Time to adjust the offense/defense balance in college ball

[GOINGDEEP]

Let me guess - the coaches were calling the pitches?

Well it sure wasn't the good looking green guy out in right field. With those field dimensions, I surely wouldn't offer up anything I felt they might "pull".

 

[cuzmail]

But the words "all new construction" are the key correct?

that and the dates explain the apparent rush to build new stadiums now.

 

[Indiana]

I'm always pretty amazed at what the human body can do. The female winner of the Boston Marathon won it in 2 hours, 18 minutes and 57 seconds yesterday. That's 5 1/2 minute miles - 26 of them in a row. Holy cow.

I believe softball pitchers CAN rise to the occasion of short fields and powerful bats; we need to do more to develop pitchers. Lots of kids start out as pitchers at age 10, 12, but then give it up by age 14 as their teams focus on just one or two dominant pitchers.

Youth baseball has strict pitch counts - this forces teams to be deep in pitching. The teams that make it into the championship game after 5 or 6 pool and bracket games are the ones with 4 or 5 very good pitchers. I'd love to see softball adopt a similar rule. What do you all think?

 

[CatchTheFever]

If any changes are made, it should definitely be with the Bats or balls. When 10yo girls can hit HR's on 200ft fences that are 10' high, it's probably time to put some restraints in place. The larger fields in College would be awesome but as mentioned, just not realistic.

 

[JAD]

In my opinion, the two main factors that have contributed to the increase in offense are the bat technology and the "watering down" of talent across too many teams as players are coming up through youth ball.

IMO several factors have increased the offensive firepower of today's fastpitch game.
1) Improved bat technology
2) Bigger stronger batters who workout year round
3) Faster pitching - a well hit 65 MPH pitch goes farther than a well hit 60 MPH pitch.
4) Increase in the number of year round players (travel ball)
5) Increase in the overall number of players (more players = bigger pool of talent for colleges to choose from)

 

[riseball]

Great points JAD but not sure about #3. I am seeing fewer girls throwing heat and many more spinning the ball. But to your point my DD works at 67-68 and when she leaves one fat, even to a small player the results are usually epic. Have had a big girls take her well past 250 and I remember one that cleared the slowpitch fence.

 

[JAD]

By today's standards, most "spin" pitchers throw as fast as the pitchers who threw "heat" a few years ago. The physics of a riseball also work against a pitcher if a batter squares it up on the sweet spot!

 

[The Mavin]

Unfortunately, it doesn't have to hit the sweet spot to go out and that is the problem.

 

[JJsqueeze]

I like the idea of deadening the ball more than my initial thought to extend the fences. Deadening the ball would have a dual effect of helping liners to the face be less deadly and it is the least impactful way to even things up.

I miss the fact that there is no dominant pitcher this year, I mean a pitcher that can consistently shut down a top ten team. The sport needs one or two of these aces like this, and the fact that there is none is telling to me about the state of the game. KR was there last year, but so much of that was due to her ability to throw 10 MPH faster than the standard good D1 pitcher. Escobedo could be one if she wasn't so vulnerable to the pop up HR.

 

[riseball]

Unfortunately, it doesn't have to hit the sweet spot to go out and that is the problem.

DD has given up 10 dingers this season. Some were bombs but at least half were 210' pop ups.