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Tournament Strategy
by Dave
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
What is your tournament strategy? I know there are several out there. I cannot say that I have any sort of lock on the "truth" with respect to this element of tournament ball. I have my opinion and others have theirs. I do think it is an interesting topic so I'll address it here in an attempt to spur discussion.
In order to frame common ground for the discussion, I'll define a kind of tournament so as to cut down the possible permutations. My tournament involves 8 teams. It is structured with 3 seeding games Saturday followed by a normal single elimination format on Sunday. In the first elimination round, the highest seed plays against the lowest, 2 vs. 7, and so on. Teams in the championship game will be playing their third game of Sunday in the final game. Also, to further simplify things, let's assume that there are no "early games." Everyone plays at the same time on Sunday.
I invent this structure because it is perhaps the easiest one to deal with. Structures involving a first game bye for top seeds really complicate matters and change my approach. One day tournaments involving as many as 5 games in a single day cause lots of complications with respect to properly utilizing pitching. Similarly, larger two day events in which 4, 5 or possibly more games need to be played in one day to win the trophy or bid are even more troublesome and would probably yield exponentially more possibilities in terms of strategies which have been tried. The really big tournaments involving 64 or 128 teams are usually run over many more days and are completely different animals. We don't have unlimited space so I'll just stick with the simplistic scenario, at least for today.
Generally, in an 8 team, 4 game guarantee, single elimination tournament, after the first round ranking usually looks like this: One or two teams are 3-0, one or two teams are 0-3, and the remainder are 2-1 or 1-2. Obviously, some of these kids of tournaments result in nobody being either 3-0 or 0-3, but for the most part, there is at least one undefeated team and one which has not tasted victory. The jockeying between and amongst 2-1 and 1-2 teams is usually the most important aspect of Saturday. Runs allowed usually determine the middle seeding.
Additionally, my specimen tournament is a run-of-the-mill one in which the prize is a trophy. Obviously, if a team is trying to win a bid, they are going to employ strategies which they believe will yield that result. They might play in several such tournaments during the year and, if one strategy doesn't work, they might employ another next time. If that strategy doesn't work and they are now somewhat desperate to earn their bid, they might try yet another strategy. These sorts of "environmental conditions" can complicate matters more than I'm willing to go into today. So let's call our specimen tournament "run-of-the-mill" meaning nothing beyond pride and a trophy is at stake.
I believe when you view a tournament like the one I have described, you have to break the thing into its two parts in order to analyze strategies properly. Some teams do approach Sunday just like Saturday but I think that's somewhat rare. Many teams employ completely different approaches on the two days. So let's start with Saturday.
Also, while I do not believe that pitching and pitching alone (or pitching and catching alone) win you tournaments, my emphasis is going to be on these positions because catchers often have trouble doing more than two games behind the plate on very hot days. The same is true for pitchers. The SS position is probably the third most grueling but, at least in my experience, many teams have SSs and other position players who have little trouble playing 6 or more games at their positions.
I have seen a number of different strategies employed in tournaments. Some teams, who I'll call "aggressive," look to win every game. They run a more or less all-out sprint using their absolute best pitcher and other players at all times. The 10th through 12th kids sit the bench a lot. Some might not even get into a game until the team has already scored 12 runs and then only see an inning of action. These teams try to prevent their opponents from scoring any runs while trying to run up the score and shorten all games to the minimum number of innings before the run rule is invoked. There are few teams good enough to pull this off all the time. And eventually, I believe this strategy can backfire when facing the best competition. It can also backfire when 1, 2 or 3 girls who have only played an inning here or there are needed in some big game because one or more girls are hurt.
Some teams exist not so much to win any tournament but rather to provide their girls with the greatest possible learning experience. They make sure everyone gets their "fair share" of playing time regardless of outcome. They might adhere to a pitching or catching rotation, even in an elimination game, because that's what they do. Everyone on the team sees about equal playing time, including those at key positions. I'll call these teams "passive" not because they are actually always passive but to delineate what I see as the polar opposite of "aggressive" teams. Sometimes "passive" teams are quite good. Sometimes "passive teams end Saturday without a loss, sometimes without yielding a run. And they can benefit from making sure everyone has seen adequate service time.
The middle ground is what I'll refer to as a "balanced" approach. The balanced approach is, by definition, somewhere in between aggressive and passive. This involves making sure all your pitchers, catchers, etc. see a set number of innings. If you have 3 catchers, pitchers, or SS's, you put one in each for each of the three games. No one player sees more action than the other 2. The better players probably are in all the games for every inning on Saturday. But the lower 6 (of a sample roster of 12) in terms of talent, as judged by the coaching staff, shuttle in and out so as to maximize their playing experience. Some balanced teams are very good and some are not. So, clearly, I'm not passing judgment on one strategy or another.
Finally, there are obviously many variations on these strategies. Some teams enter a tournament, look at their first three scheduled games and try to align their players so as to maximize the results from seeding round games. They might judge their chances against this team or that, align the players and then adjust after playing a game or two. For example, say a coach expects the team to win its first game easily, struggle but win the second, but the third is just too tall of an order. The coach might use the number 1 pitcher in the second game and just let the chips fall where they may in game three. Then when opponent number one shows up with some unexpectedly good players and wins via the run rule, and opponent number two gets out to a big lead, the coach might pull number one starter in the hopes of salvaging game three. The number of possible permutations for this are infinite. And we just cannot discuss everything. But let's refer to this final strategy as the situational approach. Situational teams can be good, can compete for the trophy. But most often they are characterized by a lack of depth in some position, like pitching or catching, or several of them.
So that's Saturday and now let's turn to Sunday. Sunday is actually quite a bit more straight forward. You need to win to get to a second game. But you also need to have your players fresh for game two and perhaps keep some pitching on the back burner for the championship game, if you make it that far. Some teams will go to the "situational approach" initially. They'll try to judge their team's chances to get past game one with the least effort possible. they might plan to use pitcher number 3 or 4 in game one, go to number 2 in game two and then pull number 1 out for the championship. Teams which do this are often the highest seeded teams since, expecting to easily win a first round game is somewhat bold. It is a gamble. And sometimes, giving up one, two or 3 runs in the first inning when you are coasting can get you home in time for lunch at the pool club! Opponents which are lower seeds sometimes have enough firepower to close out a top seed. I know I've been in both positions before.
There are a few teams out there which have a girl who pitches or catches and who can play three straight games at that position without ever faltering. That is pretty rare but it does exist. I remember watching a strong 12 year old catcher get behind the plate for three consecutive tough games in very hot, humid conditions. In the middle of the third, I saw her take off her mask during a break in the action and nearly go down. I don't think the opposing team saw this but they did start trying to take bases on her. She let a girl steal third, something she had not done during the entirety of that tournament, and then seemed to draw on some inner strength. She steadied herself and completed the tournament which the team ultimately won. Nobody again stole successfully on her.
I've seen teams which apparently possess just one pitcher. They may have had another girl but she only saw minimal action. The number two only went into the circle on those rare occasions when the team is way out in front in seeding round games. The ace pitches almost every inning of every game including Saturdays. That's a hard life but some kids can do it.
I have known one or two teams "blessed" with pitching riches. I put "blessed" inside quotation marks because, as any coach can tell you, having too many pitchers can be the most difficult position imaginable. Pitchers don't stay on teams where they can only be assured of say 3, 4 or 5 innings per tournament. Being overloaded with pitching is often only a temporary state.
The teams which can pull this "blessing" off, however, sometimes will save their best pitcher exclusively for Sundays. This can be a very effective strategy when a team plays against the same teams on two consecutive days. You play a dogfight on Saturday using your number two or three pitcher and then try to completely shut them down using an ace. Whatever circumstance you find yourself in, I think it is a good idea not to throw one kid for 12-14 innings, 6 or more at-bats apiece against one team, unless they are a decidedly weak hitting one.
If you are going to play 2 or more games on a Sunday, I sincerely hope you have at least two catchers. Having excess catching can be almost as tricky a situation to deal with as having too much pitching. But I believe that if you are to get through three games, you've got to be able to rest your best catcher at least some of your innings. Also, let's face an important fact, catchers do sometimes get hurt. I had a discussion with someone who noted he had seen stats which indicated that pitchers suffer more injuries than catchers. That may very well be but I think it is more common for catchers to be removed from games due to injuries caused by a collision at the plate or due to being struck in the head by a foul tip. The kinds of injuries can happen at any time. And if your second string catcher is very weak or unused to playing in important games, you can find yourself wishing you have a second one who has played a lot on Sundays before.
One of the observations I have made over the years is teams which use one pitcher or catcher on Sundays are either very weak or very strong. If one girl is going to pitch or catch 21 innings in a day, she has to be able to rely on her teammates to help back her up. A pitcher is going to eventually drop some of her speed, jump or lose location a bit during a 2-300 pitch day. A catcher is probably going to become somewhat less than lucid at times when she's wearing gear for 6 hours. The teams which rely on one kid for these physically demanding jobs and win tournaments are usually among the very best defensive teams, even when the pitcher and catcher are excluded from the analysis.
I recall one team which exclusively used one pitcher. I mean, she pitched every inning on Saturday and every inning on Sunday. She was pretty good. But in game two on elimination day (game five of the tournament), her speed was obviously a good 5 mph beneath her starting point on Saturday. Girls began teeing off on her. This particular team was just average defensively and balls started hitting the green with unsettling frequency. I never saw them play 6 games in two days though their reputation was a good one. They just never won anything beyond an occasional semi-final.
Some teams try to employ the balanced strategy by using players on Sunday similar to what they did on Saturday. Everyone sees about the same amount of action. Pitchers all pitch, at least some. Nobody sits out any entire game. I've never seen the average team drill far into an elimination day using this approach but I understand what they set out to accomplish - gaining experience for everyone. A very few teams are so strong and balanced that they can pull this off but they are rare. Most teams play their best 9, beginning with the first elimination game, unless or until they get out to a really big lead, and then try to work kids in from the bench or utilize second string catchers and pitchers in order to rest the number ones for game two.
When you haven't gotten very far into any Sunday, it is often a good idea to play the day like a sprint. I was involved with a team which had a hard time winning any game. We had few strong players and several serious weaknesses. We played the first half of our tournament season never getting to a second game on Sundays. Finally we gave up any sort of Sunday strategy and just made our goal getting to a second game. On a couple of occasions, high seeded teams under estimated us. We beat teams which expected to walk all over us. On one such occasion, I had my moment of greatest enjoyment with that team. Game two was to be played at another location where two other games were scheduled. We won, got in the cars and drove to the location of the semi-finals and finals. When we emerged from our rides, it was as if everything had stopped. Teams on both fields looked out at us emerging from our cars and their jaws dropped. We had beaten a team everyone expected to be in the final game. It was a very satisfying experience even when we lost our next game.
In any event, we went most of the season never getting to a third game on Sunday. Finally, in our second to last tournament, we employed our sprint strategy and made it to the final game by completely shutting down the 2 seed. we used our best pitcher and they couldn't hit her. They used their second best pitcher, expecting to walk all over us. We got many hits off her and went out to a 5-0 lead very early. They went down 1-2-3 the first couple of innings, maybe squeaked one or two across. each time they scored one run, we came back in the next inning and scored two. Then they brought in the ace they were saving for the championship game but we hit her too. When we didn;t hit her, we small-balled her and the team was so tired from chasing our balls, they just couldn't defend themselves. We easily won that one but I have to say that we expended all available on that enemy position. There was nothing left in the tank.
At first, it looked as if this was going to be a day of miracles. The opposing team was superior in terms of talent. I know them well and know absolutely that, while on any given day we might beat them, they were tournament hardened, having won several prior. Also, the way the seedings had lined up, they had barely broken a sweat that day, having run ruled their previous two opponents. They were rested and ready. We were tired and ready ... to go home and take showers. We went up in the first inning by a couple runs. Our opponent made some seriously bad plays. One of our players got way overconfident and made some very stupid comments out loud. the other team heard us and that woke up their pride. I think we got one base runner on after that. Our pitching, tired and sweaty, crumbled. Our defense slowed and collapsed. Our little sprint had reached the marathon point. The second place trophies, our first ever trophies as a team, were an acceptable prize. We had played 6 games in 2 days. The real goal had been achieved.
I have had opportunity to watch teams which regularly either win or take second in tournaments. I don't believe they approach Sundays as a sprint. They have already experienced several failed strategies for elimination play and discarded them. Most often, they piece together the day in a complicated labyrinth which historically has yielded the results they seek. Usually, everybody plays "enough" (whatever enough is) on Saturdays. On Sundays, the go basically with their best players but they keep some pitching and catching in the tank in case they get to the final game. If they have a pitcher who can go two games without any drop off in speed, movement and command, she'll usually pitch either the whole semi-final game or the latter half of it. Their catcher might catch the last two games. They try to sit somebody important to the team's success in the first or second games. That may not be the only strategy which works but that is the one I, in my limited experience, have seen work.
So, that's about it on tournament strategy. I expected this to be a lot shorter than it was. I had set out to jot three quickie strategies and then ask for submission from folks who disagree or feel like sharing something they do which is different. I'll still ask you for your strategies should you decide to share them. But I may create a separate posting for that. Thanks for visiting and feel free to share.Labels: Tournaments, youth tournament teams
Permanent Link: Tournament Strategy
 
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