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intentional walk little league


Guest Rich
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Guest Rich

An intentional walk is described as plate appearance, and not an "At Bat" . If the rules call for each player to have an "at bat", or play in so many innings, how is this possible if one batter is walked every time he comes to the plate?

 

I know there is a lot of opinions on this being used, but it is sad to see this happen. It may not effect the the batters batting avg. But it does take away his chance to have a HR,or RBI etc.  Plus its little league,and supposed to be about fair play.

 

The last 10 out of 12 times to the plate the teams have walked him,or bean him to keep there pitch count low. Yes that was done. It would seem you would want the kids to bat, and put the ball in play,rather than walk one kid every time its his turn to bat.

And the sad part is, the IBB is used to load the bases for maybe a force out etc. But this is being done when no one is one,and any time of the game, no matter what the score is. 

Mostly its all about winning to the teams that do this.

 

And one last question, how many managers and coaches, asst. coaches, base coaches, and person recording the book, can be outside the dugout in a LL game?  Thanks.

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On 5/15/2013 at 8:32 PM, Guest Rich said:

An intentional walk is described as plate appearance, and not an "At Bat" . If the rules call for each player to have an "at bat", or play in so many innings, how is this possible if one batter is walked every time he comes to the plate?

 

You are confusing the scoring rules with the mandatory play rules.  It is an AB for mandatory play but not in the scorebook/statistics. 

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On 5/15/2013 at 8:32 PM, Guest Rich said:

The last 10 out of 12 times to the plate the teams have walked him,or bean him to keep there pitch count low.

It's a minimum of four pitches. If you want to bump up the pitch count swing at two of them to make them strikes and get the count to 6.

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On 5/15/2013 at 8:32 PM, Guest Rich said:

And one last question, how many managers and coaches, asst. coaches, base coaches, and person recording the book, can be outside the dugout in a LL game?  Thanks.

Two. The base coaches.

Max of three adults may participate and occupy a dugout spot - specifically, the manager and the two coaches listed on the official roster.  Making one a base coach does not mean someone else can com into the dugout when  the coach is at a base.  There must always be one of the three in the dugout. You can have someone outside keep your book.

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Guest NJ Coach

I cringe at the thought that some view it's unsportsmanlike to pitch around a batter bc he's too good.   That's part of the game.  What, the defense is supposed to allow this batter more fun and glory ?   And in youth basketball, if double teams or zone D are allowed by rules, they shouldn't be used because the other team's star may score less and be unhappy? Absurd.

 

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On 5/22/2018 at 9:38 AM, Aging_Arbiter said:

May have started in 2013, but according to Guest Dawn, it was revived an hour ago....

True.... but the rule in LL has changed since the OP. You can do an IBB by just putting the batter on now...

 

 

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Guest GuestNYCoach
On 5/24/2018 at 11:43 AM, Guest NJ Coach said:

I cringe at the thought that some view it's unsportsmanlike to pitch around a batter bc he's too good.   That's part of the game.  What, the defense is supposed to allow this batter more fun and glory ?   And in youth basketball, if double teams or zone D are allowed by rules, they shouldn't be used because the other team's star may score less and be unhappy? Absurd.

 

I definitely view it as unsportsmanlike to intentionally walk kids in this age group.

I had this exact scenario come up two games ago.  My team was behind 11-5 with 2 outs in the last inning.  We put together a little rally and my best hitter coming up to the plate.  The other team intentionally walked him making the score 11-6.  They then proceeded to intentionally walk the next batter, making the score 11-7.  They then issued one more intentional walk to my #6 hitter to make the score 11-8.  Up to bat then was a 9 year old who hasn't yet had a hit this year as our local little league is 9-12 years old and every team has 2-3 younger kids hitting in the 7-9 spots.  That 9 year old then struck out on 4 pitches against the 12 year old pitcher on the mound to end the game.

Is this a problem or is this just good, fair baseball?  Yeah, it's 100% legal.  But it was an absolute bush league tactic that completely ruined the spirit of that particular game.  Heck, even the opposing pitcher was irritated that his coach wouldn't let him pitch to our batters.  All the kids could talk about was how big of a jerk the other coach was and they were right.  My response to my kids was that we will NEVER be intentionally walking anybody and that we will rise up for whatever challenge we have. 

Yeah, that team won the game.  But it was a terrible lesson for all the kids involved.  All that teaches the kids is just to avoid whatever you're afraid of.  As a coach you're just saying....I don't think our pitcher and defense can get this batter out so lets try to pick on some kid who isn't as talented.  It's basically equivalent to the town bully that walks around and picks on weaker kids but will never "bully" anybody tougher than him.

Yeah, I know it's a strategy and part of the game of baseball.  I get it.   But we're talking about Little League baseball here.  It's a league that has mandated play rules for every kid on the team and turns nobody away.  And in our league it's kids 9-12 all playing together so you can have 7th graders playing against 3rd graders.  Basically what this other coach did was just walk all my 6th and 7th graders so his 7th grader could pitch to a 3rd grader.  Really classy.....

Now if it's travel ball, tournament play, etc....I'd have different feelings.  The circumstances there are different and winning is and should be a higher priority.  But my example above was no such scenario.  Just a local town little league full of all kinds of different skill levels.  I think in that situation we should just be letting these kids play and enjoy the game while guiding the kids along rather than trying to be Casey Stengel and doing whatever we can as coaches to win at all costs.

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20 hours ago, Guest GuestNYCoach said:

I had this exact scenario come up two games ago.  My team was behind 11-5 with 2 outs in the last inning.  We put together a little rally and my best hitter coming up to the plate.  The other team intentionally walked him making the score 11-6.  They then proceeded to intentionally walk the next batter, making the score 11-7.  They then issued one more intentional walk to my #6 hitter to make the score 11-8.  Up to bat then was a 9 year old who hasn't yet had a hit this year as our local little league is 9-12 years old and every team has 2-3 younger kids hitting in the 7-9 spots.  That 9 year old then struck out on 4 pitches against the 12 year old pitcher on the mound to end the game.

The fact of a 9 year old batting against 12 year olds aside (unless he's REALLY good and put up a level for that reason) this tactic isn't even about strategy - I think it's spiteful, and almost personal.

Fact is they could have allowed your 4 and 5 hitters to hit with bases loaded - even if both get home runs it's 11-10.   Walking #6 to get to a weak #7 would then  at least show some degree of strategic decision making (and frankly, unless you're that worried about the bomb, pitch).   Walking 4 and 5 was wrong on every level...morally and tactically.   Coach could have pitched to them without fear of losing the game, maybe even got an out, give his pitcher a chance to show what he can do, and at least not show himself to be a douchebag.

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21 hours ago, Guest GuestNYCoach said:

 

Yeah, I know it's a strategy and part of the game of baseball.  I get it.   But we're talking about Little League baseball here.  It's a league that has mandated play rules for every kid on the team and turns nobody away.  And in our league it's kids 9-12 all playing together so you can have 7th graders playing against 3rd graders.  Basically what this other coach did was just walk all my 6th and 7th graders so his 7th grader could pitch to a 3rd grader.  

 

This is exactly how the league I umpire in is set up. A very small in house rec league. A lot of fun for everyone involved.

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