Example of 12U coach pitch calling--please, don't be this guy.

[Westwind]

OsDad- my older dd was comparatively small to the other kids at that age. She absolutely loved sb though.

She ended up being a really nice player at the towering height of 5’7”. She was the lead off that everyone said “watch the bunt” but she was looking to hit the ball hard. I wouldn’t say she had a chip on her shoulder about her size but she wasn’t a kid that was going to sit around and wait for success.

Man, I wish I could go back to the age your dd is with both of mine. I would enjoy it so much more than I did the first two times, lol.

 

[OsDad]

Agreed she'll be fine.

I'm just trying to get a feel for A-ball vs. B-ball and I suppose the line is pretty blurry.

Around here, the "A" designation in USSSA may as well just be a "?" instead of an A, to be honest. I'm not trying to denigrate USSSA, but that's almost the only thing we have in the greater Oklahoma City metro (aside from one Triple Crown event and a couple of Top Gun events, that i can think of) so it's the only thing I can comment on.

 

[uncdrew]

Around here, the "A" designation in USSSA may as well just be a "?" instead of an A, to be honest. I'm not trying to denigrate USSSA, but that's almost the only thing we have in the greater Oklahoma City metro (aside from one Triple Crown event and a couple of Top Gun events, that iI can think of) so it's the only thing I can comment on.

Gotcha.

Around here, you get to self-identify. Want to be an "A" team, great. Pay your money, play the tournaments.

 

[_MIA_]

Around here, you get to self-identify. Want to be an "A" team, great. Pay your money, play the tournaments.

You do the same here for USSSA hence @OsDad 's comment. At 12U and below, there are typically very few A team's registered in USSSA but of those few, even less are A level on the national level. Above 12U legitimate class A teams don't typically play very many USSSA tournaments from what I can tell.

 

[_MIA_]

Agreed she'll be fine.

I'm just trying to get a feel for A-ball vs. B-ball and I suppose the line is pretty blurry.

This is one of the legitimate A teams in OK:

OK Impact Gold Premier - Mayhem

OK Impact Gold Premier - Mayhem. 597 likes. Impact Gold Premier-Mayhem is a highly successful set of youth athletes that love, live, and play the game at an extremely high level at 11 and 12 years old.

www.facebook.com

They have some FB live games on that page.

 

[_MIA_]

This is another one:

Tulsa Elite 07

Tulsa Elite 07. 635 likes · 53 talking about this. 12U competitive softball team

www.facebook.com

If you want to see the top 12U teams in the country, PGF has their championship games on youtube.

 

[_MIA_]

This kid is the ranked as the top 2020 graduate, she is going to OU next year (as a CF). In that video she was 12U. Go to 1:15 in the video, I will not rest until Marcela can make that play (will likely mean I will never rest..LOL!!)

 

[FP26]

Around here, the "A" designation in USSSA may as well just be a "?" instead of an A, to be honest. I'm not trying to denigrate USSSA, but that's almost the only thing we have in the greater Oklahoma City metro (aside from one Triple Crown event and a couple of Top Gun events, that i can think of) so it's the only thing I can comment on.

From what I have seen it is a "?" in most places. As you get to the upper ages, it isn't as much of an issue. When we started playing 23u there was no designation at all. All teams were listed as the same. At some events the 23u division would be combined with the Women's division so we would be playing against some players that were beyond college age.

I personally look at the whole "A/B" thing like I do "gold", "elite", and other buzzwords. When our team moved into the college showcase scene, we had considered adding "gold" to our team name. But the more we talked about it, the more we decided against it. We thought it would make a bigger impact when we started beating those "gold" and "elite" teams on the field. We liked the underdog label.

 

[texasheat]

BS that wasn't a question( question mark or not). I am a lot of things but stupid isn't one of them.

If you think that batter wasn't late on the fastball (e.g. what blowing away meant but you know that since..well see my next comment) in that AB then I will just have to agree with you due to your dd's superior age and hence your superior knowledge.

Sure she was late on 1 of them. OUT OF 4 thrown. That's a 25% rate of accuracy, yet you want to propose calling the same pitch and hoping that she deviates from her recent 25% accuracy rate and suddenly becomes accurate and throws 2 of them in a row for a strike. After throwing 1 out of 4. Doesn't sound like a great strategy to me and it sure doesn't make calling a different pitch a bad idea but again, I'm all ears. Seriously.

 

[_MIA_]

Sure she was late on 1 of them. OUT OF 4 thrown. That's a 25% rate of accuracy, yet you want to propose calling the same pitch and hoping that she deviates from her recent 25% accuracy rate and suddenly becomes accurate and throws 2 of them in a row for a strike. After throwing 1 out of 4. Doesn't sound like a great strategy to me and it sure doesn't make calling a different pitch a bad idea but again, I'm all ears. Seriously.

Since we are all about development ( you are the one who made the initial argument-starting comment about this) a 12U pitcher learning how to get a fastball over the plate for a strike when she needs to is probably pretty high up there no? A pitcher who can only get her CU over the plate isn't going to last very long in 12U nvm at the higher levels.

So yes throwing a fastball to a hitter who is really late on the FB is a good idea in my book in that situation at the 12U level both from a developmental perspective and a strategic perspective (she did get a hit in that AB right....? )

We can agree to disagree, that is fine. All I know is if my catcher in LL called a CU in that situation and then kept calling for it after I shook him off I would have called him up to the mound and smacked him upside the head...