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Your experience notwithstanding, what you say may be one of those "absolutes" and I have no disagreement with it at all. But I guess my feelings for the "underdog" keep coming out when I think about what's really happening because I've seen it happen so many times.

If you think about what you said and like me, really believe it, what you're also saying is to deprive the kids on the one team for the benefit of one. I don't know if you're much of a Star Trek fan, but Mr. Spock once made a now famous quotation, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

I suppose that's just a different way of alluding to some form of selfishness, but I think it deserves some thought. I'm not accusing anyone of being selfish, but isn't that really what's happening?

You have one team with 12 players, one of whom is superior in at least one aspect of what it takes to be a superior baseball player. If you remove that one so he can improve himself even more by associating with other "superior" players, you've deprived the other 11 of the same thing he's looking for.

If you take it to the logical conclusion and assume that the "superior team is made op of 12 players from 12 different "inferior teams, you've deprived 132 players of the benefit of being challenged,

I'm not trying to lecture because I've done it too, but doesn't it deserve some thought? I suppose it wouldn't bother me so much if we were talking about 14 YO's, but I just can't see the big rush to get these kids to the ML level when they have at least 6 years left before anyone really can make a real assessment of their abilities and future potential.

I've seen our local LL twice stripped of its best players for exactly the same thing we're talking about and it did everything but destroy it. It took 2 years to replace those players the first time, and its already been 3 years this time, and there's little hope for any real competitive play for next season.

I am not saying people who do that are bad people! I'm just asking a question.