Little League- Pitching Change

[Guest Scott]

We are having a friendly debate among coaches about pitching changes in between innings.   The basic question is... When is a pitching change in Little League Baseball "official". 

Does the new pitcher have to stand on the mound?

Does the new pitcher have to take a warmup pitch?

Does the new pitcher have to actually throw to a batter?

What if another infielder picks up the baseball on the way to his position & tosses it to the new pitcher?   Is the infielder now the pitcher because he touches the ball?

[Jimurray]

37 minutes ago, Guest Scott said:

We are having a friendly debate among coaches about pitching changes in between innings.   The basic question is... When is a pitching change in Little League Baseball "official". 

Does the new pitcher have to stand on the mound?

Does the new pitcher have to take a warmup pitch?

Does the new pitcher have to actually throw to a batter?

What if another infielder picks up the baseball on the way to his position & tosses it to the new pitcher?   Is the infielder now the pitcher because he touches the ball?

If reported by the manager it’s when the manager tells the umpire. If unreported it’s when he throws a warmup from the rubber.  If reported to the scorekeeper as is sometimes done without involving the umpire I would guess it would also be when reported. 

[Rich Ives]

1 hour ago, Jimurray said:

If reported by the manager it’s when the manager tells the umpire. If unreported it’s when he throws a warmup from the rubber.  If reported to the scorekeeper as is sometimes done without involving the umpire I would guess it would also be when reported. 

^^^^^^ THIS

[Rich Ives]

2 hours ago, Guest Scott said:

We are having a friendly debate among coaches about pitching changes in between innings.   The basic question is... When is a pitching change in Little League Baseball "official". 

Does the new pitcher have to stand on the mound?

Does the new pitcher have to take a warmup pitch?

Does the new pitcher have to actually throw to a batter?

What if another infielder picks up the baseball on the way to his position & tosses it to the new pitcher?   Is the infielder now the pitcher because he touches the ball?

See rule 3.06 and 3.08.   No debate required.

[Kevin_K]

1 hour ago, Rich Ives said:

See rule 3.06 and 3.08.   No debate required.

Are you suggesting that coaches should read a rule book?

Debate and conjecture are far more entertaining than knowledge.

[beerguy55]

51 minutes ago, Kevin_K said:

 

Debate and conjecture are far more entertaining than knowledge.

You must know my parents.

They will argue for hours on end about things that could be verified within ten seconds on Google.   Mainly because neither one of them wants to find out they're wrong.

[BigVic69]

If a player picks the ball up, takes a position on the mound, and throws to a catcher with one "warm up" pitch, he becomes rhe pitcher of record.
This happened this past weekend, when the 1st baseman did as described above, i informed the coach that he had a pitching change.
And that "new" pitcher must throw at least one ball to the next batte.
regardless his former putxher.cannot come back.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

[Lou B]

Dumbest rule in Little League in my opinion!

Managers make substitutions, players don 't.

A player walking to his position picks up the ball, stands on the mound and throws a practice (warmup) pitch to the catcher and, as such, becomes the pitcher, that's CRAZY.  That said, it is the rule!

[Aging_Arbiter]

1 hour ago, BigVic69 said:

And that "new" pitcher must throw at least one ball to the next batte.

If you are indeed following little league, the "one ball" comment is not entirely accurate.  While he may physically and every literal sense of the meaning "only use one ball to do so", he must face one batter.  Pitch to that batter until he reaches base, is put out, or the inning ends (by a play on another runner).

 

[The Man in Blue]

21 minutes ago, Lou B said:

Dumbest rule in Little League in my opinion!

Managers make substitutions, players don 't.

A player walking to his position picks up the ball, stands on the mound and throws a practice (warmup) pitch to the catcher and, as such, becomes the pitcher, that's CRAZY.  That said, it is the rule!

 

No LL in my area, so no dog in the fight ... but at face value I agree.

You know this rule had to come about because some “defensive genius” coach thought he was being oh-so-clever by having other kids “warm up” between innings so he could fool the offense.

Unrelated ... but the “Drop 9” play actually goes down as the singularly most stupid thing I have ever seen a coach do.  Middle school softball ... coach yells “Drop 9” and all of the fielders (except pitcher and catcher) change spots.  I knew about it ahead of time because my daughter played travel ball with a girl from this particular team ... my reaction was still “What in the #### kind of idiocy is this?”   Defensive genius, I tell you ... defensive genius.

 

[HokieUmp]

6 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

Unrelated ... but the “Drop 9” play actually goes down as the singularly most stupid thing I have ever seen a coach do.  Middle school softball ... coach yells “Drop 9” and all of the fielders (except pitcher and catcher) change spots.  I knew about it ahead of time because my daughter played travel ball with a girl from this particular team ... my reaction was still “What in the #### kind of idiocy is this?”   Defensive genius, I tell you ... defensive genius.

What the absolute [redacted]??!?

[BigVic69]

If you are indeed following little league, the "one ball" comment is not entirely accurate.  While he may physically and every literal sense of the meaning "only use one ball to do so", he must face one batter.  Pitch to that batter until he reaches base, is put out, or the inning ends (by a play on another runner).
 

Yes i mis-spoke, as the "new" pitcher must complete the next batter.
In either case, the former pitcher is toast.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

[Rich Ives]

19 hours ago, BigVic69 said:

If a player picks the ball up, takes a position on the mound, and throws to a catcher with one "warm up" pitch, he becomes rhe pitcher of record.
This happened this past weekend, when the 1st baseman did as described above, i informed the coach that he had a pitching change.
And that "new" pitcher must throw at least one ball to the next batter.
regardless his former pitcher cannot come back.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
 

No. He must pitch to one batter until the batter is put out or reaches base.

[Lou B]

16 minutes ago, Rich Ives said:

No. He must pitch to one batter until the batter is put out or reaches base.

Unless he becomes ill or is injured or is ejected!