San Carlos Little League Baseball

There is often confusion among parents, particularly the parents of our younger players, regarding in which level our Little Leaguers should participate and when they are required to try out. Hopefully this will assist you.

First, understand that there is a date cutoff for Little League to establish a player’s age. The player’s age is determined by their birthdate. The cutoff for Little League is April 30^th of each year-prior to the start of our season. So a player that turns 10 on April 15^th is considered a 10 year old. A player that turns 10 on May 15^th is still considered a 9 year old as his or her birthday falls after April 30^th. This is important as it determines where we normally place the child in our various levels. The levels are as follows:

T-Ball 5 and 6 year olds

Farm 6 (tryout required) 7 and 8 (automatic placement)

AA (machine) 8 (tryout required) and 9 (automatic placement)

AAA 9 (tryout required), 10 and 11 (automatic placement)

Majors * 10 (C’s) and 11 (B’s) (tryout required) and 12 (A’s)(tryout required but will be automatic placement)

(SEE MAJORS BELOW)*

When you sign up to play Little League the coordinators will place those automatic placements in their respective age appropriate level. Unless the child desires to play above the age appropriate level (tryout required) there is nothing else you need to do at this time.

If a player does want play at a higher level he or she must tryout. For example an 8 year old that desires to play in AA must try out. The league does not allow skipping a level so the player in this case must have played in Farm and not T-ball the previous year.

The decision to allow a player to play up a level is based on 3 conditions. These conditions will be assessed by the coaches and communicated to the specific league coordinator at and after the tryouts. The 3 conditions are:

1 Safety – does this child have the ability to play safely at the next level?

2 Assessed skills – can this child play at the next level or are they better off fundamentally playing their current level?

3 Space availability – even if the child meets the first 2 criteria there might not be enough space at the next level. Example: There is a maximum of 96 12 year olds allowed in Majors.

Any player, which completed one full year of live pitching, AAA, and wishes to play in the Majors, MUST tryout. All interested 10, 11 or 12 year olds must attend and tryout since the formation of the teams in Majors is based on a draft. The 10 and 11 year olds that are not selected in the draft will be placed in AAA. Most 12’s will be placed in the Majors if they try out and they played in AAA the previous year. A maximum of 96 12 yr-olds are allowed in majors, it is possible that some 12’s may continue to play in AAA.

We do ask that you sign up. Go to one of the SCLL Registration days and go to the coordinator for the division you want your child to tryout for. You will be asked to sign the the tryout list. You will also recieve the dates, times and any other information from the coordinator.