On Deck: Diana and Stephanie discuss updates with their kids' travel teams and offer rankings for tournaments!
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Mentions: Owen Hammond PG All Tournament Team Bullpen Tournament Roster TBR 11u National Rankings Travel Ball Select 11u National Rankings
In this episode, we interview Val Paredes—veteran baseball mom to Tim Melville. You may have seen Tim Melville’s name in the news recently as he is a pitcher in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan and just threw the first no hitter of 2021. See his No-Hitter MVP dance here, and his 2020 Freestyle MVP dance here.
Before playing in the CPBL, Tim was an MLB Journeyman, playing for 7 different major league franchises and at least 20 professional teams. In 2019, pitching for the Colorado Rockies, Tim Melville had his first big-league win and quickly became a fan favorite of the Rockies franchise. In 2019 he also had the opportunity to strike out Freddie Freeman (an old teammate/acquaintance of his), Josh Donaldson, and Ozzie Albies. Tim Melville was drafted in 2008 in the 4th round by the Royals, but had been ranked by RISE Magazine as the top high school draft prospect in the country at the time. He went on to room with Eric Hosmer and Mike Montgomery in Single A the following year. Val has moved all around, but is a native Virginian and is currently living in Chester, Virginia. She has so much baseball-mom experience to share with us as a single mom raising a highly-sought after baseball player and navigating Tim through AAU, travel ball, USA Baseball, and the MLB draft out of high school. She also shares the challenges her son has faced along the way and talk about how they have dealt with those challenges and persevered through injuries, surgeries, and a congenital condition. Want to keep up with Moms and Baseball?
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On Deck: An Interview with Val Paredes, mother to Tim Melville. Tim Melville was once ranked as the #1 high school draft in the country and was drafted in the 4th round by the Kansas City Royals in 2008. He played for several teams in the MLB and is currently playing for the CPBL in Taiwan, and just pitched the first no hitter of 2021! Val will discuss the many challenges that Tim has overcome during his impressive baseball career and has some meaningful insights as a veteran baseball mom for youth baseball parents today.
In this episode, we talk with Stephanie Brogdon from Madera Ranchos, California, about her son, Connor Brogdon, the up-and-coming 6'6" right-handed Phillies bullpen pitcher. Connor made his major league debut in 2020 and had a very rocky start. He was sent back to the Phillies' alternate site and returned in September looking stronger than ever and had a dominating performance for the rest of the season.
Instead, Connor attended Fresno City Junior College before transferring to NAIA Lewis-Clark State College. From Lewis-Clark, Connor was drafted in the 10th round by the Philadelphia Phillies.
References:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=brogdo000con https://www.mlb.com/player/connor-brogdon-641401 https://section215.com/2021/01/10/philadelphia-phillies-brogdon-romero/ https://www.thegoodphight.com/2020/12/16/22177104/2020-player-reviews-connor-brogdon https://www.mlb.com/news/connor-brogdon-cutter-brings-confidence-results
Debbie also talks about her experience watching Nick play baseball in the Cape Cod Baseball League, and how she was able to quit her job as a teacher and run a virtual health and fitness business so that she could have more flexibility watching her son's baseball games.
In this episode, guests Amber and Brenda return to continue our discussion of the New Year’s Baseball Fest tournament in Panama City Beach, Florida, and our experiences playing with Baseball Youth Elite & GameDay USA Prospect Teams, as well as independent teams that participated in the tournament.
Check out our brand new "Parents and Baseball" Facebook group!
After recording this episode, we did hear back from GameDay USA regarding their response to how teams are created at the NYBF (and how those players are chosen) as well as how much weight is put into buddy requests. The response is included here:
"Our teams are selected from our pool of All-Star players, who are MVP recipients that showcase their skills at one of our All-Star weekends. From these events, we handpick our top players to be invited to our PROSPECT team. In terms of how the teams are divided up, we break them up based on their positions and pitching ability primarily. Of course, we want all of our teams to succeed, so giving each team as much pitching as possible in an extensive tournament like the New Year's BaseballFest is essential. Buddy requests come into effect as we are making the rosters, but do not take a priority over making sure each team is filled with enough players for each position. We would love to fulfill every buddy request if it was possible, but sometimes it is simply not possible. The coaches that we hire are all high school/college coaches or former coaches with extensive experience in the baseball world. These coaches have the hardest job in the world because they are expected to coach a group of about 12 players that they have never met and get an idea of everyone's playing level and abilities. These coaches find out their teams at the same time everyone else does, but even then they have never seen these players play. We truly appreciate all that they do, and we believe they did a phenomenal job this past weekend with the situation that was presented." On Deck for next week: Moms and Baseball Fundraising: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Check out our brand new "Parents and Baseball" Facebook group!
In this episode, guests Amber and Brenda join Stephanie and Diana to discuss personal experiences with GameDay USA and Baseball Youth individual events. We talk about those GameDay MVP tags and golden tickets, plus lots more!
Welcome Amber and Brenda. Amber has a son that played in a few GameDay USA All Star events as well as for the GameDay USA Prospect Team in Disney in 2019 as an 11-year old, then played in a Baseball Youth All American event and for the BY Elite team at the New Year's Baseball Fest in Panama City Beach as a 12u player in 2020. Brenda has a current 13u son who played in several GameDay USA All Star events, starting at 10u, and also previously played in the GameDay USA Junior All-American games in West Palm Beach, Florida. The same son participated with his current travel team in Panama City Beach's New Year's Baseball Fest in 2020. Stephanie and Diana both have 13u sons who played in the Mason, Ohio All Star event for GameDay USA in 2020 (as 12u) and then played for different GameDay USA Prospect Teams at the Panama City Beach's New Year's Baseball Fest in 2020.
"Our teams are selected from our pool of All-Star players, who are MVP recipients that showcase their skills at one of our All-Star weekends. From these events, we handpick our top players to be invited to our PROSPECT team.
In terms of how the teams are divided up, we break them up based on their positions and pitching ability primarily. Of course, we want all of our teams to succeed, so giving each team as much pitching as possible in an extensive tournament like the New Year's BaseballFest is essential. Buddy requests come into effect as we are making the rosters, but do not take a priority over making sure each team is filled with enough players for each position. We would love to fulfill every buddy request if it was possible, but sometimes it is simply not possible. The coaches that we hire are all high school/college coaches or former coaches with extensive experience in the baseball world. These coaches have the hardest job in the world because they are expected to coach a group of about 12 players that they have never met and get an idea of everyone's playing level and abilities. These coaches find out their teams at the same time everyone else does, but even then they have never seen these players play. We truly appreciate all that they do, and we believe they did a phenomenal job this past weekend with the situation that was presented." On Deck for next week: We continue our discussion of the New Year’s Baseball Fest tournament and our experiences playing with Baseball Youth Elite & GameDay USA Prospect Teams, and participating with an independent team. Please note that while we attempted to record this episode and post it uncut, we did have to cut a few small sections for various reasons--especially due to the occasional poor quality connection/audio.
In this episode you can hear stories about what youth baseball was like for retired, professional baseball players (including Boog Powell, Fergie Jenkins, Lou Whitaker, Willie Horton, Lou Pinniella, and more)!
Author Kelly Park talks about his experience interviewing 36 players from the MLB, MIIB, Negro Leagues, and All-American Girls Baseball League for his book, Just Like Me: When the Pros Played on the Sandlot. Episodes/Websites mentioned in this episode:
Complete List of Players Interviewed in Book One and Book Two of Just Like Me: When the Pros Played on the Sandlot:
This episode we interviewed Lale Esquivel, coach of the Texas Canes Elite. His 12u team went 101-0 for their 2020 season. They also:
Won 5 USSSA Super NITs, including 2 at 13u AAA level Won the 2020 12u USSSA Wilson DeMarini Elite World Series Won the 2020 12u Perfect Game National World Series Ranked #1 Team in Nation by USSSA and TravelBall Select (and probably everyone else)
RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:
Who said girls can't play baseball?
This episode we interview two young ladies currently playing baseball, and another woman who played baseball all the way to high school.
On Deck: Lale Esquivel - Coach of the Best 12u Team in the Nation
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