How many pitchers should a coach have on their team

[elizabeth]

My daughter has recently left her 12U softball team and joined a new team. Her old team had only 2 pitchers (my daughter being one of them). Although we believe this new team will give her more opportunities to learn and progress, I am a little concerned because they have 5 pitchers on the team. Every one of them are really good. I am really worried that my daughter will not get any pitching time. How many pitchers do most teams like to have? Although we told them that we wanted to join, we have not signed the contract yet. Should I look around at other teams who do not carry as many pitchers? Thanks

Elizabeth

 

[MrGreen]

My daughter has recently left her 12U softball team and joined a new team. Her old team had only 2 pitchers (my daughter being one of them). Although we believe this new team will give her more opportunities to learn and progress, I am a little concerned because they have 5 pitchers on the team. Every one of them are really good. I am really worried that my daughter will not get any pitching time. How many pitchers do most teams like to have? Although we told them that we wanted to join, we have not signed the contract yet. Should I look around at other teams who do not carry as many pitchers? Thanks

Elizabeth

Five pitchers is way too many, particularly for a young team (or really any team). Young pitchers need to pitch real game situations to improve. Most younger travel teams have one dominant pitcher followed by two others fighting for the number two spot. Adding two more to the mix is a set-up for bad chemistry, and one or two of them are not going to pitch much at all - if at all. The best thing that ever happened to my daughter in her first year of travel ball was being picked to play on a 12U team in a particular organization with low expectations (as compared to the sister team in the same age bracket) that played decent competition. They had three pitchers, but she got 85% of the pitching time. Assuming your daughter is being coached by someone who really knows what they're doing, I would suggest (at this age) she goes to a team where she has an opportunity to pitch a lot. Being on a team that age with five pitchers, even if successful, will do more for the coach than for your daughter's progress as a pitcher. As they get older, it becomes more about role playing and who's comfortable with what. Even so, a pitcher is going to want the ball. But that's just my opinion....

 

[mudbug]

Three is a good number to have actively pitching. You can always have more who play other positions well, but not consider them pitchers. Nothing wrong with working with them, etc to keep them pitching and progressing but if you want to win you will probablyl not pitch more than best 2 or maybe 3 in elimination games, and often the #3 will probably pitch mostly pool games.

You need more than 2 to go play major tourneys. What if you travel , parents spend $$$$, and one gets hurt? Need ability to keep playing, and one girl really cant do it.

 

[sluggers]

1) Go talk to the coach about it.
2) How good is your DD "really"? How good are the other girls "really"? Why do you think your DD is good? What objective facts support your conclusion?
3) Does your DD play another position?

One excellent travel team program that has produced many, many D1 college players carries about 7 pitchers at the younger age levels. It sounds a little silly until you really think about it. Who are the "good" pitchers at 12U? They are usually the most athletically gifted girls. They have the best raw athletic talent. So, the good pitchers are also good infielders, outfielders, catchers and hitters.

The coach lets all the kids pitch who think they are pitchers, but it doesn't take long until everyone recognizes who the truly talented pitchers are. He will put one of the lesser kids on the mound, and that kid will pitch to nine batters, and will give up a couple of hits and walks a couple of batters. The "talented" kid then gets out there and strikes out 9 in a row. You get the picture. The talented pitcher will be at Stanford or Michigan. The other kid might also--but not as a pitcher.

There was one kid on his team who was the star pitcher on her HS team, but didn't pitch for him during the summer. She was a solid HS pitcher, but she wasn't D1 material. She went to a Big 10 school on a full ride as an outfielder.

 

[JC heir]

Great post Ray- One of the hardest things to do is to honestly assess ones own DD, but its something that you just have to do, & that goes for all positions, not just pitchers. Your own DD is also one of about 12 hitters on the team, & if she falls in the top 5, she will see significant playing time, if she is in the bottom 5, she wont.

 

[amanda_cake]

I think three is a good number of pitchers to have. However, there is no such thing as too many girls on a team that can pitch. I remember watching a game in the Women's College World Series (I believe) last year when a team who had their first trip there had to pull a pitcher who was a regular season outfielder due to some unforeseen circumstances. Talk to the coach, see what your daughter's chances are. No reason not to keep working her as a pitcher, if she's good enough her time will come one day. Also, it is good to be versatile and know other spots.

 

[softball_chic_12]

i agree with amanda_cake. i am mainly a catcher. at a young age i learned how to pitch. i was still catching and working on my pitching on the side. i also know how to play other positions and try to refine my skills at each position. i've learned and have been told that the more positions a player knows how to play, the more likely a team will try to pick her up. say there are two girls. girl 1 is a great pitcher but isn't the best at any other positions. girl 2 is a decent pitcher but also knows how to play other postitions, especially key positions. a team will most likely choose girl 2 over girl 1 because if something would happen to any of the other players, girl 2 would be able to fill in.

 

[FJRGerry]

My daughter's current team (14U) has 6 girls who pitch. When my daughter was asked to play with them last August the coach told her she would see minimal pitching since he had 5 other girls. Our response was just give her a 3 innings on a Saturday and see how she does (he already knew her from the previous year as a player on the other 12U team our organization had). Through the fall she was given her 3 innings each tournament Saturday (& Sunday's too it turned out) and has impressed the coaches enough that's she's moving up the ladder and is expected to see more pitching time come the spring & summer.

If your daughter has confidence in herself then the internal competition should be motivating to her, as long as the coaches are fair about it.

 

[PEPPERS]

I think that a team should have at least 4 pitchers, this should give each pitcher a fair amount of pitching time and not over pitching a pitcher.

The guy who’s daughter takes pitching lesson after my daughter advised that college SB is considering limiting pitchers to one game a day. Has anyone else heard or read about this?

 

[Coach JV]

I agree that 5 is too many. We have 2 very good pitchers for elimination and a third we throw primarily during seed games.
We started the season a year ago with 5 pitchers. We quickly found out who was not quite ready, and encouraged these girls to continue practicing.
One has broken through to become a reliable arm, the other gets banged around a bit but understands where she
falls in rotation. She happens to be a very good middle infielder who also wants to pitch