| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| bigfan |
Posted - 03/02/2009 : 10:59:38
I see the ECB Stars and Southern Jags entered this tournament late and added even more credibility to the tournament. Any predictions? I'll start it off.
Roadrunners (Heard there loaded)
ECB Stars (Always Good)
ECB Longhorns (Lots of POP)
Southern Jaguars (Just win)
Sleeper: ECB 45's (Picked up the lefty from the Astros)
Which order I have no idea. Who might I be overlooking? |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| dramamama |
Posted - 03/11/2009 : 19:33:32
Great remarks Wolf. The first tourney of the season of course did not go without drama. Some parents and coaches do lose sight of why we are there. To sit in the stands and just take it all in and listen to some coaches belittle and scream at these 11 year old boys is disheartening. To see a parent and coach put there son on a field that has spent an hour throwing up in the restroom, to see a parent or coach yell at the umps and conduct themselves in a very unsportmanlike manner is such a dissapointment. What example is this setting for these boys? This is suppposed to be an opportunity for life lessons for these boys, the men in these coaching positions have a wonderful opportunity to make a difference in each one of these young minds and let's hope they use their noggins instead of their pride to keep it all in check. It's not always about finding the BEST HITTER THIS YEAR, or BEST FIELDER, it's about having the passion and the patience to work with the boys that want to be playing baseball that truly love it and have the dedication to work at getting better. Didn't someone once say "Baseball is 90% mental"
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| wolf20 |
Posted - 03/10/2009 : 21:46:54
Marinerfan you are right on point....
Mike, your Roadrunner Kids are a talented bunch and will surely be there in the end.
Ron, your Jags have my support because of how fundamental your teams have been over the last few years and the quality of coaching that you've shown.
But honestly none of us are actually on the field playing the game. This 11yr old group of ballers have unlimited potential in upcoming years. The one thing I'm watching is roster changes when the going gets tough. During the off season, teams are now going ALL over the place recruiting and making promises to parents and kids from the ages 8 & up. Then when things don't pan out, kids get cut or jump between teams and it just makes me wonder what all this Travel Baseball is really all about. Are these kids really being trained and coached? Are we as 35+ yr old adults looking to put a feather in our caps by living through these kids?
Heck, I don't know but it sure looks like the majority of the time its more about the adults than the kids.
Are we recruiting and then letting the kids win and we take all the credit and poke our Chests out or are we making a commitment for more then ONE YEAR to these kids and their parents and building something special like life long relationship.
AND WE COMPLAIN ABOUT PRO ATHLETES JUMPING FROM TEAM TO TEAM... AT LEAST THEY ARE GETTING PAID AND SETTING THEIR FAMILIES UP FOR THE FUTURE.
These are life lessons for these kids... let's not lose complete sight of that.
This is going to be a exciting year. I'm rooting for the kids!!!
BEST OF LUCK TO EVERYONE AND STAY HEALTHY |
| bigfan |
Posted - 03/10/2009 : 21:17:49
I saw some awful good teams this weekend and now I'm going to rank the one's I saw.
1. Southern Jags (can do it all)
2. Georgia Roadrunners (Jags were hot and better than score says)
3. ECB Stars (Worried about some injuries)
4. ECB Longhorns (had to play Stars)
These next one's are going to get there.
Mill Creek (fundamentally good)
Sharon Springs Spartans (more than I expected)
Renegades (watch this team)
ECB Braves (never give up)
N. GA Blazers (watch this team)
I know some advanced further than others but it's still early. |
| SpeedKills |
Posted - 03/10/2009 : 11:43:01
Looks like the JAGS played a great WEEKEND of baseball...I'm sure they may lose to some of the teams they played and some of them may lose to them again...Thats baseball...Play to win is what we do when we step on the field..Sometimes it doesn't work that way...Other times it does...Once again Congrats to the JAGS for being the Slugfest CHAMPIONS.....And good luck to all the teams that played this weekend...ELITE and NON ELITE........ |
| Marinersfan |
Posted - 03/10/2009 : 10:22:20
Wolf, that's pretty funny stuff. I certainly mean no disrespect to the Hobgood Extreme, they are a new team and trying to gel. It will take time and they had the Jaguars on the ropes and nearly sent them packing. (heck, the North Gwinnett Bulldogs almost beat the Jags in pool play). But its tough to say with a straight face that they played the weekend as a top 8 team out of those 28. Check the stats. In pool play they were 0-2, average runs .5, average allowed 9. Overall, average runs 3.5, average allowed 7.75. 1-3 on the weekend. Final 8??
Not sure what you are talking about regarding "elite teams." Check the board. Everyone had the Jaguars listed as an elite team. Most (except for a disgruntled one or two) had the other finalist, the ECB Stars listed as an elite team. Same goes for the Roadrunners. Elite Teams pretty much finished right around where most people expected.
I stand by my earlier prediction that the elite teams will be the Roadrunners, Stars, Jaguars, Mill Creek in no particular order. While its early in the season, based on the slugfest weekend, it looks like me and most others will be pretty close to spot on.
quote:
Originally posted by wolf20
No one will go undefeated that's a no brainer.... As far as arm problems, I don't think that any of the final 4 played 4 games on Saturday besides the Jaguars.
The Extreme was a very scrappy & athletic team worthy of being in the final 8 over some of the other teams... Just a bad draw.
Its always of interest when the "Elite" teams don't finish #1.
Nevertheless the season is just beginning and I'm sure there will be some roster moves as always.
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| wolf20 |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 17:03:43
No one will go undefeated that's a no brainer.... As far as arm problems, I don't think that any of the final 4 played 4 games on Saturday besides the Jaguars.
The Extreme was a very scrappy & athletic team worthy of being in the final 8 over some of the other teams... Just a bad draw.
Its always of interest when the "Elite" teams don't finish #1.
Nevertheless the season is just beginning and I'm sure there will be some roster moves as always.
|
| ecbstix |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 14:44:54
Great Tourny Jags! Alot of teams played well as mentioned before. Gonna be an interesting year! |
| Mike Corbin |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 11:27:13
Convienient to come on here after this weekend and talk that kind of smack. The Jaguars played well no doubt about it. But they can and will be beaten by some of the teams they beat this weekend! Wonder if you will still be talking the same when that does happen? |
| ronicard |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 11:19:11
Ron Smith and the Jaguars deserved to win because they did play solid fundamental baseball. We played our best game of the tournament (and probably about as good as we can play) and they still beat us in the last inning on a nailbiter. That team is very deep in pitching and good hitters. I'm not sure they have a lot of homerun hitters on that team, but every player hits the ball hard. After our game ended, Ron made a very classy move to come over and speak to my team and families to congratulate them on a game well played, which I thought showed outstanding sportsmanship.
I also have to say that I was incredibly impressed with Mike Corbin's team. We didn't help ourselves by making 7 errors in that game Friday night, but the Roadrunners are stacked with hitters. Jamai Jones is one of the best hitters I've ever seen at that age and Mike's team plays with a lot of class as well. They'll certainly make a lot of noise this summer in many tournaments to come.
All in all, a well run tournament. |
| Marinersfan |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 11:11:45
With 28 teams and all of the top 11U teams in the State in attendance, this one was as good as the hype, especially Sunday's bracket play. Here's my observations:
Best two teams in Georgia (Southern Jaguars and ECB Stars)were right where they should have been -- in the finals. It actually was a contest. Stars pitcher struck out 4 of the first 5 Jags batters but then came out of the game with an arm problem, and Stars used patchwork after that. Was a 3-2 nail biter until the bottom of the fifth when the Jags put a few more on the board to put it out of reach.
Both teams tore through the competition in Bracket play with very few runs scored against top notch competition. They can both compete on a national level without any doubt.
Roadrunners were in the final 4 as expected. Great team. Big extra inning win in the sweet 16 against the South Forsyth Renegades. Renegades had winning run in scoring position in two innings in a row.
5 of final 8 teams were from ECB. When is the last time that has happened? Not too shabby. Mill Creek played lights out in pool play but not so well the first time they came up against real competition (Jaguars).
Jaguars averted near disaster, rebounding from a close 7-6 win over Hobgood in Bracket play that would have sent them home to go through Mill Creek and Roadrunners back to back to get to the finals. Stars beat up on the Colt .45s number 1 pitcher, then had two pitchers (one new, one old) both throw 2 run complete games in the quarterfinals and semifinals. Jags pitcher through 6 in the finals.
Surprises:
Academy A's 1-2 on the weekend. Losses to EC Yankees and Suwanee. Take them off the list.
ECB Yankees making it to the final 8, ECB Braves to the final 4. Impressive
Sharon Springs Spartans winning their pool with virtually no runs allowed. Very good team.
All in all, great baseball. Congrats to the Jaguars for winning it and the Stars for being right there despite all the arm problems. |
| The One |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 10:34:55
Congrats to the 11 and under Jaguars. You played funadamental baseball all weekend and went through the competition like a hot knife through butter. Can't wait to see you match up against the Knoxville Stars in Border Wars!!!! |
| wolf20 |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 10:27:07
Really no contest at all. The Jaguars ran through the competition quite easily. Allowing only 13 runs in 7 games against supposedly the best competition in the state. East Cobb needs to be on ALERT!!! |
| bigfan |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 09:58:07
What a great tournament, I watched a lot of games and the best team won. Congrats Jaguars. They can pitch and hit like no team I've seen before.
Thanks to Doug Bailey and his crew for doing a great job |
| bruins1 |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 09:53:23
Congrats to all the teams that stepped it up and played in such a tough tournament, and especially those that went deep on Sunday. quote:
Originally posted by SpeedKills
Contrags to the Southern Jaguars
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| Mike Corbin |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 09:48:41
Yes, congratulations to the Jaguars! They played very well. Good combination of power, pitching and speed.
We were certainly proud of our boys (Roadrunners) as well. We certainly have some more work to do, but overall it was a good opening tournament of the year for us.
The Stars are very good and will be even better when they get all of their players healthy!
Other teams that played well were the EC Longhorns, EC Braves, Mill Creek, South Forsyth Renegades. I am sure that I am leaving someone out, but just my observations off the top of my head.
Lots of good pitching, lots of homeruns, and team still trying to knock off the rust a little. But overall a very good tournament! Thank goodness for the weather we had this weekend!!! |
| SpeedKills |
Posted - 03/08/2009 : 22:42:30
Contrags to the Southern Jaguars |
| C. MORTON |
Posted - 03/07/2009 : 09:09:49
WEll Friday nite is over is it looks like it went the way it should have went...Any surprises??? |
| bigfan |
Posted - 03/04/2009 : 19:29:58
Matt's explanation makes since to me this early in the year. No one knows who will win this thing but I bet they have the most points in USSSA come Monday.
Mike, don't worry it's probably you or Rusty
Good Luck to all and bring your sunscreen.
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| baseballpapa |
Posted - 03/04/2009 : 16:32:50
Matt, Thanks for the explanation. Makes perfect sense. It boils down to choices. We chose not to play exclusively USSSA as we enter any tournament that provides the top notch competition. One weekend that might be USSSA, the next Triple Crown, the next BPA, and the next AAU, and the next some other organization. In other words we had the choice to earn the USSSA points but chose something else and we understand the seedings now and agree that they are fair based on the choices we made and not some arbitrary decision by USSSA. Thanks again and we look forward to playing this weekend. |
| Mike Corbin |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 23:13:54
This is the response I got on this matter from the Georgia USSSA State Director:
Mike,
The entire system is set up to reward teams that have more USSSA Points. The more favorable pool seedings, the more favorable pool schedule, etc., etc. When a bracket is not square (4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, etc.), an uneven quantity of byes to pools will exist. When these situations occur, the byes are automatically issued starting with Pool A because that’s the pool the #1 seed (by USSSA Points) is in. The #1 seed should win their pool and thus receive the bye. If the #1 seed does not win their pool, then a team who upset the #1 seed is rewarded for the upset.
Obviously with a 28 team bracket (not square) there are only 4 byes and they are awarded to Pools A – D because that is where Seed #1 - #4 are. Of course this early in the season a lot of teams have zero (0) USSSA Points in which case the system seeds those teams by total random.
Since every team in the world has the same exact opportunity to earn USSSA Points…it’s perfectly fair system! If for some reason we only allowed certain teams the opportunity to earn USSSA Points at certain times, then it would be a different storey.
It all boils down to USSSA Points. The great thing about it is the points system rewards teams that play more USSSA which makes perfect sense because the Slugfest is a USSSA event.
I hope this clears things up for you.
For The Love Of The Game!
Matt T. Trebuchon
USSSA National Baseball Director
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| Goin Deep |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 22:03:30
I can understand both sides, however it is a DISTINCT advantage for those four teams for alot of reasons...This early in the season, that specific advantage would be pitching. The tourney format will force 3 teams to burn 6 innings of pitching to advance, while 4 other pool winners enjoy a burger and some youth baseball. It almost assume those 4 pools, and there winners, will be there in the end. At 11u, probably not going to happen. Always upsets, because these kids are unpredictable (for the most part) at best. |
| gohard |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 20:17:58
I posed the question to the tournament director and here was his response:
The short answer is we do not have any control over the format of the brackets. All USSSA tournaments use the national USSSA ISTS computer system that generates seeding, pool assignments based on that seeding and the bracket format. Therefore, if you play any USSSA tournament in the country with 28 teams, that is what the bracket will look like.
The goal of seeding tournaments is to hopefully achieve a match up of the two best teams in the tournament playing the championship game. Brackets assume that there will be no upsets and the higher seeded team will advance (we know upsets will happen). However, if you assume no upsets, the top four seeded teams entering the tournament would be the ones that would have a chance to earn the bye. Are those four the best teams in the tournament. Who knows this early in the season? Best on the USSSA seeding system they are the top four entering.
All that said, I can argue your side equally as well. This is just the USSSA rules.
Doug |
| OffSpeed |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 13:04:13
Mike, You make a valid argument. With larger tournaments and ones that have unbalanced brackets, the pool results should be viewed and sorted as a single list and in this case the top 4 teams (based on seeding criteria) from all teams should get the "Bye" spots.
While there are some minor efforts put forth to balance the Pools (various methods), it is assame to penalize an entire pool for being listed as 5, 6, or 7. |
| Learnpatience |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 09:31:59
Mike,
I agree with you. How can you arbitrarily pick the A,B,C, and D pools as the ones that get the by's as #1 seeds and ignore the E,F, and G pools?
Looks like the #1's in E,F, or G will have to either play at 3PM or 5PM on Saturday to make it to the 7PM game (#1 seeded games for other pools).
For those of you who want to take a gander at the pools/brackets, here is the link:
http://www.usssa.com/sports/Bracket.asp?Type=Winners&Tournament=510267
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| Mike Corbin |
Posted - 03/03/2009 : 00:46:46
If you go and look at the brackets for after pool play, how is it that 4 of 7 pool winners get by's to the second round? I don't see how you can reward 4 teams for finishing first in their pool but not the other 3. That doesn't seem right to me. If you are going to give 4 by's then seed out everyone after pool play and award the top 4 team the by's. Then at least everyone had a shot at it, not who it was "assigned" to.
Yes my team is one that will have to play an extra game. But I still would find it unfair that this was happening. I might not be as loud about it, but still find it wrong. |
