The Pirates pitcher who succeeds by not throwing strikes

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Jun 18, 2012
3,183
48
Utah
I particularly liked "Because in a pitching world whose mission boils down to a two-word statement repeated ad nauseam – 'throw strikes' – Liriano serves as the literal and figurative wild child."

How many of us have heard "Just throw strikes!" ad-nauseam? Such nonsense!
 
In fastpitch the pitcher that comes to mind is Cat Osterman......wish there were some stats on her strike percentage. She was the master of making a pitch move out of the zone at the last instant.
 

shaker1

Softball Junkie
Dec 4, 2014
894
18
On a bucket
Makes me wonder how many girls every really "learn" to pitch effectively. Most I see in games doing what they are told to do, givin a sign, throwing the pitch, can't think of a single time this year when I've seen a pitcher shake off a sign to throw the pitch she thinks will work better.
 
Jan 25, 2011
2,282
38
Makes me wonder how many girls every really "learn" to pitch effectively. Most I see in games doing what they are told to do, givin a sign, throwing the pitch, can't think of a single time this year when I've seen a pitcher shake off a sign to throw the pitch she thinks will work better.
My dd did this year and struck the girl out and the coach yelled at her when she came in. Then she didn't get to play the next game. That was her last weekend on this team. Now the coaches dd can pitch all the games.
 

JJsqueeze

Dad, Husband....legend
Jul 5, 2013
5,436
38
safe in an undisclosed location
Makes me wonder how many girls every really "learn" to pitch effectively. Most I see in games doing what they are told to do, givin a sign, throwing the pitch, can't think of a single time this year when I've seen a pitcher shake off a sign to throw the pitch she thinks will work better.

I think girls that are fortunate enough to be on teams with coaches that value teaching over maintaining control of the game learn how to be pitchers and not just sign takers. I just don't think there are many coaches like this. My guess is that we have a few on this board that would actively encourage this. I can see Ken Krause giving a pitcher a green light to shake a pitch off, or maybe Riseball, but most TB coaches are pretty territorial on the pitch calling, and most girls are just not going to override that unless explicitly encouraged because they think it is disobeying a coach. I've tried for a long time to get DD to shake one off like Nano's DD did and she just will not do it.

In fact I can't even remember a coach TALKING about pitching strategy with my kid. This next season I am going to try to get DD to ask for permission to work directly with the catcher to call their own stuff for an inning here and there during friendlies.
 

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