Tryout Position Question for HS Travel Team

Two questions

 

1.  What position does your son want to play?

2.  Is he willing to move to another position if that means being on the team?

 

End of the day it's your son's time to play and if he has the talent to play on a team like that he will get selected.  If he doesn't have the talent then it doesn't matter what position he tries out for.

1. I think he is indifferent to position, other than pitcher, which he loves.

2. Absolutely.

 

If I was one of the coaches of that team I would hope a lot of kids tryout for SS.  If I find there are 15 really good Shortstops then I know I can put these guys just about anywhere in the field.  

I have no idea how they are going to run their tryout but - If your selecting players for a team you want to get the best players period. I always had all the infielders with the exception of 1st base go to SS. After I saw them all at SS start moving guys to 3B and 2B. Heck the 3rd best SS could be the best player there. He just might not be the best SS. Also if your kid is a player have him tryout period. Get a look in the outfield, infield and on the hill. It's not about trying out for a position it's about trying out for a team. If the coaches are trying to get the best players and I am sure they are I would expect them to evaluate players not positions. Good luck

       
       
Surely pitchers and catchers are an exception to this.  I am sure.you don't mean to imply that you have to be an overall player to make a team.  My son ran into a guy like this last year.  Put everyone - and I mean everyone - in middle infield to judge their 'athleticism'.  Pitchers never pitched and catchers never caught the entire tryout.  We ran as far as we could away from that.

Of course not.

I know of a coach who is only looking to really fill three spots during a tryout period.  SS, C and CF.  He rates all the OF as CFers.  He rates all the middle infielders as SS.  The idea being the second and third best SS can cover 3rd and 2nd, the second best catcher can be a good defensive 1st baseman and the 2nd and 3rd best CF can fill the other OF spots.  His team tend to be very good defensively and the hitting will evolve as the season goes on.  He places much more emphasis on D.  

I know of another coach is looking to fill C, SS, 2nd and CF spots defensively and the other spots come down to hitting....if you can hit you play.  His teams are interesting because they can hit but I have seen OF learning on the job, no idea about a route, throwing to the wrong spots after a hit ect.  

       
       
Again assuming pitchers are a separate category?

If a kid told the coach he is or wants to be a PO then yeah.  If not everyone runs through the first two days of tryouts, the third day is for kids that want to pitch.  

Thanks everyone, much appreciated. He will try out for SS (and everything else they let him try out for).

 

Tryouts are a funny animal.  At your age, the become even funnier.  Each coach has different things that they look for.  What's funny, in our town a kid may play SS on his travel team and OF on his HS team (or visa versa).  If it was me, I wouldn't go position specific.  Do infield, outfield, pitch and HIT.  On a travel team with 12-15 kids, versatility is an asset. 

Your son should constantly be working on his skill sets, his mental strength, physical strength, speed and agility, and character strength.  But today, he is who he is.  Go out and play hard, have fun and be respectful.  Enjoy the day and then get back to work. 

Don't know what is going to happen as far as making the team is concerned, but per the consensus here, 2019Son decided to try out for shortstop. The way the tryout was run, each kid could try out at one position (in addition to pitcher and catcher) -- either OF (all lumped together), 3B, SS, 2B, or 1B. What shocked me is that of the ~75 kids at the tryout, only 5 tried out for shortstop! There were probably 35 or 40 in the OF, and 10 or so each at 3B, 2B, and 1B (and a few POs and catcher-only).

 

Of course I realize that they could move other kids to shortstop later, but I would've guessed -- as I indicated in my OP -- that there would be dozens of kids trying out for shortstop. At least I would have guessed that shortstop would be one of the positions with the most kids -- heck, there were a lot more catchers than shortstops. Live and learn, I suppose.

Almost every time a player goes to the next level the players were the pitchers, catchers, shortstops and center fielders at the previous level. Hit the ball and show athletic ability in the field. The coaches will figure out the position.

 

My son was asked to join a showcase team as a middle infielder. He ended up in center. After volunteering to play outfield rather than sit for a game the coaches decided his skills belonged in the outfield. By chance he had a couple of tough plays that game. He made them look easy. Plus he gunned down a runner at the plate.

1) Versatility is good. The more versatility your player can demonstrate, the better his chances of seeing the field SOMEWHERE.

 

2) If you player can hit, they'll find a spot for him.

This is pretty much how we do it as well. If a kid is on the bubble and said he pitches, he gets a pen. Same for catchers. Most of the time after watching them get loose and really stretch it out I have a pretty good idea of what they'll look like in the pen, but there are surprises.

strange that a high school doesn't allow SS to pitch also... what league is it? 

The kind with LOTS of good players

Yes, that's it exactly. One of those schools sent 16 baseball players to D-1 in the last two graduating classes alone. The other has had 3 first-round draft picks this decade, plus lots and lots of college players. For these schools, virtually every starter goes on to play college baseball, and often times reserves, or part-time players, also go on to play in college.

This is actually pretty common on very good teams.  The SS and Catchers will not pitch due to the different arm actions required.

Completely unrelated, but reminds me of a dad on my son's high school team.  All summer he was freaking out about the possibility of a catcher having to catch 2 games in a row.  Husband and I were dumbfounded.  All through youth ball we had a primary catcher and then a couple of kids that backed him up to give him breaks when it got really hot or just to let him get some time at another position.  When my husband finally asked him why he saw this as such a huge deal he said, "well, you'd never expect a pitcher to pitch 2 games in a row.  It's the same thing!"

Pity the poor lefties: can't play SS, 3rd or 2nd, can't catch. So they have to play OF, 1st or pitch. NTGson is athlete, God was good to him. He's fortunate to have had youth coaches who gave him the chance to experience, on a limited basis mind you, playing every position on the field. But CF and the hill are his home and hopefully he'll continue to work and improve at both.

I don't know.  In our last HS summer game this year, they played an all lefty infield. 

Postscript on this: 2019Son made the team! Thanks to everyone for their input and advice.

When I had tryouts for my high school team and we had a lot of kids try out I would put the kid at ss hit him fungos to the left to the right and at him. Look at his hands his feet and how he threw. 

 

Probably the most raw talent I ever had on a LL team I coached was a lefty catcher with just incredibly quick hands and all sorts of athleticism. Great kid.  Conventional wisdom says it can't be done, yet this player has a scholly as a catcher to mid-level D1 school.

 

I'm very happy for her.

 

 

Congrats to 2019!