Pulling a kid mid inning

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Sep 18, 2011
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So, why isn't a pitcher emotionally scarred for life when she is pulled mid-inning? Seems that if the SS will suffer life long trauma from the indignity of being pulled, wouldn't the pitcher also be harmed?

Apples and oranges. I mean c'mon. How many major leasgue baseball games have you seen in your life? In all those games, how many pitchers have been pulled mid innng? Countless, right? How many position players? Not so many. I remember Billy Martin pulling Reggie Jackson. that's about it. There is an expectation that pitchers will be pulled mid inning (for a variety of reasons/circumstances). Pulling a position player is a different animal, and you know it. Not saying it should never be done, but it is completely different.

In pool play last week my dd led off the game with a fairly deep fly ball to center. CF tracked it down, bobbled it slightly, and then secured the catch. As dd was heading to the dugout, CF was being pulled. Coach snapped at her for the bobble. First batter of the game! Is that really the same as a pitcher being taken out after throwing 125 pitches?

Edit to add: Put it this way. Pulling as pitcher is generally perceived as a positive. Manager takes ball, pat on the back, crowd and teammates cheer. "Thanks, kid, you did your best." Etc. Pulling a position player is ALWAYS perceived differently. No pats on back. No cheers. The player feels embarrassed/shame. Been that way for over 100 years.
 
Last edited:
Jan 18, 2010
4,284
0
In your face
M
Apples and oranges. I mean c'mon. How many major leasgue baseball games have you seen in your life? In all those games, how many pitchers have been pulled mid innng? Countless, right? How many position players? Not so many. I remember Billy Martin pulling Reggie Jackson. that's about it. There is an expectation that pitchers will be pulled mid inning (for a variety of reasons/circumstances). Pulling a position player is a different animal, and you know it. Not saying it should never be done, but it is completely different.

In pool play last week my dd led off the game with a fairly deep fly ball to center. CF tracked it down, bobbled it slightly, and then secured the catch. As dd was heading to the dugout, CF was being pulled. Coach snapped at her for the bobble. First batter of the game! Is that really the same as a pitcher being taken out after throwing 125 pitches?

Edit to add: Put it this way. Pulling as pitcher is generally perceived as a positive. Manager takes ball, pat on the back, crowd and teammates cheer. "Thanks, kid, you did your best." Etc. Pulling a position player is ALWAYS perceived differently. No pats on back. No cheers. The player feels embarrassed/shame. Been that way for over 100 years.

But the reference to MLB, where those players have had 10's of 1000's of games to adapt, where they are the .00001 best baseball players in the world, is much different too. Also we don't know how many times they were pulled during their amateur/childhood career. It is rare, over 30 years of either playing or watching family members at the major ( travel BB level ) I've seen it probably less than 100 times.

I had a girl for 8 years, great SS, good feet, good arm, good glove. But, if she booted 3 plays in a short amount of time, she had to come out. She was mentally done. It was just her makeup of how she handled the errors. Next game, maybe even all weekend after that, she'd be 1.000 fielding.

Pulling a player shouldn't bee taboo, but it is a case by case endeavor. Some you learn they need to be left in to deal, because they can, some need a change of venue ( bench ) if that works for them. Some even "grow" where the bench teaches them how to adapt to deal, and work it out on the field. Remember we are dealing with development of players, physically and mentally. A coach must learn to manage both, across all the personalities of his players.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,133
113
Dallas, Texas
Pulling a player shouldn't bee taboo, but it is a case by case endeavor.

Totally agree.

The reason that field players aren't pulled in the middle of the inning is simply because of custom. Parents aren't used to it, and they end up thinking it is some huge travesty. If parents treated it like it was nothing, the kids wouldn't notice.

MLB coaches will do occasional mid-inning substitutions of field players. It is almost always done when there is a pitching change.
 
Jun 11, 2013
2,619
113
When they do in the Majors is usually a double switch so the can change the pitchers spot in the lineup.

My big concern is that if you do it, it needs to be for a good reason and needs to be used as a teaching moment. I have little respect for the coach that yells, pulls the kids and just lets them stew on the bench over a couple of errors.
I'm more inclined to use it when the kids has checked out or when they refuse to hustle.
 
Jun 19, 2013
753
28
After the game, one of my coaches told me he thought it was a low-class move to do that to a kid. For sure the kid's mom was not happy. But at some point it has to be about the team, not the player.

But the other 10 or so families were probably all grateful (coming from a pitcher parent who watched a 2B with multiple errors in almost every game this whole past season)
 
Jun 27, 2011
5,089
0
North Carolina
There's more to it than the potential shame issue. It's just the logic of it. ...

If I think a player is my best shortstop before the inning starts, I'm probably not going to change my mind between plays. I might, but it's not very likely. When the inning is over, I've got more time to make a level-headed decision.

It's not like pitchers, whose performance might vary considerably depending on whether their tank is full or empty, and whose 'temperature' needs to be taken frequently, lest a game be won or lost on the next pitch.
 

JJsqueeze

Dad, Husband....legend
Jul 5, 2013
5,436
38
safe in an undisclosed location
by and large when I see position players pulled mid inning it is clearly punitive. other situations may occur, but all of the mid inning pulls I have seen have been accompanied by a coach also being very upset with a player. so there are tow situations here, either the coach is playing who he thought is the best player for a position and then in less than an inning he changes his mind. Or he is playing a girl that he knows is not the best at a position, maybe a secondary position, and mid inning he decides that she is so bad at her secondary position that she cannot finish an inning. Either way it points more to the coach being unable to scope talent correctly or stick with a decision than anything else.

I am a pitchers parent and i feel like I have watched my share of errors, but even then i do not want to see a player pulled mid inning for performance.
 
Oct 22, 2009
1,532
0
PA
This scenario happened to me this year (14U):

RF drops an easy fly ball. OK, every kid makes an error once in a while.

Same inning, RF does not back up a throw to 1B, gives up a run and extra bases. This should never happen. Completely a mental error, not a physical error. Kept her in the game.

Next batter, ball hit at her, gets by her to the fence, makes a terrible throw after she gets to the ball, giving up another run and multiple extra bases. The player is frazzled and has completely checked out at this point. No choice but to have another player take her spot and give her a break.

As a coach, if you tell me that this kid does not need to come out, I think you are mistaken. I should have taken her out after she did not back up 1B, because for me, that is an absolute must, no excuses, etc., but I wanted to let her finish out the inning. Ultimately, those extra runs and bases we gave up are on me because I didn't do the right thing for the team.
 
I absolutely hate doing it, but have done it a couple of times. Usually when it feels like the player is in a death spiral, i.e., she has had three errors in a row and is clearly thinking more about the errors than the next play. At that point I'll take her out put someone else in who has a clear head. But it's really a last resort.

I doubt I would have done it in either situation above, unless there is some unknown back story for #1. But if that was a first offense for the LF not backing up I'd have reminded her the play's not over until it's over and she has responsibilities until then. And then left her in.
Im with Ken on this I had to do the same thing last year on our SS she had 3 errors one inning the next inning 2 errors totally due to her over thinking about the previous inning over threw 1st and a wild throw to 1st where it was uncatchable so I pulled her and just flipped 2nd with short to take some pressure off her.
 

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