The core of our team had been together since 6U (usually 0.500 type seasons, but all the kids developed at 3+ positions). We won the rec ball league for spring 7U and fall 8U last year. Several parents (moreso than the kids) wanted to try select ball. We kept 8 players so it's basically the same team, and I don't know if their development this season is much better than it would have been if we stayed rec at this age. We are sitting at a 3-12-3 record as the kids are still getting used to the speed of select ball, playing against much better competition, and we didn't add any studs (and the 3 kids the paid coach put on our team are all bottom 4-5 players on the roster). Houston Select Facebook parents (maybe select parents in general) are mostly hypocrites as they say "prioritizing winning" is acceptable at their kids' age but all younger ages should be for development...but it's a sliding metric based on whatever age their kid is at. 90% of the 8U teams are playing the same kids in set positions even on the Saturday pool games. That strategy is definitely better for their record and seeding and getting those key kids more Saturday reps in prep for Sunday, but it sucks for the kids assigned to RF, 2B, C, bench/EH. It also sucks for us since we are moving kids around every inning and we lose a lot of 12-8 score type games that we could've won if other teams played the way we do. I considered jumping back to rec ball for fall 9U, but my son wants to play football and I think the Sunday select schedule for fall is the only way football+baseball will work.
Another thing about select is the birthday calendar. I don't understand why they don't adopt the LL calendar and have kids play with their "grade" (grade they are supposed to be in, no B.S. holding a kid back for sports). Select ball goes by May 1 cutoff, so kids with summer birthdays are supposed to play "down" with kids the grade younger. My sons are both June, and the select coaches all want them to play in their younger legal age, because it's all about dem rings! I pity parents that have their genetically huge kids with May birthdays play the younger age and just dominate. Hooray your kid is the MVP! But how about challenge him a little more and let him play with kids in his grade? We've got several kids barely 4'0 and regularly come across 8U kids who are 5' and thick.