Adding Guest Players

We had a long and contentious thread on a similar topic not many months ago.

Some members vigorously maintained that those who signed on early and toiled through the pre-season should have their playing time protected. Others maintained just as vigorously that if the point of travel ball is better competition, players and parents should accept it when better competition reduces their playing time.

Both schools of thought were strongly represented. The first group assumed a college or scholastic model of roster building in which you make do as best you can with those on the initial squad list at the beginning of the year.  The second group assumed more of a pro model in which coaches are free to improve their rosters any chance they get.

We did not achieve consensus. People in the first group thought the second group endorsed pointless trophy chasing and putting the program ahead of the players. People in the second group thought the first group wanted the safety of a daddy ball team.

The strength and divergence of these opinions illustrate why it is prudent to get a clear understanding of exactly what you are buying when you sign up with a travel team:  are you buying a spot in the lineup, a spot in a rotation, or a chance to compete? It's worth your time to clarify how your travel team will be run before you write the check.

Best wishes.

Awesome post I should have checked the archives first...Thanks!

Definitely a fraught subject!  A  team my son played on from 14U - 16U seasons basically disintegrated over the issue, with long term parents basically staging a revolt, and refusing to pay anymore fees, over the issue of the coach's marked preference for guest players.  It got ugly.  So wise advice to know in advance what you're getting into.  

What age are we talking about and how far did the team typically travel up to this point?

In 13u to 16u (at 15) we used guest players in lieu of tryouts. Talent wasn't the issue. We wanted to see how the player(s) fit in from a team chemistry standpoint. Guest players only played pool play. 

Here's one

http://community.hsbaseballweb.../bringing-in-ringers

This is 16U...Unfortunately we are on the "Guest side of things" so I am going by hearsay from the coach but the team travels regionally with mixed results, they appear to do pretty well (top 1/2 in all and 1 finals).  According to the coach the players / parents signed up for an 8 tournament schedule and these will be in addition to those 8 with no further cost to the existing player.  I appreciate the sense of what we "Might" be walking into, he guested in the fall last year several times but this is the first summer team... 

Difficult situation at best.  Essentially a "new" team as the original schedule was completed.  With no further cost to existing players -- how are they paying for the tournaments?  Do the guests pay anything? 

I would basically think the players/parents got what they bargained for.  If there was money left over, that should be "refunded" and the new team should pay for the new tournaments.  Those that don't want to go further can walk away.  That makes it pretty clear and clean. 

You as a guest player should just be as nice and cordial as you can.  Good luck.    

OK.  By 16u, this starts to become normal for most organizations.  Changing rosters, players coming and going, guest players, players getting beat out as the team strives to improve their status and get accepted to bigger/more visible events, etc., etc.

It becomes an important lesson to learn for kids who aspire to play at a higher level - there will always be somebody trying to beat you out for your spot and it is part of a coach's job to continue finding and grooming good players.  However, as a guest player/parent, it is not your lesson to teach.  My advice would be for the player to go in playing hard but being humble and have a sense of awareness/sensitivity that he is coming into a situation where he may be taking a spot from a player who may have been with the team for a while and may be going thru the difficult learning curve with the aforementioned important lesson.  Compete hard.  Try to win the spot.  Be a good teammate. 

Similarly, the parents should go in with a humble, listening approach and the same level of sensitivity.  Pull for the team and all the players and things will work out fine...  not necessarily without a few bumps in the road, though.

I asked the same question regarding payment.  The program is run so that player fee's cover potential slots in advanced tournaments should the team win a regional qualifier or similar.  Apparently some years back (2008) they had a team that qualified for a national tournament but the parents refused to support it so the team didn't attend.  Now the program fee builds one additional tournament into each team and if not used it goes into the "Program development" pool fund which pays for these few year end tournaments.  The have also brought in specialized trainers, coaches and purchased equipment with the funds in the past.

My sons have been on both sides of the discussion.  I feel that if the team needs extra players in a PG tourney then it should be a no brainer to all involved.  You do not want to ruin your current pitchers pitching too much at the end of the season and if the guest player can get you further in the tourney then the current players get more baseball.

I would never allow my sons to take a spot from a current player just to chase trophies. That's not fair to either player and I do make it a point to ask specifically what the situation is before agreeing to fill in.

You also find that a lot of coaches will use this time to find players for next year or make additions for next year before they cut the bottom players.  You need to know what role your son is being asked to play before you get there.  Are you truly a guest player for just a few tournaments or are you being set up to fill a role next year?  There is a lot of pressure put on by some coaches with the "well we let you play for free at the end of the season" deal.  You also want to know for sure if you and your son are walking into a timebomb that might blow during the tournaments.  I would want clarification of what the intent is and what the exact situation of the team is.

As a guest player parent, I try to stay out of the parent conversations and just be down the fence.  If the parents come to me, that is fine.  I'm not avoiding them but you never know whose spot your son is taking and how that parent is going to respond.  I don't need any additional drama in my life.

Great advice, thanks!

Well MDBD, it sounds like the organization has it covered and you're really asking how to deal with the parents of fringe players.  It's really a pretty simple answer:  You can't keep everybody happy and it's not your job to do so.  If the organization asked your son to play, he obviously has something to offer that THE COACHES believe their other players cannot.

You don't have to get all magnanimous about it (not saying you would, just illustrating a point), but you also don't have to be sheepish or apologetic.  Root for the team, root for your kid and have fun.  Everything else is drama that has been there before your kid was ever asked, so why sweat it?

My son responded to a request once to be a "guest" player.  It was thru a mutual friend.  The team was coming to Georgia to play a tournament and needed some pitching help.  We agreed to go help them, but let them know we had to leave the tournament after the 1st two days to attend a different tournament we were already committed to.  My son wound up pitching and playing a little SS for them.  They did not want us to leave and wound up begging for him to stay.  We told them we would love to stay and hated leaving, but committed to the other thing long before.  It was a positive thing for us and as far as I can tell from the team as well.  I really don't know if there were disgruntled parents or not.  I really didn't pay much attention.  My son did not indicate that any of their players were disgruntled.  

I think in this situation where they are playing add on tournaments and missing some regular players due to injury and vacation, it shouldn't be a big deal.  If your son is good and is an obvious contributor, I'm sure most will be glad he is there.  Sounds like if this team did not have some guest players, they wouldn't even be going to the tournaments.  They should be grateful, IMO.

I was that coach at one time. Occasionally asking players to play in a tournament.. either it was to replace a player who would not be there or as was said in a big tournament. Really only had one parent really mad at me. It was a fringe player, probably not going to be asked back the next year and it was an end of year tournament. We brought in 3 players for it, All pitched, one was a PO, one played OF and the other played INF. Fringe player was OF only. We were missing our CF/P that weekend and the replacement player took his spot and playing time. The fringe players parent thought his son should have gotten the playing time and pick up should have gotten his son's which was basically playing half the time. I tried to explain that his son did not play any less than usual. But he wouldn't accept that. ended up leaving before the tournament was over and done for the year. I felt bad but not bad enough to change anything I had done. The replacement player slid right into the player that was gone and did not affect his son's PT.

Son was a guest player a few times. I did exactly what several here said and found out what they needed him for before hand, We turned down several who were going to eat into a current players playing time because they thought they could win a tournament over the  years