#1 Reason Teams Lose

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Nov 29, 2009
2,975
83
You'll usually lose when you play above your level. A few years ago I had a team that was in all honesty a B level. However we had a schedule of nothing but A, Gold and a couple opens. (My theory was "we won't get better playing low level competition" ) We lost the first 15 games straight. We would compete and stay close but we'd always come up short a run or two. Our first win came in an open tournament against a sanctioned B level team...
Team became disfunctional and parents non stop chatter ate away the team. That season dissolved right before our world series trip. I bought into a B level all sanction tournament in TN... We would have probably killed it there, but the damage was done and 4 or 5 players suddenly couldn't make the trip!
Point is to find a balanced schedule that is challenging yet not so tough they quit on you. The losses mounded up so high that they saw themselves as poor players or "we suck" so what's the point attitudes...
Funny thing is now almost all of them are their current teams stud player several are freshman in HS now and start on the varsity team.

I made the same mistake with a 1st year 14U team. I over-extended them. I told everyone upfront we were playing for next season. They didn't like the constant losing. The team pretty much disbanded after the season was over.
 
May 17, 2012
2,804
113
The #1 reason a team loses is because they aren't as talented as the other team. Sure anything can happen in one game but over time the most talented team wins out.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
If you are getting crushed the #1 reason you are losing is because of pitching! Now the reason you are losing those close games is defense and may I add a close second is probably baserunning.
 
Jun 29, 2013
589
18
If you are getting crushed the #1 reason you are losing is because of pitching! Now the reason you are losing those close games is defense and may I add a close second is probably baserunning.
Not always. If the hitters aren't hitting your pitching hard, and your fielders can't make routine plays on grounders and lazy pop flys, it isn't the pitching. If the other team is hitting so many consecutive line drives that your pitcher has whiplash by the end of the game, its on the pitching.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
Not always. If the hitters aren't hitting your pitching hard, and your fielders can't make routine plays on grounders and lazy pop flys, it isn't the pitching. If the other team is hitting so many consecutive line drives that your pitcher has whiplash by the end of the game, its on the pitching.
Granted if your Fielding is terrible and you are needing to get 6 or 7 outs per innings but after 10U and 12B hopefully it's not that bad anymore

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
Nov 18, 2015
1,585
113
Today at a clinic they asked what is the #1 reason why teams lose, and I answered "Because they score less runs that the other team." which was the wrong answer. The right answer was "because of how they field ground balls & throw", I didn't know that before today.

Did they then proceed to show everyone how to warmup using wrist flicks, pointing the ball to 2b (aka behind you), and getting to that "L" position? :)
 
Jan 11, 2018
10
1
Gags nailed it 100% then we did a few hours of "hello elbow" & "throw your hands at the ball and roll your wrists at contact"


Did they then proceed to show everyone how to warmup using wrist flicks, pointing the ball to 2b (aka behind you), and getting to that "L" position? :)
 
Jul 19, 2014
2,390
48
Madison, WI
In most cases, figuring out the most important aspect of the game -- hitting, pitching and fielding -- is like figuring out the most important leg of a 3-legged stool. A good team needs ALL of them.

I know a young lady, current D-1 player, who, when she was in HS, was a great player on a horrible team. They would win a lot of games, because sometimes she would get 20 Ks and knock the ball over the fence for a 1-0 victory.
The interesting thing is, the better she got, the more her team would lose. Other teams in the conference slowly learned how to hit her, and her teammates came to depend more and more on that one player. Her team got the furthest in the playoffs her freshman year of HS.

MORAL: Defense doesn't matter if the pitcher is striking out every batter. If you have a ground ball pitcher, then the pitcher can't win if she has to get 5 or 6 outs per inning.
 

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