Need Advice, When To Start Your Player @ Advanced Leagues!

Neil, I think 12 y.o. is about the right age to get onto a good travel team. It is still way to early to take it entirely serious, so my suggestion to you would be to find the best travel team you can where he can also have FUN. I don't think it is a good idea for him to be playing with high-school age kids, however.

If he is 5'7", 170 lbs he sounds like an early bloomer (unless dad is 6'8" !!). Because of this it is important that he rises to his level of competition (better team) so as to keep up his interest and further develop his skills. A lot of early bloomers taper off in high school if they "play down". Good luck.

To me that is a long way to travel fora 12 yo. You should make sure he gets proper instruction and I would play moe locally if you can find a good instructional and hopefully competetive team. 15 is a good age to face older competition if he is good enough.

You know the kids that are 6'3 and look 20 yo @ 13. He still has "baby fat" but is very athletic. Our son turns 13 in a couple of weeks. He use to be one of the bigger kids in his class but several of his teamates have passed him in height. One kid is 6'4" and just turned 13. WOW I am 6'3 but was slim and underweight until I shot up between 8th - 9th grade! I have to go, will post more later. Very limited on high level travel teams in our area. N

I think the position someone plays should factor into the question. Because of some odd local rules my son did not play summer ball his 12-13 year. He is a pitcher and I have always felt that the summer off did not hurt him at all. In fact, given the number of innings put in over the past two years, a little rest before getting really serious was not a bad idea.

Not sure how you talked him into giving up a summer of BB.

Neil,
I sent you a private message.
Fungo