Can anyone advise if the USSSA Elite World Series is a good tourney for 14u exposure? I know several of the National PG tourneys are great tournaments. I’m just curious if the World Series holds as much value. Thanks.
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Welcome to the site. I can't answer your question 
Historically, USSSA has been an organization primarily focused on kids 14u and down (although they offer events for older age groups). PG has been an organization primarily focused on HS age kids/kids of recruiting and scouting age. USSSA is trying to gain traction in the older age groups and PG is trying to gain traction in the younger age groups coming up into the "exposure" ages . Others can probably better speak to what degree USSSA is having success with those efforts in recent years.
One point being that unless your player/s is absolute cream of the crop nationally, it is probably not quite time to worry about exposure and still the time to have him play the most competitive and most fun baseball he can. So, either the top USSSA events or top PG events for the age group will likely provide that.
You have found a great resource for your journey in the coming years.
Exposure is not an issue at fourteen unless a player is very physically and skills advanced for his age and in the one-hundredth of 1% in his age group in the country.
Thank you for the feedback Cabbagedad. Even though he just turned 14, my son has played up and has had success in numerous showcase events. The USSSA Elite World Series will be an expensive trip so I guess I was trying to decide if this tournament is anywhere near as competitive as say the PG 14U WWBA. This is our first experience with this so I'm thankful for this resource and everyone's input.
Sounds good, hopefully others can be event specific with their feedback. Keep in mind when evaluating these things going forward that exposure and level of competition can be entirely different things. While recruiters will, of course, go where the best players are, there are other factors that come into play like timing, age, regionality, etc.
Unless your son is one of the top players in the country (which I'm sure you'd know by now), he won't be getting any looks at 14. Justifiably so.
If he is talented and you think he might be interested in playing past HS, I would start researching reputable summer travel teams for his HS years.
QUESTION:
What will he learn from the competition? How to hit a curve ball? How to run the bases in an efficient style? How to analyze the hitter, the pitcher, the catcher, the opposing coaches, the OF arm?
"Baseball is constantly learning your trade". It is not "showtime" at age 14.
Bob
I argue with the Unless He is a Stud aspect but either way USSSA is not the answer. Great organization for 13U and down. i disagree on the not showing aspect but WWBA is still the place to see what is really out there for the player and the parents and compare yourself to the competition for the player. My son was blessed to play in 17U WWBA as a 14 year old and competed well so the not ready to show it thing doesn't work for everybody and I don't consider him one of the studs at that age or now. He actually pitched in 15, 16 17 and 18 as a 15 year old at WWBA. It is about getting out there and learning how to compete. Placing your child against the best is a great way to teach them to compete and learn what is really out there. Again, I think USSSA and most of the youth organizations go out at 13U now.
With regard to the WWBA, is it? I think most would agree the WWBA is watered down with a lot of mediocre to bad teams now. I think that short of being a phenom/stud a 15 year old should not be able to hold his own against a quality 17/18U player. Unless they seriously cut about 1/2 the teams out of the WWBA, it not the measuring stick a lot of people think it is any longer. I have seen guys who threw no faster than 67mph make the all tournament list on the 17U tournament. Those kids aren’t even being recruited by JC’s.
certain PG tournaments are a good place to measure how you stack up, but I dont think WWBA is that any longer.
U-trip has the resources to grow, they just need the desire to do it. It used to be there were far more travel teams competing in the 13U and below than there were in the HS ages. Now that number is getting more even.
It is still a good place to go and measure yourself against top competition. I agree that it is watered down but you still get top teams in every pool guage yourself against those teams and you will get a accurate assessment! If you can't win a pool game then maybe you should not be in the wwba to begin with
I appreciate everyone's feedback. My son plays for a team that is regularly ranked by PG every year (whatever water that holds) and the slowest pitcher we faced this past fall was still in the upper 70's (played up many tourneys). We faced several kids throwing low 80's and I'm definitely not ready to declare my son a stud since he does have a lot more growth and development in him. I just hadn't heard nearly as much about the Elite World Series so I suppose I was just trying to gauge the quality of that specific tourney vs some of the popular PG tourneys. Thanks again.
If a kid is a ending stud at fourteen he’s going to be told. PG will invite him to a specific 14u event by invitation only. Otherwise how important is it to know a 14yo’s national standing? So much changes in the next two, three years. Regardless of where a 14yo is at locally or nationally he should be working hard to constantly improve.
My view is the only reason for a 14yo to attend a 14u national event is to wake up a delusional kid and parents. Some delusional people need to learn it’s a big, bad, competitive world beyond the county line.
4arms posted:Thank you for the feedback Cabbagedad. Even though he just turned 14, my son has played up and has had success in numerous showcase events. The USSSA Elite World Series will be an expensive trip so I guess I was trying to decide if this tournament is anywhere near as competitive as say the PG 14U WWBA. This is our first experience with this so I'm thankful for this resource and everyone's input.
I think USSSA has good competitive tournaments at 12U and below. By 14U most of the better players are in programs that play in PG events. So if you are looking for the best competition I would suggest the PG 14U WWBA and the 14U PG World Series. I'd also add the JOs (Team USA Championships). If you are looking for exposure you may get some at these events (if your kid is a top stud who is already on radar screens of college coaches), but you definitely will not get exposure at USSSA.
Smitty28 posted:4arms posted:Thank you for the feedback Cabbagedad. Even though he just turned 14, my son has played up and has had success in numerous showcase events. The USSSA Elite World Series will be an expensive trip so I guess I was trying to decide if this tournament is anywhere near as competitive as say the PG 14U WWBA. This is our first experience with this so I'm thankful for this resource and everyone's input.
I think USSSA has good competitive tournaments at 12U and below. By 14U most of the better players are in programs that play in PG events. So if you are looking for the best competition I would suggest the PG 14U WWBA and the 14U PG World Series. I'd also add the JOs (Team USA Championships). If you are looking for exposure you may get some at these events (if your kid is a top stud who is already on radar screens of college coaches), but you definitely will not get exposure at USSSA.
Experiences will vary from state to state and region to region. USSSA dominates the area through 14u. 16u is prominent for 15yos. I don’t believe there’s a WWBA event within a few hundred miles of where my kids grew up.
RJM posted:Smitty28 posted:4arms posted:Thank you for the feedback Cabbagedad. Even though he just turned 14, my son has played up and has had success in numerous showcase events. The USSSA Elite World Series will be an expensive trip so I guess I was trying to decide if this tournament is anywhere near as competitive as say the PG 14U WWBA. This is our first experience with this so I'm thankful for this resource and everyone's input.
I think USSSA has good competitive tournaments at 12U and below. By 14U most of the better players are in programs that play in PG events. So if you are looking for the best competition I would suggest the PG 14U WWBA and the 14U PG World Series. I'd also add the JOs (Team USA Championships). If you are looking for exposure you may get some at these events (if your kid is a top stud who is already on radar screens of college coaches), but you definitely will not get exposure at USSSA.
Experiences will vary from state to state and region to region. USSSA dominates the area through 14u. 16u is prominent for 15yos. I don’t believe there’s a WWBA event within a few hundred miles of where my kids grew up.
Correct, I'm not aware of WWBA anywhere but Georgia.
2022OFDad posted:With regard to the WWBA, is it? I think most would agree the WWBA is watered down with a lot of mediocre to bad teams now. I think that short of being a phenom/stud a 15 year old should not be able to hold his own against a quality 17/18U player. Unless they seriously cut about 1/2 the teams out of the WWBA, it not the measuring stick a lot of people think it is any longer. I have seen guys who threw no faster than 67mph make the all tournament list on the 17U tournament. Those kids aren’t even being recruited by JC’s.
certain PG tournaments are a good place to measure how you stack up, but I dont think WWBA is that any longer.
U-trip has the resources to grow, they just need the desire to do it. It used to be there were far more travel teams competing in the 13U and below than there were in the HS ages. Now that number is getting more even.
I have no interest in turning this into another PG pro/con thread again but to answer your question. Yes. As long as the best teams in the country keep going there won't be a better event. Look at the playoff bracket - you won't find another tournament with better competition.
As for the Tournament Team. It is algorithm based. If you meet a certain criteria (Era, Ks, for X amount of innings) you will automatically make the team regardless of Velocity. I also don't know anybody that takes that list seriously. When a few thousand kids win the same award it has no meaning.
2022OFDad posted:With regard to the WWBA, is it? I think most would agree the WWBA is watered down with a lot of mediocre to bad teams now. I think that short of being a phenom/stud a 15 year old should not be able to hold his own against a quality 17/18U player. Unless they seriously cut about 1/2 the teams out of the WWBA, it not the measuring stick a lot of people think it is any longer. I have seen guys who threw no faster than 67mph make the all tournament list on the 17U tournament. Those kids aren’t even being recruited by JC’s.
certain PG tournaments are a good place to measure how you stack up, but I dont think WWBA is that any longer.
U-trip has the resources to grow, they just need the desire to do it. It used to be there were far more travel teams competing in the 13U and below than there were in the HS ages. Now that number is getting more even.
I still question your "not my first rodeo, been around". WWBA is still the place. BTW, my 14 year old faced the team that won it which now had 6 guys drafted out of high school on that team. Was tied 0-0 through 6 innings. I will agree there are some teams that don't need to be there but the best of the East, you guys broke me from saying the best overall since Western teams don't show up I'm told, is there. The best players in nation show up for WWBA and the scouts are still there, just not for every game. As has been said before, the all-tournament is done on stats and a 67 mph pitcher can be very effective if used correctly in high school. hard to sit on it after seeing 90. His stats can get him in the all-tournament even if he is not recruited. Great part of being at the WWBA..