Picking a roster

The problem is a lot of the best athletes on a team (well at least the right handed ones!) will play shortstop. Well if they all tried out for SS then you'd be passing up a lot of good athletes as you would only carry 4 to 8 Shortstops. Many of these kids might be better then most of the 2B or 3B that try out at those positions. I guess as long as you guys take that into consideration when selecting your teams then it isn't an issue. If not then ya, maybe you need to lump the infielders (excluding first baseman)all together for tryout purposes. If your #9 rated SS can rake and play a decent SS then maybe you'd be prudent to seeing if he'd move to 3rd or 2nd over a lesser hitter who just happened to tryout at second. Just my 2 cents.

We do that, we put infielders together and outfielders togethers. And if someone wants to do both they can.

Then I would say you have it covered. Can the player get a copy of the evaluation form from tryouts that day or just call to get a copy or at least the details?

Not the day of because it starts out as 15 seperate pages of notes and scores from all the coaches then I compile them. After tryouts many of the guys who didn't make it did call or email for details which I provided. That made it a lot easier when you have all the information right there in black and white. Still the hardest part of any sport though.

I think you guys do a pretty good job comminicating with the kids. At their age, they should be able to determine their own best shot for making one of the teams. If they are not one of the top 4 or 5 at their primary position, then they should tryout for a secondary.

Different sport, but relevant - Herb Brooks got ripped by so called experts when he selected the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team. He had a vision of what he wanted and many argued with his methods but few with his results. The bottom line is any program has a certain amount of discretion when selecting players. Just admit it. It's great having some form of objective evaluation and some kids will make the teams based on those numbers, just don't pretend that you sort the numbers highest to lowest and pick the top 4 at each position.

I don't see how that is relevant. You're talking about a coach picking grown men with scouting reports, video, college and high school stats and history, plus some tryouts to compete in one tournament.

I am talking about selecting boys from a series of tryouts being evaluated for selection in preperation for a season that could possibly lead to a tournament.

Not only that but hockey is a completely different animal, as is basketball and football.

There is certainly no exact science in any tryout, there's likely going to be some boarder line guys that could go either way and it will be a judgement or discretion call. But the top guys will stand out.

The point/relevance is that there is subjectivity in selecting a roster regardless of the sport or level. Brook's admitted himself that he cut more talented players in favor of overall team chemistry. I'm not comparing your process to Brook's and I'm not ragging on your process, I'm just asking that you acknowledge the existence of subjectivity and not pretend that it's above being second guessed. Remember, this post was started as a result of second guessing.

TrueFan28 do you have a problem with Shawn or myself? Why don't you take the advice of ironwill and private message either of us or email us, like I said earlier there is no doubt who Shawn or I are, it is easy to be critical when you are not willing to share your own name?

Having dealt with tryouts at a much lower level I know that there is an amount of "well I know that player can do better than he did today" that can factor into anyone's evaluation. You may really like a player and because you know him and/or his character you rate him higher; whereas, I may not know or like that same player as much and rate what I saw. Like was pointed out in the other topic w/ Memorial - you know the players that were cut based on seeing them over 2 years and 80+ games. If the (new?) Memorial coach doesn't know the players and they have a bad tryout, then his point of reference is the 3-5 days of evaluation where the primary focus is picking a Varsity roster. Those JV and Freshman players may not get the same look - I don't know. It's kind of tough to compare. One of my kids learned a valuable lesson one year in a basketball tryout about making yourself stick out and not take anything for granted. You may think you're better than someone else, but if that player did something to stand out to the coach who was trying to fill out his roster, then he'll make the team and you're cut. On any given roster there's 'outstanding', 'above average', and 'specialty' talent and 100% of those cut think they're better than anyone but the outstanding players.

All that said being able to take "statistical" data to help make comparisons as well as "emotional" data in order to evaluate any given player against his peers does seem to be a very reasonable methodology for how the GSBA fall teams were selected. Communicating all that to the parent/player is extraordinary. If people don't like the process, they are free to start their own league and face the same issues... Over time I would guess you can develop a system where player ratings based on some percentage of each set of data can rate the players 1...n. Does it exclude players - sure, but there's only so many spots available. Could a player be included that perhaps doesn't deserve it - not likely - mainly because there's too many factors. Of course there's always the axioms "it's not what you know, but who you know" and "be careful of what bridges you burn because some day you many need to cross one of those bridges"....

This is going to be very entertaining discussion (I hope)!

John well put on all accounts.

We also make sure the same coaches are evaluating the same areas at all four tryouts. So for example we might have Nick Jaskolka and Scott Hopps scoring hitters, they will do hitters for all four tryouts so if they give someone a 5 its the same 5 each week. Then Dylan Mullin and Kike Calero on infielders doing scoring, for all four tryouts. So when you compare ratings from one day to the next you can try to keep the same criteria. My 1-5 scale might be different from someone else's but if I'm doing all the ratings a 3 should be a 3. Its a bit easier for pitchers since we have exact numbers like velocity, pitch charts, percentage of strikes, etc.

John I am just noticing that your registered date is July 4th, what no BBQ last year?

I have seen the GSBA Showcase league provide an unbelievable amount of exposure, coaching, encouragment and basic guidance to numerous players from all over the state.

In fact, they go way above and beyond anything you would expect in regards to getting their players exposed to the right colleges.

I do know some parents that were upset that their son was not selected, but I think in the end these guys get it right most of the time.

So... I highly encourage any parent to get their ballplayer "ready" for the tryouts next year because the word is getting out - this is a very valuable opportunity for the 60 kids selected.

TrueFan28: It was posted that ship2 responds to 340+ families that didn't make the roster... So 340 + 60 is at least 400... Probably not that many families w/ twins or brothers that both tryout and fail to make a team...

There were right around 400 tryout charts filled out for the 2009 season. So if Joe Smith came to tryout 1 and 4 he would have two charts. This number should go up again for 2010 as it was nearly double that of 2008 and we have added Franklin Pierce University as a tryout location that should bring in more players from Western NH such as Keene etc. UConn has also committed to host this season which might bring more interest also.

Merrimack announced it's 2010 roster today 3 seniors, 12 juniors, and Tommy Hudon as the only sophomore.