Son attended his first baseball showcase for 2019/2020 graduates. He is a 2020 kid so I know it is early but it was local and I thought it would be a good experience. Saw a 2020 kid hit 81 four times and then hit a ball out dead center on a 390 field. There are some freaks out there.

My kid had the fastest pop time of the 2020 kids at 2.18. All of his throws were to the bag so that was good. He didn't run well at all. He got a bad start and kind of stumbled after the bad start. Ended up like 9.4 in the 60. He's not very fast but I figure he cost himself a full second. His hitting was pretty average. He hit a few line drives back off the screen and hit a few line drives in both gaps, but he also rolled over a few and hit weak ground balls. By the time he pitched we had been there for almost 6 hours and he had been catching some before that. That part pissed me off, they should have pitched first, especially the catchers. He was sitting 67 which is about 3-5 off from where he normally sits. Command was excellent though with all three pitches.

It was a good and bad experience. I thought the showcase was run poorly and it was more of a money grab for them. Plus, the numbers for this class really don't mean much since the players are so young, but I knew that going in. It was good to get him out of his comfort zone and see him get up to bat with 50-60 good players right on the field all watching him hit. His high school tryouts will be next year so I think this was a good prep.

Back in the day the best player on my (contact) minis rugby team was a girl from age 7 till they split the sexes at ~11.

Not just rural places. My niece likes basketball. But as a 13-year old girl, there are no local girls basketball teams (at least none that are reasonably priced). So she plays as the only girl in a boys league.

At least she'll be able to play girls basketball when she gets to HS.

I have really no idea why her middle school doesn't have girl's basketball, though. I know that my daughter's middle school had girl's basketball, soccer, softball, and volleyball.

You're an ignorant redneck from Alabama. Its not your fault.



Hopefully you'll grow up to be a productive member of society.

lmao

Nice, sounds like he did well. What is pop time?

wouldn`t 18 months be considered middle aged in Detroit? A little late to start doing sports if you ask me.

The irony. It is strong.

Meh. He's just not privy to the joke. But too bad he's done here. I bet soon he was gonna regale us with highlights of high school tennis hijinx. We'd all much rather hear those stories than about... kids of SEers.

It is the time it takes the ball to travel from the moment it hits the catchers mitt until it hits the 2nd baseman's glove. It is one of the big components of playing catcher. My son is good at that and receiving the ball. He is a 5'11" 13 year old so he struggles blocking at times. He has to keep working at that.

He's got like 14 more years to work on blocking. A standout pop time is exciting.

Sounds like dude's gonna be a beast.

Are you worried about him playing catcher? They suffer a lot more wear and tear on their bodies, especially on the knees. They also play a lot less games. Due to the damage on their bodies they usually hit worse than other positions and if he ever wants to try and go pro then he'd get paid less most likely. Think of Bryce Harper, he was a C but the Nationals clearly knew having him at a different position was much better for him.

I have no aspirations of him playing pro or even college. If he wants to play college ball and he is good enough some day, then good for him. As far as playing catcher it is a double edged sword. He gets the crap beaten out of him. Two years in a row he has broken his thumb. On the flip side it is a premium position and outside of being a stud pitcher, it is the easiest and quickest way to get on the field, if you are good at it. Everyone is looking for pitchers and catchers. He also pitches and plays 3b, SS, and some 1b so C isn't his only spot. My main concern with him is his arm. He also plays QB so that is a ton of throwing between the two sports. We have suffered a lot of rain outs this year which has probably been a blessing.

Honestly, his best shot of playing college ball will probably be in football. He is at a football crazy school that has produced a lot of D1 QB's. The kid two classes in front of him just received his first D1 offer and he is going into the 10th grade and may not even win the QB job.

I look back on summers as a kid and if I didn't throw 300 or 400 pitches at the wall it must have been pouring rain.

Cadence played 1st base in the final inning of our tee-ball game today. We've recorded roughly 25-30 outs at 1st base on the year I'd say. We've been getting 2 or 3 per game lately.

Anyways, there's a grounder hit up the first base line. She charges about 8-10 ft then stops, seeing that the kid playing pitcher is going to beat her to it. Kid gets it and then throws it to Cadence. Probably by freak luck, she catches it in the air. This is the first time on the season that we've thrown a ball to first and had it caught. When she catches it, she immediately turns around and starts sprinting towards 1st base. The kid had a step lead on her, but she beats him to the bag by a half step. It was crazy, the very first sign of baseball instincts kicked in I think. A month ago after catching the ball she would have looked at me to find out what to do.

Blake lasted 2 of the 3 innings today before he retired to the stands with my parents to enjoy a ring pop. He is BY FAR the best contact hitter on the team. Today he had 2 at bats, and took 3 pitches to put it in play twice. His second at bat he hit a pop up that went half way to the outfield, probably 20 or so feet. For being only 3, I think he's still a top 10 hitter in the league. He refuses to keep his glove on and play defense though, and constantly whines to get out of playing defense. Hopefully his mental stamina improves a lot between now and next spring.

We only have 2 games left in our 16 game season. It really has flown by. I'm debating on coaching a team for the fall. It would be another 16 game season. I probably won't though. Maybe a 30% chance I do it. Definitely going to have batting practice 2-3 times a week though until it starts getting too cold.

my 9U travel team gettin it done in league play, pretty boring tbh. moving up to 10U with them in the summer/fall even though half the team is 8.

G10 these writeups are fantastic

Dimensions you guys use? Leadoffs?

This is a situation I want to stay on top of as my kids get older, when to get them out of little league and into travel.

What does a normal month look like for you, travel/practice/game wise?

9s is 46 ft mound, 60 ft bases. no leading. usually at 11 they go to 50/70 with leading in travel. same at 12, then at 13 its 60/90.

divided into spring/summer/fall - kids can play any combination or all 3

winter: 1x a week practice (jan-march)
spring: 1x a week practice, doubleheader every sunday (april-mid june) plus 3 tournaments
summer: 2-3 games or practices per week, short season (mid june-end of july)
fall: similar to spring

altogether btwn spring and summer like 40 games total

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g10 or anyone else - feel free to pm me any questions about any of this youth baseball crap as it's my fulltime jerb

must be niceeeeeeeeeee!

Is it hard to find 50/70 fields? I remember exactly zero of those when I was that age.

Some are popping up now but most are just either 60/90 with a temporary fence or no fence, or 46/60 with the bases back a few feet. The mound situation obviously blows as there won't really be any good 50/70 mounds unless it's a dedicated field. Or a tournament on turf that has really good movable mounds

We received the official feedback/scores from the showcase and there were some pretty big surprises. He was rated a 7 at hitting with 8 being the highest rating possible. He was one of only four kids that received a 7. He did not hit well enough to earn a 7, so I'm not sure what they saw in him at the plate they liked so much. On the flip side he was rated a 4 on pitch command, when I thought his command was excellent. He ran a 9.08 60 which is faster than I thought given his terrible start. I would guess he could run around an 8.0 60 at the moment if he had a normal start. Pop time came in at 2.24. His release and footwork are pretty good and that number should improve as his arm gets stronger. His goal is to start Varsity as a 9th grader so he needs to get the pop time down to 2.0 or less or get his velocity up to at least 80 in the next 18-20 months to have a chance.

We have our last game today in less than an hour. Can't believe the season flew by that fast. I only have 2 of my 9 kids moving up to farm next season, so my team should be ready to white wash every team in the league next year, as we are probably the best right now.