Fall ’24 10U Baseball Season Recap

Another season of baseball at Balcones has come to a close for both John as a player and me as his team’s coach! It was my seventh consecutive season coaching his team (Twins, Rockies, Mighty Mussels, Marlins, Cardinals, Orioles and now Giants). John was supposed to be in 12U where he’d have been among the youngest in the league, but new rule changes went into effect that changed the cutoff date from August 31 to May 31, allowing him to hang back in 10U for a third year. John was against staying back at first, but I thought he could benefit from being among the oldest in the league for the first time ever. As one of the very most advanced, most experienced players in the whole league, he could dominate for a season. And so he agreed.

The plan was also for me to stop managing teams once he got to 12U, and instead coach Edie’s teeball team! But since he was still in 10U, I was counted on to head up a team, and in turn Edie focused on soccer instead. One of the key moments of the season for the manager is the draft, but I couldn’t be there. I had a work-related speaking engagement I’d agreed to downtown, but when I arrived the room was so loud (it was in a bar) that I couldn’t even be heard! So the team was chosen for me by the league president, who was surely as good or better than me at forming a team.

Alongside our normal Giants team, which practiced on Mondays and played primarily on Saturdays, was the Bulls, a 10U select team that took a few kids from each regular team, giving them an opportunity to play some more competitive interleague games and tournaments. I was not the manager for that team, but did assist. So, from September 7 through November 17, he played in 22 games total between the two teams.

FALL 2024 GIANTS // FINAL SEASON BATTING STATS

As you can see, John was perhaps a bit advanced for 10U and might have fit better with his old friends who mostly all moved up to 12U. John hit .870 on the season which is unheard of no matter what level of baseball. He had 20 hits while the rest of the team combined for 18, and never struck out. All the other kids showed some promise or improvement in one area or another. Some proved to be stolen base threats, others look like slick fielders, some are due to hit for power, and others had patient eyes at the plate. We had plenty to work with, even if some of the final numbers don’t look too pretty.

My biggest fault as a coach, compared to some of the other coaches, is I cannot look at a kid’s swing and tell them what they’re doing wrong or how to adjust. Sometimes I can tell if they’re a little early or late, or that they’re stepping away from the plate, or they aren’t keeping their eye on the ball, but mechanically I can offer very few suggestions. The best thing to do is just go through the reps over and over and over and eventually they’re bound to figure it out for themselves.

John subbed for other teams four times, going 5-8 while playing for the Astros, Royals, and Cardinals.

FALL 2024 GIANTS // FINAL SEASON PITCHING STATS

On the pitching side, John again carried the workload as largely the only kid on the team with legitimate pitching experience. 49 strikeouts in 18.2 innings is off the charts, but in this league most outs are strikeouts just because kids struggle to record actual outs on batted balls. John is not an overpowering pitcher, but he consistently throws strikes and limits walks well for this age. Harry was an absolute flamethrower and will be fun to see if he can harness his control a bit. League rules prevented a kid from recording more than six outs, so I’d always throw John for two innings and piece it together after that and hope for the best!

I didn’t want to be seen as playing favorites by batting John at the top of the order and pitching, but it was pretty clear that as one of the oldest and most experienced players, I was doing right by the team and trying to win some games.

FALL 2024 GIANTS // FINAL SEASON GAME RESULTS

The final record of 2-9 looks bad, but five of those losses were by exactly one run, and our 9-8 loss had been an 8-4 lead in the final inning. Things finally came together for the last two games, as I stopped trying to be “fair” and just put the best possible lineup on the field. Lo and behold, we won over the league’s best team, the previously 8-1 Astros. I was gone for the last game, but assistant coach Dan used the same lineup and earned another victory. The biggest difference towards the end of the season was the boys collectively figured out how to hit and rally when a pitcher was on the ropes.

Overall, it was another fun season of coaching. I keep saying I’m not going to do it again, and keep getting coaxed back into it, and then am glad that I did. For one, I don’t exactly have anything else going on outside of work. For another, if John is going to play a sport and I’m going to have to take him to practice and stick around anyway, I may as well just coach in some capacity and run things the way I want to. I say now that I won’t coach in the spring, but who knows. The plan is tentatively to coach Edie in teeball and see if John gets to move up to 12U. If he’s held back in 10U again for the full calendar year, I may just let him play for another team.

BULLS SELECT TEAM

John was one of three Giants along with Max and Clark to play on the Bulls. It was “select” in the sense that it was a competitive team made up of largely the best players from the league’s four teams, but ultimately it was just the kids who raised their hands and said they were interested. There was no tryout or anything.

In those games, John was predictably less dominant, going 6-10 as a batter (.600, still very good), pitching 6 innings in 7 games. The team struggled overall, going just 1-6, and losing all three games in a weekend Georgetown tournament. But the extra games were helpful for John and the other kids to see some better competition and get more reps. John will never turn down the chance to get more at-bats!

CAREER STATS

Since starting coach-pitch in March 2021, John has now accumulated 136 hits, batting .586 overall. Yes of course I am keeping track of all of this in a spreadsheet!