Has anyone looked at the webball.com front page? Does anyone know of the incident that happened at the Elite 32?
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I heard that they will be sending something out soon describing the situation.
I believe it involved Ron Wolforth and his wife Jill. They describe the incident on a radio show they have at the link below.
http://webtalkradio.net/index....d-jill-wolforth/3697
http://webtalkradio.net/index....d-jill-wolforth/3697
Interesting. A good listen for every parent about elite travel baseball.
3 warmup pitches in a tourney to speed up the game, go get 'em Ron and Jill.
3 warmup pitches in a tourney to speed up the game, go get 'em Ron and Jill.
I agree that reducing the number of warm-up pitches between innings from 8 to 3 is a bad move. However, it's not like 8 pitches made for a good warm-up. Coaches should not be moving kids from another position straight to the mound. I help coach a travel team and we always pull the next pitcher off the field (if he's on not already in the dugout) an inning before he is scheduled to take the mound so that he can get properly warmed up. It just takes some planning and carrying enough kids to be able to make those substitutions. Unfortunately, even this often insufficient because rarely do we have a mound to warm up on. That means our pitchers can't adjust to the slope of the mound until they get on the mound in the game.
I know many coaches do send kids to the mound straight from other positions and that means the 3-pitch rule is bad for kids' arms. Plus, I think not letting pitchers have enough warm-up pitches to get dialed in will cause them to initially throw more balls than strikes and that will defeat the purpose of the 3-pitch rule which is apparently to speed up the games.
I know many coaches do send kids to the mound straight from other positions and that means the 3-pitch rule is bad for kids' arms. Plus, I think not letting pitchers have enough warm-up pitches to get dialed in will cause them to initially throw more balls than strikes and that will defeat the purpose of the 3-pitch rule which is apparently to speed up the games.
Roger,
Apparently the speed up rule is in place to speed up the game so more teams can be added within the same time frame, the tournament went from 24 teams to 32, which means more money in the pocket for them. I would agree there can be other ways to speed up the game, while making more money.
I understand this is a business and that's ok, but where do you draw the line in youth travel ball as to what is and what is not good for young players?
I agree perhaps sometimes 8 pitches in not enough, but it does take young players time to adjust and agree that the first few batters seen can result in walks (which means more pitches thrown) and can defeat the whole purpose of speeding up the game.
Apparently the speed up rule is in place to speed up the game so more teams can be added within the same time frame, the tournament went from 24 teams to 32, which means more money in the pocket for them. I would agree there can be other ways to speed up the game, while making more money.
I understand this is a business and that's ok, but where do you draw the line in youth travel ball as to what is and what is not good for young players?
I agree perhaps sometimes 8 pitches in not enough, but it does take young players time to adjust and agree that the first few batters seen can result in walks (which means more pitches thrown) and can defeat the whole purpose of speeding up the game.
