PGF 12u is on Live

[cuzmail]

Guess you're looking at last year since 16U hasn't started yet this year...

Yep.


XXXXXXXXXX

 

[3bmama]

The announcer said at the end that the OCBB pitcher pitched every inning of every game. 10 games total. WTH is wrong with these coaches?

I see the same thing here in meaningless 10b tournaments...

 

[riseball]

Meanwhile we played 3 games in an 18U tournament today and I used 5 pitchers.

 

[marriard]

The announcer said at the end that the OCBB pitcher pitched every inning of every game. 10 games total. WTH is wrong with these coaches?

Pitching is hard.
Winning pitching is even harder.
Developing a travel pitcher is REALLY hard and can't be done within team practices.
Leaving your developing pitcher out there when you have a better option is hard
Hitting has advanced overall... it is really noticeable.
Winning is VERY important to coaches at 'elite' programs.
Parents at 'elite' programs expect you to win. At all costs.
All players are free agents in travel. Your best players will be picked off if you don't win. Sometimes even if you do win.

And thus it becomes OK to burn through an 11 year old girls arm in the pursuit of a $5 trophy. Even though it is not. And you can substitute any age you want for 11 years old...

One of the hardest things to learn to do on elimination day is to decide to pitch a girl you know has a very, very limited chance of winning a game when you have a pitcher on the bench that has a very, very good chance of winning the game but either just pitched a game or that you have 3 more games against even tougher opponents coming up if you win. But you HAVE to do it and DO it often so when you get later and later in the season you hopefully will NOT have to make this sort of decision. But if you have the need (either perceived or real) to WIN every game, you don't have that thought process.

Too often you see coaches think "We have to get through this game, we'll deal with the next game when we get there", but the reality is 95% of elimination days the 'next game' is harder than 'this game' so you end up compounding your problem when you don't pitch your #2 when you should.

(Interesting - once we started our #2 and #3 when we SHOULD HAVE, when they came through - which started happening - we tended to win it all because our #1 was rested while our opponents was not)

 

[riseball]

In the alternative you can task your pitchers with getting through the order once or at most twice leaving nothing on the table. Then change pitchers to provide a different look with each pitcher setting up the next for even greater success. That way all of your horses stay fresh and can run for days.

 

[Greenmonsters]

Pitching is hard.
Winning pitching is even harder.
Developing a travel pitcher is REALLY hard and can't be done within team practices.
Leaving your developing pitcher out there when you have a better option is hard
Hitting has advanced overall... it is really noticeable.
Winning is VERY important to coaches at 'elite' programs.
Parents at 'elite' programs expect you to win. At all costs.
All players are free agents in travel. Your best players will be picked off if you don't win. Sometimes even if you do win.

And thus it becomes OK to burn through an 11 year old girls arm in the pursuit of a $5 trophy. Even though it is not. And you can substitute any age you want for 11 years old...

One of the hardest things to learn to do on elimination day is to decide to pitch a girl you know has a very, very limited chance of winning a game when you have a pitcher on the bench that has a very, very good chance of winning the game but either just pitched a game or that you have 3 more games against even tougher opponents coming up if you win. But you HAVE to do it and DO it often so when you get later and later in the season you hopefully will NOT have to make this sort of decision. But if you have the need (either perceived or real) to WIN every game, you don't have that thought process.

Too often you see coaches think "We have to get through this game, we'll deal with the next game when we get there", but the reality is 95% of elimination days the 'next game' is harder than 'this game' so you end up compounding your problem when you don't pitch your #2 when you should.

(Interesting - once we started our #2 and #3 when we SHOULD HAVE, when they came through - which started happening - we tended to win it all because our #1 was rested while our opponents was not)

Same mentality is often exhibited in the annual Japanese HS baseball tournament as noted in the linked article (cliff note summary: one of the HS aces pitched every inning of a 50 inning game (played over several days) and then started the next game the same day the first game ended). I think it was another year that another ace pitched all the innings and started the last game maxing at 70 mph after starting the tournament routinely topping 90 mph.