Little League Changes 2012

[Chas]

For any of you that are interested, coach, or have kids playing, here are some things for upcoming season.

Huge rules change. For ALL Majors/12Under play, third strike rule just like MLB is in effect. For Minors/11Under play this is formally in effect for tournament type play (all-stars, etc). Our league decided to adopt this for all 11U play. So I have assessed that is at least four 30 minute training sessions on top of whatever else to teach a few catches, the 1B how to position pending on where the dropped ball goes, and for the batters to run. Not to mention difficult game situations, runners on 2nd and 3rd and third strike dropped, etc.

Nothing except the uniform can be worn, ie, not even cancer bracelets and such. Medical IDs can be worn but must be taped down.

More emphasis on preventing use of illegal bats. The new bat list was just published and a number of bats that were legal last year are not this year. The Little League website has the list of composite bats that have been exempted and are legal (thankfully ours is on this list

Chas

 

[Daniels]

Wow, that is a huge change, with the lack of control most of the pitchers have at that age the catchers are hard pressed to just stop the ball from getting to the backstop. Now throw in the possibility of the batter running could be a mess….

 

[Bret Hildebran]

Suddenly you need catchers who can catch. We played 9u travel ball and dropped 3rd strike was the de facto rule in our league although typically both coaches agreed to not play with it in most of the games. We likely only played with it 4 or 5 games last year and I only recall 1 time we gave up a dropped 3rd strike advance - although even that was a big deal as every out is precious particularly in a close game.

Back in the day, we used that rule in our little league and one of my friends was overmatched so he used it to get on base constantly. 3rd strike in the dirt? He was swinging and making a mad dash. Got on base a ton that year with that strategy. Kind of sums up why it's a bad rule IMO...

 

[Psycho]

Should you guys really be talking about young boys with this perverted crowd? :angry:

 

[Spencer Armstrong]

Seems to me this should come in at the same time as stealing. i.e. at whatever level kids you want kids to start really playing catcher.

They do call it "stealing first" after all...

S

 

[Spencer Armstrong]

Should you guys really be talking about young boys with this perverted crowd? :angry:

As long as you stay away from commenting on dropped balls.

S

 

[Loquitor]

As long as you stay away from commenting on dropped balls.

S

His haven't yet

 

[Bret Hildebran]

Seems to me this should come in at the same time as stealing. i.e. at whatever level kids you want kids to start really playing catcher.

They do call it "stealing first" after all...

Believe it or not, in the 9U league we were in, they let the kids steal normally. Leadoffs, kids throwing from the stretch. It was crazy IMO. Basically a walk is a triple & you hope the backstop is close so it's not a homer on the first wild pitch. We never saw a catcher that could gun a kid at 2nd, but a few could throw out a kid at 3rd.

I wasn't a fan as it essentially removed the double play or even a force at 2nd as an option unless the bases were juiced...

 

[Spencer Armstrong]

Believe it or not, in the 9U league we were in, they let the kids steal normally. Leadoffs, kids throwing from the stretch. It was crazy IMO. Basically a walk is a triple & you hope the backstop is close so it's not a homer on the first wild pitch. We never saw a catcher that could gun a kid at 2nd, but a few could throw out a kid at 3rd.

I wasn't a fan as it essentially removed the double play or even a force at 2nd as an option unless the bases were juiced...

Yikes. That's too early, for just those reasons, IMO. I feel like when I was about 7 or 8 (I don't remember exactly), we brought in stealing, but no leadoffs and you couldn't go until the pitch crossed the plate. And one base max on a wild pitch. It was how they eased into catching. That same year we did coach pitch 4 innings/player pitch 2 innings. It was a bit odd, but it worked as a transition, IMO. I think that was just after tee ball, come to think... You played in that league two years, typically (I got bumped up a league, don't remember how, so I only did it one)

S

 

[Bret Hildebran]

Little League still does the no lead off stealing through age 12. Just watch the Little League World Series. Overall I think that's far wiser, although it's also tough to judge when the ball crosses the plate etc. so it puts additional pressure on the umps.

I'm with you that it's way too soon, but some are frustrated by "Not playing 'real' baseball" at any age and thus want to resemble the real thing as much as possible. 'Course walks turning into triples within 2 pitches doesn't happen a lot in the majors, at least not since Rickey was going nuts in the early '80s anyway...

 

[Chas]

Yep, under "Little League" no leadoffs. You can steal once the ball has crossed the batter, and even in 11U aggressive baserunning is usually rewarded. 3rd is hard to steal in this manner, but 2nd base much higher %.

There is now a lot of tournament play that is 50/70 vice 45/60 referring to pitching distance and base distance. In these kids can leadoff, but is typically more of an all-star type roster. I have heard rumors about LL moving to this, but thankfully no traction as of yet.

We also have fall baseball here and the idea is for development to train pitchers, etc. We called a walk a triple, because you were putting new kids on the mound they would throw a wild pitch about every third ball. The funny thing is that my 7 year old is pretty good and playing way up. He wanted to pitch and wasnt afraid like some of the other kids. I have tried to get him to not do it, but he can throw the ball with a ton of spin. The ball is very slow, but right before the batter is at their chest but bounces off the plate. He had 3Ks in one inning one time. Been working with him and his fastball is looking pretty good for 8.

 

[Bret Hildebran]

Presuming he's obtaining that spin by torquing his elbow like he's throwing a curve, I'd get him to stop ASAP. At that young of an age he could do some serious damage to his arm, which would be a shame, as it sounds like he has a live arm.

Around here most of the better kids play "travel baseball" it seems which uses all the full base stealing. Not sure it's good at 9-10, but by 11 and 12 it starts to work and resemble real baseball more.

 

[Chas]

Bret,

Cant agree with you more and I have "discussions" with him constantly about throwing only 4-seamers (darn video games. The reason he is now throwing with power is that I have made him do numerous drills to be in the correct throwing position, using his body, etc. Part of the problem may have been the way he was throwing in general. ie, in the power position he would be looking at the ball instead of the back of his hand.

Just so you know I threw my arm out as a kid and am extra careful with my pitchers. The younger kids I start monitoring at 20 pitches. As soon as I can tell they are getting physically tired I let them finish with that batter and then they are done. I consider it very good luck to get a full inning from an 8 year old. The older kids thus far I do not let pitch more than 3 innings even though I could by the competition rules do so.

 

[Chas]

Thankfully the coaches got together and we appear to have been able to influence the implementation of the 3rd strike rule and get it nixed for 11U in normal play.

 

[Chas]

Is anyone else out there coaching this year?

We pick up equipment today and start next week., opening day (night for us) is 30 Mar. Good thing about living in the deep south I guess

I am pretty certain I got shorted on pitching, which means I may have to rely on some of the young arms. The good news is that have been continuing to work my 8-year old, and over the past couple of weeks have done 3 pitching sessions to 9, 10, 11 year old kids. On 2 of the sessions he was for the most part accurate and was blowing the ball by them fairly consistency. As soon as he didnt get his weight back or short armed it he got hit fairly hard. The other session he was wild and could not not find the strike zone. I really want him to be pitcher 5 or 6 on my depth chart, but I fear he may end up being # 2 or 3.