- Feb 24, 2010
- 154
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I don't have a problem with the kids stealing the signs; I do have a problem when the adult coaches do it.
I'm not sure why the obsession with having the catchers call pitches?
I know my daughter if she catches in HS won't be calling pitches. If she wants to catch and is good enough for college - far more likely than not, she won't be calling pitches.
To say a catcher isn't being developed if they don't call pitches is well.....high comedy.
I’ll take a catcher that has a good rapport with an umpire and can properly frame pitches any day and twice during Sunday’s championship game.
Teach her to give the coach proper feedback on the batters and to work with the coach on what he/she is looking for. That is what is more likely going to happen at the higher levels anyway.
Olympic catchers call the pitches. Former D1 catchers that are now enjoying their careers in "early childhood education" didn't call their pitches.
I don't understand why a coach would not set high goals for their players. I guess all the years of being an entitled society expecting gifts on a platter has taken it's toll on dreams and lowered expectations all around.
As a point of reference though, College teams play eachother over and over and over. There are reams of detailed data on exactly what each batter did against every pitch in every scenario. In addition to this data, there is a wealth of scouting information and video. College coaches calling pitches are doing so based on statistics, and with all of the information available, it might be silly for them not to take advantage of this. HOWEVER, it would also be very silly of them to not allow their pitcher and catcher to choose a different pitch then what is called based on "intelligence on the ground". It would be impossible for the pitcher and catcher to make such a decision, however, if they never had the chance to develop the tools to do so.
I don't know about you, but the reason we play travel ball out here is so that our team gets exposed to as many different situations as possible, different teams, different players, different scenarios. We don't have that kind of scouting information in travel ball. At the high school level, I'm sure that information is available, but from the stories I hear about most HS coaches, would you really want these butternuts calling a game?
Softball is a quick reaction sport. The best teams are the teams that adapt the quickest. Develop the tools to make quick and gutsy decisions for when things don't turn out the way the book tells you they will.
-W