Does your school have set group of starters?

I agree. With this approach, NONE of your players are getting full reps and may not realize their true potential. Ick! Egalitarianism at its worst!

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Your use of the word 'ick' Sandman is perfect. Oh, and following a trot over to Merriam-Webster®, I know your your use of 'egalitarianism' is right on the mark too. Well said!



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We have set starters with a few subs who rotate in depending upon who is pitching (or is injured). This has resulted in most of the Juniors sitting the bench this year since we have eight uninjured seniors plus one who can only DH for the rest of the year (was our starting catcher). The two starting pitchers are seniors who rotate at first base depending on who has the start and we have three senior relievers, two of which are also starting position players.

There have been a couple cases where someone has managed to work their way out of a starting position, but this has been primarily with the Juniors this year.

My son's high school team had five set starters his soph year until midway through the season when nine locked onto their positions. It was the first winning season in years. The next two years positions were mostly set from the start of the season. One kid played his way out of the starting lineup both years in three games.

Over the three years only one starting pitcher was also a position player. When he pitched altered the lineup.

I guess it depends on the level. I think Freshman and JV are basically developmental and at least through 2/3 of the season kids should get to play. At the varsity level, if the goal is to win, let the best play no matter their grade. Just simply the best. I think most play better when they know they are in the line up in advance and don't have to wonder.

Why is Freshmen or JV developmental? Is the goal not to win games? If not fine, just turn off the score board and stop having us pay so much to play, buy uniforms, pay for refs,and just have scrimmages. When players do not have to "compete/work" for a position they get lazy and the better players are sitting to be FAIR to everyone. Is that right? Not in my book. Let everyone play in LL or if they are 8 or 9 yrs old. By 15 is should be talent/skill level. I know pitchers who do not want to throw to first, or catchers to first if they do not trust that the person playing there is the best player. I say schools have a responsibility to teach players skills during practice and if possible to play them in games if their skills can help the team win. IMO subbing everyone in because it is their turn is silly and unproductive. If JV is developmental and everyone plays how good will the Varsity be the next yr?

This is great for seven year old little league

Good coaches tend to know how to get guys a lot of at bats without withholding too many at bats from the right players.

quote:

Originally posted by playball2011:
Why is Freshmen or JV developmental? Is the goal not to win games? If not fine, just turn off the score board and stop having us pay so much to play, buy uniforms, pay for refs,and just have scrimmages. When players do not have to "compete/work" for a position they get lazy and the better players are sitting to be FAIR to everyone. Is that right? Not in my book. Let everyone play in LL or if they are 8 or 9 yrs old. By 15 is should be talent/skill level. I know pitchers who do not want to throw to first, or catchers to first if they do not trust that the person playing there is the best player. I say schools have a responsibility to teach players skills during practice and if possible to play them in games if their skills can help the team win. IMO subbing everyone in because it is their turn is silly and unproductive. If JV is developmental and everyone plays how good will the Varsity be the next yr?

I agree to a point. But Freshmen do not have a body of work behind them. So the start of the season the top 4 or 5 play and fit the others in, especially in non league games. You may find a diamond in the rough or let a player show he cannot play. By half way to two thirds of the season the best should play. This allows all the players to know where they stand and how much work they have to do.

Shouldn't be quite so long for J.V. but you need to know what you have in game situations.

quote:

Originally posted by playball2011:
Why is Freshmen or JV developmental? Is the goal not to win games? If not fine, just turn off the score board and stop having us pay so much to play, buy uniforms, pay for refs,and just have scrimmages. When players do not have to "compete/work" for a position they get lazy and the better players are sitting to be FAIR to everyone. Is that right? Not in my book. Let everyone play in LL or if they are 8 or 9 yrs old. By 15 is should be talent/skill level. I know pitchers who do not want to throw to first, or catchers to first if they do not trust that the person playing there is the best player. I say schools have a responsibility to teach players skills during practice and if possible to play them in games if their skills can help the team win. IMO subbing everyone in because it is their turn is silly and unproductive. If JV is developmental and everyone plays how good will the Varsity be the next yr?

Of course the goal is always to win, but one has to understand where everyone fits in the pecking order. Think about A, AA, and AAA ball in relation to the ML, the same way there’s Fr, JV, and V ball in HS. Do you believe, even in the most remote way that there’s a ML owner or front office that gives a good whoopdedoo if any of their 6 MiL clubs wins? Of course they’d like to see them win because it puts butts in the seats and makes the players feel warm and fuzzy, but everything is geared toward that ML team, not some single A championship. If there were players that didn’t need to be developed, they’d be on the ML roster, or if its the HS Fr team, on the V or at worst the JV, not on the Fr squad, and the same goes for the JV players.

You may believe that getting lots of players into the games means there’s no competition going on, but unless your coach is some kind of fool, that’s far far from the truth, I’m not gonna go any further because its plain to me that you’ve got one heck of a lot to learn about HSB, but that’s OK because we’ve all been there and done that. But one day an umpire isn’t gonna show up at a varsity game, and the coaches are gonna grab the JV ump, and the JV will have to play anyway, and you’ll know just what the pecking order is.

playball - Thats an interesting system that I hadn't really thought about before. And I think your observations are interesting too! I can see how that could happen.

Our younger son played for what I think is one of the best HS coaches in America. In his 'system,' it always seemed virtually everyone got their shot early in the season, but it settled down to a firm 11-14 regular players. But even mid-season, if something wasn't working...it changed. Our son, primarily a pitcher as a soph and junior...kept working hard at his hitting and after a rough start (especially in the field) early in his senior year...and a little 'nagging' ("Coach! I can hit!" )...followed by some bench time as a hitter...he worked his way back into the lineup and never gave it up.

I really liked this system...even when he was a soph and a junior...it seemed fair and it worked.

Interesting topic.

As far as JV & Varsity goes, I am of the opinion, varsity is the "showcase" team and their job is to "win". Yes, there is still some player development, but it should be to the point of refining the player's skill. On the other hand JV should primarily be preparing the players for varsity and second to that goal is winning. In our area there is no playoff for JV - just the top two JV teams play for a "championship" and that's it. No school in our district has a "Freshman" baseball team, though we do have Freshman, JV, and Varsity basketball teams.

My son(a senior) has been in the program for 5 years (2 yrs JV, 3 years Varsity) and it seems to have worked well. This is the 3rd year for the current varsity coach. His first varsity season earned a playoff berth, just missed last year by one game and this year they clinched a playoff berth and possibly a 3 way tie for first (pending tonight's results).

As far as "set" starters, the coach pretty much stays with them unless there a player goes into a hitting slump or injury. The lineup is basically the same with different variations depending on who is on the mound. On my son's team the infield usually stayed the same and the outfield would have a variation depending on who was on the mound. For non-district games (which do not factor in the district standings) he might insert a sophomore or junior who is not seeing much playing time otherwise.

Stats - In the last 3 years we've never had a varsity ump "not show up". And even if that happened you couldn't just grab the "JV" ump because when the varsity is home, the JV is away and vice-versa. Only exception is if one field is "unplayable" due to weather in which case the varsity plays 30 min after the JV game completes.

What level of baseball is this? JV and Freshman teams typically do lots of rotating to find out where they will fit in the big picture as they try and develop varsity players.

As for the varsity team, while there's likely a core group in most seasons where these players should have at least earned those spots except in those cases graduation decimates a team, I don't think any players should be set in stone and should always be an open competition. I see no problem with giving those players who payed their dues or established players to get a little more rope and their job to lose. However, without having an open mind for competing for spots, the starters get complacent and may not always be hustling or putting their best effort out there. There should always be that in the back of every player's mind that if they don't get the job done, somebody else is competing to move in.