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Evaluation Day for Kid-Pitch Baseball Divisions (AA, AAA, and Majors) – Saturday, Feb. 10th, 2024

The 2024 Kid-Pitch Baseball Evaluation Day will be held Saturday, February 10th on the turf Whitman MS Soccer Field (located behind Whitman Middle School).  We ask that ALL Baseball players of Little League age 8-12 attend (your 2024 LL Baseball age is your player's age as of 8/31/2024).

Evaluation Day attendance is NOT asked of our LL age 4 to 7-year-olds, Juniors Baseball, or Seniors Baseball divisions (FYI: Little League divisions, from youngest to oldest, are Tee-Ball, A, AA, AAA, Majors, Juniors, and Seniors).  Further, this year our AA, AAA, and Majors Softball teams are working on their own evaluation plan that is not discussed below, and we will soon send further information to those families.

For those Baseball players who are LL Baseball age 8, the league will provide guidance after Evaluation Day on whether your player is ready for AA (introductory Kid-Pitch, which is a mix of Kid-Pitch and Coach-Pitch) or should play one more year of A (Coach-Pitch).  Please note that Evaluation Day DOES potentially include LL Baseball age 8 players who are currently registered for A Baseball (Coach-Pitch).  That said, if you know for certain that your LL Baseball age 8 player (DOB 9/1/2015 – 8/31/2016) is not quite ready for AA, you can skip Evaluation Day and remain in A for this season.  But please know that each year we do have players register for A, attend Evaluation Day, and get moved to AA.  Similarly, we have players register for AA and, after Evaluation Day, get moved to A to play one more year.  Player’s baseball skills and physical growth develop at varying rates from ages 8-10, and we all appreciate that September birthdays are 11 months older than August birthdays, which can make quite a difference.  Also, some players do a lot of extra work on their own in the Summer.  Anyway, typically about 40-45% of our LL age 8 players play AA and 55-60% play A.  If you do not hear from NWSLL within 48 hours or so after Evaluation Day, you should assume that the division you originally registered your player for is confirmed as correct.

We hold our Evaluation Day rain or shine…this is Seattle after all!  That said, February weather is often cool, breezy, and/or damp, so please have your players layer up!  And for players who have batting gloves, remember to bring them to make the hitting portion more enjoyable.

Evaluation Day is an important start to our Kid-Pitch calendar.  Players will be asked to take turns fielding, throwing, and batting.  NWSLL officials and coaches attend the evaluations in order to meet the players and their families, and get to better know each player's skill set.  We understand that many players will be rusty, and new players are inexperienced.  Please let your player know that many players will be a bit nervous, but that's OK.  We'll be there to support and encourage them!

The purpose of player evaluations is to place each player in the appropriate division, as well as create/draft teams that are equally matched in terms of experience and skill. Players who don’t attend are still placed on a team.

This year we again have large numbers of LL age 8 and 9 players, many of whom will be attending their first Evaluation Day.  To help break the day up into smaller and more efficient sessions, we have created the following seven groups.  Please plan to attend your assigned session.  But if you have a hard conflict (e.g., youth basketball game), your player may attend another session.  Try to pick an alternate session of similar-age players.  We ask that families only do this if truly necessary, since it is easier for us to compare like-age players when we see them together at the same time.

AGE 8 BASEBALL (Group 1) - Players born 5/1/2016 - 8/31/2016
AGE 8 BASEBALL (Group 2) - Players born 2/1/2016 - 4/30/16
AGE 8 BASEBALL (Group 3) - Players born 9/1/2015 - 1/31/2016
AGE 9 BASEBALL (Group 4) - Players born 2/1/2015 - 8/31/2015
AGE 9 BASEBALL (Group 5) - Players born 9/1/2014 - 1/31/2015
AGE 10 BASEBALL (Group 6) - Players born 9/1/2013 - 8/31/2014
AGES 11/12 BASEBALL (Group 7) - Players born 9/1/2011 - 8/31/2013

SATURDAY, FEB 10 – WHITMAN MIDDLE SCHOOL SOCCER FIELD

      (Turf field complex behind the school, 9201 15th Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98117)

What should players bring?

Players will be running, fielding, throwing, and batting.  If at all possible, they should wear baseball attire, including baseball pants or sweats and athletic shoes or cleats.  Players should also bring a glove and water bottle, and boys should wear a protective cup.

Many players use their own helmets and hit with their own bats.  But the league will have some batting helmets and bats on hand.  There may also be limited extra gloves available to borrow.

What happens if it snows or there is torrential rain and/or high winds?

In typical Seattle Winter weather, we have had no issues getting our Evaluation Day done since we are on a well-draining turf field.  That said, we did have one year when it snowed heavily that week.  So we do have an emergency backup plan…we would try again on Sunday, February 25th at the same location.  Should the forecasted weather be inclement on February 10th, pay attention to your email inbox on Friday the 9th for further guidance.

What happens next?

After Evaluation Day is complete, NWSLL officials and coaches will work to determine divisional placements.  Families will be contacted to discuss any divisional transfers that are necessary.  NWSLL coaches will then get together the week or two afterward and place/draft players onto teams.  Everyone gets placed onto a team, even players who cannot attend Evaluation Day.  A primary goal of the overall process is to create balanced teams within each division.

The Majors division should expect to begin practices around Friday, March 1st, AAA on Saturday, March 2nd, and AA on Saturday, March 9th.  Games will likely begin on March 23rd for Majors and AAA and early April for AA.

Softball

Evaluation Day for Kid-Pitch Softball Divisions (Birth Year 2012-2015 Only) – Saturday, Feb. 10th, 2024 10:00 - 11:30 AM

The 2024 Kid-Pitch Softball Evaluation Day will be held Saturday, February 10th on the turf at Whitman MS Soccer Field (located behind Whitman Middle School).  We ask that ALL Softball players who registered for either AA or AAA attend (These are girls born from 2013-2015 or 2012 who chose AAA upon registering).

This year, Evaluation Day attendance is NOT asked of for our players who are 2011 birth year, A Softball (Coach-Pitch), Majors Softball, or Juniors Softball.  However, if Majors/Juniors players wish to come out and assist with the evaluations of our younger softballers, we’d be happy to use your help to make the day go smoothly.

The roster situation for Softball this year is such that we have 4 registered Juniors players who will be co-leaguing with a neighboring league, 7 registered Majors players, 16 registered AAA players, 8 registered AA players, and 9 registered for A (Coach-Pitch).  The maximum roster size we like to coach with is 14, so we will be looking for 2 or 3 AAA softballers who are ready to make the jump to Majors this season.  This might be girls who played AAA last year, who are ready for the next level of softball, or perhaps a standout athlete who either didn’t play last year, or is league age 10-11 but new to softball.  There also might be players who registered for AAA who aren’t quite ready to move up and/or who we choose to keep with previous years/coaches or buddy requests at AA after Evaluation Day to form reasonably sized rosters at each division. (NOTE: we do look closely at coach/buddy requests as well as the division played in the previous year to help form teams)

We hold our Evaluation Day rain or shine…this is Seattle after all!  That said, February weather is often cool, breezy, and/or damp, so please have your players layer up!  And for players who have batting gloves, remember to bring them to make the hitting portion more enjoyable.

Evaluation Day is an important start to our Kid-Pitch calendar.  Players will be asked to take turns fielding, throwing, and batting.  NWSLL officials and coaches attend the evaluations in order to meet the players and their families, and get to better know each player's skill set.  We understand that many players will be rusty, and new players are inexperienced.  Please let your player know that many players will be a bit nervous, but that's OK.  We'll be there to support and encourage them!

The purpose of player evaluations is to place each player in the appropriate division that matches well with their experience and skill. Players who don’t attend are still placed on a team with input from prior year coaches when possible.

We will be evaluating up to 30 softball players during our time slot.

SATURDAY, FEB 10   –   WHITMAN MIDDLE SCHOOL SOCCER FIELD

      (Turf field complex behind the school, 9201 15th Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98117)

What should players bring?

Players will be running, fielding, throwing, and batting.  If at all possible, they should wear softball attire, including softball pants or sweats and athletic shoes or cleats.  Players should also bring a glove and water bottle.

Many players use their own helmets and hit with their own bats.  But the league will have some batting helmets and bats on hand.  There will also be limited extra gloves available to borrow.

What happens if it snows or there is torrential rain and/or high winds?

In typical Seattle Winter weather, we have had no issues getting our Evaluation Day done since we are on a well-draining turf field.  That said, we did have one year when it snowed heavily that week.  So we do have an emergency backup plan…we would try again on Sunday, February 25^th at the same location.  Should the weather be inclement on February 10^th, pay attention to your email inbox on Friday the 9^th for further guidance.

What happens next?

After Evaluation Day is complete, NWSLL officials and coaches will work to determine divisional placements.  Families will be contacted for those few players where a divisional transfer up to Majors or down to AA will be necessary to balance our AAA roster size.  Everyone will get placed onto a team, even players who cannot attend Evaluation Day.

The Majors division should expect to begin practices around Saturday, March 2nd, and AAA/AA on Saturday, March 9th.  Games are expected to begin for Majors and AAA in late March and AA and A divisions in April.  We will be meeting with our District 8 cohorts over the next couple of weeks to start work on scheduling all of our interleague softball games.

If you have any questions about softball, feel free to contact your VP’s of Softball:

Ryan Greenland (VP SB, Majors Coach) – [email protected]

Brian Pake (VP SB, Majors Coach) – [email protected]