Little League Regionals

[Orange Socks]

Kudos to Espn for showing these teams. But dang. Lots of this play is so hard to watch. I can tell some of these pitchers are brought in as mercenaries and have TB experience. The defense is just plain bad in some of the games. I don't think ESPN should be showcasing these games vs PGF/Alliance type games on National TV. I was having lunch today and was casually watching with a buddy and I was embarrassed. While I was watching this he was complaining about his experience with Triple Crown 10u baseball "Nationals" in Colorado last week. 11 teams. I'll spare my comments and advice.

 

[The Man In Blue]

You should skip ahead to the 2024 games ...

Disclaimer: I am not overly familiar with LL.

I thought they actually changed some of their rules this year to open things up for more of these "mercenary" teams that didn't really play a full LL season. The regionals aren't really looking like it. I could be wrong ...

I do like the change to a CBO though. Possible that is diluting the hitting a little.

 

[Orange Socks]

It seems as though the hitting is not the problem. Those pop flys seem to be the problem for many of the players.

 

[_MIA_]

You should skip ahead to the 2024 games ...

Disclaimer: I am not overly familiar with LL.

I thought they actually changed some of their rules this year to open things up for more of these "mercenary" teams that didn't really play a full LL season. The regionals aren't really looking like it. I could be wrong ...

I do like the change to a CBO though. Possible that is diluting the hitting a little.

I am pretty sure that the OK team that won it a few years ago never played a single LL game before the tournament….

 

[Greatdaytobeawildcat]

You can’t really expect excellence here. There are so few towns (at least where I live) that play LL (only 12 in CT), and the chances that 13 girls from any one of those 12 towns will be great is pretty small.

The CT team that won NE regionals this year is made up of girls from 2 local travel teams (most from 1, and 2 or 3 players from another). The main one is a “very good” local team. They beat most other local travel teams, but get beat by regional powers. Still, neat for them to get the big stage experience.

 

[Vertigo]

I actually thought the game between PA and NY was pretty good. The score doesn’t reflect it but the defense actually was good on both sides (for LL). The NY CF made a great catch last night as did the PA CF the other day - catches that would easily rival great catches by top travel ball teams. Where I saw the weaknesses were throws coming in from the OF either not hitting cuts or totally missing their marks. Other than that it was a good game. I just think PA’s OF played a little too shallow as NY kept putting the ball over the OF head’s or into the gaps. However, it’s very easy for me to armchair quarterback here. They were both well-coached teams - and I’ve seen HS and college teams make those same mistakes, as well.

 

[Vertigo]

I am pretty sure that the OK team that won it a few years ago never played a single LL game before the tournament….

I know when I coached LL, we were supposed to keep track of which players showed up for each game. I can’t recall the rule back then but I want to say any player selected to All-Stars was supposed to have played in at least 60% of the regular season games. I think our season consisted of 12-15 games. However, this was never enforced as no one was checking the books at the end of the season, nor were they looked at during the District All-Star meeting. The big concerns at that meeting were making sure the players lived within the LL boundaries and were the correct age. I do believe there was a form that listed how many games each player played in which was signed off on by the League president. Again, really no way to prove it.

That being said, it’s probably very easy for the All-Star teams to be made up of all travel players now. Most LL games (at least for us) were during the week so the travel players could still play LL and meet their travel commitments on the weekends. The players all still have to come from within the LL boundary though.

 

[_MIA_]

I know when I coached LL, we were supposed to keep track of which players showed up for each game. I can’t recall the rule back then but I want to say any player selected to All-Stars was supposed to have played in at least 60% of the regular season games. I think our season consisted of 12-15 games. However, this was never enforced as no one was checking the books at the end of the season, nor were they looked at during the District All-Star meeting. The big concerns at that meeting were making sure the players lived within the LL boundaries and were the correct age. I do believe there was a form that listed how many games each player played in which was signed off on by the League president. Again, really no way to prove it.

That being said, it’s probably very easy for the All-Star teams to be made up of all travel players now. Most LL games (at least for us) were during the week so the travel players could still play LL and meet their travel commitments on the weekends. The players all still have to come from within the LL boundary though.

There is no actual LL in OK. They just made a “league” and then took an A level TB team (plus a few other kids) and formed a team for the tournament. It was lame..

 

[Vertigo]

Sorry for the serial posts but another thing to consider is that some areas of the country don’t have LL in every town, so if you want to play LL you can find the closest one to you which could be miles away and you wouldn’t have to be within the local boundary. I can easily see very good teams coming from this type of scenario.

 

[Vertigo]

There is no actual LL in OK. They just made a “league” and then took an A level TB team (plus a few other kids) and firmed a team for the tournament. It was lame..

I just missed this post as I was posting my response above. Lol.