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mllcoach
6 Posts |
 Posted - 08/13/2009 : 14:54:05
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Friday night at 8:00 on ESPN Warner Robins will play in the Southern Region LL championship game. This park has won the last 3 state titles and won the LL World Series in '07.
I make it up to Willamsport every year. Most of the players there play LOT's of travel ball in addition to their Little League schedules.
I had a chance to chat with several of their parents this year during the state tourney and during pool play at region.
The interesting thing about Warner Robins is they don't play travel ball. Most of those kids play multiple sports and stick to LL for their baseball.
In my area we don't have kids that can afford to play travel ball to see the higher level competition, but we want to be able to compete at that level. Our top 4 are normally as good as anyone's, we're just not as deep.
Do you guys have thoughts on improving the level of play within an existing program? Anyone implemented any programs that have been successful?
Sorry if this is not the right place for this kind of conversation. Thanks for any help or ideas you have!
... Jeff
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teddy41
421 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2009 : 22:19:06
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| watching 12 year olds play on 60ft closed bases is absurd..you can get better just by going to regular size fields with open bases |
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C. MORTON
1051 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 07:47:36
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| I don't know if there is a thing is can't afford to play travel ball..There many different ways to raise money to play ball..If one wants to play there is a way!!!!!!!!!!! How much do you think each family spends during LL play and if you were to make it to the big DANCE what would that run?? once you add it all up you may be surprised at what you are spending to play LL when you could be playing travel..LL W.S. is only at 12's... |
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baseballpapa
1520 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 09:36:19
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Not that we would be interested but say for example the Bandits wanted to play Little League when they turn 12 years old. What are the rules. Is there a specific area and if there is what size area are we talking about. Most of this year all of kids lived in a 20 mile radius of each other but if not playing for the Bandits would have played rec ball at multiple parks.
Now that we have added the Gwinnett players it would not be possible but I was just wondering how restrictive the rules for LL are. I have always heard that the rules are almost impossible.
Anyone out there got the scoop on this. |
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ItsjustLLBBall
119 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 10:19:05
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| A buddy of mine coaches some of these kids in Warner Robbins and I stopped by to see him on the way down to Orlando and these kids are the real deal. I saw four kids pitch and they all threw 70+ and bombs were being hit left and right. I would put my money on Warner Robbins to win this easily |
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Infinity
33 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 16:04:51
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quote:
Originally posted by baseballpapa
Not that we would be interested but say for example the Bandits wanted to play Little League when they turn 12 years old. What are the rules. Is there a specific area and if there is what size area are we talking about. Most of this year all of kids lived in a 20 mile radius of each other but if not playing for the Bandits would have played rec ball at multiple parks.
Now that we have added the Gwinnett players it would not be possible but I was just wondering how restrictive the rules for LL are. I have always heard that the rules are almost impossible
Anyone out there got the scoop on this.
Find your park and extend the boundaries (zip codes) out where the population does not exceed 20,000. Not families but total population. If your boundaries start below 20,000 and eventually exceed 20,000 population you must create two charters out of the park meaning an American and National division where the talent is evenly split and you must have two separate all-star teams from each division. There can be no A team and B team. Yes LL enforces the rules. |
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mllcoach
6 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 16:23:41
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quote:
Originally posted by baseballpapa
Not that we would be interested but say for example the Bandits wanted to play Little League when they turn 12 years old. What are the rules. Is there a specific area and if there is what size area are we talking about. Most of this year all of kids lived in a 20 mile radius of each other but if not playing for the Bandits would have played rec ball at multiple parks.
Now that we have added the Gwinnett players it would not be possible but I was just wondering how restrictive the rules for LL are. I have always heard that the rules are almost impossible.
Anyone out there got the scoop on this.
Little League gives each park an area to draw from. The kids have to live in that area. During the regular LL season they have to play on multiple teams within the program and make at least 60% of their regular season games.
What many kids do (and we have a few as well) is make their LL games that are Monday through Thursday and play travel ball on the weekends.
It's actually a nice blend becuase then they get to be part of the lunch room conversations about the local league.
The size of the boundry varies greatly from program to program. Some parks in south Georgia may be two counties, whereas here in Metro Atlanta due to the populations around our park our boundries are often much smaller. |
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mllcoach
6 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 16:26:35
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quote:
Originally posted by ItsjustLLBBall
A buddy of mine coaches some of these kids in Warner Robbins and I stopped by to see him on the way down to Orlando and these kids are the real deal. I saw four kids pitch and they all threw 70+ and bombs were being hit left and right. I would put my money on Warner Robbins to win this easily
I drive up to Williamsport every year. They have 5 F1's that would be as good as anyone's number 2 and they hit the ball as well as any 12U team I've seen. What they don't have is that dominate F1 throwing low 80's that some of the guys in Williamsport will have.
You never know in a single elimination tourney (baseball just should not be single elim), but WR is VERY good. |
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mllcoach
6 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 18:03:39
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quote:
Originally posted by Infinity
Find your park and extend the boundaries (zip codes) out where the population does not exceed 20,000. Not families but total population. If your boundaries start below 20,000 and eventually exceed 20,000 population you must create two charters out of the park meaning an American and National division where the talent is evenly split and you must have two separate all-star teams from each division. There can be no A team and B team. Yes LL enforces the rules.
That's the old rule. LL changed two years ago due to the large number of waiver requests they had to process. For example our boundry has over 100,000 people, but we only have about 300 kids in our program. The problem is 1) a large elderly population around us and 2) two VERY large non Little League programs that are right around us.
We would submit the waiver every year to only have 1 division and got it approved.
2 years ago LL went through and set everyone's boundry based on current maps and decided if the park would be 1 or 2 divisions. After that point you don't have to do the cencus count and waiver every year, but you can't change your map any longer without charter committee approval.
I agree LL DOES enforce it's rules.
The Illinois team a couple of years ago was a travel team from all over the state. They actually convinced several of the families to move into the same LL chartered area to make a run at Williamsport.
I want to ask the original question again. If you wanted to take a local LL park and really improve the level of play to make a run at Williamsport, where would you start?
My thoughts are :
1) You have to start at the lower age groups. It's almost "to late" to start with the 11's and 12's.
2) If you wanted to win sooner I guess you could take the Illinois route and recruit travel ball players in the area for a chance to make a run at Williamsport.
3) If you started with the younger age groups, my thought is it all begins with coaching. In a rec park most coaches are Dad's that are handed a bag. How do you give them the skills necessary to be successful or how do your recruit experienced coaches?
4) If you have the coaches, building committment from parents in a rec setting can be difficult as well. Warner Robins does not play travel ball, but I can tell you they do more than 1 practice and 2 games as week as well.
Thoughts????? |
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stevebrewster
26 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2009 : 20:23:47
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| How tall is the first baseman Broughten? He is HUGE! |
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b-ball
1 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2009 : 08:48:31
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| Warner Robbins wins!! |
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Storm Baseball
212 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2009 : 11:28:23
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Boy, did that blown call (when the ball hit the runner) help them...but that is part of baseball!
Congrats! Some luck is better than no luck!!! |
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oldschooldad
203 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2009 : 13:01:34
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quote:
Originally posted by mllcoach
quote:
Originally posted by ItsjustLLBBall
A buddy of mine coaches some of these kids in Warner Robbins and I stopped by to see him on the way down to Orlando and these kids are the real deal. I saw four kids pitch and they all threw 70+ and bombs were being hit left and right. I would put my money on Warner Robbins to win this easily
I drive up to Williamsport every year. They have 5 F1's that would be as good as anyone's number 2 and they hit the ball as well as any 12U team I've seen. What they don't have is that dominate F1 throwing low 80's that some of the guys in Williamsport will have.
You never know in a single elimination tourney (baseball just should not be single elim), but WR is VERY good.
I have an older son play LL years ago. He was a very big kid at 12 - 6' 1" and throw very hard. I find to extremely hard to believe that many 12 years kids can throw 70+. Low 80's -- no way.
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mllcoach
6 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2009 : 20:49:34
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quote:
Originally posted by oldschooldad
I have an older son play LL years ago. He was a very big kid at 12 - 6' 1" and throw very hard. I find to extremely hard to believe that many 12 years kids can throw 70+. Low 80's -- no way.
If you believe the ESPN gun that's what they throw. Last year it was SS from the Lake Charles LA team. ESPN consistantly showed him at 81/82. In '06 it was the Carter kid from Columbus. They showed him at 78ish.
Now with that said my son had a gun on the Warner Robins kid when we were in West Virginia. His gun got him at 67/88. ESPN's gun the other night was showing him at 70/71.
My Dad is disabled, so we sit right behind home plate in Williamsport. I can tell you the kid from LA last year broght the ball much better than any kid I've seen this year. |
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bball2008
100 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2009 : 21:31:53
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| Not sure why Little League has not changed its rules for 12u at this point. 46' mounds, 60' bases, 205' fences and no lead-offs are antiquated rules for this age group. These kids are only a year and a half from 60'6" mounds, 90' bases and 300+' fields. |
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Dr. Old School
314 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2009 : 21:38:18
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oldschooldad,
We had a couple of kids that threw in the upper 70's last year at 12U. Saw at least one at Cooperstown that was throwing 80+. It happens quite frequently these days. |
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AllStar
762 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2009 : 17:38:07
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quote:
Originally posted by mllcoach
The interesting thing about Warner Robins is they don't play travel ball. Most of those kids play multiple sports and stick to LL for their baseball.
In my area we don't have kids that can afford to play travel ball to see the higher level competition, but we want to be able to compete at that level. Our top 4 are normally as good as anyone's, we're just not as deep.
Do you guys have thoughts on improving the level of play within an existing program? Anyone implemented any programs that have been successful?
Sorry if this is not the right place for this kind of conversation. Thanks for any help or ideas you have!
... Jeff
I guess the real questions are what they do after their 12 YO season and are the boys that want to advancing to the next level, i.e. HS? If so, then you've got the right equation for your population. My son loves playing travel, but it's not the be all, end all. It's just that that's where the action is in this area. It's LL in your area. Enjoy.
edit: Good lesson for all of us that think our boys need to be playing for world championships as soon as they are potty trained. The golfer that just stared Tiger down started playing when he was 19. |
Edited by - AllStar on 08/16/2009 21:07:31 |
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clg003
79 Posts |
Posted - 08/18/2009 : 14:37:29
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| I am worried about Warner Robbins pitching. They appear to be a sound team but the lack of 70+ mph pitchers will hurt them. I am saying this because neither or the kids that pitched in their regional championship game were going 70+. The starter hit 70 one time and most of his pitches were 68 and to close the game out which was kid of close at that point they brought in the big who kid threw one 72 pitch but everything else was about 68 as well. He had no breaking pitch and had real accuracy concerns. They said they had no real ace either so that tells me those guys were as good as anyone else they had. It seems like this series comes down to who has the better pitcher on the mound because no one can really hit 75 from 46 feet and you know the Asian teams are going to have that guy on the mound. |
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mllcoach
6 Posts |
Posted - 08/18/2009 : 15:33:57
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quote:
Originally posted by clg003
I am worried about Warner Robbins pitching. They appear to be a sound team but the lack of 70+ mph pitchers will hurt them. I am saying this because neither or the kids that pitched in their regional championship game were going 70+. The starter hit 70 one time and most of his pitches were 68 and to close the game out which was kid of close at that point they brought in the big who kid threw one 72 pitch but everything else was about 68 as well. He had no breaking pitch and had real accuracy concerns. They said they had no real ace either so that tells me those guys were as good as anyone else they had. It seems like this series comes down to who has the better pitcher on the mound because no one can really hit 75 from 46 feet and you know the Asian teams are going to have that guy on the mound.
They said they don't have an ace, but they do. He threw in the Semi's against Tenn and was avlb in that game. He throws low 70's with a little better control that what you saw the other night.
With that said, he is not the dominate F1 that you normally see out of the eventual champs. That was the point I was trying to make up the thread a bit. They are much deeper in pitching than the other teams, but they don't have that one guy that will just take over a ball game. |
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Warner Robins Baseball
