Expanded Senior Slo-Pitch Association Rookie Camp

Rookie Camp - The Process

For the 2023 season, Rookie Camp is scheduled for Monday, May 8, with a rain date of Tuesday, May 9.

Captains and other involved people should meet at the field for 9:30 AM.

Players being evaluated should be there by 9:45 AM for sign-in, and also for some warm-up. Players must bring photo ID to confirm their age.

Rookies will be evaluated by the team Captains attending on throwing, catching, hitting and running. A rating will be given from 1 thru 5, with 1 being the lowest in each category. Any player being evaluated that is given a total rating of 5 or under does not meet the Minimum Safety Standard to play in the ESSA for safety reasons. All Captains evaluating should take this into consideration when recording the new player rating.

Prior to the event, the Commissioner should send an e-mail to the new players outlining the Rookie Camp date and time, and remind them to bring identification to confirm they meet the age eligibity requirement (minimum of 55).

Timeline

1. 9:30 AM: Captain's Meeting

   Review the rating process, distribute clipboards with rating sheets with rookie names (Registrar (Jan)).

   Captains to collect team bags for the season (from Equipment Managers (Eric Burton)).

2. 9:45 AM: Field Setup / Player Sign-in

   Field setup: bags, bats, pitching screen, cones, etc. (Bill Law)

   Player sign-in (Jan Macaulay, Bettina Samson):

   1. Check their ID for age.
   2. Record birthdates and any other missing player information.
   3. Provide player with a numbered shirt.
   4. Assign player to group A or B.
   5. Direct them to field 4 for warm-up.

3. 10:00 AM: Introductions

   Introductions of Captains (Commissioner).
   Explanation of how the evaluations will run.
   Introduce each rookie and their shirt number; Captains should write the shirt number on the evaluation sheet for easy identification.

4. 10:15 AM: First Event - Ground Ball Fielding, Throwing

   Form two lines, Group A at second base, Group B at short stop.
   Ground balls will be hit to each line, rookie will throw to first base.
   Balls will be hit to each line 3 times, then players will change lines and take another 3 balls.
   Players will be evaluated on ground ball fielding and infield throwing.

   Need: Person to hit ground balls (non-Captain - ???); person to field at first (non-Captain - ???); person to collect balls at home plate (non-Captain - ???).

5. 10:45 AM: Second Event - Fly Ball Fielding, Throwing.

   Form two lines, Group A in left centre, Group B in right centre.
   Players will field fly balls and throw to cutoffs.
   Players will be evaluated on fly ball fielding and throwing from outfield.

   Need: Person to hit ground balls (non-Captain - ???); people to cut-off throws (non-Captain - ???); person to collect balls at home plate (non-Captain - ???).

6. 11:15 AM: Third Event - Batting / Running

   Players in Group A will rotate through taking 5 pitches.
   After the 5'th batted ball, the player will run from home to second base.
   Group B will help field balls and return to the pitchers mound.
   Players will be evaluated on hitting and running.
   After Group A is finished, Group B bats with Group A in the field.

   Need: Person to pitch balls (Joe); non-batting rookies to retrieve balls in infield / outfield and relay to pitchers area;
   person to collect balls at pitchers area (non-Captain - Nick).

7. 11:45 AM: Final Items For Rookies

   Players will return their shirts (Jan Macaulay, Bettina Samson).

8. 12:00 Noon: Final Items For Captains

   Captains to review their ratings, then give rating sheets to Statistician (Mike), and clipboards to Jan/Bettina.

   Field clean-up.

How To Rate A Player

Hitting:

1. Hits 1/10 at bats; can not place ball at all; no power.
2. Hits 3/10 at bats; can not place ball; rarely reaches outfield grass in the air or on the ground.
3. Hits 4/10 at bats; can sometimes place ball; can often reach outfield grass in air / on ground.
4. Hits 6/10 at bats; can place ball sometimes; can reach deep outfield; solid line drive singles.
5. Hits 7+/10 at bats; can place ball at will; home run power; hard line drives.

Running

1. No speed; can not run at all.
2. Slow speed; can not beat out most infield hits.
3. Average speed; infield double play out on sharply hit ball to an infielder.
4. Good speed; stays out of infield double play; has base running sense.
5. Fast; can beat out infield hits; turns outfield singles into doubles.

Throwing

1. Weak throw; no distance or accuracy.
2. Infield throws may bounce or be offline; can't throw from outfield to cut-off.
3. Sometimes makes good throws; distance or accuracy, but not both consistently.
4. Usually makes accurate throws; knows where to throw the ball.
5. Hard accurate throws from any field position.

Fielding

1. Drops routine fly balls; boots/misses grounders; can't catch accurately thrown ball.
2. Catches some routine fly balls; knocks down some ground balls; catches most accurately thrown balls.
3. Catches some fly balls; fields some ground balls; catches most thrown balls that don't bounce.
4. Catches most fly balls on the run; fields most grounders; catches almost all thrown balls.
5. Fields most batted balls cleanly; makes hard play look easy; fields thrown balls in the dirt / offline.

Notes:

The average ESSA player would be a 3 in each category; comparisons are within this Association, not to the Major Leagues, or other softball leagues.

For hitting, characteristics need not all be met. E.g. a consistent line drive hitter who can place the ball between fielders could be a 5 even if they never hit balls over the outfielders.

For running, speed also factors mobility in the infield, chasing balls in the outfield. The maximum rating for a player that always takes a runner from the screen would normally be 2.

Rookie Camp Preparation

• clipboard, paper, pen, reading glasses

Miscellaneous

• letter to be sent from Commissioner (by e-mail) (2022 letter here (Word DOC format)) (2022 letter here (HTML format))
• 2 sets of sweaters with numbers (old Tim Horton's sweaters)
• set of bats / balls, pitching screen, home plate(?)
• spreadsheet to record names, e-mails, preferred position(s), ratings (sample here (Excel format)) (2021 sheet here (Excel format)) (2021 sheet here (HTML format))