Playing time orplaying for a good Team?

If his primary position is Catcher and his 3rd on the depth chart I would look for another team. He has a short time before HS so he needs to get in some real game time. Let your current coaches know and that there are no hard feelings and that you and your son appreciated what they have done for your son. You never know who you might come across later on in your sons baseball career so always leave on a positive note.

Agreed. Right now your son has to get on the field to get game reps.

Even if the coaching is fantastic he needs to be on the field getting live reps and seeing live pitching. Especially at a time when he is going to be trying out for his HS team shortly.

That shouldn't be hard for the current coach to understand and will be easy to bow out on a positive note.

I had to do this when my son was just starting out and while I screwed up how I handled it the decision for my son was the best one we made.

Does he play in the fall? Sometimes the fall offers a lot of development opportunities.

While I agree playing time is important, he is getting just under a third of he innings in his primary position. One at bat won't do much, though. How is his hitting? This is often a big part of who gets playing time down the line.

If he moves to another team, do you have a line of sight to a spot on a competitive, well coached team next summer?

When you say he lacks game speed, are you referring to pop time? If so, I wouldn't expect playing innings to fix the issue if he needs to improve his mechanics.

These are very difficult decisions, and I won't pretend to know the right answer for your son.

I’ll throw out a few ideas.

Do you have access to really good private coaching (and do you want to spend money on that)? I think hitting and catching are two areas where coaching/training can make a big impact. Progress could lead to more playing time on his current team, while also packing a lot of reps into a short amount of time.

Could he play (or even practice) with an additional team? Maybe some kind of league ball where they understand that his travel team schedule takes precedence. My son played “up” in a rec league one summer while recovering from an injury and it was a nice supplement to his travel team. He got lots of ABs and time in the field without pressure to perform at a high level.

Do you have a sure thing lined up with another team? Don’t assume that he’ll play more for the lesser team just because he’s better at his position. He would be joining late, might not have the same relationship with coaches, and of course the coach’s kid might be a catcher.

My concern with the “lesser” team would be coaching. Good coaching can make a world of difference, especially at your son’s age where he’s old enough to start learning more than just the basics. The lesser team might have a great coach, but if they don’t, you might regret having a lesser coach contradict what your son has already learned from a better coach.

I think you’re smart to take this on, because he really needs to play and practice as much as possible to reach his full potential.

Good luck.

He needs to play. It is great to play at the most competitive level possible, but watching does him no good at all. Get him on another team NOW, but be sure he will play on the new team.

Thans for all the replies. It has been some time and playing time is about the same. To answer some of the questions. refering to game speed is his over all reaction to game situations...not pop up time. As far as moving to a different leauge. We missed the memorial day dead line. So we cant move to the lesser league. We do private lessons and extra practices.We do have concerns about moving to the same situation on another team. His bat is good and all the coaches say he has the best swing and most potential on the team...but he needs to see more live pitching. I give up....we will just keep grinding it out and try out somewhere else in the fall.