R U READY!!!!!

We had our draft in mid Jan, and have been practicing for three weeks. I have one 7yr, a couple of 8yr, two 10yr, two 11yr, two 12yr, and the rest are 9yr. It's a strange mix.

My son's one of the twelve yr (catcher) who should probably be at the "major's" level, but Major's coaches aren't drafting 12 yrs for the very reason you cited, i.e. they want younger kids to work with a few years. My son's going to have the time of his life, "eating up" any runners who try, and stroking them over the fence. On the other hand, the 7 yr old (league age 8) is a real star (our SS) but is lacking the game-knowledge. It's not age that matters, but maturity, including emotional, "game-knowledge", and skill level.

I drafted a couple of kids who did not do well in the tryouts, because I'd seen them play and knew what they could do. The other 80% I picked based on objective statistics (1-5 scale). If they caught four fielding opportunities and threw four on target, probably a 4. If they were smooth, moved well, and/or "popped" the ball, maybe a 4.5 or 5. If the dropped one or threw one off line, maybe a 3.5., and so forth. Ran the same metrics on infielding, outfieldling, hitting, and pitching, and came up with a numeric average, then sorted all the kids into order, splitting prospective pitchers into a separate category of their own.

I think it worked pretty well. I did a team-by-team average, and the teams that look "hot" got the top draft picks by my own standard. (Of course, they also picked some that I had marked "no picks"; maybe those kids were THEY'RE "ringers" who they knew from previous seasons. This is no science.)

Bottom line: I drafted on skill levels only. "Who's ready to play AAA ball?" I think it hurts all concerned if coaches are planning for THEIR future, rather than the kids. All my pitchers at the AA level last year are starting AGAINST my team, and they're the best in the league. (Only "Majors" teams in our league can retain kids from one year to the next; all the minors redraft every year. We've got to start over again, and it hurts, but I LOVE to see "my kids" perform, even if they're against us. Besides, I've got four to six new pitchers who look pretty good already. But, on the other hand, sure wish I had a decent shortstop .. sometimes you just can't win. All my kids are decent on any base, but no one stands out to command the SS slot. Oh well, we've got two weeks to the season starts.

Good luck. Take the 10 yr olds, and use them in critical slots like catcher, 2B/SS, and maybe CF if they're fast. The "nines" will be ready next year. Train all of them for every base. Train all of them to pitch (or catch). You'll have the kids you need next year.