Going into 14U I have some observations, and some questions maybe someone can answer. First, I am amazed at the number of teams still advertising themselves as "majors." Hopefully we all know who is who by now and no one is duped into spending a ton of $$ by that label. Not to say some of them were not competitive last year, ours included, but we also did not call ourselves "majors." There appeared to be only about 4 true majors teams in the metro area that consistently made it to the end in EVERY tournament. Teams made up almost entirely of post-pubescent giants. The only time someone else made it to the end was if one of those teams sat that one out. Why did many of those continue to play 13U when they could have moved up to 14U much earlier in the season and STILL would have outsized half the teams even in that age group? Gets boring to watch the same 4 over and over duking it out against each other every week. After the 1st month or so it seemed silly they didn't move up when it was apparent they had no real competition in their 13U age group.
Likewise I saw a good number of teams still playing down in D2 this past year that could easily have competed in D1, yet stayed with D2. Probably because even though "good" they knew there was little hope of knocking one of "those" teams out. Easier to be "those" teams themselves in D2?
Final observation.. saw the "B" or "C" teams of some of "those organizations" stepping it up at the end, only to then notice half the roster was kids from one of "those" teams. Not talking about a replacement for an injury, or an extra arm, or 1 stud to "help" boost the team a little, but half the team. So what happened to the kids who were actually on the B and C teams? Did they sit to allow the studs from the higher level teams take their place in the batting order or their spot in the field? And if so, why? To give the "illusion" that ALL of an organization's so-called "majors" teams are majors when really they are AAA? How did the kids who got benched feel about that? Did the kids from the top team not get enough playing time during their season? How does this serve anyone well?
So moving into 14, does this continue? Does anyone who has "been there done that" want to weigh in? When do the elite teams bypass their "age group" and start playing real competition? Or do we have to continue to face kids who could easily play 15 or 16U and get trounced? Or does the bigger field/heavier bats actually make that much of a difference with kids that are really that strong, big, and physically developed? |
Majors?
Posted - 07/31/2018 : 10:45:36
