It was a rough weekend for my nephew and his travel baseball team. It's interesting because while this is a travel team, he also plays with a number of these same kids on his school team. While his school team finished the weekend with a lopsided 21 to 2 victory and then a 7 to 0 victory in their double header on Friday, the weekend playing with his travel team was not kind to any of them.
They went zero for four on the weekend losing 17 to 1, 20 to 0, 12 to 2, and 13 to 0. I would like to point out that one of those runs in the games where they actually scored can be attributed to my nephew. I am very proud of him. It's interesting because it makes you wonder how two teams that are so similar can have such different results.
Let me be clear, the travel team isn't a carbon copy of the school team. In addition to that, they are playing different opponents in these games. Travel teams often get to cherry pick the best players from many schools and bring them together under one banner.
Personally, I'm not sure the coach for their travel team is doing that great of a job. Actually, I think it's probably a number of factors. First, as I mentioned, I am guessing the school teams they are playing aren't that good. Ultimately though, I think the coach is not putting the best interests of the team first.
Here's one thing I noticed watching the game with @mrsbozz on Saturday morning. Their main catcher doesn't have the arm to be a catcher. He couldn't get the ball to second base without throwing it in a wide arc. You aren't going to throw out any runners stealing that way. It's gotta be a bullet, right no the money so the person covering the base can apply the tag in time. If they have to stand there and wait for the ball to come down, they have zero chance.
There was also the matter of the catcher not being able to stop the ball when the pitch didn't go exactly as intended. These kids are young and still learning, I get that. You have to know that a 13 year old pitcher isn't going to be accurate 100 percent of the time. You also have to know that because of that you need to stop the ball from getting past you on pitches like that.
Anything else is like giving the other team a free pass to score. I can't tell you the number of runs they allowed over the weekend due to "passed balls". It was bad.
Trust me, I don't expect perfection. but it sure does seem to me that as a coach you might be re-thinking your choice for catcher. Oddly enough, the catcher in question and the coach share the same last name coincidence? I'll let you decide!
My nephew was pretty bummed after the weekend. He puts a lot of time and energy into playing his best and I know that taking losses like that has to hurt a lot. Sadly, he got knocked in the head by a wild pitch and is now in concussion protocol for the next week, so I am not sure when he is going to be able to play again.
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
Posted Using INLEO