UPDATED: Spring 2022 Evaluation Day Details

We are excited to get the 2022 SOM Baseball season kicked off, and we can’t wait to see everyone out on the field soon. For those of you who are new to the evaluation process, let me quickly explain the objective of the upcoming event.

First, understand that evaluations are not “try-outs.” Every child who wants to play baseball this spring will be placed on a team. That said, the divisions that require an evaluation are “competitive,” meaning that they have real games with scores, standings, and playoffs. In an effort to ensure competitive balance and equal distribution of skill across each team, we ask the players to spend 15-20 minutes running through a series of drills that allows us to ensure we know each player participating and can facilitate fair and competitively balanced player selection.

This year, we will continue to try and conduct evaluations outdoors – weather permitting and continue with the format that was successful last year

Location and Times

• Evaluations will be outdoors at the Meadowlands Fields
• Conducting all evaluations on one day (Sunday, March 20) on three different fields:
  • Minors (Age 9) Field M2 – 9AM – 12:30PM – Last tryout begins at 12:05PM
  • Minors Play-ups (Age 8) Field M2 – 1:15PM – 2PM – Last tryout begins at 1:40PM
  • M60 (Age 10-11) Field M4– 9AM – 3:00PM – Last Tryout Starts at 2:45PM
  • M70 Play-ups (Age 11) Field M2 – 11:55PM – 12:45PM – Last tryout begins at 12:20PM
  • M70 (Age 12) Field M3– 9AM – 12PM – Last Tryout starts at 11:30PM
  • Babe Ruth (Age 13-15) Field M3 – 1:15PM – 3:45PM – Last tryout starts at 3:20AM

• Age categories are based on your child’s age as of April 30, 2022. View the age-chart to confirm.
• Establishing a sign-up process to keep the evaluation groups to 10 players at a time every 25 minutes
• Using independent evaluators* to conduct assessments

Play-Ups

SOM Baseball allows players who feel they are ready to “play-up” to do so in the minors and M70 levels, provided you fit the following criteria:

• An 8-year-old registered to play in Rookie Nationals and wants to play in 9-year-old Minor division
• An 11-year-old registered to play in M60 and wants to play in the 12-year-old M70 division

Please note that the league accepts a limited number of play-up players for both the Minors and M70 divisions. If your player does not get selected to play-up, he/she will still be assigned to a team in their current age division (i.e. Rookie National or M60).

Sign-up for Evaluation

You need to register to play-up in advance of evaluation day. If you have not done this, please reach out to the rec department and let them know your child would like to register for the play-up evaluations.

We plan to send sign-up emails out on Friday, 3/4 at 9am. The sign-up email you receive will be based on your player’s division. IT IS IMPORTANT that you sign up for an evaluation time. Once you sign-up, a confirmation email will be sent and you will receive a reminder email the day before the evaluation.

Below are the locations to register your Player for evaluations:

• MINORS: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0C4FADAB2EAA8-sombaseball5
• MINORS PLAY-UP: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0C4FADAB2EAA8-sombaseball8
• M60: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0C4FADAB2EAA8-sombaseball6
• M70: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0C4FADAB2EAA8-sombaseball7
• M70 PLAY-UPS: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0C4FADAB2EAA8-sombaseball9
• Babe Ruth: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0C4FADAB2EAA8-sombaseball4

If you have any questions about evaluations, please email eval.sombaseball@gmail.com.

*Independent evaluators – volunteers who do not have any association to the division they are evaluating