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14u top teams this season

by hooper » Tue Nov 20, 2018 9:39 am

Fall season has yielded only a partial distillation of the best squads. This is due to 1) the multiple $hungry sanctioning bodies w/in fastpitch. The best teams don't often match up (see early thgiving surf city showcase as prime example of a mess w/the best teams strewn across brackets populated w/some real daddy-dogs). And 2) the showcase format, which at 14u is no longer what it was due to the rule changes (this is probably a good thing), but its time to get back to brackets so the best can butt heads. LakeE, due to the fairly selective invite character had some good matches and IMHO you got a Calif. top 5 of: DDpickering, AMgregg, CAtyson, AP, and Breeze.
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by crankshaft » Tue Nov 20, 2018 10:39 am

hooper wrote:Fall season has yielded only a partial distillation of the best squads. This is due to 1) the multiple $hungry sanctioning bodies w/in fastpitch. The best teams don't often match up (see early thgiving surf city showcase as prime example of a mess w/the best teams strewn across brackets populated w/some real daddy-dogs). And 2) the showcase format, which at 14u is no longer what it was due to the rule changes (this is probably a good thing), but its time to get back to brackets so the best can butt heads. LakeE, due to the fairly selective invite character had some good matches and IMHO you got a Calif. top 5 of: DDpickering, AMgregg, CAtyson, AP, and Breeze.


The showcasing Invites for some vs. tourny's happening on the same dates. Start in 14u then in 16u and 18u the invites really seperates the crowd. Leaves regular tournys with average to battle it out for the top of average. (or to prove they are better than average).
Compare it to watching pgf qualifiers where the top teams don't compete until it comes to Nationals.

I like the invites,
better level competing.
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by steelers530 » Tue Nov 20, 2018 12:28 pm

I have to agree. Colleges don't really care about the 14U's (which is a good thing). I love the invite format (except doing better of keeping 05s away from 04s). Even though there are some really good 05's, hard to match up with top 04s.

Should make for an exciting summer, when it actually means something! Great conversation, thank you guys!! #beatTexas.
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by 05FastpitchDad » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:33 pm

Schmick wrote:Thanks for the comments, I'm just pulling stuff from my butt and trying to move the board.


That Dirtdogs Pickering team is very legit. The Yardsharks Lopez team was pretty tough this spring, may have had a rough weekend. A tough No Cal team from the spring was the West Bay Warriors, they thumped my kid in a tournament, but they may habe been mixed with 03's in there cause they had some big girls.

In So Cal I see a lot of these teams and girls week in and week out and can sort of track how some of these girls and teams move year to year.

The Firecracker Brashear 2022 team is a mix of Explosion Smith girls and Firecracker Brashear/Lopez girls with some of the other top Brashear players from Thornburg's and Allan's teams. They're legit.

The Batbuster Flores team is some of the girls he had 2 seasons ago, minus the ones who left last year when his team was handed to Stith Juniorette for a season. They're figuring things out but are very talented

The American Pastime Velasquez 04 team is similar to last season's team except the two class of 2023 pitchers have left and in their places are So Cal As Alonzo's and Firecrackers Romero's #1's. On top of that, Pastimes #1 is back from an injury that had her out nearly all of last season. They're tough to beat with 4 stud pitchers.

The Firecrackers Brashear /Allan team lost their ace to the FC Brashear 2022 team as well as a few other players but with Power Surge and Breakers not being what they used to be most of the top SD area talent is finding it's way to Jeff who will coach them up.

Corona Angels Tyson is a mix of who Marty took from the Carter, Perez (formerly Powell) and FTS (formerly Ollison) first year 14's teams from 17/18 plus a few other girls Marty has brought along, I haven't seen them much but I'm sure, and told on here, that as usual, a very good team

Mercado As 2022 Greg is still the old Mercado As Kinch team from 12U's but handed to Borizelli and Campbell after they left Explosion. Last season they added some of BB Flores girls who didn't stay after Stith passed that team to his daughter and they have been adding to that team consistently since. Extremely talented squad


The '05/2023 teams I'm still getting to know. Very impressed with Mercado Hovermale and Firecrackers Holcomb Knight so far, still waiting to see OC Batbusters Campbell play but I don't doubt that they will be among the top


05's:

Mercado 2023 (Hovermale) lost a close game this weekend to Explosion Hilliard (formerly Courage) another talented 05 squad. Mercado is all 05 girls, and they acquired the ace P1 from Westbay Warriors as well as the catcher from Brashear 2023 club. They already had two of the strongest pitchers in the division, along with a very consistent girl who was with the BB, and now added another dominant hurler.

Westbay Warriors lost not only their stud pitcher, but also their catcher and SS who are now with Universal.

Universal is a tough squad with strong bats throughout their lineup and every time they come down to SoCal they bring it.

FC Brashear 2023 is strong, they were known as Brashear Oakes last season and compete with everyone.

FC Holcomb Knight has almost all 05's as the sole 04 is in 8th grade, thus, will not have to go dark, and will graduate 2023. FC H/K tied OCBB Campbell 2-2 the weekend before Don Battles after beating Cal Breeze and Universal.

BB Campbell all 05 group that has played a very limited amount this Fall. They played two games at the BBFC On Deck Showcase, then beat Cal Breeze but lost to Universal the same day they tied FC H/K. They might have played all of 10 times this Fall.

Choppers Faussett has basically an all 05 roster as he is currently only carrying one 04 pitcher (lost his 04 P1 to Mercado Gregg) and has just a couple of other position players that are 04s. The bulk of his team was Choppers Seper last season and they were a scrappy group. They too have followed the Mark Campbell model and have opted for more practice time instead of playing time and might have about 9 games or so under their belt.

Batbusters Guthrie (formerly CA Raiders) parted ways with world famous, internationally known Mr. Phil Bruder himself and are still a very well coached team. Their P1 is back, now that they are in 14s, and she is an 04 girl. They also carry two girls that are 12u eligible which will make it tough for them to compete with the older groups.

#BeatTexas
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by Schmick » Fri Jan 11, 2019 12:49 pm

The Explosion Alaan team is pretty tough among the 2023 teams as well. Knocked FC Holcomb/Knight out of a tourney last month with back to back home runs .
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by Schmick » Sun Feb 03, 2019 3:37 am

Breakers Labs Black won the last tournament with any of the better 14U teams in it before the dark period.
They beat American Pastime Velasquez in the finals.

Mercado Tidd won the Great Park side of the tournament.

Guess we will see who the better dark/2023 teams are now.

Mercado Athletics Hovermale
OC Batbusters Campbell
Explosion Alaan
Firecrackers Holcomb/Knight

Any others?
Mercado Athletics Tidd?
Ohana Tigers Limardo?
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by newbie101 » Sun Feb 03, 2019 8:00 am

How will the So Cal teams stack up against
Beverly Bandits
Tampa Mustangs
Diamond Sports HotShots
Georgia Impact
Tennessee Mojo
Birmingham Thuderbolts

Seems like these are the teams to beat if you wanna win a National title.
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by Schmick » Mon Feb 04, 2019 5:11 pm

newbie101 wrote:How will the So Cal teams stack up against
Beverly Bandits
Tampa Mustangs
Diamond Sports HotShots
Georgia Impact
Tennessee Mojo
Birmingham Thuderbolts

Seems like these are the teams to beat if you wanna win a National title.



Honestly I'm not sure how well but from what I have seen of those teams, it's generally a different animal.
Most of the So Cal teams are made up of girls who all live within 30 miles of each other. There are also going to be several teams, that age, of girls who are in that 30 mile radius.
These teams from back east are made up of all of the best girls from much larger areas where there isn't the competition between teams for those girls.
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by newbie101 » Mon Feb 04, 2019 6:30 pm

Schmick wrote:
newbie101 wrote:How will the So Cal teams stack up against
Beverly Bandits
Tampa Mustangs
Diamond Sports HotShots
Georgia Impact
Tennessee Mojo
Birmingham Thuderbolts

Seems like these are the teams to beat if you wanna win a National title.



Honestly I'm not sure how well but from what I have seen of those teams, it's generally a different animal.
Most of the So Cal teams are made up of girls who all live within 30 miles of each other. There are also going to be several teams, that age, of girls who are in that 30 mile radius.
These teams from back east are made up of all of the best girls from much larger areas where there isn't the competition between teams for those girls.


Okay but what does that have to do with it? I think the only teams on that list that really get kids from other states migh be Bev Bandits and Thunderbolts, none the less if you are the top team in any age Div. it should not matter where your players are from or was this a CA thing only?
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by Schmick » Tue Feb 05, 2019 12:32 am

This ranking was of the top teams in 14U in Southern California. Was carried over from another thread in a different section of the forum where the subject was what would move the board.

Those other states where those other teams are from have their own forums here on this site. Let the people who see those teams week in and week out discuss them in those other states forums



And the 14u PGF champions last year were a team from So Cal.
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