Played or Playing 2012 at Cooperstown

Should have added...for coaches....

If you have any other tournament strategy tips, I'm all ears???

Depends on the number of pitchers you carry on your roster vs. the numbers of games you are going to play in a row.

If you were to play 5 games over 4 days it would not be unrealistic to throw your top one or two pitchers in game one (thurs) and then save them for the final on Sunday afternoon. Just dont over throw them, and make sure you have a backup plan.

This also depends on the competition. I would look at the brackets and teams that are attending and schedule my pitching around the better (higher ranked) teams.

Guess I should explain the set up:

Cooperstown ASV runs as a 7 game min tournament.
Sunday 2 pool games
Monday 2 pool games
Tuesday 2 pool games
then
Wed Seeded Bracket play game #1, single elim from here forward as I understand it
Wed brkt game #2 (qtr)
Thurs #3 (semi) & #4 (final)

By my assessment at this point (regular season starts end of April so lots can change):
3 bona fide starters (endurance+command)
3-4 good pitchers that need endurance/command/consistency
3 kids with desire and developing command

Obviously it's all based on matchups and I did search for and read another thread on this site from a few years ago wherein someone suggested scouting the other teams as much as possible before hand which is a given.

I guess my question boils down to is a higher seed better to have in a tournament of this size or is it better to have your best pitchers "fresh" for the four game tournament bracket.

We are headed down week of july 13-20 to Dreamspark. I dont plan on usin any of my top 4 kids other then to get light work in till elimination day.

This will be my son's third year at the Dreams Park 12u tournament. We'll be there from August 18-23.

Obviously seeding is more of an issue with Dreams Park, especially with 104 teams. After playing 6 games on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, anything more than a game or two on Wednesday is asking a lot as they'll still have 4 more to go on Thursday.

Unless you have 12 pitchers.

I've attended school the last four years in Oneonta and my girlfriend is a nurse at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown and lives about a block from the Hall of Fame. PM me if anyone wants some advice on decent local eateries and whatnot in the area.

quote:

Originally posted by J H:
I've attended school the last four years in Oneonta and my girlfriend is a nurse at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown and lives about a block from the Hall of Fame. PM me if anyone wants some advice on decent local eateries and whatnot in the area.

Will definitely take you up on that when we get closer to July.

We went to Cooperstown last year during the first week and went to the championship. Based on what we experienced and saw this would be my suggestion. Also not sure if you are aware but there are no pitching limits at Cooperstown.

Teams that seed higher than #16 have a tough time. Teams that seed in top 16 have only 1 game on Weds, others depending on where you seed could have up to 4 games that day before advancing to Thurs championship day in which they could have up to 6 games that day if I am not mistaken.

If I am not mistaken we seeded # 4 and the first team we faced on championship day which was the #40 something seed had played 4 games in less than 24 hours prior to facing us.

So in a nutshell here is my point/suggestion. Use your best pitching in pool play. If you get big leads pull them out. The chances of advancing increase a great deal based on where you seed come elimination day.

If I am not mistaken the difference between the 16 seed and 17 to 24 seed is one extra game on Weds. The difference between the 25 to 36 seed and the top 16 seeds is 3 games on Weds and it gets worst the higher your seed above that.

On a side note the top 16 seeded teams will most likely not have a loss in pool play and will not have allowed many runs.