Bracket Play Pitching Strategy

[LostinNJ]

Who is your go-to pitcher for first game of bracket play - single elimination, quarterfinals start. Do you throw your #1 or #2 pitcher?

Why?

 

[quincy]

What is the difference between #1 and #2? Can you beat the other Team with your #3 pitcher?

I have more questions than answers.

 

[djcarter1966]

Gotta have more info, are you the #1 playing the #8 seed? Is it one day for all three games or is it over the course of two days? Have you already played a game or two that day and who pitched? What about the pool games who pitched those how long ago were they? As Quincy stated what's the gap between #1 and #2?

All things being "normal" you will usually throw #1 you can't worry about the championship game if you don't get there right

 

[WOODY123]

I think this can depend on many different factors.

Such as:

Are you the #1 seed playing the #6 seed, if so you might pitch your #2 or #3 depending on how good the #6 team is.
How many games do you have to play on Sunday to win, if more than 2 then you might need to think about how you can get #2 or #3 some innings.
What's the weather like, I know it sounds crazy but some pitchers do better in the heat than others and vice versa.
Does the HC or AC have a DD that pitches, if so I have heard some pretty crazy reasons for pitching (HC or AC DD) the first game on Sunday even if they are not #1 and going home after one game.
What pitcher was hot on Saturday.
You may have one pitcher that can move the ball around well and one that is a flame thrower and try to work both in on every Sunday game.
If you #1 is a flame thrower but slows down after 80 - 100 pitches then you might need a strategy to get your #2 and #3 some innings.
Did the #1 throw against this team on Saturday if so you might want to give them a different look. Is #2 or #3 a lefty

There are a lot of different factors that could come into play when deciding who to pitch on Sunday, and it will very from team to team and tournament to tournament.

Sorry couldn't be of more help.

 

[canyonjoe]

I would always rather lose the championship game with number 2 pitching versus having a well rested number 1 riding in the car while the championship game is going on.

 

[LostinNJ]

Some more details - #1 and #2 are relatively effective pitchers. 2 currently has more wins than 1 but 1 has more starts. There is no 3 available (other sport commitment). You're playing a team one seed lower than you in the bracket.

 

[JJS]

Throw the number one every game of bracket if there are 2 or less games in a day.

 

[JAD]

Hard to give a good answer with just the information given, but in single elimination I would usually start my #1 and hope we can jump on the other team, score some runs and keep her pitch count down by bringing the #2 or #3 in behind her. Depending on how the first game went I would do the same thing again.

If your #2 and #3 are good, you could start them and use your #1 as a closer - bring #1 in if #2 or #3 get into trouble.

 

[marriard]

Some more details - #1 and #2 are relatively effective pitchers. 2 currently has more wins than 1 but 1 has more starts. There is no 3 available (other sport commitment). You're playing a team one seed lower than you in the bracket.

Still don't have enough info... Need to know who you are likely to face in the Semi-Finals and Championships as well.

Assuming 3 games - you are going to want your best pitcher to pitch 2 of the games - but it also means your #2 has to pitch and win one. You have to choose as a coach which game that is going to be. We have had brackets where the other side of the bracket was weak and we were confident the easiest game was going to be the last game - so we went with our best pitcher for games 1 & 2 and the #2 for the championship game. Other times we knew a team that doesn't hit junk well was 2nd which matched up with our then #2 pitcher better.

This is why we now always work backwards in our starting pitcher selection. So we work from the championship game backwards (i.e. who do we want pitching the last game and what is the best plan to get there and have her fresh enough to win it). When we started doing that, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't... But it also got our #2 & #3 pitchers critical starts where we knew they had to win a game for us to win the whole thing. It is also why we now have two #1's and a #2 who is pushing them. Took us 2 seasons but the development of all three makes picking starters a whole lot less stressful.

Note: Pitcher personalities and make up comes into this as well. I once had a team where the best pitcher mentally could only pitch ONCE per day. Once she stopped, you couldn't put her back in or start her in another game. Eliminations days we would pitch her 2 games in a row and she was fine, but you couldn't pitch her games 1 & 3 for example - that just wasn't her (and still isn't on her current team).

 

[Coach JV]

The game is won and lost on the field. Play to win the first game, if you get caught wondering about future games, you will be watching
from the bleachers. I have seen plenty of teams get dumped by 'saving' a pitcher for later games. Softball is a team sport.......