speed v. accuracy

JAD said:

I am late to this thread, so I apologize if this has already been mentioned, but I wanted to add my $0.02. Two weeks ago my DD was pitching at 18U PGF and we had a couple of umpires with strike zones the size of pie pans. It was frustrating to say the least. While it would be nice the be able to throw a 70 MPH fastball by the batters, that is not an option for my DD or 98.2% of pitchers, and accuracy can only get to you so far against batters who are headed to play P5 D1 next season when the umpire is squeezing the zone. Therefore, a pitcher had better be able to CHANGE velocity. And I am not just talking about a good change up, which is HUGE, I am talking about being able to throw pitches at different speeds to throw off the batters timing and prevent them from squaring up the barrel on the ball.

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nanotech14 said:

Speed v. accuracy? I'm going to take a shot at answering this question in my experience. Speed is what the coach wants. That's why the girl that throws hard is always considered they're number 1 pitcher. She starts most of the games and always the important games, semi, final or elimination games. They for the most part make it a few innings giving up some runs and then the wheels fall off. The girl with accuracy comes into those games to clean up the mess left behind by the superstar. Then at the end of the year the coach says to the girl with accuracy " your the most consistent pitcher on the team, you gave up hardly an runs, we know we can count on you to come in and stop the bleeding" but and here comes the funny thing these coach say " you really need to get your speed up". Insert here the mental crap that as a pitcher and the parent of the pitcher takes when you hear that. To all you coaches that say or tell that to the pitcher that has accuracy. $#@! off!!!!

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GOINGDEEP said:

I'm late to the party too, and haven't read all the comments, but you're right.

A pure fireballer will win a lot of games against mid tier batters, a control spot pitcher who can knock a fly out of the air will also win a lot against mid tier batters. But a pitcher who has the that final 3rd ingredient of off-speeding, she is the gem you want.

I use to always love when a coach would say "mine can throw 65 mph", and yep she would............the WHOLE weekend. And against the better batters she would get rocked.

A great pitcher should always keep the batter thinking not only where the pitch is, but at what speed it's going there.

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