Pitchers playing down in the fall

[LostinNJ]

But those who complain about trophy hunters are sometimes those who are afraid that they won't win a trophy as a result. The presence of one great team or player shouldn't ruin anybody's day.

In this case, it was like David vs Goliath. We went into the tourney not expecting to win against club teams (we're a town travel team). These two pitchers looked like they were on top of you when she finished her pitch from 35 feet. The game was over before it began, our team was so intimidated.

My DD is dominant in our town travel league. Next year she can "play down" in the fall if she wants. My plan (for now) is to have her play 12U so she can get the kinks out and get used to the longer distance and bigger ball. I personally wouldn't want her to play 10U just so she can be the talk of the league / tournament. A sixth grader playing against 3-5 graders doesn't seem right to me, but I can see where there could be other reasons for playing down other than trophy hunting.

 

[JJsqueeze]

Fall is a free for all/developmental season, there are a lot of reasons a kid or team might play to the end of their eligibility. Maybe the 10U team lacks pitching so they take a girl who is still age eligible and have her throw until they recruit one.

I have seen a few threads that complain about similar things, but I have never seen a thread where someone diminishes their own team's win because the other team had younger girls playing up.

 

[canyonjoe]

Fall is a free for all/developmental season, there are a lot of reasons a kid or team might play to the end of their eligibility. Maybe the 10U team lacks pitching so they take a girl who is still age eligible and have her throw until they recruit one.

I have seen a few threads that complain about similar things, but I have never seen a thread where someone diminishes their own team's win because the other team had younger girls playing up.

If anything , I've witnessed more teams that had no business playing up without a winter of practice making the pool games a total waste of time.

 

[marriard]

Over time I have learned to not worry about anything but our own team and players and what is best for them. We'll continue our journey of being the best we can be no matter who is in the other dugout.

As others have said, there is good and bad reasons to play up, play down, transition to whatever, but they are personal/team based decisions and as long as they are doing it within the rules, then fine.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Fall is Fall. It has become competitive, when it wasn't originally supposed to be. Maybe girls just want to play with their friends.

 

[Sweet Lou]

We're a pretty good example. Our town had 2 teams of 12U consisting almost entirely of girls who will age up to 12U next year. But that also had a number of 10s who still wanted to play in the fall but weren't going to make either of the 12U teams and there simply weren't enough 8s moving up and 9s to fill a 10U team. Our roster is 1-8, 3-9s, 8-10s. My DD is one of the 9s and one of the 10s quit over lack of Sunday playing time.

We basically have 1 pitcher who could probably hold her own at 12s and is a very good 10U pitcher but didn't make either 12U fall team she tried out for and a few pitchers who are average 10s.

We've faced teams mostly 8s & 9s playing up that we smoked, teams that are like us and we have good competitive games, and a handful of teams who had A ball pitchers playing down that simply shut us down.

Overall it's been a good experience and the majority of teams we played were similar makeup to ours.

 

[collinspc]

If you are talking fall tournament ball then the older kids are still playing in their age bracket for this year. If you are talking "fall ball", then that is typically designed to have the kids play the division that they will be in come spring time. Fall ball is a learning season for those kids. Two completely different groups. DD was asked to play down in township fall ball this year as they didn't have enough kids to play 12U. We politely declined as I didn't feel it would benefit her and in my opinion be dangerous for some of the other younger girls fielding.

 

[Momo'sDad]

In this past weekend's tourney, I noticed that there were several teams, including the finalists on my DD's age group (10U) with pitchers who were eligible in the fall for the age group but will not be eligible in the spring. Some of these girls were developed and approaching my height - 5'7". I consider this "playing down" if you believe the fall is the warm up to the spring season for the team.

Is this common? Is it a trophy hunting mentality by the team and/or parents?

Wouldn't you want the fall for your pitcher to adapt to the bigger ball / longer distance against live batters, even if she's less successful? I would think that would make her better prepared for the spring season.

If your team got to play against older, stronger players, wasn't this to your team's benefit? I would like every player in the game to always be trying to get better, but my primary concerns are my DD and her team, so the tougher the challenges they face, the better it is for them as they move forward.

Each program has different goals, though, and I don't get to decide what another team's goals ought to be.

 

[Sweet Lou]

If you are talking fall tournament ball then the older kids are still playing in their age bracket for this year. If you are talking "fall ball", then that is typically designed to have the kids play the division that they will be in come spring time. Fall ball is a learning season for those kids. Two completely different groups.

I guess we don't really have fall ball by us then. It is tournament ball or nothing.

 

[dbronstein]

We play rec and our fall league is more competitive than the spring league. I know it's ironic to talk about the competitiveness of rec ball, but the fall league is much better run and the quality of play is higher (because everyone's had the experience from the spring). There was one team in our just-completed fall league that was an 8U team playing up because they wanted to do player pitch and that was their only option, and there were a lot of 10u teams (including us) who are moving to 12U in the spring. Most of the teams consider the spring league to be a tuneup for the fall league.