Reclassification Rush

In most cases, it does help the average player become better as they are bigger and stronger and more mature.  Especially in today's culture, many think it will allow some of the clutter in rosters to clear some.

I find it sort of odd.  I could be wrong, but my guess is that most of those who choose to reclassify are above average+ guys who won't have much to worry about no matter what year they graduate.  I've watched what's happened over the last year with 2021s and NO above average player was left without at least a solid home.  Most ended up right where their talent says they should.  This is a big decision so it stands to reason that anyone who is willing to do it is awfully serious about baseball.  If you're awfully serious about baseball, what are the odds that you're not very good and really need the help that can come with reclassifying?

I would disagree with the premise that it does not help the above average player.  Many of you would put my son in the above average category and yet we held him back in the 8th grade.  He was still 18 when he graduated.  I'm not sure it helped him as much find a place because he was recruited hard before he was even in high school.  But it did help him prepare for college and be ready to compete day one.  He had gotten some innings last year at an SEC school.  But this year, as I have looked at rosters and talked to coaches and players, there will be a lot of freshmen at P5 schools that in previous years may have gotten playing time that will not see the field.  The average SEC school had over 40 players this spring with most having 50 available players at the beginning of the fall.  There will be a lot of freshmen in the SEC schools that will not see the field this year who are not hurt.  Most of them in years past would have seen some game time but when you have lots of players that would have gone to the draft in normal years that are still around and even some 6th year seniors it is hard to find playing time.  Son's school seems to have only 3-4 freshmen that will see very much playing time.  I know that could change but that seems to be the case.  And when you think that playing wise they are in the same year as guys who have been in school a year and already done 2 falls and part of a spring it is tough.  The other catch is there are a few guys on every SEC team that would have been drafted out of high school that did not so they are on campus.

If you go down levels, I don't think it is much different because there are so many players moving down levels.  Several of my son's friends that were at P5 schools last year moved on and are now at jucos and even NAIA/mid-major D1/D2/D3 schools.  They were P5 guys who are now beating out the guys who thought they were a lock at certain positions and even some of those P5 guys are now legit 2 way guys when they would have never been at the P5 schools.

@Around_The_Horn posted:

In my small piece of the world I am seeing a large number of current 8th graders starting to reclassify.  

Does reclassification really help players to get to the next level? Or does it hurt the main goal of raising strong confident adults that know how to handle the challenge that life throws at them?

Good questions.  I think the answer will vary dramatically depending on who you ask, their perspective on college and pro athletics, academics and what their 8th grader's professional goal is....more likely what the parent's goal is for their 8th grader.   All 3 of my kids knew what they wanted to do in 8th grade and they are doing it now.   Yes, I realize that is crazy, and yes I'm very fortunate.  The thought of red-shirting them for athletics never ever crossed anybody's mind.  However, if they had struggled academically then I think we would have looked at red-shirting or reclassifying for those reasons.

We were very fortunate to have a former MLB player living across the street from us.   My kids knew him and his family rather well.    I think his stories and experiences caught my kids attention and they realized just how difficult it is to be a professional baseball player.  My kid's skillsets and passions were in other places. 

JMO

In SoCal, there are a lot of kids who are being sent to sports academies and being held back as early as 5-6th grade. They are on diets, lifting(1 rep maxes) and practicing at their school along with their travel teams.  It will be interesting to see how things work out. On a side note, I’ve seen some top prospects reclassify up a year to get to the draft earlier(Blaze Jordan and a couple others I forgot).

We had a thread about this a couple months ago. A coach I'm very close with was told by an SEC coach, "if you're a stud, reclass and let the dust settle. If you're not then just enroll in school and start getting on with life." Now I don't know if he was saying that selfishly because he wants that stud player to start his program a year early or if he is looking out for the interest of the kid.

FWIW, I see a lot of very average HS players reclassing. I would say the ones I know well are average academically as well.

2025prospect and TerribleBPthrower,

Interesting stuff.   For the life of me, I don't understand all this.  Possibly I need Dr. Rick's help as I feel like I'm becoming my parents.   I can't figure out why parents would make athletic development calls for 5-6th graders for the possibility of a slight future edge in high school baseball, or recruiting.  My old man would have told any SEC college coach who suggested re-classifying me back in 1980 to get "freaking lost", and frankly I would have said the same thing about my kids today.   My oldest did have an SEC preferred walk-on offer with academic money, so we had experience telling an SEC coach to get lost .  ;-)

I can definitely see that today's parents are spending significantly more of their disposable income on youth sports than they did 40 years ago.  Where does it end and are we really helping our kids with this approach?  If your above examples are true, this has become absolutely ridiculous in society.   Maybe it is around me and I don't see it, but I don't recall seeing this 5-10 years ago when my kids were playing high school and college baseball.   I hope it isn't true.   Sorry,  I had to vent a little.   I truly don't understand this.

@fenwaysouth I agree with you. At 5-6th grade, lots of kids are only playing because they are forced. The kids I see being held back at 5-6th grade are decent-good on the small field with borderline illegal 2017 CF-Zens. Recently I’ve been seeing many of these “12-13u” studs start declining, especially when forced to use wood.

Does reclassification really help players to get to the next level?

The quick/easy/ugly answer is YES.  That is why individuals chose to do so, but it is an extremely near-sighted approach. One of the pitfalls to being held back happens at the next level. They still have to prove they can compete once the playing field levels back out.

(On a side note I haven't seen any kids repeat at 5-6th grade? What usually happens is the kids are choice to another school with a decent sports program and then repeat 8th grade. This isn't isolated to just baseball either. Football and basketball are notorious for this as well.) 

@2025prospect posted:

@fenwaysouth I agree with you. At 5-6th grade, lots of kids are only playing because they are forced. The kids I see being held back at 5-6th grade are decent-good on the small field with borderline illegal 2017 CF-Zens. Recently I’ve been seeing many of these “12-13u” studs start declining, especially when forced to use wood.

This is why recruiters/scouts (or really anybody with common sense) could care less how good the kid is on a small field.

@ReluctantO'sFan posted:

This is why recruiters/scouts (or really anybody with common sense) could care less how good the kid is on a small field.

Love it!  This should  be posted on every youth baseball field.

For our generation, birthdate matters.  Little league birthdate cutoff was July 31st.   You were almost twice as likely to make the MLB if you were born in August vs. July.  If you were born in August, you became a larger, better developed stud.  This holds true for the current travel ball cutoff but gets complicated with the Graduation year.

We thought about reclassing for about 5 seconds. Son is a late birthday, super late bloomer for his class. But, then thought he is a straight A student in all honors classes (humble brag) it just doesn't make any sense to hold him back.

I'm with you TxballDad. I know several kids who it makes sense with. I also know several where the parents are completely delusional. My son is a May bday and was always on the small side. He's caught up now, but was always tiny. He's also got a 160+ IQ and is crushing his AP classes and ahead of everyone in his class academically. He hasn't talked about being an MLB player in years, but does want to play in college. Now he talks about working for Elon Musk and Space X.

Right now he's probably above average for 2023 but certainly not a standout IMO. If he were a 2024 he would be. We saw the gap in 2024 talent a few years ago but it would be a major disservice to him (besides the fact he would have no interest in doing it).

jetsr71 - Good data points, and I understand you are just sharing info.

This is directed at everybody not you....should MILLIONS of parents redshirt MILLIONS of kids for an "infinitesimal chance" to make a major league roster in 10 years.   Why can't more people try to get pregnant in December so they get those wonderful-stud August babies?   MLB roster numbers aren't looking so huge whether you are a US or international player...possibly a better chance of winning $1M on a scratcher.  Not only do you have to be an incredible athlete, you have to have incredible timing, luck, and your value has to be in check with the front office...this is a business after all.  All of this has to be going your way...this is what I learned from my former MLB neighbor. 

PS...My birthday is in June.  Clearly, my parents weren't paying attention or had ideas of me becoming a college or professional athlete.  Yet it happened.

Just my thoughts.....

So let me get this cheat code straight for today's world.......

Step1: Plan birth during the month of May/June (why not everyone's doing it)

Step2: Start KN at 6 (after all he isn't a mature 5 yr old)

Step3: Play 2 years at 12u (Cooperstown nostalgia? Can you ever hit enough hot Zen HRs???)

Step4: Repeat 8th grade (That means he might make Varsity as a freshman, hell he's 15 for crying out loud and has played 1 sport for half of his entire existence.)

These 4 steps are crucial to the immediate overall development of your son's baseball career; however, buyer beware as long term consequences take root. If followed completely your son will be destined to ride the pine while a younger kid with much more upside from the DR takes all the game time reps.

ps. this was all sarcasm....but honestly there is real truth behind it

Another point that drives me crazy with reclassing grade level is how many grades can play in 1 age bracket. I've seen teams with up to 3 grade levels, and the real kicker is that all the kids have the same birth year? Hurts my head just thinking about it.

@fenwaysouth posted:

2025prospect and TerribleBPthrower,

Interesting stuff.   For the life of me, I don't understand all this.  Possibly I need Dr. Rick's help as I feel like I'm becoming my parents.   I can't figure out why parents would make athletic development calls for 5-6th graders for the possibility of a slight future edge in high school baseball, or recruiting.  My old man would have told any SEC college coach who suggested re-classifying me back in 1980 to get "freaking lost", and frankly I would have said the same thing about my kids today.   My oldest did have an SEC preferred walk-on offer with academic money, so we had experience telling an SEC coach to get lost .  ;-)

I can definitely see that today's parents are spending significantly more of their disposable income on youth sports than they did 40 years ago.  Where does it end and are we really helping our kids with this approach?  If your above examples are true, this has become absolutely ridiculous in society.   Maybe it is around me and I don't see it, but I don't recall seeing this 5-10 years ago when my kids were playing high school and college baseball.   I hope it isn't true.   Sorry,  I had to vent a little.   I truly don't understand this.

At a Bar Mitvah (boys were all in the 13yo range like the kid in the event) I was hanging on the deck having a drink with a bunch of sports dads. Their kids were going to play a high school sport at best. It turned out several of them had their kids in agility training. Not one had reached puberty yet. I was going to ask if it helped. Knowing the kids I wasn’t sure I could say it without laughing.

I waited until after puberty with my daughter for agility. She was like a calf taking its first steps agility wise. She went backwards in coordination for a while. She was 5’10 115 until she started filling out. She also did speed training to learn how to run properly. Almost lost her (played softball) to outdoor track she enjoyed it so much. For my son agility was part of FASST (fitness, agility, speed, strength training) through high school.

We resisted recruiting efforts from a private to have him transfer and repeat 9th grade. It was absurd to have a kid in the gifted program repeat a grade.

If I had a 2025 I would consider red shirting solely to avoid these Covid Rosters (even allow time for funding of these programs to return).  In our area, where a fair amount of school has been remote, it might not be a bad idea for even a strong student. We’ll see when Lefty gets his AP scores back this summer how he stack up against kids who have been in person for the majority of the year.

My kid will still play "what if" game on reclassifying. Once after a couple of glorious single malts I did entertain him for a minute but ended up telling him it was not in the cards as you were too smart to repeat a grade and I am way too cheap to pay for another year of school. I did offer the consolation if he goes pro the younger age would ultimately benefit him...not sure if he took that as tongue in cheek.