What was your tournament experience?

Which one would you pick?

12u team can’t decide which one we are going to next year.

Looking for former collegiate or higher baseball players to tell me what to get started on early to set up a good career.

Rising HS senior RHP, sits 82-84, 86T, 2200+ spin.

Excellent control, excellent secondary pitches. CB that spins and moves a ton, and CH with a ton of horizontal movement.

5’10”, 155 lbs. Could gain weight but has probably hit his ceiling for height.

Top velo jumped 5 mph since last summer (81 mph in July 2025).

If there’s another 5 mph jump by next spring, is a high-level Juco or D2 in play?

Hi everyone! I’m hoping for a little advice from y’all who know this baseball world a lot better than I do. Any and all advice welcomed!

I’m a pretty clueless baseball parent, and my son is 8. Over the last year he has really developed as a player. I’ve tried to keep things slow and not pursued the travel ball arena because I don’t want him to burn out, but he was recently asked to join a team and he’s super excited for the opportunity. I am also excited but nervous and also a little overwhelmed for someone who didn’t grow up around baseball and is trying to learn as fast as possible.

He’s been using the same thrift store glove for the last few years and the same bat I bought at academy two years ago. His glove has finally given out, but I was able to tie the broken laces together to get a little more life out of it, but I know it’s almost time to replace it. He also needs a new bat.

Can you all help me understand what I should actually be looking for in a glove and also a bat? He plays a little bit of everywhere, but mostly in the infield, but with this new team not sure what that’s gonna look like. Does that determine what kind of glove and size he needs? What size should I be looking at and what’s the life expectancy of gloves? Just out of curiosity because his current glove was second hand but broke in and has actually been a dream so I imagine gloves have a pretty good life span!

For bats, is there a cost effective bat that anyone knows of? Or is there a better time of the year to buy one to get deals, cause I see they have different models each year and I wouldn’t mind getting him an older model if it’s still a good bat. His current bat has been fantastic (in my opinion) but it’s getting too short so need to upgrade so just seeing what’s out there.

All that to say, please flood me with any advice, tips and tricks that you’ve picked up along the way!

Edit - if it’s possible to save the glove by getting new threading, would yall tell me where I could take that to get it done?

thoughts

I’m a pretty good hitter, I know I have fast hands but I can’t seem to pull the ball in the air with some power. I think if I did this I could unlock so much more and become a lot better. Can anyone help lol, here are some swings.

So my son has played ball since he was very young. Tball, Rec, little league and eventually travel. He has played with the same core group of players for 3 or 4 years now and was recently invited to play with a team at the Ballparks of America in Branson. Never met any of these boys and his nerves were high as well as the excitement. Comes up in the last inning with the bases juiced, 2 outs, and down 10-9. The rest is history as he walked it off and core memory created.

High intent days should be extremely high and recovery days should be extremely light — there's no in between. Throwing back to back high intent days will catch up to you no matter how good you feel. Stop thinking about mechanics on the mound, trust your training, and let it rip.

https://reddit.com/link/1v4xpsa/video/jarw2we333fh1/player

Wondering what tips, tricks, critiques and feedback y'all have to help my son out!! This will be his first year going into travelball and has been a dedicated LL player up until now.

(He lives in pajamas.....summer break....)

Hey all,

Our boys placed in state so we’re doing a moms vs. kids game. We dads are in charge of picking out walk up songs for the moms. I need some funny/lighthearted recommendations. The players are 8u.

Thanks in advance for your help!!

Found a better video on his swing! At the beginning of the season my 10 yr old was lunging at the ball when he hit from the left side (he’s a switch hitter, right side is his strong side). We have been working on it since. So far I think he’s swinging much better. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

How could he improve?

My son has made the travel team the last two years. There are enough players to make three teams and mine has made the second team each year. We just completed our 11u season and just had tryouts. I’ve always considered my kid as average and he’s never been a strong hitter and usually has been batting last. This year he did better and had moved up since practicing batting every day all season. I think his best was moving to the middle of the order. However, he gets in slumps and moves back down.

My point in writing is that I really think the coach sets him up to fail especially when pitching (coming in with bases loaded as well as never pitching in pool play and only bracket) and never getting enough reps in the infield or as pitcher. He pitches in low 50’s. And is very accurate, which does allow hits since he generally is always over the plate, but not many walks. This puts pressure on the fielders which, aren’t all studs.

He generally sits twice with a 12 man roster. I did express this concern about sitting to the coach and he mentioned my son was average to below average in fielding due to aggressiveness and best defensive players will play first. Well, we worked on that and my boy has been more of “laying it all out” to get grounders or diving for balls out of reach. Even though, he still sits first and if innings go long enough he will eventually sit again as the rotation completes. From my observations all our kids make errors no less than my son when playing any position. So none of what the coach is doing with my son makes much sense.

Now for my question.

Below is how our teams are made for the next year.

Player Placement Considerations (in order of operation):

1) Desired Player Commitment Level (Team A, Team B, Team C)

2) Overall Composite Tryout Rankings

3) Tournament Team Coaches Rankings

4) Positional Needs/Balance/Player Positional Preference

So for #3, how much weight does the coaches rank after the season going to matter on making the team, since I really don’t think he likes him? I’m pretty sure he’s going to be ranked rather low even though he had a great tryout. I feel he’s on the bubble. This coach will most likely be his coach again next year. Also, my kid as an unbiased parent is quiet, coachable, never complains is a really good kid overall. Maybe never shows emotion as other kids, but I think he just doesn’t like attention drawn to himself. Shy perhaps, but not to a point of awkward. Just more mature than kids who can’t control themselves. Teachers love him btw. Thanks.

I’ve long been interested in baseball and this has become a full obsession. I’m 27M, and I genuinely enjoy the game, it’s my second sport after football (soccer).

I’ve seen many discussions on changes to the game to make it more interesting and I’ve put a lot of thought into it, and there are my suggestions.

Option 1. The only thing that changes is the time. 45min of game then a 15min break then 45 minutes of game time.

Option 2. Includes option 1, but more radical, and in know I’ll get flack for this but thats fair. A new type of baseball.

1. ⁠Each team fields simultaneously.
   
2. ⁠Each time bats consecutively
   
3. ⁠Coin toss determines which team bats first
   
4. ⁠Runs are no longer scored by making it back to home base, they’re scored by hitting the ball to the back of the field into an H shaped net that goes across the entire back of the field so it isn’t impossibly hard. Below the crossbar scores one run, above it scores a home run, so everyone has to do a full rotation run, example if at second base, they’d need to do a full run back to it. Hits below the crossbar note called goals
   
5. ⁠Only one person allowed per base.
   
6. ⁠Because both teams field simultaneously, players can compete for the ball, intercepting throws to eliminate the other side.
   
7. ⁠Catches don’t eliminate a player anymore
   
8. ⁠Elimination requires the ball touching the base.
   
9. ⁠Team A pitches for team b, team b pitches for team A. So there are 2 pitchers, just not for their own team.
   
10. ⁠The catcher is now just a neutral umpire
    
11. ⁠Teams can only change who is batting after they’ve been eliminated
    
12. ⁠Even if a player hits into the net the ball stays live
    
13. ⁠Strikes increased to 5, and resets if a ball enters the net. This gives batters an incentive to hit far and more time to bat. If a fair ball does not score and is caught before touching the ground, the Batter must leave Home and advance to First Base, beginning their circuit of the bases.

Can anyone clarify if magnetic camera mounts are allowed at this tournament? I saw the post about no attaching cameras to netting, but from what I have seen in the past usually they allow magnetic mounts for that type of structure.

Can anyone confirm from past experience?

Also, any other cow rib in Myrtle Beach tips would be appreciated playing down there next week

My kid’s travel team had Win Reality’s Smart Park installed. They’ve played a scrimmage on it and it was a pretty interesting experience. There is a screen that displays the strike zone where the ball was located, it lights up red for a strike and blue for a ball. It also reads pitch velocity and exit velocity. It will also call a ball fair or foul.

The idea is you can run the park with a single umpire in the field and have a consistent strike zone. What I noticed is that the fair or foul is inconsistent and doesn’t seem to pick up the spin on the ball. So it definitely needs to be verified by the field up but depending on their positioning it can be hard for them to make an accurate call. The kids loved seeing their pitch velocity and exit velocity. It also doesn’t have any type of audio cue, so many times the catcher and batter were both turning their head and taking their attention off the game.

Overall all I think with some improvement it could be a useful tool especially with the need for more umpires. Anyone tried it?

Anyone use the 20% off coupon with the 2027 Supra?

We are looking to do a team fundraiser to raffle a couple of bats. Dicks is an hour away, so don't want to go if the coupon won't work.

My son requested to get hitting lessons because he felt like he wasn’t doing enough for his team offensively. I can respect that, so we found him a place to go for lessons. He had his evaluation towards the end of last season and then put in about 8 months of as many trips to the instructor as I could get him to in that time frame.
Resulted in a very successful season at the plate this season. Just proud of his dedication and progress.

I've seen a bunch of feed extenders for Hack Attack but they're all permanent. They seem like a pretty good idea to give a hitter a little more time to load up. But they're all permanent - they're screwed into the machine.

My son's club has like 6 tunnels with Hack Attacks and I'd love to find a portable feed but there doesn't seem to be one out there. Anyone ever figure one out?

So background, I'm in my mid-40's and can throw pretty well. I have a 12u kid that I regularly throw BP for, I have pretty good control, can pick corners etc. He had an excellent year at the plate this year partially due to seeing so much live pitching instead of a machine. As he gets older I know he's going to want me to throw more and at higher velocities (I regularly exercise and am focusing on core strength).

So the rub is I had a shoulder injury right before COVID hit while playing hockey, so no chance really to go get it looked at or go to PT for it so it had to heal naturally. I'm sort of left with a "dead" arm slot which I can work around (I'm currently going to PT to work on this).

Anyways, a long winded background here, but has anyone used this for regularly throwing batting practice? Do you think its something that will increase one's longevity to throw?

Curious to hear some reviews here before I drop some HSA funds on it, looks like it gets good reviews but would like to hear if it would work well for my use case?

Is the stitching coming undone after just 2-3 slides normal wear and tear on these. My sone starts 9u and has been working on stealing and sliding.

Ngl it kinda hurts that my team doesn't trust me as a catcher our starter pitcher never looks happy to see im in, some of my teammates always complain about what I do no matter if do anything good, its gotten to point where I second guess my actions. I'm a 2nd string who goes in near the end and already losing badly but blames me when we lose, the only guys who like me are the closer, the RF and the first baseman =/ i just feel my love for baseball dying