Sophomores Pulled Up to Sit on Bench

Can someone help explain the rationale behind pulling sophomores up to the Varsity team for the entire season and having them basically sit on the bench the whole season?

How does this help the kid develop? Wouldn't he be better off actually playing in the game at the JV level?

How does this help the team in future years?

 

Speaking in general, if a soph is not getting playing time on Varsity, he should be playing JV. I don't know many players that improve riding the bench. In my humble opinion, it hurts the player in many ways, outside of lack of playing time.

 

I agree, don't make sense, especially in baseball where players need to be playing and getting reps.

 

When My son was a soph. in HS the coach told him it was up to him if he wanted to spend the year on Varsity (9 seniors) or JV. He went with the Varsity. The first four games of the year they 10 runned every oponent, and they were all non-conf. He had one PH AB. I knew it was going to be a long season. By the time the season ended he was devastated and rusty. Took a month of summer ball before he got his timing and confidence back. It was not necessarily the wrong decision to stay with the varsity, as there was no way of knowing the coaches intentions, but it was a nightmare. IMO if a coach is going to have an underclassman on the varsity he's killing the kid if he's not giving him opportunities. You don't have to put him in bottom of 7 2 outs tie game winning run on 3rd but 4 straight non-conf. 10 run ganes with 1 AB? Wound up playing a lot of late defensive innings but had 4 AB's for the year. He went on to have a very successful HS career and is now playing in college but I gaurantee if you ask him about that season he'll tell you right quick he'd play JV if he had it to do over. JMO.

 

We only bring up Fr/Soph if they are gonna play. This year we had 2 Freshmen (catcher and Pitcher) that have received significant playing time. We also have a soph who starts in the infield. If they arent playing, they play JV where they can play every day.

 

At East Forsyth this year, juniors and seniors were given the opportunity to play their positions and when they did not produce, sophomores and freshman came up and took their place. This is why East starts 1 Freshman, 1 Junior, 3 Seniors, and 4 Sophomores....Those sophomores and freshy can play.

 

My thoughts

First of all whats important is the players in your program understand that what is best for the team must come first. It may be that a young man will get more playing time on the jv. But he may be your best guy coming off the bench swinging it from the left side on the varsity. Or he may be your best option if a certain guy is on the hill that day. This may mean that his innings will be limited but when called upon his role is huge. I do not believe in bringing up guys that dont have a role. But I do believe that if a kid has a role that makes us better and gives us a chance to win then he plays on the varsity and does just that.

If a player is counting on 24 JV games being the difference in developing into a good player then he is already in trouble. The hs season is short. Get your reps in during the summer and fall. Do what is best for your hs program and accept the role that helps your team win.

I do not believe in bringing up guys that do not have a role. But I also dont believe in allowing the players to decide what team they play on because they want as many innings as possible. Do what is best for the team wether it be jv or varsity. Accept your role and work your butt off to expand it. When the hs season is over go play as many innings as you want to play. During the hs season do what you have to do to help your team win.

 

Not...

good unless they are gonna get some "quality" pt!

 

What?

Coach, your the best but PLEASE! It's all about playing time.

 

I've seen coaches pull up younger players because he thought they would get more out of practicing with the varsity than with the JV team. As someone said above if 24 games of high school baseball break a player he probably was not that good to begin with.

Could be the JV coach is not that good.
Could be a great group of seniors and the coach wants the younger player to see how they handle their business.
Could be a lotta things.