2024 Youth Baseball - Every Kid’s a future MLB HOFer!!!

[Murfdogg21 4412]

WTF they are allowing video review taken from iPads and cell phones? Can you start protesting balls and strikes soon based on Grandma’s tik tok reel?

[Murfdogg21 4412]

23 hours ago, hobbes2702 said:

Kids 8u AAA team has a few kids that have big problems casting and staying back. I’ve seen the rope bat stuff and I can see some value in there for preventing casting but seems expensive.

Any recs for drills or opinions on rope bat?

I too am frugal so during our fall 6U season, I went to Home Depot and bought some rope, pvc pipe, pipe insulation foam, and black duck tape. I made a poor man’s version for every boy on the team. They were as sturdy as the real ones, but worked fine when the kids were hitting squish balls or tennis balls to work on their swing. Inevitably most of the boys started hitting baseballs with them and they exploded. 

[texashorne 1177]

3 minutes ago, Murfdogg21 said:

I too am frugal so during our fall 6U season, I went to Home Depot and bought some rope, pvc pipe, pipe insulation foam, and black duck tape. I made a poor man’s version for every boy on the team. They were as sturdy as the real ones, but worked fine when the kids were hitting squish balls or tennis balls to work on their swing. Inevitably most of the boys started hitting baseballs with them and they exploded. 

What exploded? your offensive production or the device you made? 

[Murfdogg21 4412]

4 minutes ago, texashorne said:

What exploded? your offensive production or the device you made? 

Both LOL. Kindergarten age kids went from whiffing to at least making contact. But the foam covered pvc did not last long after real baseballs were mixed in. It worked with tee drills, but got most value from soft toss using soft balls. 

[Surly Bevo 24908]

Quote

 

I bought it for my son probably when he was 7 years old and think it was one of the best training aids I've spent money on for him. I preach to him daily to stay inside the baseball and go up the middle/ away. He loves the feedback from the swing, and is really smooth swinging it now. To this day, he uses it in the on deck circle as he's getting ready to hit. 

As you mentioned there are some other drills you can do to help - Google "Robinson Cano drill" for a start. 

 

 Or you could always just tell your kid things like "wait on the ball" or "let it get deep" and then watch them strike out when somebody comes in throwing higher velocity....teaches em to be tough.  

Edited March 25 by Surly Bevo

[Planet Houston 4930]

18 hours ago, Mez2 said:

completely horseshit. We made too many errors but that was fucking brutal. 

3-3 game going into the 4th inning,  or so, and the other team claims they scored another run in the first inning. We're home team, have home book and same score as ump in field and home plate.

They call the PG director on site, comes to the field, ends up reviewing and looking at the game changer and video from the game from multiple phones/tablets. The run in question was a judgement call by the ump, PG guy ends up overturning the initial run in the 1st while we're in the 4th/5th inning, we go from tied game in 5th to down a run and no time left. We had chances to win the game and not let that come into play but I had no idea you can do video review from game changer to challenge calls.

 

I still can’t believe this. I thought that once the next batter bats, you lose your chance for appeal. Certainly after an inning and the ump and both head coaches agree on the score. Insane. If this becomes a thing we will see the already insane baseball parents trying to one-up each other with HD camcorders and professional VAR umpire parents. Fuck that. 

[Mez2 4023]

Yeah,still a topic of conversation today amongst our team but it's over, not much we can do about it yesterday after it happened, let alone today. Just try to frame it in a way the boys can understand and learn from. 

But yeah, to start reviewing on a smart device multiple innings down the road is something I've never heard of. Oh well..

 

[BrazilHorn 6586]

On 3/25/2024 at 6:07 PM, Mez2 said:

Yeah,still a topic of conversation today amongst our team but it's over, not much we can do about it yesterday after it happened, let alone today. Just try to frame it in a way the boys can understand and learn from. 

But yeah, to start reviewing on a smart device multiple innings down the road is something I've never heard of. Oh well..

 

That is some horseshit my man. It is kids baseball (albeit travel/select) but man is that taking it too far. I guess all you can teach your kids is that some coaches are pouty little bitches that cannot accept judgement calls on field (which by the way is what the strike zone is for every fucking umpire every fucking game) (yes I know there is a technical strike zone but in my experience 100% of time different umpires have different zones). I would be raising hell with that PG guy and at bare minimum get preferred start times in next several tournaments out of that BS. Good luck.

[Murfdogg21 4412]

7U AA team off to 5-0 start, +64 run differential. All your rec AA baseball are belong to us. 

[Jshep34 2308]

Anyone playing this weekend

[BrazilHorn 6586]

31 minutes ago, Jshep34 said:

Anyone playing this weekend

Tournament in lovely Manor, TX with 8am start so 7am for warmups. Joy. Bright side is second game is back to back so I can make Horns game in afternoon. 

[Jshep34 2308]

Good luck. We are at baseball usa 10am and noon. Back to back games which is great. Went and watched some his teammates at post oak play. A kid got drilled in the head. He was pitching and got hit in back of head from batted ball. He was conscious.

[Mez2 4023]

630p and 815p in La Porte. FML.

We're studying in hotel out there, at BLD tomorrow. 

[Jshep34 2308]

Yall across the bridge from our house in Laporte. We just played one of the worst coaches I've seen out here in travel ball.

[BrazilHorn 6586]

Went 2-0 in Pool play sitting at 1 seed for now. Only gave up 3 runs so have good shot at holding it. My son plays catcher and threw two kids out and caught a popup so good day at office. 

[Jshep34 2308]

Rules question. Runner on 3rd passed ball catcher flips ball to pitcher . Pitcher has ball before runner gets to home. Runner doesn't slide into home. Is Runner out for no slide?

[Navin R. Johnson 705]

21 minutes ago, Jshep34 said:

Rules question. Runner on 3rd passed ball catcher flips ball to pitcher . Pitcher has ball before runner gets to home. Runner doesn't slide into home. Is Runner out for no slide?

I’ve seen an umpire call the runner out. It depends on how much you want to scream and yell at the blue. Are you on the hitting team or defense? Keep in mind it’s not so much how you berate the umpire at the time of that play, but most importantly, you need to jump on his ass and ride him from the first pitch. That sets the tone. The other parents need to be involved as well.

[Mez2 4023]

On 4/6/2024 at 5:17 PM, Jshep34 said:

Rules question. Runner on 3rd passed ball catcher flips ball to pitcher . Pitcher has ball before runner gets to home. Runner doesn't slide into home. Is Runner out for no slide?

I've seen it called both way where runners have to slide and other rules you don't have to. In PG, our umps would probably say he doesn't have to slide but we stress to our kids to get down on plays at the plate. 

What did they call?

[Jshep34 2308]

He went from safe to out back to safe.

[Jshep34 2308]

We had angel H. at our semi final game today. He cost us chance to play for championship. This is how he was set up most of the game. Bases loaded no outs top of last inning. Lilshep just drove in 2 to give us the lead. He rung our kid on pitch that was in other batters box for 2nd out. Then rung up next kid on pitch that crossed at logo on batting helmet. Bottom of last inning they got 2 on with 1 out. Thier coach yelled at our pitcher causing a balk. We lost but it sucked for our kids cause they know they got screwed

[Surly Bevo 24908]

We had angel H. at our semi final game today. He cost us chance to play for championship. This is how he was set up most of the game. Bases loaded no outs top of last inning. Lilshep just drove in 2 to give us the lead. He rung our kid on pitch that was in other batters box for 2nd out. Then rung up next kid on pitch that crossed at logo on batting helmet. Bottom of last inning they got 2 on with 1 out. Thier coach yelled at our pitcher causing a balk. We lost but it sucked for our kids cause they know they got screwed

Umps not setting up correctly drives me nuts. It will not improve through HS though.

[Mez2 4023]

1 hour ago, Jshep34 said:

He went from safe to out back to safe.

Must've reviewed it on the iPad 

[Mez2 4023]

We won our tourney at BLD today,  went 1-0-1 in pool play and 3-0 in Sunday games. We played a team from the greater Santa Fe, TX area last night. Their coach got thrown out their first game, comes back to coach the 2nd game (against us) and then gets thrown out again (yelling, arguing,  cussing in front of parents/kids etc).

Cannot fathom letting your 9/10 y/o kid play for someone like that. Oh well.

Proud of my boys, had the 630/815p games last night in La Porte and then the 8am at BLD. Tough ask for the boys but played well and respnded well to challenge. 

 

 

 

Edited April 8 by Mez2

[Jshep34 2308]

Congrats mez and chuy. Yall have a heck of a squad.

[Jshep34 2308]

This was called a strike 3. Been around travel ball for 4 years now. This dude was one of the worst. Hard to explain to kids that umpires are human and will make mistakes. But it's for them and parents to understand how someone could be This horrible

[HOOKEM4 5036]

My sons 9u team is going to Houston next weekend. They are not a good team and I fully expect they go 3 and cue. I won't be there because I am coaching my oldest sons 12u rec team. They added an extra team so every team has 9 players and some only have 8 because players dropped out. It is a shitshow and we can't miss anything or we have to scramble for subs.

[UTPhil2006 3801]

1 hour ago, HOOKEM4 said:

My sons 9u team is going to Houston next weekend. They are not a good team and I fully expect they go 3 and cue. I won't be there because I am coaching my oldest sons 12u rec team. They added an extra team so every team has 9 players and some only have 8 because players dropped out. It is a shitshow and we can't miss anything or we have to scramble for subs.

Let me know where to be 

[Mez2 4023]

34 minutes ago, UTPhil2006 said:

Let me know where to be 

Phil will try to refinance all the kid's clubhouses 

[UTPhil2006 3801]

45 minutes ago, Mez2 said:

Phil will try to refinance all the kid's clubhouses 

We’re calling them “condos” 

[Mez2 4023]

 

Nate Trosky with Trosky Baseball was down at our home park, Oaks Dad's Club last night with an infield clinic.  He's was in town on a layover from Dominican, and a good friend of the founder/ creator of our club organization.

What a great time, Nate is a great speaker, instructor and teacher. Couldn't recommend anymore to those interested.  

 

 

[Jshep34 2308]

Yet no surly invite

[BrazilHorn 6586]

Any of y’all going to Franklin next weekend?? 
 

14U tournament?

[BrazilHorn 6586]

Boys came in 3rd (of 37 teams) in NIT tournament out in Burnet this weekend. Went 4-1 on weekend with a hell of a comeback against a super fucking annoying team that screamed non stop from dugout while our pitcher was going through release. 

Just ran out of arms and team they faced in semis had a really good, big lefty pitcher. Kid was like 6’3” and was good. 
 

Happy for boys and was good to see them put together a good run on Sunday. 

[Jshep34 2308]

Play our 2nd to last tournament this coming weekend. Lilshep hung out with our 12u team. They have 3 kids over 5'8" 150lbs. Absolutely crush the ball. Seeing him around that group is like Altuve and Judge. But the beauty of baseball is they both have value and ability to play the game

[NorthLoop 14180]

So the boy's T-ball team is 7 games through a 12 game season, and the head coach has only been there for the first 2. Always out of town or some other excuse (and he won't be there tomorrow either, which makes 6 out of 8 that he's gone). Me and the other asst coach have run the show pretty much the whole season. I know it's T-ball and it's not that big of a deal, but why the fuck would you sign up to be a coach if you're gonna just be awol for most of the season? I would've gladly volunteered to be the head coach except for the fact that I knew the possibility was there that I may miss some games due to work obligations. Most of our games we play where the other team has like 5 or 6 coaches and parents out there helping, and our games it's just me and this other asst coaching while his wife wrangles the boys in the dugout. 

Anyways... rant over. Just shaking my head at this shit. Happened to me with one of his soccer teams last year as well. 

[F250 28760]

On 2/19/2024 at 10:53 PM, BlackCat said:

This.........is my life for the next 12 years minimum. I love baseball and I love youth baseball, but man it feels like I'm really getting myself into something. I've got three boys. Oldest is in first grade. Im coaching my 5 year olds team and the parents are already completely nuts. Im pretty disgusted with the way some of them act, so I told myself I can be a whiny pussy about it or coach myself and try to give the kids a somewhat sane experience. 

Having coached three sons from tee-ball through 13U travel with a number of good All-Star runs, I will advise you to enjoy it as much as possible.

 

[BlackCat 426]

8 hours ago, F250 said:

Having coached three sons from tee-ball through 13U travel with a number of good All-Star runs, I will advise you to enjoy it as much as possible.

 

We are having a great season. Im coaching my 5 year olds coach pitch team and having a blast. The kids are always so fired up. So fun.

My first grader is playing midget out at SBSMA. He works his tail off. He's all in and cant get enough baseball, which was my only goal for him (to get the bug). He's batting .680 but most of his outs were in the first two games. They've moved him up to the first batter right after the second graders and he has a boat load of RBIs. 

Curious to get y'all's thoughts. I got them a rope bat last week and I really think Ive seen a quick change in their swings. It's been tough to get them to get their hips through and now they're swinging hard and getting a full twist. Anyone else used it?

 

[BlackCat 426]

On 4/19/2024 at 10:13 PM, NorthLoop said:

So the boy's T-ball team is 7 games through a 12 game season, and the head coach has only been there for the first 2. Always out of town or some other excuse (and he won't be there tomorrow either, which makes 6 out of 8 that he's gone). Me and the other asst coach have run the show pretty much the whole season. I know it's T-ball and it's not that big of a deal, but why the fuck would you sign up to be a coach if you're gonna just be awol for most of the season? I would've gladly volunteered to be the head coach except for the fact that I knew the possibility was there that I may miss some games due to work obligations. Most of our games we play where the other team has like 5 or 6 coaches and parents out there helping, and our games it's just me and this other asst coaching while his wife wrangles the boys in the dugout. 

Anyways... rant over. Just shaking my head at this shit. Happened to me with one of his soccer teams last year as well. 

That's really poor form. And yea there needs to be lots of parents out there helping. Are y'all on an email list? I'd just politely ask for more help. Like Kent Murphy says- "You ain't doin right by these kids!"

[F250 28760]

8 hours ago, BlackCat said:

Curious to get y'all's thoughts. I got them a rope bat last week and I really think Ive seen a quick change in their swings. It's been tough to get them to get their hips through and now they're swinging hard and getting a full twist. Anyone else used it?

I've never owned one but an assistant coach used to bring one to practice in 12U. I think they are a decent supplemental tool for identifying mechanical breakdowns in a batters swing.

Personally, I don't believe in using supplemental tools on kids below nine years old. A tee, L-screen, and a bucket of balls for kids 9 and below is more than enough. I believe it's best to let a kid develop their natural swing before you start tinkering with it as well as teaching the fundamentals of a swing.

As mentioned above, I coached 3 of my sons. My eldest, had the unfortunate timing of being my first experiment in over coaching.

My oldest at 9 years old resembled Roy McAvoy from Tin Cup.

 

[hobbes2702 13028]

9 hours ago, BlackCat said:

We are having a great season. Im coaching my 5 year olds coach pitch team and having a blast. The kids are always so fired up. So fun.

My first grader is playing midget out at SBSMA. He works his tail off. He's all in and cant get enough baseball, which was my only goal for him (to get the bug). He's batting .680 but most of his outs were in the first two games. They've moved him up to the first batter right after the second graders and he has a boat load of RBIs. 

Curious to get y'all's thoughts. I got them a rope bat last week and I really think Ive seen a quick change in their swings. It's been tough to get them to get their hips through and now they're swinging hard and getting a full twist. Anyone else used it?

 

Got the 8 year old one. His biggest issue was dumping the barrel early. It’s certainly helped with that.

[BrazilHorn 6586]

Son's 14U team went 3-0-1 in Franklin this weekend (was weird two games Saturday and two games Sunday format vs true tournament).

The tie came during a game Saturday that was called due to rain. Long weekend but good time and team played well overall. Just missing a really good defensive outfielder. Team has some good athletes out there but none really are experienced at position.

[Surly Bevo 24908]

13 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

Son's 14U team went 3-0-1 in Franklin this weekend (was weird two games Saturday and two games Sunday format vs true tournament).

The tie came during a game Saturday that was called due to rain. Long weekend but good time and team played well overall. Just missing a really good defensive outfielder. Team has some good athletes out there but none really are experienced at position.

That's more HS baseball style.  You will find the tournaments over the summer may start on a Thursday with pool games that day, Friday and Saturday (some of the really big ones can start earlier in the week)  Then Sunday there is a bracket which depending on the hosting body and type of tournament can be anywhere from 4 to maybe at most 16 teams (big time Perfect Game tournaments etc).  So for example you may have a field of 28 teams, some subset of that makes the Sunday bracket and everybody else plays a consolation game on Sunday.  Some of the biggest of the big time ones I have seen may even spill over into the next Monday for last few games of a given bracket.

Then there are simply showcases, which is all that really goes on in Franklin. You are there to play games and be seen.  

Edited April 22 by Surly Bevo

[F250 28760]

26 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

That's more HS baseball style.  You will find the tournaments over the summer may start on a Thursday with pool games that day, Friday and Saturday (some of the really big ones can start earlier in the week)  Then Sunday there is a bracket which depending on the hosting body and type of tournament can be anywhere from 4 to maybe at most 16 teams (big time Perfect Game tournaments etc).  So for example you may have a field of 28 teams, some subset of that makes the Sunday bracket and everybody else plays a consolation game on Sunday.  Some of the biggest of the big time ones I have seen may even spill over into the next Monday for last few games of a given bracket.

Then there are simply showcases, which is all that really goes on in Franklin. You are there to play games and be seen.  

Yes, things ease up at 16U with games spread out over a few days instead of the the kiddie ball Sat/Sun format. The high school format is so much better than the kid tournaments. Oddly, the kids play a lot more games throughout the year and spend more time playing in a day than the high school players.

[Mez2 4023]

14 hours ago, BlackCat said:

 

Curious to get y'all's thoughts. I got them a rope bat last week and I really think Ive seen a quick change in their swings. It's been tough to get them to get their hips through and now they're swinging hard and getting a full twist. Anyone else used it?

 

I posted earlier but bought one for my son when he was 7 years old and has been one of the best training aids I've made. He still uses it, so much that when he's in the on deck circle he uses it to prep for his AB. I am obviously biased but I think he has smooth swing, the rope bat helps reinforce good habits. Never too young to start building good habits, IMO. 

We played this weekend, moved up from AA to AAA at BBUSA.  didn't know how the boys would handle the bump up We blew a 4 run lead in the bottom half and lost in extras. 

 

[Surly Bevo 24908]

52 minutes ago, F250 said:

Yes, things ease up at 16U with games spread out over a few days instead of the the kiddie ball Sat/Sun format. The high school format is so much better than the kid tournaments. Oddly, the kids play a lot more games throughout the year and spend more time playing in a day than the high school players.

15U but yea. Most tournaments have a 2-1-1 (in any order) pool play format. You do have to contend with weekday games (I guess unless you don’t care and they can drive themselves which most can’t until sometime sophomore year)

[Nigel Tufnel 199]

1 hour ago, F250 said:

Yes, things ease up at 16U with games spread out over a few days instead of the the kiddie ball Sat/Sun format. The high school format is so much better than the kid tournaments. Oddly, the kids play a lot more games throughout the year and spend more time playing in a day than the high school players.

Couple of thoughts here.  First: The high school format is significantly more expensive because they spread it out.  But they don’t really play more.  You go to Dallas, Atalanta, Hoover, and play one game Wed., Thurs., Fri., and keep going back to the hotel for the remainder of the day.  It can be frustrating.
 

Second: the kids play more and it’s almost always too much.  Burnout shows up in a variety of ways and it is prevalent.  

[F250 28760]

30 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

15U but yea. Most tournaments have a 2-1-1 (in any order) pool play format. You do have to contend with weekday games (I guess unless you don’t care and they can drive themselves which most can’t until sometime sophomore year)

The jump used to be 14U to 16U with 16U being the equivalent of high school JV. I don't remember seeing 15U teams in the summer, it used to be a level for freshman that didn't make their H.S. team.

The weekday games were never an issue because of WFH. We'd usually stay at the same hotel and players would carpool from the hotel. The only real drawback was all the out of town travel. The only time it got rough was when one kid had to be in Atlanta and the other in Dallas.

[F250 28760]

28 minutes ago, Nigel Tufnel said:

Couple of thoughts here.  First: The high school format is significantly more expensive because they spread it out.  But they don’t really play more.  You go to Dallas, Atalanta, Hoover, and play one game Wed., Thurs., Fri., and keep going back to the hotel for the remainder of the day.  It can be frustrating.
 

Second: the kids play more and it’s almost always too much.  Burnout shows up in a variety of ways and it is prevalent.  

Yeah, high school summer ball costs escalate with more travel and longer stays.

Totally agree on the kid burnout. It isn't something that stands out until they hit high school and you notice that 11 year olds are being pushed harder than 17 year olds.

[UTPhil2006 3801]

13 hours ago, Mez2 said:

I posted earlier but bought one for my son when he was 7 years old and has been one of the best training aids I've made. He still uses it, so much that when he's in the on deck circle he uses it to prep for his AB. I am obviously biased but I think he has smooth swing, the rope bat helps reinforce good habits. Never too young to start building good habits, IMO. 

We played this weekend, moved up from AA to AAA at BBUSA.  didn't know how the boys would handle the bump up We blew a 4 run lead in the bottom half and lost in extras. 

 

Pressley has a kid?

[Surly Bevo 24908]

The jump used to be 14U to 16U with 16U being the equivalent of high school JV. I don't remember seeing 15U teams in the summer, it used to be a level for freshman that didn't make their H.S. team.
The weekday games were never an issue because of WFH. We'd usually stay at the same hotel and players would carpool from the hotel. The only real drawback was all the out of town travel. The only time it got rough was when one kid had to be in Atlanta and the other in Dallas.

I got a JR in HS. There was definitely 15U summer after Freshman year and fall of Sophomore year so maybe a more recent change.

And yea the out of town travel is more drawn out.