that have ventured into middle school sports. We've played club volleyball and select baseball in addition to rec ball. We've got a third just showing interest. All 3 are very different in levels of skills and strengths. I get why they don't get all the playing time but holy hell they have not been given what they've earned in my opinion. It has reached its peak now. I'm mad. I'm disappointed and disillusioned. I'm disheartened and truly dumbfounded. And others get every opportunity to fail over and over again. After watching kids, mine and their friends, play multiple sports and reflecting on my days, I've come to the conclusion that for 95% of kids it's all about reps and confidence. Elite athletes are rare and some you think are elite-ish are probably more confident with significantly more reps. In our case as parents, we've wondered what we did to tick people off as to impact our kids playing time and opportunities. We try to temper our biases of our kids and say maybe they're just not that good. But there are instances that have happened that have me convinced it is simply not our biases but a genuinely warranted frustration. And disappointment. And general pissed offedness.

I enjoy winning and lose my mind when it comes to Horns athletics but damned have we not lost our minds, collectively not necessarily individually, with respect to youth sports. And I include myself in that with respect to my own kids but in different manner than I view how others have lost their minds. For many I don't think it's a win at all costs mentality but more of a win at all costs mentality that aligns with let my favorites reap the benefits.

So keep them all in mind and I'd even suggest be a bit more specific in post game congratulations rather than the generic "good game Lil'Shep" which can be difficult when opportunities are limited. And do not act surprised when a kid does well when actually given the opportunity. Be genuine and honest but not give the implication "you usually aren't any good but you've played well today."

Anyway, sorry for the length of the post and making it about me.

Hook Em.

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