Free Articles at Baseball Tips

Instructional Articles


More Articles by This Author


Articles by Marty Schupak:
Article Base Running, Youth Baseball's Tenth Man
Article Youth Baseball Practices Don't Have To Be Long To Be Good
Article Getting Kids to Practice on Time
Article Practice When No Field Is Available

Products


Free Baseball Tips Newsletter

Tips from the coach, instructional articles, new product alerts and special savings offers, a slice of baseball history, quotes, wit, wisdom, links and much more delivered to your inbox....an informative read at least twice each month!

Privacy Policy


Youth Baseball Tryouts and The Draft


Marty Schupak

Printer-Friendly Version E-Mail Send this page to a friend

Products to Improve Any Player!
59 Minute
Baseball Practice
59 Minute Baseball Practice by Marty Schupak
Winning
Baseball Strategies
Winning Baseball Strategies by Marty Schupak
Backyard
Baseball Drills
Backyard Baseball Drills by Marty Schupak

In most youth baseball leagues, autumn is the time of year that baseball leagues have registration and also assign players to teams. Tryouts and the player draft are always one of the most interesting times of the year.

Some managers try to gain an advantage during this time. There is always a scramble to secure assistant coaches. Parents who have experienced the process know that some managers will pick an assistant not according to the assistant's ability to coach, but by the ability of his talented child.

Another technique done which is highly unsportsmanlike is for the manager to discretely suggest to a player to "dog it" during the tryouts so that the manager can get a player of first round ability in the later rounds of the draft.

There is very little a league can do about a manager picking an assistant to secure a spot on the team for his child. Drafting the actual teams can be done in a fair manner. A fair process is for the league managers and league director to pick each team with similar ability and throw them into a hat.

For instance, a league will have eight teams consisting of twelve players. Assuming each team has a manager and coach and their two kids, all the managers and coaches will sit in a room and rate the players and assign ten players to teams one through eight. Once it is agreed that the eight teams of ten are pretty much equal, throw the teams into a hat and each manager will pick a team.

The league will have more parity with this system and this will limit some of the complaints. One word of advice when using this technique is to make sure enough pitchers are part of the ten players on each team.

The success of a league begins in the autumn. There have been seasons where some teams do not win a single game. The team assignment process can make for a better year for each player individually, as a team, and as a league. A league that has parity will make for a better season, and in fact will help that league in All Stars with each player experiencing a competitive season with some excellent close games.

It is up to the league President and league director to make every effort to make sure each team is fairly equal in ability and take away any advantage that some managers try to gain.

Return to Main Articles



Coach Schupak has been recognized by the American Baseball Coaches Association and his videos have been recommended by the National Alliance of Youth Sports, the largest amateur coaching training organization in the country. He has a Master's Degree in Physical Education from Arizona State University and his youth baseball teams have won championships year after year.

Be sure to check out Marty Schupak's videos here at baseballtips.com
Winning Baseball Strategies
Backyard Baseball Drills
The 59 Minute Practice Video



Baseball Tips
Get free articles, drills and more at www.BaseballTips.com