Perfect Game recently published their final preseason youth travel baseball rankings with the 10u list. In a break from the 10u-13u rankings, the 10u preseason rankings were comprised of 30 total teams rather than 100. Two North Carolina teams, our #1 and #2 team, the SBA Futures and Dirtbags Black, both came in the top 10 at #5 and #7, respectively. These are some lofty rankings and it will be interesting to watch these two this spring and summer now that the targets on their backs just got a lot larger.
North Carolina representation
Two teams from North Carolina made the cut for the top 30 in the preseason national 10u rankings with both coming in the top 10. This is an outstanding accomplishment, as only two other teams in North Carolina made the top 10 at any age group (11u Park Sharon Nationals - Pirro came in at #5, and 12u Canes Baseball NC - Foster came in at #7). The SBA Futures are #5 in the preseason rankings, and this appears to us to be a well-deserved honor. In the fall, the Futures were 12-0, including wins over national #7 Dirtbags Black. Amazingly, in 12 games, the Futures gave up a total of 32 runs, outscoring opponents a combined 126-32 against a schedule that included 5 wins against ranked teams in North Carolina as well as titles at the USSSA Jay Criscione Super NIT and the Top Gun Winter World Series. Dirtbags Black was also impressive this past fall, going 17-2 overall with an extra-innings loss against the Futures, as well as a loss against the Next Level Prospects (GA), as well as 9 wins against teams who finished ranked in our North Carolina rankings.
Beyond North Carolina
No teams from South Carolina or Virginia ended up in Perfect Game's top 30 for the preseason 10u rankings.
What Perfect Game got right
Having the SBA Futures near the top of these rankings seem justified. The Futures were 12-0 this past fall and 41-9-1 in the Spring of 2019. This included a 6-3 run to the quarterfinals at the USSSA Demarini Elite World Series last summer. During that run, the Futures scored wins over current national #2 Traction Canes Black (LA), #3 Hollywood Heat (FL), #17 Smithville Scrappers (IN), and #21 Motor City Hit Dogs - Hammond (MI). Two of their losses came against eventual runner-up Traction Canes Black in that event. Dirtbags Black also performed well at the USSSA Demarini Elite World Series last summer, finishing 5-3-1 overall, with all 3 losses coming against eventual champion and preseason national #1 MVP Hustle - Ruiz (CA).
What Perfect Game got wrong
We applaud the effort of Perfect Game in trying to even take on the task of putting together a preseason 10u national top 100. There is so much change that goes with kids development, rosters, and team structuring at this age that it can be extremely difficult to keep up. It's hard to feel that putting a list of the top 30 10u teams can be entirely accurate, however. How likely is it, for instance, that 7 of the top 26 teams in America in one age group all come from Florida? We actually think it was reasonable on Perfect Game's part to limit 10u preseason rankings to just 30 teams, but would have liked to see an "honorable mention" or "teams-to-watch" list to offer some more insights into the best teams across the country and in specific regions. In particular, this would be a criticism we would offer Perfect Game across all of their youth rankings. At the older ages, many more teams are included in the regional rankings or included as honorable mention. This would be a really interesting and informative feature to add to the youth age groups as well.