Playing Time: How to Reconcile Parent, Coach, and Player Opinions

Coaches have to make so many subjective decisions during a game. It's a coaches privilege to do so. However; with great power comes great responsibility, including having to justify your subjective decisions whether you believe you should have to or not.

What if there was a way to make more objective decisions about playing time that rewarded those who both put the work in and performed? What if these observations and subsequent decisions would ease the pressure you put on yourself of having to decide who's going to pitch? What if your answer to "Why aren't I pitching?" was accepted without resentment and an urge to improve?

If it's possible, it's by taking the following two stats and communicating it early and often with your pitching staff and parents.

1.  You need to keep track # of spots hit during a game.
2.  Keep track of whether or not movement pitches actually moved in a game.

A spot is a specific location within the strike zone (or sometimes outside) about the size of a glove. It is more precise than a strike.

In order to do this you need to call spots. Secondly, you need to heavily involve the catcher. Simply keeping track of balls, strikes and swings leaves a lot of grey area in terms of accuracy and movement. It may not paint the best picture of how much command your pitcher actually has. 

The catcher must be able to recognize what a ball looks like when it moves, to concentrate enough to pay attention to where it ends up (even when there is a throw down or other things to do), and then be able to communicate it back to you every single time. For example, some catchers signal back to the coach by tapping their leg for a hit.

If you neglect to acknowledge spots hit and movement you'll run into some issues. Let's use your pitcher, Emma, as an example:

What if Emma threw a ton of strikes in one game, making her look great, but she wasn't actually hitting her spots? She threw pitches somewhere in the strike zone, not giving up many hits, but the opposing team was inexperienced.  Lucky for her. It gave you the wrong impression that Emma was accurate. You (and she) get confused when she gets bombed against good teams.

What if Emma was throwing to the spots you called but the opposing team kept hitting? If the catcher didn't tell you Emma was doing her job, you'd be left to assume she was missing them. You'd continue to make poor pitch-calling decisions. Emma would be forced to disobey your throwing to locations you did not call or keep getting hit. You probably won't like either of those options.

What if Emma thought her curve ball moved but her catcher did not? Emma keeps throwing "curve balls", feeling excited she has a cool movement pitch. Meanwhile no one ever communicates to you it's lacking. The next practice she spends time working on her new pitch, the rise ball, to add to her growing repertoire. The curve ball stays nice and straight and Emma once again gets bombed by the next team, or discounted at the college clinic because she doesn't understand the truth.

What if you ask the catcher how Emma's dropball is coming along after a full inning and she says, "Ummm yeah. It's pretty good." Does that uncertainty sound helpful? You can't make good decisions off of vague information. You need to document the exact results of every pitch and communicate the importance of doing so to the battery.

What if a parent comes up to you and asks you after the game why her daughter didn't pitch? You're subjective and general answer of..."Well...she wasn't very accurate in the last game" might not help you when the parent whips out their own stat sheet.

Parents, what if a coach can't help pinpoint exactly what your daughter needs to improve to get a starting spot? Coaches have a million things going on, only one practice a week, and not nearly enough time to train a first year catcher on all this stuff. You'll need to keep track of accuracy and movement during your pitching practices at home and do the best you can.  

I ask players to define what the strike zone is during pitching school. I started doing this because I've heard college coaches said they asked their pitchers the same thing. They said even top level athletes didn't know where it was!!! Not surprisingly, young players do not know the specific area of the zone.  It seems obvious to us but for them it's brand new, so don't forget to review.

Knowing the truth about "having" a pitch is also crucial and many times is grossly misjudged. If you don't know the truth you can't improve. As the guy who get's things done says, "What get's measured get's managed." Try going to a Bandits game and have your players stand behind the pitchers as they warm up. You will understand a movement pitch after you witness the junk those girls have.

In conclusion, if you measure these two aspects of pitching during a game you will better manage your pitcher, the parents, and the success of your entire team.