I think the HBP has to do with the rule change. You no longer have to make an attempt to get out of the way. Stand your ground now equals crowd the plate and take one for the team.
College pitching accuracy
- Thread starter Ken Krause
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- Oct 19, 2009
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The only games I've seen is the one DD has played in this year. It seemed in the games I saw the strike zone seemed to be tighter than in the past, especially in the upper zones. I don't know if the UMPs have been instructed to call a tighter strike zone, if the games I've seen it is the UMPS calling that are calling a tighter zone or maybe just my imagination.
From what I have seen so far, I would definitely agree with this statement. I have also seen some catchers struggle to make blocks. Just this past weekend I saw a catcher try to block a low pitch by trying to push her glove down on top of the ball (palm towards the ground), instead of getting the glove underneath the pitch. The ball went right between her legs at least twice.
We are already into the second half of the college season in conference play.
Nobody does this better than the Gators. DD drilled several of them with 67-68 mph pitches and they did not even flinch.
I had no idea where the strike zone was at the Husker/MSU game. I saw very few called strikes, and a bunch of pitches that looked like strikes to me. Anything close to the middle of the plate would be clobbered for a homerun, so I don't know wtf a pitcher is supposed to do.
I've been watching an awful lot of college ball as well and I honestly think it's a combination of everything stated in the above posts. Add to those the fact that we're seeing a big number of Freshman pitchers starting and you have what we've seen.
- Feb 22, 2013
- 206
- 18
Sleepwalkers 2 cents on college pitching accuracy,
25 plus years ago, I saw the same thing happen at the Jr. College baseball leagues in the Pacific Northwest. There was an appearance that the quality of men's baseball pitching was on the decliine because of the increased walks that were being seen at the JUCO level. The scores to the baseball games were becoming double digit affairs, and it wasn't uncommon to see 5 to 8 walks per 9 inning game by both teams. There were several discussions at the ballparks that the qualilty of pitching was slowly declining over the years and that hitters were getting better, as evidenced by the increased number of teams that had 1 through 9 hitters batting averages all hovering at or above .300.
During that same period of time, I witnessed a pitcher take a line drive to the head that knocked him unconscious during a Pacific Northwest Juco Championship tournament, otherwise known as an NWAACC tournament. An ambulance crew that was onsite, took the pitcher to the hospital, where he recovered and even continued to pitch into the Major Leagues.
Discussion took place about the aluminum bats, performance bats, or hot bats that were in the game and the safety of the players in the NWAACC. A few years later, the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges went to a wood bat league and guess what happened? The number of walks went down considerably. 1 through 9 hitters could no longer hit rockets off of their wood bats and batting averages decreased. Pitchers didn't have to pitch around every 1 through 9 hitter. Pitcher accuracy returned immediately because pitchers didn't have to worry about the possibility of every hitter being able to hit it out of the ball park. Small ball returned to Juco baseball when the high performance bats were removed from the game. Similar results occurred when the high performance bats were removed from the 4 year college baseball game a couple/few years back.
I think pitching at the women's college softball level is as good or better than it has ever been. I think that the reason that the accuracy of the pitching appears to be down and walks appear to be up is because the women's college softball pitchers are having to pitch around every hitter because of the high performance bats. I think that the college pitcher is purposely throwing balls in order to keep the softballs in the field of play and to keep their teams in the game.
I would be willing to bet that if the high performance bat was taken out of the game of softball, that the appearance of accuracy of the pitchers would be fixed over night. Pitchers would go after hitters more aggressively. I am willing to bet that I would see less 0-2 waste pitches out of the strike zone to number 6, 7, 8, and 9 hitters when there are no runners on base. I am willing to bet that batting averages would go down, because the number of line drives that get out of the infield with a performance bat would not get out of the infield with a non performance bat. Without the performance bats, would they still teach the split grip to entire teams? Is pitcher accuracy really down, or is being a college pitcher in 2015 an extremely difficult challenge to every young college pitcher and only getting worse because of the high performance bats?
25 plus years ago, I saw the same thing happen at the Jr. College baseball leagues in the Pacific Northwest. There was an appearance that the quality of men's baseball pitching was on the decliine because of the increased walks that were being seen at the JUCO level. The scores to the baseball games were becoming double digit affairs, and it wasn't uncommon to see 5 to 8 walks per 9 inning game by both teams. There were several discussions at the ballparks that the qualilty of pitching was slowly declining over the years and that hitters were getting better, as evidenced by the increased number of teams that had 1 through 9 hitters batting averages all hovering at or above .300.
During that same period of time, I witnessed a pitcher take a line drive to the head that knocked him unconscious during a Pacific Northwest Juco Championship tournament, otherwise known as an NWAACC tournament. An ambulance crew that was onsite, took the pitcher to the hospital, where he recovered and even continued to pitch into the Major Leagues.
Discussion took place about the aluminum bats, performance bats, or hot bats that were in the game and the safety of the players in the NWAACC. A few years later, the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges went to a wood bat league and guess what happened? The number of walks went down considerably. 1 through 9 hitters could no longer hit rockets off of their wood bats and batting averages decreased. Pitchers didn't have to pitch around every 1 through 9 hitter. Pitcher accuracy returned immediately because pitchers didn't have to worry about the possibility of every hitter being able to hit it out of the ball park. Small ball returned to Juco baseball when the high performance bats were removed from the game. Similar results occurred when the high performance bats were removed from the 4 year college baseball game a couple/few years back.
I think pitching at the women's college softball level is as good or better than it has ever been. I think that the reason that the accuracy of the pitching appears to be down and walks appear to be up is because the women's college softball pitchers are having to pitch around every hitter because of the high performance bats. I think that the college pitcher is purposely throwing balls in order to keep the softballs in the field of play and to keep their teams in the game.
I would be willing to bet that if the high performance bat was taken out of the game of softball, that the appearance of accuracy of the pitchers would be fixed over night. Pitchers would go after hitters more aggressively. I am willing to bet that I would see less 0-2 waste pitches out of the strike zone to number 6, 7, 8, and 9 hitters when there are no runners on base. I am willing to bet that batting averages would go down, because the number of line drives that get out of the infield with a performance bat would not get out of the infield with a non performance bat. Without the performance bats, would they still teach the split grip to entire teams? Is pitcher accuracy really down, or is being a college pitcher in 2015 an extremely difficult challenge to every young college pitcher and only getting worse because of the high performance bats?
