How many is to many ?

[grcsftbll]

I was thinking 12 (well for our age group which is 10U). That way if all girls are present you have 2 sitting together, rather than one sitting alone. But at least IME from my first season of travel ball, we had 1-2 girls missing as often as not. If we'd only carried 10 we'd have been playing with 8 or 9 a lot. We could have done it but we could barely compete with all 10 in the field. Our particular team wouldn't have stood a chance 2 short. And the girls who sat got rotated (mostly rotated through the outfield players - this was 8U) so no one girl had to feel like she was the worst one and had to sit every game. It seemed like it worked out pretty well to me though I suppose if my daughter had been one of the outfielders I might have felt a little differently.

 

[InsidePitch]

We carried 13 on our 18U team this year and it was to few. 2 of our pitchers only pitch. At 12 and 14U you have injuries but not like at 18U. Rarely a weekend goes by where DD doesn't have something. Most of the time they have healed by the following weekend. The bruises are no longer black and blue but yellow and they play on.

 

[Cowdogz]

I had 12 on a Babe Ruth baseball roster one year, and my policy was no one played all 7 unless there was a no-show, and no one played less than 4. I know TB is a little different, but with the right roster you can still do this. BTW, we went 16-3 that year.

The other extreme was the year before when we didn't have enough players for 3 teams, so we created 2 large ones. We had rosters of 18, with a 14-man roster for every game. Kids, well most kids, took turns sitting out a full game. Wasn't particularly fun for anyone.

 

[#7sDad]

I see a lot of comments about pick-up players. How can you do that. If you are rostered on a team, how can you be available for pick-up by another team within the same sanctioning body?

 

[djcarter1966]

Most teams play tournaments with several different orgs and most rosters won't lock you unless it's a qualifiers and some until you are qualified and even then some allow 2 or 3 add ons as long as you are not on another roster locked and qualified team. It can be confusing but most coaches know the ins and out of the different orgs they play in and keep it straight but the players and their parents should carefully read the rules as well.

My ideal roster is probably 12. If I had to go up or down I would probably add one, life always happens and keeping only 10 would just be too scary unless you have 3 or 4 guest players on speed dial.

 

[texas4life]

On my 18u this team has been together for years and we have always tried to keep 11-12 girls at a time. It helps a lot with the heat and possible injuries. On my 12u we are overloaded at 15 girls really hard to give play time and keep everyone happy with this many girls.

 

[marriard]

I see a lot of comments about pick-up players. How can you do that. If you are rostered on a team, how can you be available for pick-up by another team within the same sanctioning body?

Up until a roster is locked by the sanctioning body for qualifiers players are pretty much free to move amongst travel teams how they feel.

Once the roster is locked (normally leading up to state and national tournaments), then you need to ask the appropriate person to allow you to use a guest player (normally the state director). I can't remember a time when they have ever said 'no'. Many sanctioning bodies even have rules allowing you to add a certain number of players after qualification.

Exact rules depend on the sanctioning body, but if you call or email and say "I wont be able to field a team without a guest player" that is about all it takes.

 

[wafastpitch]

Dd's 16u team had 15 and it was a lot. It wouldn't have been so bad if the coaches hadn't felt the need to have 15 at every tournament. If a girl was injured or couldn't make it they'd pull girls from the 18u team that were 16 eligible. It would have been better to play with 12 when 12 could play than to add 2-3 girls who were guaranteed to play every inning because they were playing down to "help us out". We had 12 for fall ball and did very well; we didn't do so well in spring with 15. Go figure. Dd is picking up with a 14u team that has 11 with her on it. She's enjoying playing with them. I'm not sure how many they'll carry next year.

 

[JAD]

As a general rule of thumb we try to carry the same number of players as our age group, so 12 at 12U, 14 at 14U and 16 at 16U. This number can vary slightly depending on how many pitchers and how dedicated the players are to the team. The bottom line is, as players get older life's others commitments become more of a distraction.

 

[InsidePitch]

At many of the Showcases we attended they have unlimited defensive subs so having more was not a big deal. 4 OFs would play 3 sit 1. I always felt that if a kid didn't sit more than one or two innings in a row it wouldn't matter to them. Infielders would rotate themselves in after two and it was pretty much the kids that determined the interval. They seemed pretty fair about it when left to themselves.