How many players on a 9U team?

[Coletrain]

How many players would you guys carry on a 9U kid pitch team? I'm going back and forth between 11 and 12! Help me decide please! Thanks!

[songtitle]

12. No 11. Wait.

[mcloven]

11. I've had rosters of both 11 and 12 at that age. To me, 11 was far easier to manage and make sure everyone got in the game and contributed. Here's a good discussion of it:

http://www.nwgabaseball.org/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11097

[pcarnette]

I think either 11 or 12 is a good number. When deciding between the two, I would ask yourself how dedicated are the parents and kids that comprise the group? Since it is fall, I would ask yourself are any of these kids going to be playing another sport, like football, or do the parents have any vacations scheduled. If you have a dedicated group of kids that don't have a lot of other commitments, then I would opt for 11 over 12 because you want development to be your focus, and you can get more quality work in with each player if you have fewer competing for your coaching resources.

[MoKan]

We used 10 kid from 9U-12U playing league and U-trip tournaments. Every kid also pitched. Every boy gets playing time and AB with minimal bench time. If I was the parent of a boy that was the 11th or 12 player on a team I would find a new team/level of play. What fun is it to get one at bat and to play a position for one /two innings. Plus then you have to deal with the parents.

Only moving to 13U next spring will we carry 11 players as games go to 7 innings and kids going through puberty.

[crazyhawk]

There is nothing wrong with playing 11 kids MoKan. It isn't like he has to sit and barely play. Just run a full lineup instead of 9 and that way everyone bats. Have 6 kids sit one inning a game (usually make it the guy who is gonna pitch next, so he can warm up) and violla, everyone is happy.

[jacjacatk]

Only moving to 13U next spring will we carry 11 players as games go to 7 innings and kids going through puberty.

We played a 44 game spring schedule (over about 14 weeks) with 12 players at 13U last season, and only two players played in all 44. Three kids combined to miss 32 games with injuries (including my son who missed 18 games with a broken wrist), and I think we played the first 4-5 weeks of the season with 9 or 10 players. We were playing at a relatively low level/modest pace, and it was still pretty difficult, I wouldn't recommend going with fewer than 12, or I'd make sure to have a couple of on-call guys for when injuries pop up (we actually had one old teammate who had left because his family was moving out of town fill in for a few games before they left).

[tg643]

Eleven isn't enough unless you know everyone is going to show up every game. I had a twelve man roster. Several times I had ten players. I also had a reserve list of fill in players. I let the last three cuts work out with the team.

[bryan2137]

I'd carry 12. Things happen over the course of a year. I had 2 twins move and one broken handed catcher and all of a sudden I've got 13 games left and 9 kids. I think we played every game except for 3 shorthanded

[dominik]

I think 12 is not too much. you need some buffer in case of injury or other things.

only make sure that you mix the positions. what is really bad is having 8 regulars and then 4 players competing for the RF spot each only playing an inning or so. I can understand if a coach wants to hide the bad players in the OF but for those kids it is really no fun.

[DerekD]

Eleven isn't enough unless you know everyone is going to show up every game. I had a twelve man roster. Several times I had ten players. I also had a reserve list of fill in players. I let the last three cuts work out with the team.

THIS^^^ There will be school functions, vacations, and random other things that will keep kids away here and there. Also, if you plan to warm a kid up while the team is on the field, you'll need the pitcher, someone to catch him, and someone to stand there and pick his nose while they warm up. I recommend you have a couple spare uniforms in case you need to call on reserve players.