Little League Junior Baseball drafting

[BigVic69]

We have 36 players signed up to play junior division little league baseball.

 

We have two coaches (ie two teams).

 

Is there logic in the rules that would allow for a tryout to occur and take the top 28 players (14 to the two teams) and the overage to another league that has room for the difference of players?

 

 

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[Coach Carl]

The rules don't allow for it.  The section headed "Eligibility" is pretty clear:  "Under NO circumstances does ANY person have the authority to grant a waiver that allows a child to play in a local Little League program IN ANY DIVISION, when that child does not qualify under (the residency or school location requirements).

Thoughts,

Juniors is a 12-14 year old division (possible 15).  

1.  Do you have a Senior division (13-16) that some players could play in?

2.  Do you have an Intermediate division (11-13) that some players could play in?

3.  Is it feasible to get another coach and go with 12 player teams?  If that roster size feels too small, could you supplement the teams with call ups from Intermediate or Majors, as needed?

[LouisB]

So, you want to keep your best 28 players and send your worst 8 players to another league - nice!

Find another Coach.

[Velho]

On 2/19/2025 at 1:37 PM, Coach Carl said:

3.  Is it feasible to get another coach and go with 12 player teams?  If that roster size feels too small, could you supplement the teams with call ups from Intermediate or Majors, as needed?

Conversely, can you go with more players per team? Juniors are full size field and 7 innings. Need a lot of arms for that (especially depending on if they are younger side).

[Coach Carl]

2 hours ago, Velho said:

Conversely, can you go with more players per team? Juniors are full size field and 7 innings. Need a lot of arms for that (especially depending on if they are younger side).

Could work but I think the official limit is 15 players.  

[Velho]

7 hours ago, Coach Carl said:

Could work but I think the official limit is 15 players.  

I believe that is for Majors and below. Intermediate and up can be 20 (if I'm reading things right)

EDIT: To clarify 20 is for only when there is one League team - which doesn't apply to OP

[beerguy55]

5 hours ago, LouisB said:

So, you want to keep your best 28 players and send your worst 8 players to another league - nice!

Find another Coach.

Coaching with 14 person rosters is challenging enough...doing 18 person rosters is a nightmare.

Finding a third coach isn't likely much easier.

 

[LouisB]

You can't have 18 on a LL Team, 15 Max.

I was the President of our local LL for almost 15 years, never had a problem finding a coach when needed.  

Have a Board Member draft the team.  Have a meeting with the players parents and tell them someone needs to step up and coach or the team will be disbanded and the kids won't get to play. Someone will step up (usually the dad of the #1 or #2 draft pick, they want their kid to play).

[beerguy55]

On 2/21/2025 at 8:56 PM, LouisB said:

Someone will step up (usually the dad of the #1 or #2 draft pick, they want their kid to play).

And there's your catch-22.  The mom/dad who will "step up" is (almost always) not going to be a good coach for the kids.  They may try their best, they may not even be biased, but this is not a "coach"...this is an "adult who ensures another team of kids can play ball".  The kids very rarely learn good/any fundamentals.  Nor rules.  And the coaches rarely get the tools to succeed.

Some of those coaches will improve, many won't.  For every coach who figures SH*# out, learns some things, and passes that knowledge onto kids, 49 don't.

And, invariably, the daddy-coach-who-didn't-want-to-coach-but-had-to-coach-because-there-wouldn't-be-a-team-or-his-kid-wouldn't-play-as-much is the coach all umpires hate and deride, as documented many times on these forums.

This may be a hot take - and I really don't know what the numbers may look like - but I wonder if it's better that 8 kids don't play at all, and maybe some try again next year or somewhere else, or 15 kids get the wrong coach and learn to hate the game, hate being on a team, hate sports, or experience whatever other damage could happen.

 

[LouisB]

Normally the top players are the best because their "dads" works/practices with them.  As such, the "dads" of the top players are normally decent coaches and can teach basic skills to all of the players.

You're not going to get the "dads" of the unskilled players to volunteer to coach.

[BLWizzRanger]

2 hours ago, beerguy55 said:

This may be a hot take - and I really don't know what the numbers may look like - but I wonder if it's better that 8 kids don't play at all, and maybe some try again next year or somewhere else, or 15 kids get the wrong coach and learn to hate the game, hate being on a team, hate sports, or experience whatever other damage could happen.

 

Is this possibly the reason soccer has gotten more and more popular over the last 20 years? Kids move to the next sport after getting cut?

[beerguy55]

4 hours ago, LouisB said:

Normally the top players are the best because their "dads" works/practices with them.  As such, the "dads" of the top players are normally decent coaches and can teach basic skills to all of the players.

You're not going to get the "dads" of the unskilled players to volunteer to coach.

I can tell you from experience you most certainly are.  Especially if there's literally no on left to volunteer. 

Also, just because your kid can do the skill doesn't mean you can coach it.  Some people just "have it".    I could teach to throw and catch, but it took years to learn to teach hitting....because I was never taught how to hit...I could just do it...and my hitting fundamentals, to this day, suck...but from the time I was ten til into my 40's I was a top tier hitter in any league I played in.  My own kid didn't learn to hit well until she got exposed to coaches who knew what they were doing.

Dads also typically have much more time to work with their kid...they may have been playing catch for five years.  Now that same dad has to teach a ten-year-old who's never played a game of catch before.  Or teach kids that aren't naturally athletic.  You're comparing apples to washing machines.

The other dynamic you'll get, especially if there's an evaluation-type scenario, is the better kids will end up together, meaning your coach-quality dads are on the same team.

What you are also going to get are kids who think they are good, with dads who think they know what they're doing.

My first year of coaching I had a kid who was truly a quadruple threat - couldn't hit, couldn't catch, couldn't throw, couldn't run.  And as good as I was at the sport, I was not in any way equipped to help.

4 hours ago, BLWizzRanger said:

Is this possibly the reason soccer has gotten more and more popular over the last 20 years? Kids move to the next sport after getting cut?

Could be - it's a scenario I don't oppose.  You don't all have to play (insert sport here).  

 

[SeeingEyeDog]

This entire conversation highlights one of the things that Little League as a youth sports entity does not do well...recruit coaches and local administrators.

Versus...something that another youth sports organization, USA Hockey, does very well. To coach within the USA Hockey structure of youth hockey one must be...certified (gasp!). Certification takes about 7 hours and involves both online instruction and an on-ice component.

Little League offers a great online platform that will get a coach up to speed but, essentially, if you pass a background check and you have the time to volunteer and the league president doesn't think you're a toolbag...you can coach. I talk with a lot of people who are at the grassroots levels of local LL. Everyone I talk to in metropolitan areas, in the suburbs, in the rural areas all say the same thing...they are struggling to find coaches, administrators and of course umpires.

I don't talk to as many people in the youth hockey world so, admittedly my sample size is smaller but, I don't hear the kinds of "We need coaches!" cries like I do in baseball. Is the fact that they have a means of training and certifying coaches a corollary or merely a coincidence? I've done it all in LL as many of you have: player, umpire, coach and administrator (board member). The world has changed a GREAT deal since I was a player in my youth. Namely that most families today have BOTH parents or guardians working full-time jobs and full-time jobs are now 60 hours a week or more. What qualified adults have time to volunteer with Little League anymore? So, the world has changed a great deal...and yet, the way LL conducts its business locally really hasn't changed much. There is this almost romantic, post-war notion of "baseball" and "the kids" and "the community" and the people who are in there day in and day out, stocking and working concession stands, umpiring games, raking and mowing fields, fighting city hall to get basic repairs and renovations made to the fields that same city owns and administers are doing a great service. We're not getting more time. If we did, it wouldn't be long before the workday was extended yet again. I don't have the answers and it's disturbing that nobody else does either...

~Dawg 

[Aging_Arbiter]

On 2/24/2025 at 9:29 AM, beerguy55 said:

..this is an "adult who ensures another team of kids can play ball".

Why did Morris Buttermaker of the 1976 Bad News Bears come to mind???