12u Rankings by Louie

[Fly Out]

how about somebody hosting a friendly and having all 8 teams show up

The thing with Friendlies is everyone treats them different. You have coaches who are all about winning and Bat 9 Field 9 in friendlies to prove how great they are. Then you have coaches who bat the entire lineup, each pitcher gets 2 innings, and players rotate in and out of spots to try things. You will never know who is the better team when you have one coach playing the starting 9 and the other coach trying new things.

The other thing you have to remember is most coaches could care less about the Hey Bucket Rankings. Honestly I think rankings are here for parents ego's so they can tell their co worker that their DD's team is #__ in Nor Cal for softball. I agree they are fun to look at and I think Louie is doing a great job with the 12u rankings. That said, if you are coaching to see your teams name on the top of a list on HB you are coaching for the wrong reason. If you are hosting a friendly to try and get your team moved up on the list, again you are coaching for the wrong reason.

[uncle]

Well rankings are always a good tool to measure teams up....i think having the eight present at a friendly will put out better competition on the field. Some of these teams play 12U and really put it on younger teams. But to see them match up with each other will definatly be intresting to watch.

[linedrivelouie]

Looking at overall body of work I didn't feel there was a lot to change after this last weekend. Keep in mind I try to think of the overall body of work along with the specific weekend play. 1 good or bad weekend will not throw you to the top or bottom.

1.Grapettes Kahwaty: Stayed on top 3 championship weekends in a row.

2. Rocklin Hype: Lost to Heat on Saturday but won the games that mattered, another championship win, this time very light scheduled 14u tourney 2 Championships in 3 weekends.

3. Roseville Heat: I think both of the Heat and Hype are very evenly matched It will be fun to watch these teams play over the next year.

4. Salinas Storm: Runner Up in Salinas 14u the weekend before. Comparable teams in that 14u tourney as this last weekend.

I don't see any reason to move anyone else on the list at this time so I have just removed the comments next to each team.

5 CA Rapids:

6 Team CA:

7 CA Breeze:

8 KG Hitters:

9 Foothill Gold:

10 Easton Elite:

[Chango15]

Linedrivelouie

I for one would tend to put more value on head to head than a team placing higher in a tournament than another. For one placing higher vs head to head is comparing apples to oranges unles of course the teams are playing the same opponents. I like Uncles rankings and think they are more accurate. The Grapettes and Storm were not in this past weekends tournament and the Heat beat the Hype handily on Saturday.

Should be:

1. Grapettes
2. Heat
3. Storm
4. Hype
5. Breeze
6. KG Hitters
7. Team California
8. Rapids

[linedrivelouie]

Thanks for the input. I agree Head to Head is important and get where you are coming from. If you just went off Head to Head though, Hype would be ahead of Grapettes in the #1 spot. Hype put it to Grapettes at the RR Tournament in Stockton Sept 16th to win the Tourney. Those 2 teams have yet to play each other again. That is why I look at head to head along with head to head against other teams and over all body of work, Any of these teams are capable of beating each other on any given weekend. A loss in pool play does not hold as much weight as a win on Sunday. Tournament wins should hold more weight in the long run.

When I look at it I just feel Hype at this point has more pro's than Heat does on my list. Like I said I think both teams are pretty even. Remember Hype and Heat had multiple close games last season including one at Metro's that went 9 innings or something like that.

A lot of thought goes into my pics. Just to give you my thought process on Hype over Heat and Storm.
I do this with every team I rank which is why I normally do not have them out until Tuesday after an event. I wont share them all as this thread would be 10 pages long.

Hype Pro's: Beat what I feel is the #1 team in 12u (The game wasn't even close) to win first tourney, Beat Nv Lightning 5 1 who beat Heat when it mattered 4 3, 2 tournament wins in 3 tournaments played.
Hype Con's: Early exit the tournament before, lost to Heat in Pool Play (I don't put as much on pool play as some will. Many coaches like Hype's Coach will bat entire line up or close to where Heat will normally Bat 10 at the most.)

Heat Pro's: Played well in the first few tournaments beating the teams they should. Beat Hype in Pool Play.
Heat Con's: Has not won a tourney yet this fall (I am sure that will soon change) Lost to Grapes in the Champ game 3-0 who Hype beat.

Storm Pro's: Beat Hype in Pool Play last tourney, Tied Rapids 1 1 who is much improved but I missed that game so I do not know if we were straight 9, Did each team have their #1 on the mound etc... 1 Touney win in Salinas last week.
Storm Con's: Other than Hype Hasn't really played a top 12u team yet to get a feel over multiple games, Because of where they are based we haven't seen much of them yet. I know James puts together good teams so we will see how things end up.

I think I will leave them how I have them until the next tournament shows us more.

[Sftball Junkie]

Linedrivelouie

I for one would tend to put more value on head to head than a team placing higher in a tournament than another. For one placing higher vs head to head is comparing apples to oranges unles of course the teams are playing the same opponents. I like Uncles rankings and think they are more accurate. The Grapettes and Storm were not in this past weekends tournament and the Heat beat the Hype handily on Saturday.

Should be:

1. Grapettes
2. Heat
3. Storm
4. Hype
5. Breeze
6. KG Hitters
7. Team California
8. Rapids

You like Uncle's rankings but you did not put them in the same order he has them??? If you think your 5 -8 is correct you have not watched these teams play. Breeze at 5? Rapids 8? KG Hitters 6? Rapids tied Storm 1-1. who you have as 2 but you rank them 8? I might agree with Team CA at 7 but I agree that 6 and 7 could go either way. Only move I might make on Louie's ranking is KG to the 9 or 10 spot. Other than that I would agree with Louie's rankings.

[Stealing Home]

or a new team like Thundercats beating the Breeze and KG Hitters very recently? Where do they stand?

Linedrivelouie

I for one would tend to put more value on head to head than a team placing higher in a tournament than another. For one placing higher vs head to head is comparing apples to oranges unles of course the teams are playing the same opponents. I like Uncles rankings and think they are more accurate. The Grapettes and Storm were not in this past weekends tournament and the Heat beat the Hype handily on Saturday.

Should be:

1. Grapettes
2. Heat
3. Storm
4. Hype
5. Breeze
6. KG Hitters
7. Team California
8. Rapids

You like Uncle's rankings but you did not put them in the same order he has them??? If you think your 5 -8 is correct you have not watched these teams play. Breeze at 5? Rapids 8? KG Hitters 6? Rapids tied Storm 1-1. who you have as 2 but you rank them 8? I might agree with Team CA at 7 but I agree that 6 and 7 could go either way. Only move I might make on Louie's ranking is KG to the 9 or 10 spot. Other than that I would agree with Louie's rankings.

[girlshaveballs]

Where is the Thundercats team from? Is this the same 99 team that played in Sac a few weeks ago?

[linedrivelouie]

Thundercats are from Rocklin, yes it's the same team and the majority of their roster is 99 players. A few of their players played for Hype 99 last year one of the coaches was with Hype 99 as well. They are a pretty Strong B team who did very well at B Nationals.

I don't include the 99 teams, I feel they should be playing 14u

[linedrivelouie]

Did the Planets and Moons realign this weekend???

I am not updating rankings until after next weekend when the majority of the teams play again but I thought I would give props to the Breeze 00 on this last weekends event. As I have said before I think they are a strong team who started out flat. They beat Heat Cota twice this weekend and made it to the Championship Game in a B level ASA 14u tournament. They lost 7 - 1 to a pretty good 14u B team Alameda Blaze. Over all pretty good weekend for you guys.

Was this the weekend they needed to gain the confidence needed to challenge the top seeds again??