I am coaching a 10U travel ball team with 5 pitchers. I have three pitchers who throw pretty hard and fairly consistent strikes. I have one that doesn't throw hard but is also consistent. I have one that doesn't throw hard and is the least consistent of the 5. We are at the younger end of 10U so by consistent I mean more strikes than balls. I am trying to come up with a good strategy to rotate them and my three catchers. We typically play in 2 pool/double elimination tournaments. So I am looking at realistically 4 to 5 games every weekend. I would like to get my better pitchers more innings and I also want to play to win in the bracket games. I'd like to make sure every girl gets at least an inning or two each tournament. I'm interested in how other teams have handled this rotation before.
Pitching rotation strategy for 10U team
- Thread starter Romate39
- Start date
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While I am sure every 10U coach would love to have 5 pitchers and 3 catchers, if all of the pitchers are dedicated and working hard outside of practice, there is simply not enough circle time for all of them to get better. You should recommend two of the pitchers and one of the catchers move to a different team. 10U should not be about winning, it should be about improvement.
^^^^ - Like he said!
At least 2 pitchers and their parents will not be happy. If you try to be fair and spread it out you will make all 5 unhappy. Start with telling #4 and #5 that their circle time will be limited and see where it goes from there. At any level of TB you do not have the innings to go around to develop 5 pitchers.
At least 2 pitchers and their parents will not be happy. If you try to be fair and spread it out you will make all 5 unhappy. Start with telling #4 and #5 that their circle time will be limited and see where it goes from there. At any level of TB you do not have the innings to go around to develop 5 pitchers.
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- Feb 7, 2013
- 3,186
- 48
Remember the saying "when you try to please everyone, you please no one".
No way you can keep 5 pitchers happy on a 10U team unless they don't really care about playing time or getting better, which is a different problem.
I remember my DD's first 8U all-star team. 10 of the 12 girls were pitchers in the regular season and were good athletes. The coach identified the top 3 pitchers of the group and the rest played a different position.
IMO, no team 12U and below should have more than 3 pitchers and 2 catchers.
No way you can keep 5 pitchers happy on a 10U team unless they don't really care about playing time or getting better, which is a different problem.
I remember my DD's first 8U all-star team. 10 of the 12 girls were pitchers in the regular season and were good athletes. The coach identified the top 3 pitchers of the group and the rest played a different position.
IMO, no team 12U and below should have more than 3 pitchers and 2 catchers.
- Feb 7, 2013
- 3,186
- 48
Fastpitch is not baseball. Most baseball governing bodies have pitch limits for young pitchers (either limit the number of actual pitches or innings) so you have to have 5 or 6 pitchers. Travel softball has no pitch limits.
The other issue is that in most fastpitch tournaments have time limits (1 hour, 20 mins is the norm) until you get to the championship game which means that there are just not enough innings to have 5 pitchers get their reps.
- Feb 3, 2011
- 1,880
- 48
If you're 1st-year 10s, don't even sweat. If you've got a group of girls that enjoy playing and growing together, key on that. Give your 3 best pitchers approximately 80-85% of the innings and let the other 2 share about 15-20%. I pulled those numbers out of nowhere, but they seemed reasonable, so I went with it. That will enable you to give the best pitchers plenty of work without overworking them at such a young age. Don't lock anyone into a "slot" (#1, #2, etc). If you see dramatic improvement, reward that.
Looking ahead, once this season is complete and you're moving up to 2nd-year 10u, if you've got pitchers - and pitcher parents - who'd like more circle time, I'd see about cutting the number on your roster to 4, but I don't think you necessarily need to make that move right now. If circle time is already an issue, but the girls like one another and you've got good families, then encourage the less experienced pitcher(s) to guest play with other teams on your off weekends or to participate with the local rec league. Almost every rec league I've ever seen has been in need of 10u pitching.
Good luck with your season.
- Apr 8, 2013
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I'm curious as to some of your thoughts on how many innings/pitches a 10 year old should throw in a weekend?
Baseball has strict limits on the number of pitches and/or innings thrown, which dictates that each team have 5-6 players who can pitch. There IS a difference between a primary pitcher and a player who can pitch. Most teams have 2-3 primary pitchers and 4-5 players who play other positions, but can pitch to help eat up innings. These 4-5 players and their parents KNOW their role in the pitching rotation, so they are perfectly fine with their situation.
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I agree mostly with this, although I wouldn't necessarily set a percentage ahead of time. Depends on how the players develop. You might find you have 1 true ace, or you might have 2 that separate themselves, or you might have 4 that are identical and 1 who stinks. At that age, and based on your description, it's not easy to predict where each could be in 6 months. Be careful not to make those judgments before it's clear cut. The pitchers that improve the most are usually the ones that pitch the most, so to be fair, I would use at least the first few tournaments to give them a fair shot to show what they can do. From there, you'll see who deserves more time, or less, and who's going to work at it and who won't.
It's not unusual for a 10U team of 9-year-olds to have 5 pitchers, IMO, so I don't think you need to send 2 of them packing just yet. If the team is fairly new, then I assume you're getting players from the local rec leagues, and an 'all-star' team like that is going to have several players who call themselves pitchers. Sometimes that's the point of 10U - to find out who is and who isn't.
And whatever gameplan you devise, I'd be up front about it with the players/pitchers and their parents.
