Tryout

I’m sure the tryout is a formality.  They know if he can help them or not. They either saw him play or got word from the jv coach.  Obviously if he has a great tryout that can only help.

Varsity is a different speed than jv.  

good luck let us know how he does

What grade is he?

He's a junior now.  Majority of sophomore played at JV last year except that 2 kids played for varsity. 

From having been a travel coach and seeing most of the high school kids play somewhere I named the roster to the player all three years my son was on varsity.

The varsity coach knows ahead of time. He’s likely aware of who swung the bat well or had decent velocity and good movement on their pitches on the JV team. The coach knows who is coming up who can help. But sometimes players get to the next level (varsity) and fail. Then, someone else gets a shot.

If your son isn’t sure where he stands he’s either marginal or the coach doesn’t communicate with his players well. After my son’s freshman year on JV the varsity coach told him expected him to be the starting shortstop the next year. After a solid hitting year and a great glove soph year making all conference his coach told him he expected him to be a team leader in the lineup, in practice and in the dugout junior year.

HS baseball is very variable, and depends on so many factors.   If freshmen are mostly on the freshman team, sophs are mostly on jv, and then juniors and seniors on varsity - well, you can see the math, only half of the jv players are likely to be on varsity.  But, maybe the ones who didn't do well on jv last year quit; or, maybe there are a bunch of superstar sophs who might get picked for varsity, or a big group of seniors.   If your son played and did well on jv, and has improved over the summer, then sure, that should help.

Another big thing to help you know if your son will be needed on varsity will be how many returning varsity players there are. Did a player at your son's position graduate last year? They will need to move players into the positions of player that left or shift players into those position. Case in point. My Son's school had 4 seniors graduate last year. Only 2 were starters. Both played outfield. I am betting that one of the backup Varsity Sophomore outfielders will move into one of those spots. The other is open for a JV player to move up and earn the slot. All other spots are pretty solid and it would take a stand out to replace them. They will also need to fill the other two senior spots with backups that can be brought in when needed.

So if your son went to this school he would need to be one of the best JV players from last year to have a chance to make varsity. Or be the best Outfielder on the JV team.

Year before that, son's school had 9 varsity players graduate, so there was a big change over. Six juniors and 3 sophomores moved up.

This is just to give you an idea how the returning roster will play into who makes varsity.

And I agree with others, the coach knows for the most part who will make varsity before tryouts start. Unless someone shows that they improved enough to take one of the slots.

Sometimes you can’t even figure out available positions without knowing the versatility of existing players. Soph year my son was the all conference shortstop. That summer he was moved to center on his 17u travel team.

Two sophs, last years JV shortstop and last years JV centerfielder were competing for one starting position. My son was told to take reps at short and center until a decision was made. He played the first four games at short while the outfielder went 0-9 with 6 whiffs. The shortstop was inserted into the lineup and hit. My son was moved to center.