I am curious to hear feedback from other parents regarding the "honesty" by which school try-outs are being conducted and cuts are being made. There are no sour grapes on my end, but I've seen enough at the middle school and high school levels to raise questions in my own head. From my observations, a large majority of kids that make the cuts deserve to, but it seems that the coaches have predispositions regarding who they want even before the tryouts begin. For example, someone who is highly favored, but had a bad tryout day, gets a "free pass" while others who are less regarded, but who represented themselves well, are disregarded. The tryout periods are typically 5 to 6 days and the group activities and the limited individual exposure times make it difficult to weed out one player from the other, so my guess is that coaches at the middle school level get input from the little league level, and high school coaches from the middle school coaches, with additional consideration for prominence of travel baseball affiliations of each respective player. I could be wrong but politics, human nature, and ambition are oftentimes hard to separate. The solution is to strive to be so good that you avoid traveling through the muck.

I do see circumstances where some kids commit multiple errors in the fielding evaluations part yet don't suffer consequences while others do. I wonder how much of this is intentional or even subconscious, to arrive at a predetermined roster outcome. Tryouts are about a week long. With a lot of kids trying out and evaluations conducted in multiple facets of the game, if a player commits more mistakes than others, is there room for debate?

coaches have predispositions regarding who they want even before the tryouts begin
I have noticed this to be true at a JHS level. One of the primary issues is a coach who handles multiple sports at a JHS. When a coach, for example, runs football in the Fall and then basketball in the Winter you will definitely see kids on the basketball team that should not have made it.

It is even worse than many people realize. In our school district, the high school varsity coach also coaches a 15-16u team in the summer with many of his players. The kids who play for him definitely get preferential treatment. Best freshman player by far plays for another organization and did not get moved up from 9th grade to JV while another kid who played for him was moved up. I am sure he gets paid to coach as well in summer. Conflict of interest all the way in my book.

HS tryouts are political just like all baseball. Politics start in little league, continue in travel and middle school and than peeks in HS. Anyone who doesn't think so is kidding themselves!!! The worst part is seeing the kids who don't get a fair shot and could have actually been in the running for college.

what if a kid doesnt make his HS team but still plays travel ball...can colleges still recuit him?

Yes, but colleges follow HS teams especially if they have a good rep. Most travel teams have to go to be seen in showcases. As long as a "great player" has somewhere to be seen they have a shot at college ball. There is a lot of competition for these kids as we know...

Common sense...what are some good organizations that are out there?

i heard there was some real good travel ball kids cut from school ball tryouts. anybody hear any names?

Michael Jordan

in most top baseball states,like cal. texas kids do not waste there time playing high school ball.they play on travel teams that go to national tournaments

WRONG, they all still play for their HS team. College coaches always ask the hs coach about the player, in time. The big tournaments are in the summer. These kids do not sit around all spring and do nothing. Where could you have possibly found information like this? Crazy.

Now it is true that some very talented kids get cut from their HS team. Hopefully for them they are already on the radar and can still get a "follow". I know of two very good players in Suffolk cty, cut within the last 2 years who could play anywhere. Hopefully they don't give up on the sport and still play travel, at the BIG tournaments, then the HS team won't mean anything.

a scout from a college,is not going EAST HAMPTON HS. to see one kid,when he can go to national torm. and see ten kids.

my son a catcher,his high school coach did not know what a pop time was, sad

I'll bite. What is a pop time?

true, but the best players still play hs ball. After being seen down in Cobb coaches will contact the HS coach for feedback.

Pop time - how long it takes the catcher to "pop up" to throw the ball to 2nd base after receiveing a pitch

Major league scouts look for a catcher to throw to second base in 1.8-2.0 seconds. The stopwatch starts as soon as the catcher receives the pitch and the clock is stopped as the ball reaches second base. Most importantly, the ball has to be on the money!

The utilization of the stop watch is important because some catchers have guns but take too much time in the release. Other catchers might not have a gun but their release time is excellent. The clock tells the scout how each catcher might fare against an average MLB runner.

Thank you beenaround.

Most high schools have just completed their teams' tryouts. Are there any surprises about how things unfolded or the methods used? To a certain extent, fairness is in the eye of the beholder.

my son was cut off his h.s. team.he was told he was avery good player,a great hitter but we have no room for you. he is a 400 hitter with power,4 hitter in in travel ball. somebody help me

Transfer to a private school.

I am sorry to hear about your son. What position did he tryout for? Hitting is just one dimension of the game. How did he perform in the 60? Is he a good fielder? Does he have a strong and accurate arm? I know a couple of HS coaches who will not take a non-pitcher/catcher who runs below avg. in the 60 yard dash. Have him work on those deficiencies and hopefully he will get positive news next year.

his speed is above avg,there is alot of booster club infuance on the team.if you get my drift.thanks he already working harder to prove them wrong.he is 5'11" 215 and a good football player.he in ninth grade plays varsity football.he has somethig to fall back on.BUT WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS THAT DON'T

Sorry to hear about the politics. Unfortunately, it does exists, some places more than others. Hopefully he continues to work hard,proves them wrong, and leaves them with no other choice but to take him next year because of his talent level.

I feel bad for the kids who don't have another sport or interest to fall back on, those are the kids who can be at risk of getting involved with the wrong crowd and falling off the track.

oh,he is a catcher with a under 2 sec. pop time timed by his tavel coach,the j.v. coach,don't know what a pop tme is,never plyed the game.also plys 1st 3rd lf.

yure good for this site.i hope you stick around.

Pop time is from where the catcher catches the pitch (stop watch started)until his throw reaches second base acurately (stop watch finished). Under 2 seconds for a HS freshman is very good.

Have you thought about having your son approach the coach and volunteer to be the equipment manager for this year with the understanding that the coach will let him workout with the team. This would get your son the exposure he desires and hopefully open up the coaches eyes in the work outs. At the very least it will show the coach your son's desire to play ball.

Thank you

thanks i think he better staying with his travel coach.he is a ex college coach,they prattice a year around.its a 16u team

Ok, I wish your son the best.

My tendency is to be straight-forward, but I will warn you in advance that this characteristic will not help you if your intent is to blend into a politically-charged environment. Unfortunately, other than your son, the coach, and his peers, there is no way to extract the real reason and justification for him being cut. How is your son's arm strength and accuracy? Did he tryout for a 2nd position?How does your son match up against the other catchers on the team? Does your son project a healthy, cooperative and productive attitude? Moving over to the flip side, I agree with Common Sense's earlier entry. I too saw politics begin at the Little League, then middle school and now high school levels. In each case, the tryout sessions were little more than necessarily required ceremonies. My observations this year support the notion that inputs from previous year coaches hold the most weight. Reputations developed from generally acknowleged skills development, high profile affiliations with travel teams, and the player's involvement and reputation in other school sports seem to be the 2nd most prominent influence. Parental politicking can also work: building relationships with coaches and/or the school in general. Considering the above, a bad tryout of a player who is favored will often be overlooked. The bottom line is, yes there is politics, but it can be overcome. Please encourage your son to use this experience to fuel his motivation in becoming an even better player.

a 9th grader with under 2 second pop time? We should have all heard of him by now. All of us.
Either you are stretching it a bit or haven't put him in the right places.
You say your travel coach timed him? Is it published on perfect game for someone to see? Not asking you to reveal your son's name but if his pop is that good then HS won't matter anyway. Get him drafted or get him a schollie and the HELL with the HS coach.

16u team for a freshman is good but is your kid 16? Nothing wrong with it cuz people do it all the time. They hold their kids back a few years to have an advantage.

guess it backfired onyou

Give the guy a break. He just repeated what his son's coach told him.

I don't think the guy said his son was 16. He said his kid played for a u16 team The kid could Also be 13,14 or 15.

15

nightmares in smithtown.6 starters from last year cut.9th graders brought up to take there place.kids were told going in a new derection. thank god for travel ball.

Smithtown East I am guessing?

yes

What is going on with the trend of 9th graders being brought up to play varsity. Maybe I'm too old-school, but whatever the intended purpose becomes stretched to being pointless.

What is going on with the trend of 9th graders being brought up to play varsity. Maybe I'm too old-school, but whatever the intended purpose becomes stretched to being pointless.

15yo 9th grader with a pop time less than 2 seconds. That will make him into an awesome 18yo hs senior.
Put him into a showcase and you wont need hs ball the college coaches and pro scouts will drool over him and u will make the hs coach look like a [censored].

i just showed my son what you wrote, i nevver saw a bigger smile
on his face.thanks.
my son works hard his baseball all year around.i am proud of him

good for him. Just make sure his pop time is real. Nothing worse than less than 2 turning into a 2.89

Why do I feel like I’m listening to a Paul Harvey broadcast but I’m not getting the rest of the story?

Let me be sure I have the facts concerning this young man who was cut:

1. 15 year old 9th grader
2. He is a 400 hitter with power
3. #4 hitter on his travel team
4. above average speed
5. 5’ 11” tall, weights 215 lbs
6. Catcher with a major league pop time (under 2.0)
7. Also Plays 1st. 3rd and left field
8. Played varsity football this past season

We can all agree that if these are the facts this young man was not cut because of anything to do with his baseball ability. I also find it hard to believe we have heard the entire story, but coaches do not cut a young man like this unless some other issue(s) is involved.

Detective Columbo help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With a 2 sec pop he has a gun and sounds like a bat. No way he should be cut. He is ready for MLB. As far as 9th graders taking the place of 10th graders in Smithtown I saw that happen in our High School too. Many of the 10th graders were cut because of their grades and 9th graders were used to take their place.

Obviously something is missing from the story.

5 pages into the thread before the obvious begins to be discussed.

its gotta be a crock of [censored]. better than avg speed means 6.7 speed. at 215 pounds with a major league poptime at age 15? Why isnt he on the cover of sports illustrated along with bryce harper?

Better than avg speed for a 15 yr old is about 7.3

its the grades, man

This kid would be given a tutor for every subject, hot and cold running blondes, his choice of any car (next year) and anything else requested.

Let's put it this way, if Craig Biggio was competing against this kid he never would have made it out of Kings Park.

The young man we are talking about was reputed to have ABOVE not BETTER than average speed. Not sure what the time difference equates to but think it is measurable and significant when evaluating speed.

Excuse me, but in my lexicon "above average" and "better than average" mean the same thing.

speed is usually quoted in terms of the MLB average of 7.0 seconds

there are no other ways to measure for age, etc.

Transfer to a private school? No grades...guess that kills that idea.

my kids grades are fine 75-80,he has aveage speed.he is 5'10
215 he played varsity football and started on the varsity
wretling team at 215,he got his ass kick a few times but all inall he held his own. i ca lled the baseball {jv] and ask him why my son was cut.he told me my son was good player.but he was in 9th grade .he would not start and did not want a conflict with hie 10th grade starter that was with him for the last two years.i ask him about his pop time.the 28 yr old jv did not know what that was.i then ask aout his reciving ,he thought i was talking about football.his exprence was playng some h.s.bb at the same school he coaches, he then told me my kid was a walk on
for next year.do i belive him?

if i have to i'll move him.somtimes you have to stick up for your children when their 15,if they dont let him own the field becase of polittics,how can he prove him self. i never called the sghool when he got cut from 8th grade basketball.i know he is not a basketball player.he is a baseball player.my parents never got involed . iwas pushed threw the system.isaid my peace,iam backing off.

the varstty coach,went to my son last night in the school weight room.told him he had input on jv cuts,and told him he has a bright future on the scool team.he also said he was thinking of bringing him up.but hhe has 12 grade all county catcher with no backup.the 1st baseman would go in if the stud gets hurt. he ended it by telling hi that the a.d. will call your dad.that took guts.don"t be a cry babby but if you know in yor heart yor right ,speak up so another kid don't loose a season.thanks to

Too many parents believe their kid is the next Babe Ruth-[understandable if its your kid], did your son make the middle school team? Too many parents take for granted that it'll continue till college without putting either more effort into private hitting/fielding lessons ect. It gets more difficult every year at tryouts,who had private hitting instructors when "we" went to school-no one I knew. If he's that good, make him better,its not cheap as we all know ,but he'll be motivated to prove them wrong next year.

OMB, the politics in school baseball is far worse than I had imagined. Maybe at different schools it occurs at different degrees. In Commack it is bad.

Commack has some real Cancers on varsity this year, coach was fore warned!

OMB? What does the Office of Management and Budget have to do with baseball tryouts in Commack?

I can speak about the problems at Commack. The tryouts at the high school level means very little. The have Varsity, JV1 and JV2. Over the past 2 years, I've seen instances where kids were brought up to the Varsity level or even the JV1 level without supporting reasons. A number of parents have successfully developed an ongoing rapport with the coaching for the purposes of promoting their kids' playing interests. In 2009, how do you sit a pitcher who throws 92 mph and earned a spot playing in the Empire games. Coincidentally, in that same year the coach brought up to varsity a lesser skilled pitcher who is politically connected. Not unexpectably, there are shenanigans at the middle school level. These are not isolated instances. It is a corrupted system. A number of parents that controlled the Commack Little League systems have also made inroads into the school level.

fine your self a good travel team,go to showcases take lessons .
long island high school baseball over ratted.unless you are a town judge,or on the school board,or your a janitor in the school.my kid lost his spot to the fire chiefs kid.

My son goes to Candlewood here in Half Hollow and they had one coach for his junior high school baseball try out of 40 kids.


Is that normal?

I know the word is that the kids who play on the A team for little league were shoe ins before try outs even happened. But I want to believe each kid had some sort of chance but 1 coach for 40 kids.

It's not just about the tryouts! After the teams are set, the decisions on who plays, who sits, and who is "fast-tracked" pretty much paints the corrupt picture.

75 average is fine? That is your first problem. Get the kid to hit the books. If not when his baseball "career" is done he will be deep frying french fries at McDonalds. Get your priorities straight.

Give me a fungo and a bucket of balls and i can make anyone look good or bad in a tryout...School coaches are there for one thing money.. How many of them teach the game.

The main thing about school tryouts is the town you hail from.
If its a big BB town you are in trouble unless your kid is head & shoulders above.
My 2 sons started all 4 years but they were just that. I saw a lot of good strong kids thrown to the side or put into the bullpen for maybe a inning or 2 per week.
Sad reality is school ball can be painful for some.

i came on this site to talk baseball,he will end his ninth grade year with over 80 avg, a brain surgeon is not in his cards.maybe he will become a teacher,and coach baseball.he already knows more about the sport then most of them.have a nice day mr.Poindexter

most of the kids on the Mamie college basketball team ,would be flipping burgers,if they did not play basketball.

How about Papie College?

Same thing at Pat-Med, but nothings gonna change cause they keep on winning.

In Commack, the school board and the Athletic Director need to provide better oversight of their team coaching. In this year alone, the Varsity Soccer coach was removed due to inappropriate behavior and a girls coach was also removed due to his inappropriate relations with a non-athlete student. They only seem to react when problems become publicized. In Commack, they would rather fend off complaints and pretend that no problems exist. The parents that succeed in playing politics and influencing coaching decisions wind up becoming more brassy and bold.

WhoDat

we are talking about coaches not knowing the game, not hiring perverts

brassy and bold ,go away

unless his SAT scores are high it will be tough getting baseball money with an average of 80. Do your research. Maybe get him in the draft.

Agreed 80 is failing in my house

Here is a lesson to be learned. At many schools, if your son is trying out and selects "pitching" as his primary position, he may be treated in a very specialized way and never get to bat or play another field position.

This seems to be true in all schools. Why ? They don't want them to get hurt?

No unless they can hit.

I know a lot of all-around capable players who have allowed themselves to be narrowly defined as "pitchers" and are not given the opportunities to hit or field. If you remember, Stroman and Tropiano established themselves as shortstops that also pitch.

What coach runs a tryout without having everyone hit and field? I have never seen a coach say if you are a pitcher do not participate in hitting or fielding.

if you can hit ,they will find you.my son went on a full ride with a 85 avg.

My son couldn't hit, field, read or spell and got a full ride as well.

Sounds like you can expect a call from Omar Minaya.

thats funny

fullride, all athletic money, no academic? complete BULLshit!!!

how about mamie football,and basketball full rides they look real smart.

he is from s.w.r. and he is tripple a ,at the age of 25

Let me ask you a question that even a brain dead person, like yourself, might be able to answer. What MAMIE or PAPIE basketball or football player was required to hit, field or pitch a baseball to earn their scholarship?

PS: What baseball program at what university ever paid the freight for the baseball program? It was the football and the basketball programs that allowed baseball to even exist as an athletic program.