Parent pitchers question

[LRH1969]

How many pitchers in travel ball just sub for other teams? If your a parent or player has it benefitted you? We are on a team that at the end of this season had 5 pitchers. That really limited the number of times my daughter pitched, that combined with the team just did not perform good enough to play more games on sunday. Is one better off just to sub for other teams? Seems in our area there is always that need for fill ins.

 

[tomorrow]

What age group?
Pitchers need to pitch.
Any of these options are valid.
1. Change teams.
2. Change to a lower level team.
3. Be a sub for a short term option for getting reps.
4. Play in a rec league at the same time as travel ball.

We have done all 4 of these options at various ages thru my DD's time pitching. Getting the reps and keeping the motivation needed to keep increasing skill is hard to maintain.

 

[Top_Notch]

We've been lucky to be on teams that always had 2 or 3 strong pitchers so my kid had plenty of circle time. She did sub on occasion, mainly to stay sharp during breaks when the team wasn't playing. We also learned what teams/coaches were (or weren't) a good fit for her in the future.

 

[LRH1969]

What age group?
Pitchers need to pitch.
Any of these options are valid.
1. Change teams.
2. Change to a lower level team.
3. Be a sub for a short term option for getting reps.
4. Play in a rec league at the same time as travel ball.

We have done all 4 of these options at various ages thru my DD's time pitching. Getting the reps and keeping the motivation needed to keep increasing skill is hard to maintain.

First year 16u.....changing teams is an option, lower level would not be a challenge or prepare her for college. She did sub a few times last year with good success. Rec league not available in our area without 1.5 hrs travel.

 

[daywalkerdad]

Subbed a few times due to rainouts in previous years some good some bad.
Make sure they have a defense. Experienced what should have been a 2 hitter ended up being 7 runs.
Have subbed as emergency only pitching and had a blast just being a non pitcher.
Pitchers get better in practice, need just enough innings to keep working and learn to pitch under pressure.

 

[_MIA_]

If she is one of the top 1 or 2 pitchers on the team and you think she isn't getting enough time because the rest of the team isn't good enough (and the coach uses all 5 pitchers) then find a better team. Just be aware that if this is the case, and you choose to do that and she moves down the pitcher totem pole, she may be in the same boat.

Just out of curiosity, how many games/innings does she typically pitch during a tournament?

 

[peter.kottke]

We have had some pitchers pick up with us that are subs only/ not on a team. It’s a small sample size but outside of their pitching they seemed behind other players of the same age both in terms of hitting and defensive play. My conclusion was that team practices do make a difference- that’s what the sub only player doesn’t get.
Of course there’s lots of other possibilities- observation bias, random variation, impact of lack of comfort with the environment (not knowing teammates and coaches) on performance, and even pitchers who haven’t developed as much as batters and fielders getting less overall playing time and so becoming frustrated and leaving teams to be subs only…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rolling Hard]

How many players on the team? Did you not know there were 5 pitchers on the team when you joined? Five pitchers is too many. Very difficult to give 5 pitchers enough innings. Even 4 pitchers is tough.
Will the coach allow you to sub? If so, I would sub and look for new team simultaneously. Choose wisely.

 

[HunterMO]

Sometimes, coaches get hesitant letting pitchers sub from an injury standpoint. If your pitcher is playing games with her team (assuming she's hitting/fielding when not pitching) that's still a lot of use on the body. Then you go play extra games with other teams to get the circle time, it takes away from rest and increases the chance of injury. Which then keeps from playing/practicing altogether (potentially). Just depends on the situation/coach.

Some players can go and go without many weekends off. DD's team just had a pitcher sub for them, due to injuries, a couple weeks ago and it was her 5th weekend in a row. But you'd have no idea. This pitcher's team had folded and they were subbing to get game reps and feel out different teams.

The short of it is, if your DD (not you) is unhappy with the situation.....find a different situation. A pitcher/catcher could play as a pick up player every weekend if they wanted to. There are a couple players in our area that are known for it. Not in a bad way. They just pick up/sub based on schedule and what they want to do. It works for them. One ended up latching on to a team for the Summer due to player injuries. Sometimes you can even find a local team to practice alongside with during the week.

 

[uncdrew]

First year 16u.....changing teams is an option, lower level would not be a challenge or prepare her for college. She did sub a few times last year with good success. Rec league not available in our area without 1.5 hrs travel.

If pitching in college is her goal, you probably need to make a change immediately. Sounds like she's not getting exposure.