Pitcher/Position Players

Just a thought, I would like to know how some of you deal with the problem of having pitchers that either catch o rplay shortstop, especially if he may be your ace or in your top 2-3.

How much do they throw comapred to your other pitchers?


I just want to see other ideas...

 

Coachevans26,
This fall on our high school WNC wooden bat team I have two strong senior pitchers that both play ss/2nd and I am really at odds with how much to throw them. They are both excellent pitchers and excellent infielders. So far, in our two games they have both thrown five innings (0f 7) with about 75 pitches each. Both threw one hitters to that point with Robert striking out 10 batters and Scott striking out 8. Unfortunately, when we put in an underclassman pitcher, we get some walks and since we aren't hitting, have lost both games by one run. I am trying to develop the younger pitchers for this spring and allow the two aces to get in some work without getting them hurt. How do you strike a balance? They both say they could throw more, but I also need them to have an arm left to play ss.

 

courgardad,
How much have your ace pitchers throw already this year. There is no reason to over extend pitchers in the fall. Let them get their work in, work on mechanics and spotting all of their pitches. Let your young pitchers get their work as well. Because come this spring who is going to care if they win a championship in the fall.
x49er96

 

There is a reason to get these guys some innings.

In the fall is when most colleges can do their scouting. They can't make it to HS games because they are in the middle of their own season. You don't need to get complete games. You have your players on "exhibition". Make sure you get your young guys the development time on the mound and also make sure you get your aces some time (4 innings is usually sufficient) on the mound too and at their 2nd position.

X49er96 was right. The results of these fall games are meaningless. The young guys need the mound time. The aces do also. It sounds like your rotation (5 innings) is good for them. I'd consider cutting it back to 4 innings and giving the younger guys slightly longer outings to build physically and psychologically.

Just my $.02 worth.

 

Fall games to me are meaningless in terms of wins and losses. Any pitching, fielding, and hitting experience is extremely valuable, as long as there are restraints on the amount of use for your pitchers. That's why most fall leagues are developmental. I tend to be wary of leagues that offer exposure for the simple fact that they may tend at times to place pressure on kids and could take some fun out of playing. I believe that fall ball can be the perfect place to experiment, and develop the overall skills of a player by exposing him to different positions. This to me is the best approach for your younger players.

I feel as we get closer to the 2004 season that the fall will allow my young pitchers that I expect to perform for me this year to get in some innings, while at the same time build confidence. The sad things is that because of NCHSAA rules, I can't relly work with them as I believe I should, but that is another topic for another time.

But in light of all of this, How woulf you guys handle pitcher/position players differently in the spring?

 

A COUPLE OF COMMENTS ON THIS SUBJECT. I KNOW THAT THE COACH AT WEST FORSYTH WILL NOT LET A PLAYER CATCH AND PITCH. HE BELIEVES THAT IF SOMEONE DOES BOTH IT IS ASKING FOR ARM TROUBLE. I WILL HAVE TO AGREE CONSIDERING THAT A CATCHERS LEGS GET TIRED SO WHEN HE GOES TO THROW HE WILL BE USING ALL ARM = ARM TROUBLE. SECOND A QUESTION TO COACH EVANS. DO YOU COACH HIGH SCHOOL?? IF SO HOW ARE YOU WORKING WITH GUYS ON A FALL TEAM? LESS THATN 9 OF YOUR PLAYERS?? (JUST KIDDING)

 

As a matter of fact, I do coach High School Baseball. I am also the trainer for our football team this year, so I am at football practice each day. I do open up the cages for my players, and we condition 2 days per week right now. They can run laps around football practice cant they? When I work with players, I stay within the rules as much as any other coach in the state. We started last week with conditioning, but my plares can coem hit ay time they want, all they have to do is get the cage key from me.

As far as the fall team goes, I do not go to the games, for the reason that I am away from my 9 year old daughter so much in the spring and the fall (w/ football) that I want time with her and my wife. So I let the dads do it, though they consult with me on positioning and pitching, as in where and how many innings.

As far as my question, I just want to see how others handle these situaions in the spring. I swould treat sppring and fall differently anyway.

 

Iam just a Dad trying to help out the baseball team. I appreciate the comments and have changed my thinking somewhat because of them. In the Fall, I am going to try to pitch as many different guys as possible while giving my seniors some quality innings. This does two things, builds confidence and allows the younger players to experience better pitching by seeing how the seniors work and how they handle different situations. Hopefully, the younger pitchers can pick up some good ideas from the seniors and from the other coaches. In the Spring, our coach relies on the seniors to pitch alot of innings. He uses the younger pitchers sparingly on varsity, but will move them back and forth between JV and varsity so they can get in additional innings. This is for freshman and sophmores. The Juniors on varsity will pitch more if we have a good lead, or are getting whipped. I hope that this year he will try to use more pitchers and cut down on the number of inings each starter pitches so they can last. He is very hesitant about pulling a pitcher. The key seems to be able to produce a sufficient quantity of quality pitchers so that no one pitcher has to carry the load or possible strain an arm.

 

I guess I should of also said that all of our pitchers play some other position. Our Senior pitchers are both middle infielders and will play either 2nd or ss when not pitching. This can be hard on them when we have a number of rain make up games in one week.

 

It appears to me that alot of the high schools have something ongoing with select groups of kids thru the week working on conditioning and development of somekind. What are the normal rules to coaching staffs meeting with players?

I have never known Kannapolis to do such workouts until after football season is over.