Coach Yosten, Given that you are shown as being from Texas, why are you asking about this in the CA forum? Just curious.
In SoCal it is usually a bit deeper than HS ball in the tougher conferences, although some of the very top talent leaves early after being drafted. The best teams usually have a lot of kids already at JUCOs or small colleges or headed to those schools along with some of the better HS players.
Posts: 5123 | Location: Southern CA, USA | Registered: January 02, 2003
watched a lot of connie mack games this summer in northern california. competition is generally very strong. it's wood bat and the pitching is pretty solid which leads to low scoring games. i'd say a very high percentage of the kids playing go on to some level of college ball.
Posts: 23 | Location: california | Registered: August 10, 2009
This past season they had a pitcher in the league who was drafted in the 2nd round stick around and play before he signed. That team also had a draftee who was getting an abbreviated "draft and follow" look. I think they finished about 3rd. The team my son's team played in their last couple games had some players from Taiwan for the games. They were pretty obviously not "legally" on the roster, but nobody cared.
Posts: 5123 | Location: Southern CA, USA | Registered: January 02, 2003
I have had a couple of kids play in the Connie Mack Leagues in Southern California over the last four years.
The Southern California Connie Mack leagues are extremely competitive. You will not see a weak team. There are some teams absolutely loaded with talent. The level of competition in Connie Mack is above any of the high school leagues in Southern California which are if not the best in the country, pretty close.
You will always be able to follow many of the kids as they have success in college and pro ball. It is very enjoyable to watch these games. The only problem I have is not having rosters of the teams to really know who I'm watching all the time. It never fails during a game, you have a kid really play well and you wonder who the kid is and where he from and where is he going.
You see the programs like Trombly Baseball, SGV Aresenal, Playa Vista Orioles, and so on. You get to see kids from all over Southern California compete at a very, very high level.
A great experience to watch...a better one for the kids to play in.
Posts: 9 | Location: southern california | Registered: May 04, 2007
Connie Mack is more widespread in southern California than northern, but both ends of the state have very high level, competitive leagues. Northern CA had 17 teams competing this past summer, and it is the highest level of baseball that a high school aged player can participate in. Many of our teams have anywhere from 5 to a dozen or more of their players who are headed off to play D1 or other levels of college baseball in the future.
It's the best 18u baseball out there in northern CA for anyone fortunate enough to compete for one of the teams.
Posts: 1478 | Location: California | Registered: January 10, 2004
