Pitching rotation strategy for 10U team

[redbirdone]

At 10u, I would much rather have my daughter on a team with 5 pitchers and she only gets 20%-30% of the circle time, vs a team with 2-3 and she's getting 50% of the time. Just this past fall we played in several tournaments that were 6 games in a single day and one that was 7 games over two days. We started 10u with 6 pitchers, but almost never had all 6 available at the same time due to either injury, illness or sometimes one of the pitchers just wasn't with it and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn that weekend. For spring, 2 have moved on to get more circle time and we added one more so we are now at 5. I am good with my daughter being one of five at this age.

Maybe I'm over protective, but at 9 years old I do not want my daughter throwing more than 100-120 or so pitches in a day. She gets tired and loses effectiveness, causing her mechanics to breakdown, which can lead to bad habits. And our coaches agree with this. Keep in mind she's 4'9", 70lbs. Now as she gets older, bigger, stronger - then we can talk about whether or not she is getting enough circle time. Also, none of our team's players play one position only so when the other pitchers aren't pitching they are playing in the field, so it's not like she's riding the pine if she's not in the circle. 10u is way too young to limit a girl to one position, in my opinion.

We've played in tournaments where we got knocked into the loser bracket because we ran into a stud pitcher early on, and then faced them again later in the day after several more games and easily beat the same pitcher because she was throwing her 250th pitch of the tournament by then and was just gassed. I was amazed at how many 10u teams would ride a little 9-10 year old girl for 5-6 games a day. Our area (north and central Georgia) seems to have quite a few of these teams. I think it starts with a parent who wants their kid to get more circle time so they build their own team around their precious, and struggle to get enough quality girls to complete the roster and pitching staff. These teams are never the established travel ball clubs in the area. They advertise that they need players and are going to play an "A" schedule. And when you go to their tryout they have maybe 1-2 A players show, a few Bs, and lots of Cs. We tried out for a team like this and politely declined after we were told that 8 of the 15 or so that showed for tryouts would be offered a spot on their "A" team even though there were may 2 that could play at that level. That's just my observation of the situation though, I'm sure everyone has their own opinion.

 

[Romate39]

I really appreciate all the feedback. Let me give a little more information about my pitchers based on the replies I have gotten. Even though I have 5 girls that pitch, none of them have been pitching longer than 6 months, and none of them have built up the endurance to play back to back games. I would guess that 3 of them will probably only be able to pitch an inning at a time without wearing down. I don't think any of my parents are expecting their DD to pitch in 2 or 3 full games at each tournament as a lot of older pitchers do. All 5 of them can be very inconsistent at times because they are all on the younger end of the 10U age group right now. Many times I am sure they will only pitch to a few batters and an inning at most. So with all this in mind. My plan is to start out giving them all equal time and then build off that based on how well they are pitching each day. Let's say I have pitchers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. I'll basically give them all up to an inning (if they can make it that long) in the pool games and then play them the rest of the tournament based on how well they look early on. Then I can play each tournament according to how they develop over the next few months. Does this sound like a decent rotation strategy?

 

[JJsqueeze]

That sounds like a recipe for disaster. Kind of like pitching Communism.

First of all, let's say a kid has a bad inning and throws 30 pitches. That is really only about 1 minute of actual physical activity, so as long as she takes a good 10 seconds between a pitch I guarantee it will not tire her out.

Secondly, with kids this age they often need to find a game rythm so the first inning is sometimes a warm up inning. Pulling them immediately does not give them an opportunity to find a groove.

Better to plan to split games after the third inning if you want to distribute time evenly. Also, if a girl
is rolling, leave her in or the softball gods will punish you.

 

[riseball]

^^^ Heed this advice. The softball gods anger easily and are not to be toyed with.

 

[Rocketech1]

I really appreciate all the feedback. Let me give a little more information about my pitchers based on the replies I have gotten. Even though I have 5 girls that pitch, none of them have been pitching longer than 6 months, and none of them have built up the endurance to play back to back games. I would guess that 3 of them will probably only be able to pitch an inning at a time without wearing down. I don't think any of my parents are expecting their DD to pitch in 2 or 3 full games at each tournament as a lot of older pitchers do. All 5 of them can be very inconsistent at times because they are all on the younger end of the 10U age group right now. Many times I am sure they will only pitch to a few batters and an inning at most. So with all this in mind. My plan is to start out giving them all equal time and then build off that based on how well they are pitching each day. Let's say I have pitchers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. I'll basically give them all up to an inning (if they can make it that long) in the pool games and then play them the rest of the tournament based on how well they look early on. Then I can play each tournament according to how they develop over the next few months. Does this sound like a decent rotation strategy?

I don't think you are giving them enough credit for what they can do and you certainly are not going to help them build endurance by only allowing them to pitch one inning (or less) at a time.

You say this is a travel ball team, so stop treating them like rec players. 9 & 10 YO pitchers are more than capable of pitching more than 1 inning a game. If not, they shouldn't be playing on a competitive youth sport team, and should take up a less physical activity like drama or music.

Sorry to be so blunt but I think you are going into this team and season with the wrong mindset. Develop and challenge all of the players. You will be amazed at what they can accomplish in a short amount of time.

At 10U, a pitch count of 80 - 100 pitches a day is fine. Like I said before, identify your top 3 pitchers from practice, scrimmages, friendlies and use them the rest of the season during tournament play. Most tournament games are timed between 1.20 - 1.30 minutes (drop dead) anyways and you will only be playing an average 4 or 5 innings a game. Really no need for more than 3 pitchers, in fact you could comfortably get away with 2 pitchers if the third one is sick or injured.

 

[spleen1015]

If they are practicing like they should be, they should be able to handle more than you think they can.

 

[gophert]

With 5 pitchers, I think you run a big risk of losing your #1 due to not pitching enough. The only way those girls will get better is to be in that circle. Too many pitchers is equally as bad as not enough. To me the magic number is 3 with the third pitcher having a much larger role at another position. Make sure the #3 knows her role and you will get your #1 and #2 the circle time they need to develop. With 5, like someone said earlier, none of them will get better. Good luck!

 

[JJsqueeze]

Three pitchers is perfect. But there is no need to designate them #1,2 etc unless there is a measurable difference in talent, I see a whole lot of teams that think in terms of #1,2,3 but in reality they just have three pitchers with different skill sets. Best to simply evaluate their skills and use them as effectively as you can. So maybe the fast girl that is less accurate but strikes more girls out is not the best choice to bring in to get out of a bases loaded jam (saw this a couple of weeks ago and she walked in three runs). Maybe the groundball pitcher who only strikes out 2-3 a game but only walks a batter occasionally is a better relief choice. Some teams have the luxury of a truly dominant #1 pitcher, most do not and have to make smart choices and use their pitchers as a staff.

 

[redbirdone]

Three pitchers is perfect.

Depends on what kind of schedule they are playing. If they are playing in a rec or select league with a few games scattered throughout the week, then yes, three is fine, maybe even one too many. If they are playing in tournaments with 3-4 games per weekend, then yes, three is fine. But if they are playing in weekend tournaments with 5-6 game guarantees, or one of these formats with 2 pool plus double elimination then I disagree. I think at 10u you need at least one pitcher per games you typically play each weekend. Just my opinion, no intentions on offending anyone.

 

[JJsqueeze]

How could anyone get offended by that? You suck at offending people