A Team or B Team - ruling on where to play?

[Pizmaster]

Our league is 1+ weeks into the season. Within our county, most teams are fielding more than 1 team. However, there is one school/area that is only fielding 1 team. Is there an official ASA rule or other that states whether this team should be following an A or B schedule.

Perhaps this sounds like sour grapes, but the majority of the girls on this particular team appear very experienced and also appear to be at the upper part of the age for our 12U league. They are playing a B schedule against many girls who are just old enough to be on a 12U team and who are in many cases beginning players.

If there is no official rule, than should I just assume the coaches for that team decided to give their girls a boost to their ego. My opinion is that his girls are learning nothing from this as their is no competition between his team and any team that he plays.

Thanks,
Mr. Piz

 

[WinThemAll]

It is my understanding that while there are guidelines for determining whether a team is A or B in ASA in some areas they are not clear cut, or seldom enforced depending on the state/metro association.
Recalling from memory, for teams to be classified B the players must be from the same league or geographical area. Which sounds like the case with the team you are talking about.

Sometimes coaches just plain make a mistake in classifying the team not realizing how strong the team is going to be.
Yes, there are teams that just plain trophy hunt and want to go to the state tournament, national tournament and beat up on weaker teams. Little do they sometimes understand what a disservice they are doing to the players down the road. Plus there are usually 10 or so teams that do the same thing which end up defeating the whole purpose of "B". In my opinion there should be no "B" nationals/world series. They should be called invitations because there are really no actual qualification processes, it just pay your money and go.

However, every once in a while a team has no choice but to play B. They may be in an area were there just is not any other same-liked competitive teams.

I currently coach a second year 12U team, we try our best to find the best competition to play each tournament/season. We are registered A but in no means an outstanding team, we are good for our area. But every once in a while, we accidentally get in the wrong tournament. Then sometimes you just can't travel two hours each weekend to play.

Like this weekend, we choose to travel to play in a tournament that was in a metro area. Some of the players went Friday night and stayed in a hotel. I chose to get up at 4 a.m. and drive the two hours and planed to stay Saturday night for the two-day tournament.
Well, got the first game in, in the rain and mud before the tournament was called for the day and ultimately cancelled for the weekend. So basically $300 each for many of the players families who stayed two nights for one game. You can only do that for so many weekends to go find competition.
Tournament Director was great! Did everything they could do. Our team made the best of it by shopping, eating, swimming or just hanging out at the hotel. They are basically just use to it and deal with it, but it does suck. They are not rich people but know and understand that is just the cost sometimes. (Love my parents!!!)

We could have stayed closer, saved $$$, played local teams and sometimes we just have to. When we do, we might get one competitive game while using the other games to work on other things.

So before you throw the other team under the bus, maybe try to understand where they are coming from and then move on. You cannot control what the other teams do.

Like I have learned, quit worrying about the other teams, work at making the team better. Play the game one pitch at a time, one out at a time, one inning at a time.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Pride makes good points. Problem is an area may only have 1-4 true A teams, and 10+ B teams. So a tourney director finds it easier just to have one class level and all play in it.

State around here usually divide them up pretty good A/B, but that's mostly a coach's call, there isn't any "enforcement".

A lot of times the A teams just advance faster........better coaching, conditioning, practice, experience. I've also seen B level teams/players at 10-12u aspire to the A level at 14+.

Best advice is find a tourney that you feel meets your teams playing level, check who's entered. We'd wait until almost the deadline to play in a tourney that would push us. And like Pride said, cost and distance away factor in those decisions.

 

[Phathead]

I posted last yr I think on this. We are a low B. I don't have problems with A teams playing in the tourny. I do have problems with them trophy hunting. There is an A team I run into some and I enjoy playing that team. He knows me and my team. He uses the game to give a lower pitcher some work and maybe some players time in new positions. He beats me but the game is generally some what competive instead of a blow out. My girls get pleanty of work.

 

[MTR]

Our league is 1+ weeks into the season. Within our county, most teams are fielding more than 1 team. However, there is one school/area that is only fielding 1 team. Is there an official ASA rule or other that states whether this team should be following an A or B schedule.

Perhaps this sounds like sour grapes, but the majority of the girls on this particular team appear very experienced and also appear to be at the upper part of the age for our 12U league. They are playing a B schedule against many girls who are just old enough to be on a 12U team and who are in many cases beginning players.

If there is no official rule, than should I just assume the coaches for that team decided to give their girls a boost to their ego. My opinion is that his girls are learning nothing from this as their is no competition between his team and any team that he plays.

Thanks,
Mr. Piz

"Officially" an A team is basically a travel team. They do not have to travel for tournaments, but they can. They can also draw their roster from anywhere, there are no geographical or participation limitations. However, by code, a B team roster is restricted to a particular league/conference/association. It can be a league team or an all-star team. That is by the code.

In the real world, some commissioners dub less-talented travel teams as B so they can be, at least in their minds, competitive and still travel even though the team may not meet the code specs.

 

[Coach-n-Dad]

I have seen some TD's set pool play up like all teams are equal and seed the teams into 2 or 3 different brackets based on pool results, each with their own winner; ie. gold bracket, silver bracket, bronze bracket.

 

[CoachKevin]

In my neck of the woods there are A Tournaments (not that many), B Tournaments (a lot) and Open Tournaments (quite a few). B teams that enter into an Open Tournament often play A teams, typically run ruled. Although the OP sounds more like a League and not Tournament Ball, in which case what is that team supposed to do?

 

[TouchMint]

Isnt it usually up to tournament/league commissioner/officials? If a team is just killing it in B and clearly has A players shouldn’t someone with the league step in and move them up? That’s how every league I have ever played in worked.