Questions about Offspeed Pitches

Please pardon my lack of experience.

DD is just starting to learn to pitch offspeed balls. She is a movement pitcher and up to this point, has been quite effective in getting batters to chase her riseball and her curve. But as batters get better at tracking the ball, she's decided that its time to add an offspeed or 2 to her repertoire. To help me better understand the use of offspeed pitches, I have a couple of questions:

1.) When in the pitch count would a catcher call for an offspeed pitch? When is it most effective? I'm thinking when the count is 3-2 and you're trying to get the batter to swing and miss or ground out but you need to throw a strike, right? Are there any other times?
2.) Who calls the offspeed pitch? I would imagine the catcher would, like she would all other pitches, right?
3.) I've been told that offspeed pitchers work best on power hitters. Silly question, but if playing against a team that your team doesn't normally face, how would you know if the batter is a power hitter (well, besides their position in the lineup, that is).

If your dd is old enough to be throwing effective riseballs, I'm assuming she's at least 14u or older... with that said, she's plenty old enough to recognize batters tendancies. Looking for details like casting, wrist rolls, over rotational, over agressive, or past results. Make adjustments constantly. Don't throw the same exact speed and location twice in an at bat. A few miles per hour is all the difference needed to disrupt timing. There is no specific count where this is more effective than another...afterall isn't being deceptive the whole point of off speeds or change ups? If everyone knows what pitch is comming with a full count, how effective is she?

Thats my dd's favorite pitch. Watch the batters start diving. It hilarious.

DDs slow curve catches most college coaches' eyes along with her mix of high/low curve/screw. Her riseball works few and far between. So she mixes the slow curve and change with her screw/curve.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

off speed in softball is a tricky thing. You need enough of a speed difference to disrupt timing and with all due respect to James a few MPH ain't gonna disrupt anyone. You need about 8 mph between pitches to make them effective for disrupting timing. So if you can throw say 63-55-47 that is a wicked threesome of speeds. 63-60-57 is just going to give a pitcher a crick in her neck from watching so many hard hit balls sail into orbit. I think Wilkenson is the poster girl for a good three speed pitcher and she is like 65-57-50 I think.

My dd throws a great offspeed drop, great for other team's batting average. I still have her keep it around hoping that she will one day create enough space between it her Cu and her FB to make it work, but it is useless sitting there at 52 when she tops out at 55-57 in games. Better to just throw the change at 45 ish.

As for when to throw it....unless she has enough differential in speeds the answer is never or possibly throw it as a waste pitch to set up something fast for a strike.

My DD throws offspeed piches with lotz of bend...

<video width="512" height="100%" controls loop video controls autoplay>
<source src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58923514/Resent/Bend_HB.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
</video>

1- If you have a good change up, you can throw that pitch anywhere in the count. If you notice a batter hit the ball foul or is really on the fastball it can be a good idea to come back with a change up on the next pitch. If you are up in the count and you just want to throw the batters timing off you can throw a change up, not a big fan of wasting a pitch just to waste a pitch, you want to throw that change up where it will land on top of the plate, it looks like a strike for the first 15-20 feet and then it might be to late to adjust for a lot of batters.

2- The coach or the catcher. Whoever normally is calling pitches.

3- I disagree that change ups work best on power hitters. A good change up works just as good on poor hitters but if the hitter can't hit the fastball there is not much reason to throw that same batter a pitch she might be able to hit. If you are throwing your fastball right by a hitter you don't throw a change up for a strike.