I just posted about this in the other thread.
Heck, last year my son's team had 7 or 8 seniors and a divisional MVP pitcher and still only managed an 8-10 record. So it's pretty obvious w/ only 3 returning seniors this year and only 1 experienced pitcher (then mostly sophs, who as a team did very well in freshman playoffs last year) that the coach decided before the season that this was a throwaway (and he's probably right). So in such a year, do you groom the future players or let the kids who have been in the program finish out their HS career? In this case, I'm only talking about ONE sophomore who has been brought up to play SS, so it's not like a bunch of seniors have lost their spots - YET.
But the spot that the soph. was given IS the coveted SS. So now the senior who played there the past two years (back when HE was the flavor of the day) is over at 2B and the junior who played SS on the JV and freshman teams the past 2 years (my son) is learning a brand new spot at 3B (which has its challenges). My son is still happy to be in the lineup and hitting, but he does miss the extra action of SS, as well as the extra time to pick "his" hop, etc..
So, in a year that wins are obviously going to be tough to come by, should a coach "give" SS to a soph. over a senior and junior who each have 2 years experience in this program playing there, for a soph. who played there just one year as a freshman and hadn't yet played a single inning of varsity???
[See other thread for more info.]