The Southeast Twins 18U AAA baseball team has been practising for about a month, and they're eager for a full regular season to get underway.

The Twins have 14 players on the roster, including four third years, three second years, and seven first years. Head Coach Trent Dorrance likes the mix.

"We're kind of a trending-young team, but that's fine. We're pretty well balanced as far as talent goes."

The starting rotation is predominately players with experience in the league. Dorrance said their veterans will be looked to for offence too.

"I'll be leaning on the veterans for getting us through some games. Most of our starters are second and third-year kids. They're our bigger kids too, who are a little stronger with the bat. But we've got a couple really good first years coming up too that will definitely fit in well."

The Twins finished last season 8-11. Dorrance liked their defence, but wants to see their offence put more balls in play.

"Last year ended up being pretty good. We were pretty sound defensively, we just didn't get enough bats on balls at times and a couple of our starters, we kind of moved a couple games just because of that. Again, I really revolved around our older kids to really put us through and carry us forward."

The use of analytics continues to become a bigger part of the game in the pro ranks, and the SPBL is emblematic of that.

The reigning World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers shift more than any other defence in the MLB. They use some sort of shift in 57.1 per cent of opponents' plate appearances.

Dorrance, who is in his third year as head coach of the Twins following three years as an assistant, said they're leaning more and more on the data they have available to them.

"We don't use it like pro teams, obviously. But I do like to use them as generalities, especially when you're looking at certain batters. We do some more shifting than what we used to do a couple years ago, and you try to play into the opposition's strengths and weaknesses. I use them some, kind of with a grain of salt at times. But it is kind of a fun part. I do like to analyze things like that."

The league keeps track of things, through Game Tracker, such as the rate a pitcher throw a first-pitch strike, and percentage of quality at bats by hitters. (Quality at-bats include plate appearances involving an at-bat with six or more pitches, an at-bat with three pitches after two strikes, an extra-base hit, a hard-hit ball, a walk, a sacrifice bunt, or a sacrifice fly.)

"I like to look at it a fair amount, and not just for our kids but for the opposing pitchers and opposing batters that we face," Dorrance said. "Letting the kids have the correct mindset when they step up to the place when they were facing certain pitchers in the league, and kids that have thrown first-pitch strikes, be ready to swing the bat. You have a higher percentage of getting on base that way, versus pitchers that are just kind of nibbling around the plate."

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a shorter season for the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League that began later in the year.

"We're getting stronger each week, and now that the weather is nice, the kids are really anxious," said Dorrance. "I really hope we get to play sooner than later. We will have a normal full year when we do get going. I'd rather see it early June than in early July."