Thank you for registering for our 2024 Spring Baseball season. This posting describes information about our 2024 player evaluation process for the Minors, M60, M70, and Babe Ruth divisions.

 

All players in the Minors division and up are required to attend pre-season evaluations. For those of you who are new to the evaluation process, here is a quick summary of how the evaluations work and why we do them:

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.

Our goal is to ensure equal distribution of skill across each team. At the evaluation, players will run through a series of drills that help us get to know each child and facilitate fair and competitively balanced player selection. These evaluations are used in the final team selection process.

The evaluators are all experienced baseball volunteers (e.g. current and former coaches) who do not have any association with the division they are evaluating. Coaches, you will receive a separate email with details about how to volunteer.

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.

Dates and Times

Evaluations will be held on Saturday, March 2 and Sunday March 3.   We are conducting evaluations and team selection process earlier this year to promote a more extensive pre-season practice period and longer overall season.

Please use the following to register for a specific evaluation time slot:

Location

Due to the rainy forecast, Saturday’s Minors and M70 baseball evaluations will be moved to the Columbia High School West Gym. All sign-up times remain the same.

You can park in the lot on Parker Avenue and enter through the main CHS entrance. Volunteers will direct you to the gym from there.

 

Format

  • Each player’s individual evaluation will involve a series of specific hitting, throwing and catching drills.
  • Players should bring their gloves and bats. Extra bats will also be available.
  • Players should wear sneakers – cleats are not permitted.
  • Plan on being at the Baird for 20-40 minutes

Play-Ups

SOM Baseball allows interested players to “play-up” into the Minors and M70 divisions. Players may do so if they meet either of the following criteria:

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

Please note that the evaluation process will look to ensure there are no safety concerns for those players who have elected to play up.

 

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

Posted in News, Players