Reedville Competitive Baseball Programs

At Reedville Baseball, kids from 7-14 may compete in competitive baseball. In order to play competitive baseball, a child must sign up within their age group and participate in tryouts. This page provides additional information about the process of playing competitive baseball.

COMPETITIVE BASEBALL, CAL RIPKEN YOUTH BASEBALL and JBO BASEBALL:

Reedville Baseball is an affiliate of Junior Baseball of Oregon (JBO) and for the first time in 2012 an affiliate of Cal Ripken Youth Baseball (CRYB). Both Cal Ripken and JBO include teams from all over Oregon and Southwest Washington. Teams participating in JBO Baseball play games at one of three skill levels and compete each year for the JBO Championship at their level. Players in CRYB play regular season baseball and then All-Star teams are selected to play in the post season.

Team participating in JBO can qualify to play In the JBO Championship Tournament which is comprised mostly of teams within the state. All-Star teams in CRYB have the option of advancing to Cal Ripken World Series play in Maryland via a series of tournaments.

TRYOUTS:

In order to play competitive baseball, Reedville Baseball requires a player to participate in tryouts. REEDVILLE BASEBALL DOES NOT REJECT ANY PLAYER BASED ON THEIR TRYOUT. In fact, all kids can play competitive baseball so long as they are the appropriate age. Instead, the tryout system is to determine which level of play is appropriate for each player in order to ensure the player is playing with kids of like skill. The process is further limited by age in order to ensure competitive balance.

The tryout process is extremely important and often misunderstood. At Reedville, the tryout process is designed to be as impartial and skill based as possible. Each season, kids are evaluated by a pre-selected evaluation committee for each age group. The committee includes ten individuals, five from the Century High School Baseball Coaching Staff and five provided by Reedville Baseball. The individuals from Reedville Baseball may NOT be a coach or have a child participating at the level they are evaluating. Scores are done "blind" with kids numbered (no names) and two evaluators at each station (5 total stations).

Players are evaluated on hitting, throwing, fielding grounders and fielding fly balls. Their scores are put in a database and sorted highest to lowest. Players are then divided into the appropriate level of play based primarily on their total score. All tie scores and/or groupings of close scores are sorted finally by the Reedville Executive Board. Once this is complete, player names are turned "on" in the computer system and teams are divided within each level in which the qualified.

LEVELS OF PLAY:

JBO Baseball mandates the placement of kids in different levels by skills evaluated via tryouts.

FEDERAL BASEBALL: The highest level of play recognized by JBO Baseball. At Reedville, the top 12 kids in Midget, Junior or Senior Baseball often play Federal level baseball. These players exhibit an extraordinary level of skill in 4-5 of the skills evaluated at tryouts and are able to hit advanced pitching and field at a very high level.

Federal Baseball Teams play a high number of games per year, often playing 16-20 league games and 40-60 tournament games each season. It's not unusual for a Federal Level Team to play two league games per week for 10 weeks and participate in 6-8 weekend invitational tournaments in a 12-16 week period. Federal Baseball is not just about how good a child is at baseball; it's also about a high level of time and financial commitment. The level is very competitive and intense, with all teams being 11-13 players deep with excellent talent and skills.

REEDVILLE BASEBALL WILL ONLY FIELD FEDERAL TEAMS UNDER EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES. Generally, the JBO Program will feature American and National teams only.

AMERICAN BASEBALL:

The second level of JBO, American Baseball traditionally includes players who show an extraordinary skill level at 2 or 3 of the 5 skills levels evaluated at tryouts and an above average skill level at the other skills. American Level players are often very close to Federal Level players and can compete with teams from that level, but teams are generally not deep enough to compete regularly with a Federal Level Team. Generally speaking, a high level American player is capable of playing Federal Baseball, but would struggle over a full season at that level.

American Baseball Teams play a high number of games per year, often playing 14-18 regular season games and 35-50 tournament games each season. Teams typically engage in two regular season games per week for 8 or 9 weeks and play in 4-6 weekend invitational tournaments in a 12-16 week period. American Baseball is also a major time and financial commitment and the competition, like the Federal Level, is advanced.

NATIONAL BASEBALL:

The third level of JBO, National Baseball is the largest and most widely played level of JBO Baseball. At Reedville, if 100 players try out for a specific age group, more than half will end up playing National Level Baseball OR Cal Ripken Youth Baseball (CRYB; see below). National Level players generally score exceptionally on 0 or 1 of the skill levels evaluated at tryouts and range widely from above average on all skill levels to developmental stages on 1-2 of the skill levels. Generally speaking, a high level National player is capable of playing American Baseball, but would struggle significantly over a full season at that level.

National Baseball Teams play a middling number of games per year, generally playing 12-14 regular season games and participating in 16-20 invitational tournament games each season. Teams typically engage in 2 regular season games for 7-8 weeks of the season and play in 1-4 invitational tournaments in a 12-16 week period. National Baseball is a lesser commitment time-wise, but will likely still include games up to a total of 4 days per week. Competition at the National level can also vary significantly.

CAL RIPKEN YOUTH BASEBALL (CRYB):

CRYB is Reedville's newest affiliate and offers a different baseball experience than JBO. Most players at Reedville will play CRYB or JBO Nationals. CRYB offers modified baseball rules for 7-10 year olds (minors division) and exactly the same rules as JBO for Majors. All players participating in CRYB will play in regular season for 12-20 games and then participate in a regular season championship tournament. After completion of regular season, All-Star teams are selected and play postseason through CRYB until they are officially eliminated. Teams have the opportunity to play in the Cal Ripken World Series inMarylandif they can make it through State and Regional playoffs.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SKILL LEVELS:

These questions regularly come up during the evaluation process about skill levels…

1. Why do JBO and Reedville have Skill Levels? Why not just have teams with varying skill levels like Little League and then have All-Star teams who play at the end of the year?

A. Junior Baseball of Oregon (and Reedville Baseball) focuses on providing baseball at the right size and skill level for each player. Fields are sized by age group (with pitching and base distances changing for each group) and the core principal is that all kids are not at the same developmental level, therefore they should play against children with similar skill levels.

Additionally, the JBO Championship System puts a high value on teams competing in a regular season and then competing through the playoffs as the same team.

2. My child went to tryouts and did not score at the level we think they can play at. What recourse do we have? Is there an appeal process?

A. There is no appeal process. Players are placed according to their tryout numbers and the discretion of the Board of Directors for Reedville Baseball. Over the past five years, Reedville Baseball has placed over 30 teams in JBO Championship Tournaments making this organization one the five most successful JBO's in Oregon. Our tryout system is often copied and utilized by other organizations throughout Oregon and has shown itself to work very well. Very few youth baseball organizations employ a system in which the High School Baseball Coaching Staff evaluates kids as young as 7 years old and even fewer use a blind sample system like Reedville.

Is it perfect? No. In fact, no evaluation system is. However, the Reedville system offers more fairness than almost any other tryout system inOregon. We encourage parents to look around and find another system that goes to the lengths Reedville does to get players at the right level. There will always be kids that have a bad tryout or kids who have an exceptional tryout and end up playing at a level higher than they should. We do the best we can to get it right.

3. Does that mean Reedville doesn't try to improve its tryout system?

A. Actually, Reedville spends a great deal of time and energy to make the system transparent and to tweak the process each year. Reedville posts samples of the tryout evaluation sheets for parents to look at and to use in order to prepare their child for tryouts. Reedville also offers a pre-tryout camp during the month of February that focuses just on getting kids ready for tryouts. Very few other leagues do this. In 2011, 14 of our 16 competitive level teams participated in the post season. We attribute this in large part to the tryout system, but it also includes coaching and our parents!