How Many Pitchers on HS Roster

My boys, 2014 and 2017 play for a school that only has V and JV...I think there is only 1 PO between the two teams, all others are 2 way players, top 3 for each team arew starters at other positions

My son is at a Division 3 HS here in Ohio....1 is biggest, 4 is smallest.  We have a D1 commit on our team...a RHP....who will also play 1B because we need him there.  We don't have any PO's....not even close.  My son plays SS and will pitch. Our starting 3B will also pitch....as will our starting LF, our starting C and probably our starting RF.  It would be great to have the luxury of PO's, but at a school our size, it's just not feasible due to the number of kids we have available.

Sons varsity team last year carried 16 kids that were listed as a pitcher or dual (Pitcher / Postion).  Five of them were Pitcher Only.

Team played 39 games

2 Boys got 60+ innings

1 got 40+ Innings

1 got 20+ Innings

2 got 10-20 Innings

Team went all the way to state.

Our team has 3"starter" and then 3-4 decent late inning guys. Scouts out!!

My 2017 is at a school with only JV and V.

On JV there are probably 8-9 kids who pitch. Three of those get the bulk of the starts.  Of those 3, 2 also play IF positions - but sparingly. The third (my son) is a PO by coaches choice.  His secondary position is catcher, and the coach doesn't like to have kids pitch and catch. (Got no problem from me on that)

On the V level there are I believe 4 players that are PO.  One of those is a 2017 man child who throws in the 80's, but who really isn't quite ready defensively, and another is a lefty sidearmer. 

It depends how many games the team plays in a week. My son's high school team played two and sometimes three per week. Varsity had five pitchers. They sometimes called up a sixth when there were three games. Under teams rosters were based on the talent up to a certain number of uniforms. It was common on these teams to use two or three pitchers per game.

The thing for your son to do is focus on being the best pitcher he can be. Anything else, including the roster numbers are out of his control and can only lead to unnecessary stress.

I took a look at my son's HS stat sheet for Varsity. They played 180-202 innings per year. (25-29 games/yr)  We had 6, 7, 10 pitchers in the three V seasons. Of those 23 pitchers there was probably 4-5 two way players.

We only have JV and V with anywhere from 20-23 kids per team. On the days when everyone throws a flat pen, it looks like there is a small village out there! Actually once district games start the V will go with 2-3 guys. V went with two last year during district games. We only play twice a week once district starts. Our district games used to be sprinkled amongst non district games but they changed this due to the fact that a team with one horse on the bump was winning. They thought that if it was changed then the better team with more depth would usually prevail and I agree.

We like buckeye play in a state with 4 classes.We are also in class 3 or AAA.With us you take what you can get.The more the merrier I would suppose.Over the last 3-4 years I do not remember any PO's.Tho there certainly are kids that probably feel that way.Our guy seems to get in ruts or I guess its just the way he/all V teams play there kids.On years when the team is not so hot(going back at least 10 yrs.) Everybody gets enough time to show if they should be one of the 10-12 guys when districts start.On the years when the team is much tighter this is not really the case.We are not that big of a school.Some years we have enough guys that can PITCH thing go well enough.Then some years we have 2-3 pitchers then 4-6 throwers.Now I don't know about the big schools but I would think this goes for all.If a kid can PITCH he will be on a team.With your guy a 2017 And asking what you are I would guess he like all the kids aroung here is running the numbers to see if he has a shot at V this year.Our kids (for whatever reason maybe a kid thing) runn the numbers on everything.Maybe they will all end up at ESPN or something.Someone else gave the best advice stick to a strong training program and what ever happens happens.He right don't sweat the stuff you can't control............Have fun running the numbers tho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cavtrooper,

As you can see, you’ve asked a question that has just about as many answers as there are teams. HS baseball is a lot different than most other forms of baseball because its so dependent on who happens to show up during tryouts. One year we had 24 on the V roster with 19 of them having tried out for pitching.  

A lot of what determines how many pitchers will be needed, is the kind of schedule played and the kind of pitching limitations you state has. Our HS plays 25-30 games each season, with 3 games a week being normal, and a pitcher is only allowed to pitch 30 outs a week.

Also, a lot depend on how the league games are scheduled. League records are really what determines which teams play in the postseason, so the league schedule is also a very big factor. Most leagues have teams play each other 3 times, but that can be done differently. Our league plays all 3 games in the same week, but some only play one or two games against a league opponent in the same week.

Under a league schedule like the latter, a team can usually get by with only two good starters, and the other games can be spread out among the pitchers who aren’t top drawer. Under a schedule like ours, its almost impossible to get by without having at least 3 good starters.

Then there are some schools that only play 20 games, and some that play 40. IOW, pitching needs are all over the place. In a standard 30 game schedule, there are only 210 innings to be pitched, give or take a few. Its hard to spread them out very evenly because of course the best pitchers will get the most innings.

In the end, put on a blindfold and throw a dart at a dartboard and you have just as good a chance at picking how many pitchers will be needed.

Proudhesmine, Yes, we've been looking at the numbers a bit for our 3 teams.  We noticed of the returning kids, about 14 pitched for either V or JV last year at some point.  Wonder how many of those they'll use this year. 

For the Freshman there were 13 doing winter workouts/bullpens.  Of those, two were told last week to seek other positions and coach said at least two more are being told this week.  My son (RHP, great control, throws 72-74 and plays 2B) should be fine, but I'm just curious how many they might keep.  I learned a few summers ago that you can never have enough pitchers as long as they can contribute in other areas as well.  Not enough room for too many PO.

Man o man I wished we had some rules for the pitchers.I have no choice even if I couldn't go to all the games.Well I should not say that.The only time my guy will open his mouth to his coach is the 2 days after a start.Once last year after 110 pitches in the 6 inning after the 8th error had been committed I had to tell HC to get him off the bump.Well I guess that's another post.We play 34 games in 54 days before districts start.We have two strechesof 7 games in 6 days.One early in the season when NONE of the pitchers should throw a complete game.Last year we had a ton of cancelled games.Hope that happens again this year.95% of our conference games are played in one stretch.Its @ 2/3 of our schedule I would Hope that our guy Hopes to have a 5-6 man rotation with none of the kids relieving.You have to hope no one gets hurt.That has a huge effect on things.

We have 7 this yr who can pitch, 1 is PO, and only one of 7 will go on to pitch in college. We do fairly well because the other teams in our region have about the same situation. 

As mentioned in the previous posts, the number of pitchers a JV, or V team carries can vary from year to year.  Our region typically only has JV and V - no freshman teams.  Like Forest Gump said, "It's like a box of chocolates, never know what you're gonna get."

Normally, our JV & V teams have about 3-4 pitchers for each team.  Based on the new pitching rules for our league (VHSL), that's barely enough.  5-6 would be ideal.  The more pitchers a coach has the better for the team.  VHSL limits the regular season to 20 games max.

During my son's HS years, his team had three solid starters, one of which was a pitcher only.  The other two were still in the lineup when not pitching - usually outfield position.  There were 1 or 2 other pitchers the coach would work in - usually in non-district games.  The varsity usually carried a total of 13-14 players on the roster and maybe 15 for JV.

There can be a big difference between how many a team will carry and how many will get significant innings.  As others have said, number of total games, games per week and tournaments will dictate a lot.  Most programs in our area will use 2-4 starters and 3-4 relievers.  3rd/4th reliever may fill the role of 3rd/4th starter also.  So, only 5-6 pitchers get more than minimal innings.  But there may be a handful more that can pitch if needed and get occasional bullpen work.  PO's are certainly more common with larger programs but do show up elsewhere conditionally.

Most importantly, as a few others mentioned, have your son focus on doing the work to be the best he can be and not on how may other pitchers there are and which squad he may make.

Actually for now the work 2017 puts in off the field is 10 times more important.then just hope for that break early and be READY.you never know when you will get that last two innings in a game that the other team has either scored or put guys on base most of the game .2017 goes 3 up 3 down in both innings.Couple of weeks later HC sees he could use another pitcher for a second starter on a sat. double header he gets 4-5 decents innings and 2017 has his foot in the door.Thats all any of us really want.Our kid/s standing there with the door open.The chance.

Pitchers usually 4.  Guys that throw in preseason tournaments another 5 or 6.  once reg season starts we use 4.  2 main starters, 1 spot starter/closer and 1 if we need him.

My son played in the biggest class in Missouri, so his school had plenty of arms.  They played 3 games each week, minimum, then maybe throw in a tournament, or makeup game.  There were 3 POs and they each got one of the games to start.  There were maybe 4 guys on the bench who did nothing but relieve.  The only position players that pitched were the first baseman and catcher.  And they got maybe 20 innings each.

In JV ball, only one guy was a PO, and that honestly was because he was not a good  hitter.  No clue on freshmen ball.  They probably went both ways for the most part.