Anyone know anything about the Atlanta Bluejays? how good they are & any previous experiences with them etc.?

Our 15u team (Richmond Braves '08) drew them at East Cobb last summer, I think in the WWBA 16u tourney. In fact, I think we played both their (then) 15u and 16u entries.

My recollection was that both teams showed talent and good coaching and were generally without the kind of screaming stuff that you want to avoid.

As I recall, the younger team (that would now be 16u) actually gave us the tougher game. Though we won both times, both games were close and hard fought. I remember in particular the younger team had a breaking-ball RHP who held us off for a long time before he just plain ran out of gas, I think he'd pitched not long before and was exhausted. (It was plenty hot, too, upper 90's all tourney.) So maybe you could say they could use some more pitching depth -- but then, who couldn't?

hey midlo. i was on that 16 year old team. i played first base that day. in defense of us, the 16's last year, we had played that was our 7th game in the last 3 days. we played 3 on firday, 3 on saturday, and then a 9am game? ok yea im sorry if we werent as good as the 15's lol. hey bubba, i played and am now back at east cobb so if you have any questions PM me.

Bubba,

Have not heard good things about the coaching or how the teams are managed. No parental communication, task master mentality, very expensive.

Anthony Dye had a good bit of talent last year that has moved on to a more positive environment.

like i said bubba. i can help you out with some questions.

KayMart4: Next time stay out of the losers' bracket! Once you go there, it's just a matter of time.

yea ok i see what you mean, but you seriously cant take any pride in beating us when we played that many games before. not saying we would have won, cause we almost guaranteed wouldnt have, but still. and the reason why we were in the losing bracket is cause east cobb hates us. absolutely hates us, they hate when we did better then they did. thats why you notice all east cobb teams almost always have an easy pool. we got a hard pool and we got a lesser seed. played a great team and fell a little short.

Anthony Dye is probably the worst "baseball person" I have ever met. Unreliable, no parental communication, favoritisim and criminal. Yes, criminal. He was arrested for brawling in a game a couple of years ago. His picture made the front page of the paper. Stay as far away from him as possible.

in defense of anthony, his was players were being attacked with bats and fists...do you want your coach to sit on the bench and watch? if i was on that team i would have wanted dye to come help break it up. he ran in and what happened to end up as "tackle" a kid that was about to beat the **** out of his second baseman with a baseball bat...so i guess being criminal isnt too bad a thing.

Kaymart4, I will also say that I seem to recall that one of your best guys was in a cast or on crutches or something that day. So maybe we just caught you at a bad time? Still, as I said, I thought you guys were tough.

Don't know how East Cobb could rig the WWBA pools, but will say they have the umps totally intimidated down there. The 16u Astros' coach in particular did a full-scale Earl Weaver job and was not tossed. Never seen an ump take that kind of guff off of anybody.

sorry, i overreacted a lil. they have it all rigged. if they dont win it every year in my opinion it should be a dissappointment. this being said tho, i am back at east cobb. im not on the top team tho so its not as bad as the astros.

Chris,

There is no excuse for Anthony's actions as a Coach....he should have taken his team off the the field before the fight broke out.

As for the comments about ECB rigging pools, empires, etc...."Non-Sense". You still have to play the game on the field.

wizard...one last question. did you see or read what happened with anthony's fight?

I did read about it and have spoken to others who were present.

The fight didn't erupt with the call at 2nd base without advance warning....the cat calling from the doug-outs and stands were adding fuel to the fire.

Dye is an idiot.

As a former Atlanta Bluejay I'd like to throw in my 2 cents about Anthony and his program. The communication is horrible. He only allows players to speak with him about problems (It's not as easy manipulating parents as it is players). The only way you will be on his "favorite player" list is if you are going to get him somewhere. If you're not a big shot that will give him a good reputation, he doesn't care what he does to you.

The coaching staff was horrible. We would've had a very good coach but he did not take the job because Anthony would not give him complete control of the team (who plays, batting order, etc.)

Can't forget the practices. 4-5 hour practices in the middle of the day. After practice, pitchers had to run 40 poles or 20 poles and 20 stadiums. Pretty much every other practice whenever an infielder missed or bobbled a ball, they would have to either run sprints or do 6 inches, pushups, sit-ups, etc. Whenever someone was late or wore the wrong practice shirt, we'd run 20-40 sprints. These sprints were from the foul line to second base. The coach would move back every sprint until the last 10 were to the right center fence. We'd sometimes even wake up extremely early on a game day during tournaments just to practice for 2-3 hours.

Everyone except a few people hated Anthony. Whenever he showed up for a game the whole dugout was tense. He'd yell and chew you out because he expects perfection.

All in all, he destroyed a great team. The second baseman and centerfielder quit near the end of the summer. A few players from the year before decided to never play a 2nd year for our team and a few more players quit after the season.

Anthony Dye and his program is completely unprofessional. What a waste of a summer going to ****** showcases and tournaments that didn't help the players one bit.

Anthony Dye is probably the worst coach I have ever seen. He's verbally abusive to his players. He shows very poor sportsmanship during games. He'll get mad when his team doesn't win and then verbally demeans his players. He has real anger problems. He has gotten in fights, thrown out of games, stormed off the field and refuse to coach the remainder of the game. He is the only coach I have ever seen who has refuse to allow his players to shake hands of the other team following a loss. Poor Sportsmanship!!

These comments are nothing new. He loses good players (future college players) every year because he verbally abuses them. His verbal assaults are not constructive, they are vicious malicious. Anthony has coached numerous great baseball players over the years and they all hate him. Players will spend a season with Anthony and then moved on but not before experiencing his hate-filled verbal attacks, the public humiliation,and emotional abuse. He will just flip out and go off on a player. Some will fly under the radar but the players never know what will trigger him to go on the attack. No parent should consider signing their son up to play for the Atlanta Blue Jays with Anthony as the coach. He needs to get some psychological help!

Link to Brief Article

Just to let you know Midlo. After the 16 year old coach got tossed a few times this year, he fired the umpire and hired new ones.

If that is true, then the program as a whole needs to take action to protect its reputation. The power to hire/fire umps must be separated from the coach.

The other umps should boycott in protest.

Around here, you book with an association, and the association sends you who it sends you. You don't get to pick and choose. Though forgive me, so many times I wish we could!