Sharing Circle Time

[McKeister1]

You are the coach of a 2nd year 10U team with 5 pitchers. How’d you get so lucky?!

You will play, on average, 2 games a week this season. This is a Class C team, typically play 5-6 innings with no run limit. Some games “no new inning” after 75 mins.

Your talent:
1 Starter
1 Girl not far behind her (good accuracy but less velocity & movement than the starter)
1 Girl who struggles with accuracy & runs hot/cold
2 girls who walk more than they strikeout & are less experienced than the 3 girls above

*Assume all 5 take lessons & put in the work at home.

How would you split up pitching time in games between these 5 girls this season?


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[Dabears17]

Is this rec or is it a travel team? How many innings do you typically play? If it is rec, is there any sort of run limit per inning? For example, our local rec league has a 3 run limit for first 3 innings.

How many of the girls are taking lessons? What I did with weaker pitchers in 10u rec was say if they wanted to pitch, they had to stay an extra 20 minutes after practice to do some extra pitching practice.

In an ideal world a coach wants 3.5-4 pitchers and in the real world it can be real hard to keep more than 2.5-3 pitcher's parents happy.

 

[McKeister1]

Is this rec or is it a travel team? How many innings do you typically play? If it is rec, is there any sort of run limit per inning? For example, our local rec league has a 3 run limit for first 3 innings.

How many of the girls are taking lessons? What I did with weaker pitchers in 10u rec was say if they wanted to pitch, they had to stay an extra 20 minutes after practice to do some extra pitching practice.

In an ideal world a coach wants 3.5-4 pitchers and in the real world it can be real hard to keep more than 2.5-3 pitcher's parents happy.

Edited to add Class C team...not Rec ball. Typical games with no run limit in innings.

Yes, all 5 take lessons.


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[Hawk_]

Start one of the first two.....way ahead or behind switch. If you need to switch back you can.

 

[Dabears17]

Start one of the first two.....way ahead or behind switch. If you need to switch back you can.

What Hawk says, but some more thoughts:

I considered the purpose of a 10u-C team player development, but you need to communicate that to parents and get buy-in.

What I did when I coached an 8u summer team was schedule friendlies where I didn't show the other team my P1, and pitched my 3 other pitchers and gave 3 girls innings who didn't throw a pitch in a "real" game. I had a strong P1, pretty good P2, and two adequate girls who pitched in real games. But in 8u almost every game I played in had a rule a pitcher could only pitch 2 innings, until after 6 innings.

It will be hard playing just 2 games a week. If you were playing tournaments with 3 pool play games, I would give the 3 strongest pitchers each a start, and try to give the bottom two innings here and there as you can.

I would give the bottom 3 some time pitching batting practice. Is there an 8u team associated with your organization the bottom three can volunteer to pitch some batting practice for?

My DD played on a 12u team where she was the 4th pitcher on a team with three strong pitchers. She understood her role. She pitched some PB, only started 3 or 4 games and got some relief innings in 3 or 4 games.

 

[sluggers]

With 2 games a week:

I would start #1 and #2 for all the games. If a game got out of hand, then #3 would get some innings. If #3 improves over time, then she would get more time.

#4 and #5 wouldn't pitch except in the most extraordinary situation.

 

[Cougars]

With 2 games a week:

I would start #1 and #2 for all the games. If a game got out of hand, then #3 would get some innings. If #3 improves over time, then she would get more time.

#4 and #5 wouldn't pitch except in the most extraordinary situation.

I’d do similar, and with it being 10u-C, I’m guessing even 1 and 2 aren’t 5 inning workhorses.
1 and 2 rotate the starts (3 innings?)
3 comes in next
Depending on how it’s going, or how much of “want to win” the game is, the 1/2 that didn’t start is the ‘closer’

4/5 get a random inning when possible, but need to understand most of their reps come in practice/lessons

 

[HunterMO]

With 2 games a week:

I would start #1 and #2 for all the games. If a game got out of hand, then #3 would get some innings. If #3 improves over time, then she would get more time.

#4 and #5 wouldn't pitch except in the most extraordinary situation.

I know that I traditionally speak of focusing more on develop at 10u rather than get lost in wins and losses. But, being limited to 2 games a week you'd have to prioritize said development.

I would share starts for #1 and #2. Each pitcher gets their own game each week. Then the other comes in relief after 2-4 innings dependent on how the starter is doing. Hopefully, covering 5 total innings between the two pitchers. If your starter is crushing it then no less than 3 innings.

If you want to give the last inning to #3....that's a judgement/situation call. You could go 2-2-1 or 3-2-1. As #3 shows she's getting better.....giving her at least one inning a game makes sense.

#4 and #5 wouldn't get time. Only if something extraordinary happened, or #1-3 were injured/not-available.

 

[AmyLynn05]

I think until they are throwing 50% strikes working #4-5 on their own and in lessons is good. If they have the desire that won't detour them- only drive them to work harder!

At 2nd year 10u dds coach gave our #1 40% time, #2 35%, #3 25%. We had 2 others as "back ups" who had pitched in 1st year 10u, but I'm not sure they had any in game innings that 2nd year. Neither kept pitching after- one dropped softball at 12u and one focused on becoming a power hitter/3rd/1st base.

 

[MNDad]

At the C level pitch them all roughly the same amount of innings. The only reason they should get less innings is if they just can’t find the plate and walk so many girls walk the defense loses interest.

It won’t spike the development of any of the pitchers to share innings, despite what their Dad’s may tell you. If they’re taking lessons and getting some experience in the circle they’ll improve.