Playing time? Earned.
My son was penciled in as a SP his first three years BEFORE each season. By the third week of each season he was in the bullpen. By the fifth week of each season he was pulling pine splinters from his tush. (An incredibly difficult time for dad; son learned to deal with the failures [he really had no choice].)
In his fourth year, he was penciled in as a splinter puller. By the middle of fall practice he was named captain; by the end of fall ball he was penciled in as a SP; by the beginning of the season he was #1 SP; by the third week, teams were bunting on him just to break up no hitters; on his last game (v Fenways team), scouts from 30 teams were watching (both pitchers were being scouted and ended up single digit draftees).
Baseball is - to our family - unpredictable; all the kid can do is his best. Lots of hard lessons were learned on the way; but, baseball was very, very good to him and those lessons transcended baseball.
[Late add: had he been playing in ANY OTHER CONFERENCE which had approached him, his experience would have been, (cough, cough) different. Which partially explains my clear Ivy bias. He would never have had the chance for the magical breakthrough season.]