Pitchers

[Daboyz21]

I was just wondering how many pitchers on a team is adequate? I know having pitchers is always good, but is there such thing as too many on a team, seeing as some might not get much game time?

 

[uncdrew]

3 is too few, 4 is too many.

 

[joe720]

3 is too few, 4 is too many.

3.14 is the correct answer.


IMO 4 is a good number as pitchers usually are decent at secondary positions, at least at a younger age.

 

[uncdrew]

More seriously, 4 works pretty well. If you're playing tournaments that can be 5-7 games on one day, you'll need all 4. However, if you get knocked out early you might have your two "not quite as good" pitchers only see a few innings.

 

[Daboyz21]

Those are the exact numbers I was thinking. Try 7 on a team. Pitching time is gonna be scarce

 

[OK04dad]

As a dad of a pitcher, having a pitching staff of 3 to 4 is awesome - but having a quality catcher is worth their weight in gold!

 

[Orange Socks]

As a dad of a pitcher, having a pitching staff of 3 to 4 is awesome - but having a quality catcher is worth their weight in gold!

This is so true! This summer our pitchers did not want to pitch to our 4th string pitchers. Her receiving was not very good. She would make strikes balls and moved her glove around to much. We had to video her doing it so that she would understand the issue. I still don't think she gets it.

 

[justanotherguy]

I think it depends on the caliber of the pitchers and their endurance. The team my DD is on now is a pretty high level 18u team. I'd say they have 3, but in reality it's two. The third only sees pitching time when we're blowing out a team in bracket play. This past weekend, she pitched none and we rolled over every team in the tournament. The #2 has a ton of endurance. I swear she can pitch all day long. I don't know what the #3's goals are. She's a coach's kid and sees plenty of playing time, just not as a pitcher.

 

[Orange Socks]

I think it depends on the caliber of the pitchers and their endurance. The team my DD is on now is a pretty high level 18u team. I'd say they have 3, but in reality it's two. The third only sees pitching time when we're blowing out a team in bracket play. This past weekend, she pitched none and we rolled over every team in the tournament. The #2 has a ton of endurance. I swear she can pitch all day long. I don't know what the #3's goals are. She's a coach's kid and sees plenty of playing time, just not as a pitcher.

What tourneys are y'all playing in? We are just finishing up with Tryouts in the Texas area and most likely won't start playing any round robins for several weeks. More like 3 weeks.

 

[grcsftbll]

3 is too few, 4 is too many.

This is so true!!

Year before last we only had two all year. Both were very strong pitchers, but you can't ever go deep in a tournament with 2 pitchers. This year we had three, two bracket-ready and one more developing. It seemed like a good number to me, for the most part. This was 12U (and some playing up in 14U), B level. I think when you go to the higher level teams, you probably have to assume they'll have more pitching.