Making a Point -or- A Bit Harsh?

slider75 said:

Parent has a history of pursuing legal action when player has had altercations/issues in the past, so I am handling this with extreme caution. Any thoughts on that one, or is it pretty straightforward? Play ball!

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Cut the cancer out before it engulfs the body. I hate using that expression for those who've suffered from cancer, but if mommy/daddy feel a lawyer is needed because little Suzie didn't get her way and it was blatantly obvious to everyone else, she's beyond screwed in the rest of the real world.

DD's coach had an annoying tendency in pre-season games to pull any batter who took a 2nd strike. it got so the ump would help the kids when they got a second strike so when the coach would yell (and I mean YELL) "WAS THAT TWO STRIKES??!!" the ump would ignore him and tell the kid to just ignore him and focus on the pitcher. My older DD (a notorious two-strike hitter) told me he always did that to them too when she was there. Doesn't do it anymore due to a surge in complaints to the AD and from his new coaching staff.

when it's a bonehead play by the batter missing or ignoring a sign, I say go for it coach! School them good! but when it's a batter looking for a good pitch to hit, shadddup unless you want defensive hitters who swing at anything to avoid "punishment". Same coach often insists they swing at the first pitch, which I have seen result in a lot of 1-pitch at-bats. (My pet peeve)

We've got several good hitters who seem to love to hit on 2 strikes. Our HC's daughter almost always lets 2 strikes go by (sometimes with a swing, often without) but then hits on the third. My DD does it frequently enough that I've noticed. I'm always like, what on earth was wrong with that pitch!? Drives me nuts sometimes because it adds to the suspense. HC would miss out on some big hits if he pulled them though. Seems like a bad plan to have if he implemented across the board. Makes sense if you've got a kid who's going down looking a lot and you're addressing that specific problem. Some kids just seem to like the pressure for some reason though.

If it's 3-0, our girls know it's time to take. Last yr had a pickup player who was pretty good, hit a shot to RC on 3-0 and scored a run. Coach called time out and addressed her right then then put a sub runner in and she sat the rest of the game. He doesn't put up with not listening. This is 14U B.

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Southernmost said:

If it's 3-0, our girls know it's time to take. Last yr had a pickup player who was pretty good, hit a shot to RC on 3-0 and scored a run. Coach called time out and addressed her right then then put a sub runner in and she sat the rest of the game. He doesn't put up with not listening. This is 14U B.

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Digression here: that 3-0 pitch is often the prettiest pitch the batter will see. I get the logic of take the chance it'll be a ball and get on base. At the same time, if that pitch ends up being the perfect batter's pitch, doesn't it make more sense to hit it? We're only 10U but our coach doesn't even have a take sign. He said early on he wants them aggressive with the bats and at this age won't have them take pitches at all. We have more of an issue with KCs at this age so I like that he encourages them to swing. So someone w/ older girls, once you get to 14U and up, is that 3-0 pitch likely enough to be a ball to justify not swinging if it's really really not a ball?

grcsftbll said:

Digression here: that 3-0 pitch is often the prettiest pitch the batter will see. I get the logic of take the chance it'll be a ball and get on base. At the same time, if that pitch ends up being the perfect batter's pitch, doesn't it make more sense to hit it? We're only 10U but our coach doesn't even have a take sign. He said early on he wants them aggressive with the bats and at this age won't have them take pitches at all. We have more of an issue with KCs at this age so I like that he encourages them to swing. So someone w/ older girls, once you get to 14U and up, is that 3-0 pitch likely enough to be a ball to justify not swinging if it's really really not a ball?

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I too like them aggressive, and think in some instance that 3-0 pitch will be the best pitch to hit they see all day. However, having said that, at younger levels (Dd plays 10u), I think you should have them take. at that level, pitchers are still working on control, so they are actually trying to throw center of the plate most of the time on every pitch, so if you got them to 3-0, chances are they will NOT be able to throw a strike, since they just missed at 3 straight attempts. at older levels, where girls should be better at reading the ball, and pitchers have more control, and likely can throw a down the middle strike if they want, I like the idea of letting them decide based on what they see. but they should know it has to look perfect, not close or maybe (that is 2 strike pitches).

last night, pitcher in last two innings DDs team faced was throwing a strike about 1 in 7 or 8 pitches, lots of rollers, bounces on plate, behind batters, anything that was a strike was a lollipop. our girls struck out almost half their AB against her. only advice on pitch selection we tried to give was to not swing at anything in the dirt of over their heads. we wanted them agsressive, looking to hit, not walk. as season progresses (this was our 3rd game), pitchers will find zone more, and girls will have to swing bats. then, the ones looking for BB and getting them currently will be Ks (cant do backwards, but they will be).

So probably it makes sense to consider the level of pitcher you're facing as well, which varies hugely in 10U. We've played lower level walk fests but also high level A teams and it's a pretty significance difference in how much control the pitchers have.

grcsftbll said:

So probably it makes sense to consider the level of pitcher you're facing as well, which varies hugely in 10U. We've played lower level walk fests but also high level A teams and it's a pretty significance difference in how much control the pitchers have.

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exactly, a pitcher who has been just missing, trying to catch corners, not give them anything good to hit, will likely give meatball on 3-0 (at least until the batters tag a couple for multiple base hits). a pitcher who is missing by a lot will like give you the BB, as for those first three, they were trying like hell to groove one down the middle, not just missing their spot. I honestly cannot believe that at high levels more managers do not swing away at 3-0. wonder if anyone has ever done an analysis of how many 3-0 pitches result in 3-1 counts vs BB?

I'm not a coach, but a parent.

Sometimes the girl is trying to follow the signs, but gets confused.

That has happened with DD 3 three times I know of in the past year, twice it worked out well.

Once she was on second, and thought the coach gave the steal sign, so she stole third. Coach explained he didn't give the sign, but hey, first tournament, and at least she got the stolen base.

Most recent was yesterday. On Monday she laid down a perfect bunt for a base hit. Yesterday the sign didn't register until she was already swinging, clearly DD 3's mistake, so it wound up as an ugly right-handed slap for a base hit. The coach wasn't angry.

In the middle, there was a time when DD 3 was pitching, and the catcher had taped fingers. Misread the sign, and threw a change-up right down the middle on an 0-2 count. Luckily only a double. The coach was more upset. He understood her misreading the sign, but figured she should shake off a change-up down the middle on an 0-2 count. I remember that pitch. I had a feeling of impending doom when the pitch was about halfway to the plate. Luckily they still won that game.

We have several girls who miss signs on a semi-regular basis. I'm sure they're not doing it on purpose. Once the coach called a bunt and the batter shook him off. He called bunt again and she shook it off again! lol He let her swing away rather than delay the game but later she got a lecture and she hasn't done it since. Besides that it's missing signs because they're 9 and 10 and forget to pay attention. But there are definitely repeat offenders, and perhaps doing something this drastic might teach them to pay attention. If my DD were one of them I'd support the coach in this. But only if it were a repeated offense and less drastic things had been tried, because that would be embarrassing for the player and in general I don't think it's nice to embarrass people on purpose.