Does anyone think doing a scrimmage for a tryout is good or bad? I can't stand watching kids throw bullpens and only evaluating them on a bullpen. I want to see them face hitters. Any thoughts?
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Can't speak as a coach but much better to scrimmage (IMO). My son recently tried out for summer team. Coaches did two day tryouts. Day one was ususal workouts with day 2 scrimmage. Day 2 was invitation only. Interesting to see how kids performed in game situations as opposed to drills, BP, & bullpens.
I too would prefer the scrimmage. Get's a more realistic look. Everybody, including me, can hit batting practice bombs.
One thing I would do, is use the showcase model. No walks -- after 4 balls, strikes stay the same and the pitcher can only throw fastballs. You want to see the kids hit, don't you? (apparently not at some the teams my kid tried out with)
The thing is you can't just scrimmage. Simply not enough reps to really evaluate the kids.
We do two days of "skills." 60 times, groundballs, flyballs, hitting in cages, etc.
We have a coach pitched L-screen scrimmage the third day with only tryout kids. We then make a first cut. We bring kids back and have them intrasquad with the retunring guys from last year to see game-like ability.
Skills tests plus a scrimmage. To move it along and make sure you get good evals I suggest modifying rules by playing as follows:
Five batter per inning
Every batter starts with a 1-1 count
There is always one away.
Tried that a few times. Given the number of players trying out, it just took too, too long.
Even tried having skills testing and a midday cut before scrimmaging only with those remaining. Still took too long because of all the pitchers who needed to be seen.