Thoughts on not using a fastball

There aren't enough fastpitch hitters so mechanically sound in their swing to not to utilize a well placed fast ball. If you throw a fast ball to a dead pull hitter, your results probably won't be good but you throw that baby on outside river and things may work out well. Exploit the weakness of the batter and fast ball that can be spotted is the perfect pitch to that with in my opinion.

The point is a lot of pitchers throw other pitches as fast as a fastball.

To riseballs point...I think at elite levels most pitcher have incorporated a little drop or tail to their fastball so that it is not straight. So I guess we should have begun this conversation with defining a fastball...in my book it is a straight pitch (no sideways movement) thrown at the top end of the pitchers velocity that they can throw and still maintain control.

Once movement is incorporated I think it's no longer a fastball. Now if everyone knows when the coach calls a fastball that is a pitch throw as fast as possible but is going to tail and drop then fine you can call the fastball but it has more of a peel drop type movement.

I do think age and maturity is important as others have said I promise you your 14U DD does not throw 5 different pitches with the proper movement, spin and control. At 14U you should be focused on location, location and location of your fastball...getting some movement on said fastball (peel/drop), becoming consistent with some kind of change up and starting to really develop one movement pitch...the odds are really high that the riseball your 13 yr old is throwing is a high fastball about 99% of the time.

JAD said:

It means every single pitch she threw was exactly the same, she just called them something different...

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I see this a lot. Watching girls call out their pitches during warmups crack me up at the younger ages. I hear "4 Seam", "2 Seam," "Curve," "Drop," "Change," "Rise Ball,"and I see variations of the same pitch at different speeds, none more than 4-5 mph slower than the last one

Fastballs are valuable. I never understand when coaches don't like them. Just like any pitch if it's left fat it will fly but if it is mixed in with other good pitches it just adds to the deception. Of course locating pitches is important but deception is huge.

Rambler34 said:

I never understand when coaches don't like them. Just like any pitch if it's left fat it will fly ...

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Because at least half of all pitchers have an average or worse fastball. It's not even about leaving it fat if you are one ball length from the strike zone or in the zone it will get hammered eventually. This is a pitch that has little to no movement and is thrown fast enough (not too fast and not too slow) to get hammered.

Unlike an off-speed pitch, change-up or movement pitch you aren't forced to make adjustments in different planes.

The average to below average fastball (assuming no movement) is the worst pitch is softball. I believe this is one of the reasons why Hillhouse teaches drop-ball first to beginning pitchers.

I can see using it as a waste pitch or situational. If you have movement to your fastball or throw it in the upper percentile in velocity then by all means throw it early and often. Too many pitchers and parents think their DD is in that upper percentile but they aren't.