Armonk Baseball League

Armonk Baseball League

Summer / Fall Travel Programs Overview

Spring Recreational League

This is ABL’s intra-town baseball program where all children (age 6-14), regardless of skill level, are given the opportunity to enjoy, learn and participate in the game of baseball. The league stresses equal playing time for all during the regular season and puts the emphasis on skill development for players and enjoyment of the game over competitive wins and losses, although there are playoffs at the end of the season for older age groups.

ABL is a member of the Little League Baseball, Inc and adheres to their rules unless where noted differently.

Age Rule

In 2006, the national Little League organization adjusted their date to identify a player’s “league age” to be the child’s age as of the April 30^th date of the current year/season. (Previously Little League designated the July 31 as the age date.) The travel leagues in our area all moved to this new age date as well in 2006.

Therefore, a child’s designated league age group is the age they are as of April 30^th in the given year of the program. For example, if a child is 9 years old as of April 30^th in 2008 and then turns 10 on or after May 1, 2008, he/she plays in the 9U age group and in ABL’s “Minors” division for our spring recreational program. He/she would be eligible to try out for the 9U travel program if desired. If a child’s 9^th birthday falls after April 30^th, then the player’s league age is 8 for the season and would play in ABL’s Juniors division and is not of age to try out for travel teams.

Summer / Fall Travel Programs

The ABL participates in cross-county (s) baseball travel programs (typically WPBA) and holds competitive tryouts for the opportunity to represent ABL at various age groups beginning with 9U thru 14U.

Unlike ABL’s spring recreational program which is open to all children regardless of ability, the travel program is a highly competitive program as the team will be competing against the best players from other towns in Westchester and Putnam counties. ABL’s philosophy is to field the most competitive teams possible; heighten the skill levels of all travel players; improve team work and discipline; and, attempt to reach the playoffs in order to have the opportunity for players to experience the excitement of competing at the highest level against the most skilled teams in Westchester and Putnam counties. (Each of the last three years, Armonk has had at least one team reach the playoffs, with the 10U Fall team winning the WPBA League Championship!)

Players must try out for the team and selections will be made based on rated ability. If selected, playing time is not guaranteed and is at the sole discretion of the head coach with no appeals accepted.

In general, there will be one team per age group with the exception being enough acceptably rated players to field two teams. ABL will attempt to find a suitable competitive baseball league situation for a second team so that players will be matched against somewhat similar competition if possible.

Travel Team Player Selection:

Understanding there is never a perfect system to select players, ABL is using combination of factors to determine who makes a team—both quantitative ratings and qualitative analysis to provide the highest level of selection confidence and impartiality:

In 2008, try outs will be held in April for both summer and fall travel teams. Independent baseball professionals will be hired to run try outs and rate players across a variety of skills—throwing, hitting, fielding, pitching, catching—to provide an independent, immediate measure of current player ability. The tryouts are held early so that teams can be formed and begin practicing well in advance of the summer schedule.
For players that are rated similarly and are on the “bubble” of making the team with other players, then the ABL Board and Division coordinators for each age group will look at prior year ratings and a qualitative assessment as to their level of play in the current year to determine final selection. Therefore a combination of both quantitative independent assessment (primary) and quantitative and qualitative input by ABL officials/coaches who have first-hand knowledge of player abilities over time on the field. The ABL Board has final approval of all teams and will not tolerate any lobbying or argument regarding final team selection by parents. All decisions are final.
In general, there will be 12 players selected for each travel team.
Those away more than 10 days at time and accounting for more than 4 games missed during the summer travel season and those missing more than 3 weekend days in the fall due to conflicts will not be considered for those respective travel teams as the program requires a strong commitment to play and practice as a team. All those that try out must commit to playing in a minimum of 75% of games.

Playing Up in Age for Travel Baseball:

Little League rules do allow for players to “play up” in age in their tournaments. There is no playing down in age. However, it is up to each town to determine whether they will allow players to play up in age. The general consensus among other town travel teams in the area is that they allow highly skilled players to “play up” to their competitive abilities and so will ABL with certain restrictions.

As these are competitive tryouts, with all players rated against each other, ABL has the capability to assess younger players versus older players in order to rank players and field the most competitive teams. If based on this ranking, a player in one age group lower rates higher in ability than the older players to the point that the younger player would be ranked in the top 3 players in the older team, then that player will have the option to “play up” so long as the younger team is able to field a full compliment of quality rated players. ABL believes if the younger player would not be a top player in the older age group then it is best for his/her development to be a premier player at his/her designated baseball age division.

There will be a maximum of two (2) younger aged players allowed to play up per age group so as not to dilute the talent pool of the younger division and keep the team primarily of one age group.

For the youngest 9U travel age group, 8 year-olds are not allowed to play-up.

The ability to “play up” will be restricted to highly competitive travel teams and will not be allowed in the recreational spring league.

Minimum Player Quality Standard for Travel Teams:

To make a travel team, a minimum playing-level standard will be required for each player to insure that the team will be competitive and the ability level of players will not be overly disparate between the highest and lowest rated team member. Travel team players must be rated at least “mid-level” or above for their age group (i.e. prior year’s coaches ratings on a scale of 1-5 must average at least a “3”; try out rating must be in the mid-range or above of all players trying out for a given age group.)

If there are not enough players at or over the mid-range to field a team, then the bar will be lowered to include players below the mid-level as long as they display basic skill levels to be able to compete without increased risk of injury.

Travel Leagues and Timing:

In terms of town participation, organization and competitiveness, the WPBA is the premier travel league in the area www.wpbabaseball.com with many towns from northern Westchester and Putnam counties. In general, this will be the first choice for ABL travel teams to participate and compete at the highest level during the summer and fall. Other organizations that we will examine for participation are Little League District 33 (no site available) that has fewer and somewhat less talented teams and WBA http://eteamz.active.com/WBA/ (southern Westchester / Bronx teams) which also have fewer teams.

In general, the travel leagues begin play in mid-June, with playoffs the second weekend in August. Games will be played during the week and on weekends with an average of 3 games a week plus practices. The fall programs run from early September through playoffs on the last weekend in October, with games held on both Saturday and Sundays and practice during the week after school. Practices will also be held in the weeks prior to the start of the season and players are expected to attend those as well in June and late August.

Professional coaches will be hired to support practices and training for our travel teams.