Playing pitchers

[richez555]

Our team is 16U, rec girls softball. I have three pitchers. #1 throws fast, change, drop and has stamina. #2 throws mostly offspeed, #3 is like #1 but less stamina. Last season, our coach used all three equally, even in tournaments, with not much success. This season, I am coaching and would like to give our pitchers equal playing time throughout the season, but ride the hot pitcher in tournaments. I notice most teams do this at every level, rec/competitive/travel/college/Olympics etc.... What do y'all think?

 

[SnocatzDad]

one strategy that works to balance shared work load with getting more from your best pitcher is to simply tell the pitchers that they are going to get to go through the batting order once each and then finish the inning that they complete the order in unless they are really struggling. This means an effective pitcher playing in a bat the roster league can get 3-5 innings and an ineffective will probably be done at 2 innings.

The appeal to the girls is that it's a fair system, the better they pitch the more innings they get. It takes the pressure off of them so that they aren't constantly worrying about when they will pitch next and/or when they are going to get pulled. I've seen this work on the Elite level as well as the REC level. When you have 3 Ace pitchers and they all think they are #1 it's a great way to share time without destroying team chemistry between Divas.

 

[sluggers]

On a travel team, you rotate the pitchers during friendly games and during the pool games of a tournament.

During a single elimination tournament, you might go with one pitcher for the whole thing.

For a double elimination tournament, and depending upon how soon you end up in the loser's bracket, you usually go with the top two pitchers.

 

[StacieM]

SnocatzDad: That's a cool idea especially if you do have those "pitcher personalities" and parents to deal with.