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Roster size for summer baseball

L larrythompson500+ posts
Interested in your opinions on roster size for 17-18 year old summer teams. I never carried more than 18 players when I was coaching. Usually consisted of the following breakdown by position:

1. 2 catchers, with someone else on the roster having catching experience.
2. 5 pitchers who do nothing but pitch, usually all starters...but exceptions did occur.
3. 3 pitchers who play another position.
4. 5 true infielders.
5. 3 true outfielders.

Season schedule consisted of about 40 regular league games, a couple of 4-6 game tournaments, then, hopefully, NABF regionals and World Series. Our best years were 60-66 games from Memorial Day to the first week in August.

I generally found that we were in trouble come post-season tournament time cause we were a little light on the bump. When we won our regionals, we usually out-slugged the rest of the tournament field.
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CM Coach May1,000+ posts
I like your breakdown coach. It is pretty consistent to what we have always done and with what my son is playing in right now. The only difference is the amount of pitching. They usually have 5 or 6 pitcher only guys with 3 or 4 guys that are pitchers and posistion players as well. The roster has always been 20.

2- catchers
4- mif
6- pitcher only
4- corner guys
4- of

With this break down you have 14 posistion players. This allows for plenty of playing time in the 8 posistions on the field minus the pitcher. Also with the Dh you have 9 out of 14 hitting in every game. Usually the 5 guys that sit the first game play the second and it just rotates or your rotate half and half per game. Seems to work out really well.
L larrythompson500+ posts
Playing time during the summer is always a major consideration for me when putting together a roster. In a typical 50 game season, I want atleast 10 of my hitters to get over 100 ABs and the other 3 guys to see atleast 50-75 at a minimum. I want the top 4 starters to get atleast 50 innings and most of the relievers to see 30-40 each. With 2 full-time catchers, I try to parse out the innings 70-30% at a minimum, and maybe more if my #2 guy is close to the #1 guy.

Thanks for your breakdown!
TRhitTRhit10,000+ posts
The size of the roster may also depend on the type of events the team is playing in.

If they are tournaments/showcases in a compressed time frame then a lot of arms are needed--the roster may go to 25 or so with 14 arms in the picture

A lot also depends on the how the coaches like to set things up--I know that we ask our pitchers to be pitchers only and thus we can carry 12 to 14 arms and still have the position players including 2 or 3 catchers getting a load of playing time.

Just my thoughts
L larrythompson500+ posts
TR...with all due respect to the showcase scenario, I think this is an entirely different animal. In showcase events, you are trying to get as many kids as you can as much exposure as possible. I have seen showcase teams play 5 games in a weekend. Each pitcher sees 3 or 4 innings in a 7 inning game. My scenario was more for the summer team that is concerned about winning league, regional and world series titles.
L larrythompson500+ posts
Now I wouldn't say I don't like showcases, but I don't like them in the summer. Prefer them to be played as part of the fall ball experience. If winning and losing never means anything during the summer, why play? But let's leave that for another day.

We may be light on arms, but I am trying to keep a balance between having enough arms to win a championship, yet not having too many that guys only get 20-30 innings during the summer.

Appreciate your comments.

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