Mop Up Pitcher

Crystal Brown · Apr 26, 2016

My daughter has been the teams pitcher since they formed and as a way to say thank you for your dedication and hard work(humor inserted here), we will bring in 3 guest pitchers, put her on 2nd(which she did really well but 1/2 of our team is made up of 2nd basemen, let her pitch 1 pool game and then when we have minutes left in the last game, the guest players dad tell coach to go ahead and pull her with bases loaded and 1 out and we have already lost 10-0…my daughter is put in. We have a girl who wants to pitch but has never pitched in a tournament that could of used the experience…the game was over. Even the umpire had this look on his face when he saw what was happening. We see the same umpires in other tournaments, so they know my daughter is their main pitcher.

All my daughter wants to do is play…I would understand if she was walking batters, or not hitting her points. I am wondering why a person is using their main pitcher as a mop up pitcher for players who are not interested in joining the team.

corlay · Apr 26, 2016

yuck.

any coach who brings in 3 guest pitchers at this point in the season is clearly shopping.
maybe you should be also?

to me, guest players in-season, should only be called to fill-in for a rostered player that is absent or injured.
otherwise Id find the practice disrespectful and would be putting out feelers.
but it's a bad situation all around.
unless you find a team that is honestly short-handed for pitchers. (otherwise you are just perpetuating the same problem, aren't you?)

good luck!

grcsftbll · Apr 26, 2016

Some coaches really don't care about developing players, or creating a cohesive team. They're glorified recruiters more than coaches. Not all parents/kids mind, so if they're up front about it, great. You probably know my story about our fall team - very similar kind of situation (completely unnecessary pickups while benching his own girls, even in scrimmages; constant recruiting even with all positions filled and then some, etc). Only zero up front-ness. We did leave, and it was the best decision ever. Not saying that's what you should do but it was 100% the right thing for us. I don't think you're wrong to be considering it. Coaches that bring in *unnecessary* pickups really annoy me. There are certainly times it makes sense. Your catcher has a broken finger. Your short stop is on vacation. Not to give play time to guests over your own players because you constantly want to upgrade your team instead of working with the girls who are already committed.

Again, I know plenty of teams do it this way, and it works for them. I imagine a lot of the top teams do it. I just think they need to be clear about it in the beginning. It inspires no loyalty at all and to me isn't really a team.

marriard · Apr 26, 2016

Crystal Brown said:
All my daughter wants to do is play…I would understand if she was walking batters, or not hitting her points. I am wondering why a person is using their main pitcher as a mop up pitcher for players who are not interested in joining the team.

So you are there why? Seriously, unless she got a reasonable explanation of what happened from her coaches, my DD would have walked without any needing any input from me.

Look, when we bring in a guest player we treat them as one of the team, but we aren't just bringing them in because they are available - and we are certainly aren't bringing in 3 players who all pitch and then not pitch the regular players in their normal rotation.

Crystal Brown · Apr 26, 2016

I admit, we need pitchers…It is only my daughter and two other girls. The other girls need work and in this case, it would help not only them but possibly our team in the future. I asked the coach last week when he brought in a guest player who pitched in all but 1 game. The guest parent mentioned that his daughter was there to help out our main pitcher…who was not my daughter but a girl who was on the roster but she never showed up to our practice nor a tournament game. ..My daughter pitched in one pool game, played second in one game and sat the bench the rest of the tournament. She liked the other pitcher from last week, she had ball movement, she was faster than my daughter. So we were thrilled…thinking, okay, we got solid pitchers…only to not use his main pitcher. ..Then to have it happen the second weekend in a row. My husband is the assistant coach and he didn't even know until it was happening.

Crystal Brown · Apr 26, 2016

corlay said:
yuck.

any coach who brings in 3 guest pitchers at this point in the season is clearly shopping.
maybe you should be also?

to me, guest players in-season, should only be called to fill-in for a rostered player that is absent or injured.
otherwise Id find the practice disrespectful and would be putting out feelers.
but it's a bad situation all around.
unless you find a team that is honestly short-handed for pitchers. (otherwise you are just perpetuating the same problem, aren't you?)

good luck!

I got a message early Monday morning with a coach asking if she was interested in pitching for him. Word seems to spread fast.

Crystal Brown · Apr 26, 2016

grcsftbll said:
Some coaches really don't care about developing players, or creating a cohesive team. They're glorified recruiters more than coaches. Not all parents/kids mind, so if they're up front about it, great. You probably know my story about our fall team - very similar kind of situation (completely unnecessary pickups while benching his own girls, even in scrimmages; constant recruiting even with all positions filled and then some, etc). Only zero up front-ness. We did leave, and it was the best decision ever. Not saying that's what you should do but it was 100% the right thing for us. I don't think you're wrong to be considering it. Coaches that bring in *unnecessary* pickups really annoy me. There are certainly times it makes sense. Your catcher has a broken finger. Your short stop is on vacation. Not to give play time to guests over your own players because you constantly want to upgrade your team instead of working with the girls who are already committed.

Again, I know plenty of teams do it this way, and it works for them. I imagine a lot of the top teams do it. I just think they need to be clear about it in the beginning. It inspires no loyalty at all and to me isn't really a team.

One of the guest pitcher also got to be the guest catcher. Our normal catcher was there. She played wherever she wanted. While she is a good player, she already has a team and she is not about to switch.

Mom_Coach_Fan · Apr 26, 2016

I've seen clips of your DD pitching and am impressed with how much work and dedication she has for the game and her craft. If you ever get down to the metro Atlanta area....

Seriously - the entire situation sounds lousy. Hope you can find some resolution quickly.

Mop Up Pitcher

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