In our final review of Perfect Game’s top 100 rankings, we focus on the 13u age group. Two teams from North Carolina and two from Virginia made it into the top 100, while another 4 teams from North Carolina, 5 from South Carolina, and 3 from Virginia made the “Regional Top Teams to Watch” list. Again with the 13u rankings, Perfect Game seems to have done a good job, although there might be a few moves up or down for teams that might also be considered reasonable. Here we review the 13u top 100 and offer our thoughts on the rankings.

The 12u age group is perhaps the deepest age group in the state of North Carolina. With 4 teams in the top 100 as well as two more on the “Regional Teams to Watch” list, Perfect Game’s 12u top 100 is a reflection of just how deep this age group really is. Although no teams from South Carolina made the top 100, all of our top 5 were listed on the “Regional Teams to Watch” list. Virginia placed 3 teams in the top 100 and another team on the “Regional Teams to Watch” list demonstrating how deep the 12u age group is in this region beyond North Carolina. 

Next in our review of Perfect Game’s top 100s in the 11u rankings. Much like the 10u age group, this region was well represented in the top 100 with 4 teams from North Carolina, 1 from South Carolina, and 3 teams from Virginia all finishing inside the top 100. In addition, 13 total teams including 3 from North Carolina, 4 from South Carolina, and 6 from Virginia showed up on the “Regional Teams to Watch” list.

There’s a growing trend in youth baseball to provide rankings for the participating teams. From our own rankings, to Baseball Youth, to the Travel Baseball Rankings Project, there are several different organizations and entities trying to provide state or national level rankings. On February 15th, Perfect Game posted their attempt at ranking the top 100 10u teams in America. North Carolina was well represented as were the surrounding states with North Carolina landing 4 teams among the top 100 teams in the nation, as well as another team listed among the “Regional Team to Watch.”

Earlier this winter we made our first attempt at ranking teams outside of North Carolina. We did this for a few major reasons: 1) we had been asked on several occasions by coaches, players, parents in Virginia to provide some insights about the top competition in Virginia, and 2) many teams from North Carolina were playing in tournaments with teams from Virginia and there was some desire to help sort through those teams as we did for teams in North Carolina. After spending considerable time reviewing as many results as we could in the state of Virginia, we posted our initial rankings. Here we offer some thoughts on those rankings, and what we might see in the spring and summer of 2019.