Tips for hitting riseball pitcher

[SBFAMILY]

Why we teach a neutral position in the box. A good pitcher will dominate you. Now I do teach baiting the pitcher. Move in the box after the sign comes in from the catcher it drives a team nuts. Bustos was a master at it. Some of her best HR's,( and we get a chuckle at times, because some have posted video of her not knowing this ) and what she was doing was baiting the pitcher and not her normal set up. They would know this if they asked her.

 

[riseball]

My DD is a pitcher and does not hit any more. She was average at best but got great results because she baited the pitcher. Her pitch was low and in, and her weakness was pretty much anything else. So she would get into the box, toes on the line, and cast her hands up and away. Sure enough more often than not they would take the bait and come inside. I am amazed at how many hitters we face that glue themselves to one position in the box. Only rarely do I see hitters adjust from AB to AB much less from pitch to pitch. Those subtle adjustments make it much more difficult to effectively call pitches.

 

[Lenski]

Does anyone have a video they can post of a pitcher throwing a low riseball? I tried to find it on YouTube but could not find one. I need to see this pitch in action. My dd has never faced a pitcher that has thrown this pitch.

 

[SCDad]

Lay off the rise ball, unless you have 2 strikes.

Only the best, of the best, rise ball pitchers can throw it for strikes.

That is how you beat a rise ball pitcher. Recognize them early, and lay off of them.

 

[MsDinosaur]

Lay off the rise ball, unless you have 2 strikes.

Only the best, of the best, rise ball pitchers can throw it for strikes.

That is how you beat a rise ball pitcher. Recognize them early, and lay off of them.

I picked up DD from a college SB camp tonight and on the long drive home, I thought I'd share the two main ideas I learned on facing rise ball pitchers from this thread. 1) do high tee work and, most importantly, 2) lay off the rise unless you HAVE to swing.

She gave me that teenager snort and said, "Yeah, Mom, I saw more rise balls this week and I'm doing better with them now. Well...I swung at the first one, but then I realized it was a rise so I didn't swing at any more and ended up getting walked." Ah, if only I'd had the chance to impart the wisdom of DFP before she encountered her second rise ball pitcher...

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Lay off the rise ball, unless you have 2 strikes.

Only the best, of the best, rise ball pitchers can throw it for strikes.

That is how you beat a rise ball pitcher. Recognize them early, and lay off of them.

IMO if you don't have a riseball that you can throw for a border-line strike, then you don't have a riseball that batters have to be concerned with.

 

[riseball]

IMO if you don't have a riseball that you can throw for a border-line strike, then you don't have a riseball that disciplined batters have to be concerned with.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective most are not.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your perspective most are not.

While instruction to "lay off the riseball" is difficult for many to follow, instruction to "zone low" is easy to follow.

A pitcher that can only throw their riseball for a 'ball' can be more easily zoned ... and as a result they can be hit pretty hard and more consistently.

Like it or not .... if a pitcher is going to learn how to throw a riseball, then they have to be able to locate it for a called strike ... or they will be zoned out of the game.

 

[coachbob]

Very timely post. We faced a pretty fast pitcher yesterday who threw a high fastball/riseball and our coaches told our players to move up in the box with the theory that our batters would hit the "rise" before it rose in the strike zone. Needless to say our batters struck out 12 times in 7 innings.

The problem I see with this strategy of moving up in the box is a) the ball reaches the batter faster and reaction time to hit the ball is decreased and b) it takes the batter out of her normal comfort zone stance which is more even with home plate.

If anything wouldn't you want to be even with home plate or slightly back towards to the catcher and layoff any high pitches. It wasn't like she was throwing her riseball every pitch, more like every 3rd pitch. So let the high pitch go by and wait for the other pitches in different locations.

It's frustrating to see you batters struggle and the coaches and players not making adjustments.

If it's the one I'm thinking of, she Mercied another team yesterday 15-0 with that pitch. She's good at it, and can throw it at the top of the zone for a strike too. My respected local 18 gold cach told me to try back of box and lay off once through to see if we can bait her to lower it a bit. Also practice with the rise ball tee and a punch swing.