Help me understand travel baseball tryouts
My son is trying out for 11U baseball teams. He plays in a house league now and I coach his team. He’s very good. Not one of the top-tier players in the league but still very good and, in my opinion, as good as some of the kids on the league’s travel teams. He’s also a quite small kid and doesn’t throw as hard or hit as hard as bigger kids.
So the other day we go to the tryouts for the first team. Here’s what they had the kids do: throw a ball into a net and measure their throwing velocity. Hit a ball off a tee into a net and measure their exit velocity. Run to first base and measure their running speed. Field four ground balls and throw to first. And then throw the ball around the horn.
I was really surprised they never had the kids pitch, hit off of live pitching, or take fly balls.
Next day, my buddy tells me his son made the team. He was a little surprised because his son definitely botched a number of the grounders. I don’t know how my kid did on the throwing and hitting speed, but he fielded all the ground balls cleanly. But apparently he was not chosen for the team.
So we have tryouts for two other teams next week and I’m just a bit at a loss to understand how they’re being evaluated and how I can help him.