Does this sound like stress fractures or shin splints?

For about a year now from about my knee down it hurts. I went to the doctor and did what he said and the pain doesn't go away. When I wake up in the mornings my shins and ankles feel stiff and its tough and it hurts to walk. I play softball alot. When I start out running, I don't feel the pain that much. Then we will take a water break and I can start to feel the pain. It kills me. Then we start running again. I start running really slow and it feels like my shins are breaking in 2. The back of my ankles feel like they are being streched out. Then after practice it feels like that when I walk. The time last year when I went to the doctor, he told me to stay of it for 2 1/2 weeks and I did. The pain just doesn't go away. This pain is the same in both legs. I stay off it a lot. I don't walk around a lot because of the pain and I've tooken time off of softball but it still hurts.

-Is this Stress Fractures?
-Is this Shin Splints?
-Do I have to wear a cast or use crutches?

Is this stress fractures? No. Believe me, you'd know.
Is this shin splints? From what you've described, yes, but see a doctor and tell them that you think you have shin splints. Go to a different doctor than you went to originally.
Do you have to wear a cast or use crutches? Nope, sorry, but you're just going to have to work your way through the pain, at least, that's what I have to do.
Good luck!

I was a 1 meter springboard diver in high school. Constant pounding on my legs.
Shin Splints. The only thing that I could do was wrap them. Being in water, I used an adhesive ace bandage. It helped, but they never really did go away. On a rare occasion, I get them.
(that was 30 yrs ago)
Maybe if you wrap them, it will help a bit.