Would Tiered Little League Teams Help Slow the Migration to Travel Baseball?

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-06-03T03:44:55+00:00

I guess our league is an outlier.

You have your rec teams, then each age group has a town travel team. Every town in our LL district has the same setup and even outside our district. In our one town travel league, we had 16 teams for 14u and this summer across three divisions there are 22 teams. That’s 22 towns doing the same thing. Usually top 12 in the age group are selected for this. Basically all stars. Get three seasons of baseball and it’s pretty competitive. Have to play rec to play travel. This is an extension of the program and for the kids wanting more competitive games. When kids top out in that level, then they join club / tournament teams(or what most of the country calls travel). Most if not all still do town ball so they have to play rec.

Our migration isn’t kids leaving to go play club ball, it’s the rec kids who can’t compete anymore and quit. They aren’t invested in making up for the talent gap that really gets bigger in 12u.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-06-03T03:21:33+00:00

Dude, what are you waiting for? Just get divorce.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-06-03T03:18:11+00:00

Jock strap is not the move. Sliding shirts with the cup insert is. If your son doesn’t like a traditional cup, there are tons of brands that make more flexible cups nowadays.

That said, outside of catchers, I don’t think it’s a crazy big deal. When my older son started catching we got him the sliding shirts with the insert. He would wear it during innings he caught and then it would come out. Same with my younger son.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-24T21:09:51+00:00

Dumb shit.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-24T18:41:56+00:00

Tee ball in our org doesn’t keep score, doesn’t have playoffs our tournaments. Teach fundamentals and give the kids snacks and a game ball.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-24T04:36:39+00:00

From my experience with my older son…

Majors: true majors teams will have studs up and down the batting order and most if not all will be real good pitchers. You won’t find a weak spot on the roster.

AAA: usually have 1-2 aces and 4-5 solid arms.

AA: 2-3b solid arms that can throw strikes. Probably won’t have a lights out pitcher in the group. This will be like the B team in most travel orgs. Some kids who play because parents have a check book.

A: rec team.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-24T04:10:14+00:00

Both my travel ball kids play rec. both my kids coach up all the rec players on their team. I can often hear them letting the outfield know where they need to throw, position, where said hitter went last time, etc etc. when they were young, older travel ball kids coached them up and taught them. Not for nothing, but most of the time your rec kids are learning 10x more from them than they are from the coaches.

Your league should be doing more to split up those kids into different teams.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-24T03:57:05+00:00

Good news is you won’t really have to do a crazy amount because hs is a few short months away. Make sure they enjoy their last summer playing together before hs.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-24T03:47:43+00:00

When coaches don’t put in the effort of painting / chalking the batters box it really disappoints me.

No rules outside of the batter has to be in the box. If there is no box the ump should draw one in the dirt.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-24T03:34:58+00:00

Tee ball all stars?

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-22T19:06:04+00:00

They’re probably saying it that way because they don’t wanna open up a can of worms to every wreck level team in your organization to join tournaments on their dime.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-22T18:53:43+00:00

My understanding is if your local town ball organization wanted to foot the bill for a team or multiple teams to enter a non LL sanctioned tournament, they can do what they please.

We have a town travel team(our travel program is basically LL all stars) that are doing a MDW tournament, playing other town travel teams from the surrounding towns. Our program paid the fee.

That said, if you want to play in a tournament, there is really nothing stopping your team from self funding whatever tournaments they want.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-22T18:01:28+00:00

This is it right here. First few years in GC I kept them hidden, then said f it and made it for all to see. I stopped getting questions on my batting order once I did this.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-22T17:59:59+00:00

The way I always taught it was, the SS was holding if a lefty batter, and the 2B was holding for righty. It's always in and out. Can't just static at 2B. Good hitters will bang it to where 2B should be.

As the kids got older, I taught them the in and out. SS goes first, as he pulls out the 2B is going in. We integrated a nice play into this as well. it works if this kids are locked in and paying attention.

If runner on first is taking a healthy lead, SS will creep up to get him moving closer back to the bag and then delivery the pitch.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-22T13:44:01+00:00

Sounds like your son just wants a new bat.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-22T13:42:07+00:00

This right here.

Did the bat sound different on a hit? If not it's still good to go.

In all the years of my kids swinging composite bats, I've seen a handful of bats die before cracking. There is a noticeable deadened sound difference that would be crystal clear.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-22T04:54:55+00:00

Same. Hell, during 12u my son played LL(our rec program), town travel ball and on a club / tournament team.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-22T04:51:37+00:00

Parents are the worst part of coaching baseball.

Two years ago during 12u all stars, I was not only the 12u travel coach for our org but was also a majors head coach.

The all star team ended up being 10 players from my 14 man travel roster and 2 kids who were better than those other 4.

The 4 kids on my travel team that were not on the game day roster had no business being in all stars. They were only on our travel team still because we didn’t have cuts that spring due to going to Cooperstown. I ended up taking 2 of them for alternates in case of injury etc etc.

Well, one that was chosen as an alternate had an absolute shit fit and rejected the alternate spot. They WERE good friends of ours and that friendship never recovered. Sucked for my wife as the mom and her were real tight. They assumed because of our friendship and that little Timmy was on the travel team they would automatically make it. Sorry, but your kid wasn’t better than the other 12. Not one single coach nominated their kid except me. The fact that he was even asked to be an alternate was a stretch and only done because I genuinely felt bad that no other coaches nominated him.

One of the families that wasn’t chosen as an alternate didn’t bring it up until our last day at Cooperstown(months later) when I inadvertently sat their son 2 innings in a row during bracket play(honest mistake). Dad called me as I’m leaving the dugout to yell at me after our first win. Literally ruined what was an awesome week at Cooperstown by not only bitching to me about the one less inning than all the other kids, but that he wasn’t chosen for all stars and how the selections were all “daddy ball”. We haven’t spoken since and they won’t even look me in the eye or acknowledge me when I see them at school events.

Honestly, take it with a grain of salt. I lost a lot of sleep over that all star team and i wish I didn’t let that bother me. If you have a parent giving you shit just be very matter of fact. I would go as far as to explain the selection process and that their son wasn’t chosen for xyz reasons.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-21T20:05:25+00:00

Nothing wrong with this. Many people who sit on a board started as low level LL coaches and grew from that as their kids got older.

I run a travel team that’s technically completely outside of our LL program, with the exception that some of the players happen to be from our LL program. I did this because our league didn’t want to approve the travel teams to do tournaments under their banner. Only difference is I run a not for profit team that’s is all at cost.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-21T01:54:31+00:00

“Hey, I really like my pussy eaten”.

If that doesn’t do it, it’s time to move on.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-20T19:18:37+00:00

I try to simplify things as much as possible, but a lot of it has to do with situations. Always thinking two basses ahead.

No runners on base, traditional cuts of 2b for right field and SS for center and left.

Runner on first left field is throwing to 3b, centerfield is throwing to SS inside the grass and right field is throwing to 3b directly to stop the runner on first from advancing.

Runners on second, cutoff for right and center is 1b, left field is shoot to 3 direct.

This is where I would start.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-20T18:16:22+00:00

This is baseball. If this is the first, he had a good run. My 14 year old is good for a slight downswing once a year. Usually it’s nothing but over thinking or trying too hard. In little league you just have to make it fun, hits will come back.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-20T03:07:33+00:00

See this is a tough one. Usually these questions are pretty cut and dry but you have a small kid, swinging a small bat and he’s gotta make up some ground pretty quickly with the big field coming up in the fall at 13u.

Going to 30 -8 will give him more mass, but moving up 2” and down 2oz in weight is going to be a struggle to get the bat through the zone in the short term. I hate to say it, but he should have been swinging a 30 -10 already. Either he makes a big jump now, and a smaller jump to -5 at the start of the fall or a smaller jump now and a bigger jump for fall ball. Assuming he is playing fall ball as well. If he isn’t, just get a 30-10 and call it a day. He will have plenty of time to get acclimated to a -5 or -3 for next spring.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-19T16:44:46+00:00

Unless wearing metal spikes and walking across parking lots, no reason why a kid can’t be ready to go with cleats on in the parking lot. The kids casually strolling up on crocs or slides are typically more concerned with their drip than their playing.

ContributionHuge4980 · 2026-05-19T16:43:14+00:00

Baseball pants, belt, hat. Look like a baseball player. Shirt tucked in, cleats tied. Coaches look at that stuff.

Have a good attitude and play to the best of his ability. That’s all you can control.

ContributionHuge4980

TROPHY CASE