12 committed players is a good number. I know some will push for more, but experience says that 13 or more is very difficult to manage when they all show up. Unless you're a top team that everyone wants to be on and that plays all the best tournaments, you'll lose people because somebody won't be playing enough.
Here we go again! Bear with me on this and keep an open mind. This is real life experience. 10U/12U a roster of 12 is fine.
You can have 12 committed players, but they will still have issues with scheduling conflicts especially with players that play other HS sports in the fall and have other stuff they are also committed to. I don't understand why people say it's so difficult to manage a team of 16 during a weekend? Every decent TB team 14U and up around my area has at minimum 14 players on a roster. If you have difficulty figuring out how to get playing time for 16 players in a weekend, you are doing it wrong. I see college coaches getting 20 players in a single game in one way or another...3 games in a row.
We have parents coming on here all of the time complaining about playing time with a roster of 12. Going a whole weekend with 1 AB and 2 innings played. Those coaches are doing it wrong! That is a real problem.
I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who's DD is playing D3 college ball. She is a POWER Hitter. I will say, she is better suited as a DP because her defensive skills are lacking. Dad is complaining to me that DD is not playing enough...to their liking. He is also complaining that they are losing. The girl played on one of those teams that goes 45-4 in TB mowing down the Hittin' Kittens every weekend and had a HS school team that we pretty good going a few rounds in the playoffs every year. They are used to winning and she is used to playing a lot and never had to compete for her position or playing time. I felt as though he wanted to create a "safe" environment where she could thrive. She never had to venture out of her comfort zone and the team was a "safe bubble" playing weak teams and weak tournaments. They had one pitcher that dominated and when there was a conflict with her schedule, the team chose not to play those weekends.
Together we pulled up the team stats and I pointed out that it looks like she is getting plenty of AB's compared to the team. Every day players are getting 42 AB's or so. The next group down is getting 25-30 AB's. She is in this category. And then there is the next group down that are getting 10 AB's and then last group getting 0 AB's. I said it appears worse than it actually is. She is getting lots of AB's. So is she REALLY prepared to play in college? Did her TB experience get her ready mentally?
This issue is the same issue Heather Tarr brought up about having bigger rosters on TB team. Kids are not used to sharing innings and AB's because they never had to growing up on certain teams. DD's former TB coach wanted more players on the team so they can battle and compete. If you are the only player at your primary position, where is the incentive to get better? Your team will get better when you are forced to compete at practice. It's hard to bench your 3B for poor play when you don't have anyone to replace her. That will not happen with 12 players on a roster.