I've seen a lot of youth baseball and I don't think I've seen a lot of plucky try hards out perform the natural athletes.
uhhhh, not sure what kind of youth baseball you are watching. the best athlete on our baseball team is probably our worst player. similar situation to the other teams in our club. we did take him on because he's an elite football player and fast AF and is a very hard worker. I think we can mold him into something but it'll take awhile. hitting a baseball, fielding a hard ground ball, etc. are hard AF and being really fast and strong, while definitely helpful, don't get you the majority of the way there. it's a game of repetitions. unless you believe Dominicans are just the greatest natural athletes on the planet.