How travel teams work

IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE AGE GROUP

Depends on the program and coaching staff. 24's coaches are trying to put all their kids in the best positon possible to play quality competition, improve their skills, and get exposure. They will be playing more than half their tournaments in age brackets one year older so it will be interesting to see how they do playing up. With all that being said, my favorite aspects of yesterday's coach talk is that the team should play the game hard, the right way and have fun doing it.

If Johnny Smith has already pitched 6 innings yesterday, our coaches won't put an arm at risk for a recruiter, let alone a $5 trophy

Its not about winning the trophy, that is true, but the better teams with the larger number of better players who will play beyond HS are usually playing at/near the end. That sounds so obvious and something anyone could say...but its also what happens...having watched two sons go through this.

On scout wants to see certain pitcher/player? With the teams our sons were on, I think(?) it was more like this. Scout/college coach wants to see Joe-Smith-stud pitch...coach tells scout/college coach when Joe-Smith-stud will pitch. Scout/college coach shows up if interested. I'm sure there was some minor juggling going on, but not as an absolute in the way stated above.

In our 3 years of playing on college campuses, not once has a college coach come to us and said "we want Johnny to pitch." We are very proactive for our kids and the coaches. We publish our pitching rotation so they can come see the games they want.

quote:

Originally posted by redbird5:
In our 3 years of playing on college campuses, not once has a college coach come to us and said "we want Johnny to pitch."

hmmm... but they are more likely to say "I will be there on Saturday morning"

Calling these events "showcase tournaments" is a little confusing. In what I would consider a true showcase there is no "winner" - just games between teams - no eliminations - all teams play same number of games. In those type of showcases it really does not even matter who wins the games.

When a travel or showcase team plays in a tournament - some are trying to win - some are not. For some of the major travel ball organizations - winning these tournaments helps them advertise and attract top level players.

In a true showcase - no winner - then you may see a coach/scout ask to see a particular pitcher. In a tournament where there is a winner the pitchers are often announced and the coaches/scouts decide which games they want to see based - in part - on who is on the mound.

My son prefers to play when the team is trying to win. He says otherwise it does not feel like real baseball.

quote:

Originally posted by redbird5:
In our 3 years of playing on college campuses, not once has a college coach come to us and said "we want Johnny to pitch." We are very proactive for our kids and the coaches. We publish our pitching rotation so they can come see the games they want.

IMO, that is the way it should be, the coaches publish their schedule and the coaches and scouts work around it.

My son's travel coach in HS, his senior summer, was very strict about not inserting kids that should not be playing. I remember one parent FUMING because a big college coach was coming that day and the player (a position player) was not starting that day.

I believe that most good teavel ball coaches that run very good programs do what is best for each and every player, not for just certain individuals.

He also never took the team to showcases, he always felt that players could do that on their own.

They played and they played to win.