Evaluations/ratings.

[BuggBob]

Evaluations/ratings. This year our board voted to implement a evaluation/rating system to select umpires for our highly coveted post season berth -- sounds good. Only thing is that there were no actual evaluations or ratings done so we reverted back to our old system of selecting an umpire based upon the following criteria: is he qualified? did he work the required number of varsity games? did he attend the required number of meetings and clinics? was he cooperative with the assigner? has he gone in the past or recently? While the umpire eventually selected for post season play was a well qualified umpire he may not have been our association's top umpire. Now some of the non selected umpires are starting to whine. Who's number one, number two, why was I selected, and so on. My question to you folks is how many of you use a rating system to choose your post season berths? I know the local baseball association uses a rating system and the same one guy goes to the playoffs year after year. Under our current system we spread the honor out among the best umpires, but not necessarily the one best umpire.

Your input are most welcome
Bugg

[Steve M]

Bob,
You said "so we reverted back to our old system of selecting an umpire based upon the following criteria: is he qualified? did he work the required number of varsity games? did he attend the required number of meetings and clinics? was he cooperative with the assigner? has he gone in the past or recently?"

I guess I'd start with - with no evaluations done, how do you define what the qualifications are. You need that to know whether someone is qualified.
You need a standard and you need a person or group of 3 or 5 who understand that standard and take the responsibility of doing the observations.

In one of the college groups, we have coaches evaluate us in every game AND we turn in evaluations on each other now. This is better than nothing, but it's not accurate - coaches are biased (they are supposed to be) and I have my own responsibilities during a game - so watching my partner isn't that high a priority.

In my high school group, I am the only evaluator. I try to see every umpire work at least once a year. That's not frequently enough, but softball evaluators aren't paid, so once a year per ump is about all I can afford to do.

I have a set form that I use. There are a number of them available online and I've taken some from this & some from that. I know that the same standard is being applied to each one that is watched. I go over the observations with each ump who wants to. I make the recommendations for post-season and sometimes they even follow those recommendations. My role is to give the best advice that I can so that they can make the decision. Once the decision is made, my role is to support those who make the decision.

[SC Ump]

Originally Posted by BuggBob

... a rating system to choose your post season berths?

Our softball association does not. Another association I am in uses ratings by fellow officials, but they incorporate them with several other factors.

Things that affect an officials final rating: number of previous years (5 yrs=100%), score on exam, on field ratings by fellow officials, "cooperation points" awarded by officials board of directors (e.g. for attending study meetings, for timely completion of rating fellow officials, for filling in for games at the last moment. It's not perfect but I think it works very well. Everyone has a specific number of how they rate.