A Telltale Game...

dmaeganx2 said:

I did not notice that

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I suspect you can see the forearm muscles pronate as a result of the tighter grip as well. That's how we pick CU traditionally.

I took a class on pitch picking at the WCWS this last year w Gayle Blevins and John Tschida. It was eye opening. Every game in the last 2 days was decided by picking pitches and reacting to them. Especially by Tim Walton IMHO.

She shows her change by bringing her hands up high to start and having an upright arm circle on the upswing the others are outside her body. The other three are just to get people chasing red herrings...I will schedule my free lessons for a year now JS....That is the prize right?

corlay said:

In her pre-motion, she lifts her hands together at or above head height on her change, the other three pitches it only lifts to chest-high, or so...

rise, screw, curve, change

The opposing coach was audibly calling the pitch as she was throwing it?!!
I suppose that's one way to try and rattle a freshman...

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Winna, Winna! Chicken Dinna!

Larabee was yelling, "DO IT!" every time she raised her hands above her head. Take a look:




This tell kept Arkansas in the game... allowing a HR, triple, and a few other hits. Hope this girl gets this fixed soon!

so... school me on proper decorum please.

It's one thing for an opposing coach to clue his player in on a Pitcher's "tell";
but to be audibly yelling out with each delivery? Is this considered ok and fair game?

In this case, the "tell" was obvious enough, once you knew what to look for.
These girls are college-educated right? Did they really need their coach audibly prompting them
that the change was coming?

But more importantly, in general, is there no rule or at least common courtesy for the 3b coach to not be yelling out with the delivery of the pitch? I know - pitchers need to be mentally-tough and bloc that crap out. And most probably do anyway.
But it just strikes me as poor sportsmanship on some level...

People have been stealing signs as long as signs have been given. Telegraphing your pitch is like doing a " buy one get one free" sale.

Okay...l but let's talk about the feet. During her change up.... Her drag foot never loses contact with the ground. All other faster pitches she gym steps and kicks out. So..... Can we say the gym step does improve her pitch?

spleen1015 said:

I don't think as a batter you're going to notice what I thought was the tell nor are you going to notice the lack of a second hop. You're watching the ball at that point, not worried about what the pitcher does after she let's go of the ball.

Has to be how high her hands are coming up.

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Just finished watching the game, I had it taped as I was out of town. Heard the coach calling it and decided to play the game too to see what I could pick out.
When I stole signals it was always, the hitters # on a change-up. "You got this 17!"

I didn't get it in the game, but with the gifs, yeah it's the glove, because you'll need to see something earlier in the pitch than later like the drag foot staying down.

1bucketmom said:

Okay...l but let's talk about the feet. During her change up.... Her drag foot never loses contact with the ground. All other faster pitches she gym steps and kicks out. So..... Can we say the gym step does improve her pitch?

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I would say she's not going at this pitch as hard...

I don't see a gym step... more of a leap into a crow-hop. But you're right, there is no leap in the change-up... as noted, she's throwing it not as hard.

I liked JJ's posture point, too... he'll get an honorary half-cookie.

She should probably work on a chew ball.. or a scrange-up... to hide that later tell...

IMO, it would have been classier to tell your girls, "Hey, when she takes her hands over her head, look for the changeup and smoke it".

But, he may have done the Texas pitcher a favor, as she may now know, and make a future correction.

Good stuff javasource. Thanks for sharing!

by being so obvious in telling his players the secret is out now and may not be as useful next time they face off.

corlay said:

so... school me on proper decorum please.

It's one thing for an opposing coach to clue his player in on a Pitcher's "tell";
but to be audibly yelling out with each delivery? Is this considered ok and fair game?

In this case, the "tell" was obvious enough, once you knew what to look for.
These girls are college-educated right? Did they really need their coach audibly prompting them
that the change was coming?

But more importantly, in general, is there no rule or at least common courtesy for the 3b coach to not be yelling out with the delivery of the pitch? I know - pitchers need to be mentally-tough and bloc that crap out. And most probably do anyway.
But it just strikes me as poor sportsmanship on some level...

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Its done at the highest levels this way. At the WCWS Walton would give the dugout a sign (touch his nose) and the dugout would yell it. All other coaches that were picking signs would just yell the pitch out. This has been going on for some time-if you go to the games and sit close enough you will hear it.

Whether you agree or not it is very effective and a large part of the game. I will call change and knuckle ALL DAY LONG from third base as its easy to pick some pitchers.

Ever see a runner on second picking the pitch, yelling it out, and waving her left or right hand to note location too. The catchers that set up too early get picked.

So dugout, coaches, runners are all trying to pick pitches and tell the batter. It is taught in the Master Coaching Program w NFCA. It must be effective IMHO