Category: Blog

The costs of doing business: insights into the finances of travel baseball

One of the more common concerns brought up by parents across the travel baseball landscape is the cost that many face throughout the year. Despite this, many parents are reluctant to discuss costs with one another, and teams and organizations seem even less forthcoming with this information. Recently we sought to learn more about the finances of youth travel baseball and shed some light on this topic. Here we provide what we learned and hope to shed some insights on the costs of travel baseball across the Carolinas.

A look inside Perfect Game’s 10u Preseason National Top 30

Perfect Game’s 11u Preseason National Top 100 was another strong showing for teams in the region with 5 teams from North Carolina (Park Sharon Nationals – Pirro, SBA Futures, SBA Nationals, West Raleigh Blue, and Dirtbags Black), 1 from South Carolina (Team 24 Gamecocks – Ashley), and 1 from Virginia (Stars Baseball – Colangelo) included. Park Sharon continues to be the fast riser in this age group, going from unranked nationally 1 year ago, to #36 in the End-of-Summer rankings in 2019, to #5 in the preseason rankings. Here we take a look at Perfect Game’s Preseason Top 100 and how the teams in our region fit in.

A look inside Perfect Game’s 11u Preseason National Top 100

Perfect Game’s 11u Preseason National Top 100 was another strong showing for teams in the region with 5 teams from North Carolina (Park Sharon Nationals – Pirro, SBA Futures, SBA Nationals, West Raleigh Blue, and Dirtbags Black), 1 from South Carolina (Team 24 Gamecocks – Ashley), and 1 from Virginia (Stars Baseball – Colangelo) included. Park Sharon continues to be the fast riser in this age group, going from unranked nationally 1 year ago, to #36 in the End-of-Summer rankings in 2019, to #5 in the preseason rankings. Here we take a look at Perfect Game’s Preseason Top 100 and how the teams in our region fit in.

A look inside Perfect Game’s 12u Preseason National Top 100

Perfect Game recently posted their 12u preseason national top 100 rankings. While there were a few changes, these rankings look strikingly similar to their End-of-Summer rankings from August of 2019. 4 teams from North Carolina (Rawlings Prospects NC, Canes Baseball NC – Foster, Dirtbags Black, and SBA Futures), 2 from South Carolina (Charleston Revolution – Whittle and East Coast Snipers -Clark/Hill), and 3 from Virginia (Virginia Stars – Camp, VA Seminoles – Fletcher, and Rip City) were all included in the preseason top 100. Here we review some of the highlights of these rankings as it relates to teams in our region.

A look inside Perfect Game’s 13u Preseason National Top 100

On January 13th, Perfect Game published what now appears to be their annual preseason rankings for the 13u age group. 6 teams from North Carolina were ranked in the top 100, which is the same number of teams that were included in the final rankings this past summer. In addition, the same 6 teams – SBA Futures, Canes Baseball Eastern NC, Canes Baseball NC – Simpson, Five Star Carolina – Neyra, Mission Vipers Gold, and Dirtbags Legends – were included in both rankings. While Perfect Game does a fairly decent job at putting these rankings together, here we offer some thoughts about the rankings as it relates to North Carolina and the states in our region.

A guide to the biggest tournaments of 2020 in North Carolina

Each winter we like to preview some of the biggest and best tournaments in and around North Carolina as a means to showcase where some of the best competition might be found. As we enter 2020, there are a number of excellent tournaments for teams to consider this year. Here we highlight just a few of the many outstanding events available to North Carolina travel baseball teams. 

Best Programs in North Carolina in 2019

The return of our annual ranking of the top programs in North Carolina is here. Every year we try and produce a ranking of the programs involved in travel baseball. This ranking is based off performance across all of the youth age groups (8u-13u) and is meant to be a cumulative assessment of a program’s overall performance. These rankings say NOTHING about the quality of instruction, cost/value of a program, or the quality of the players and families involved with these and other organizations. Congratulations to all the programs who made our rankings. 

A look inside Perfect Game’s mid-summer 11u rankings

Perfect Game recently released their Mid-Summer travel baseball rankings. This was the 4th edition of their national travel baseball rankings in 2019 and had a number of changes in the 11u age group. 4 teams from North Carolina, 3 from Virginia, and 3 from South Carolina made the top 100. Here we review some of the highlights of the 11u top 100 national rankings, as well as offer our thoughts on these rankings.

A look inside Perfect Game’s mid-summer 10u rankings

Perfect Game recently released their Mid-Summer travel baseball rankings. This was the 4th edition of their national travel baseball rankings in 2019 and had a number of changes in the 10u age group. 5 teams from North Carolina, two from Virginia, and two from South Carolina made the top 100. Here we review some of the highlights of the 10u top 100 national rankings, as well as offer our thoughts on these rankings.