A year into the journey

[radness]

I listed ways that the backswing tips the pitches. You mentioned it's hard to see a knuckle on the ball during the backswing, and I mentioned several other ways (during and not during) the backswing that it is so easy to see.

Why is it still in existence? That's easy. Because the female game hitters haven't been taught until recent years how to use this to their advantage. This is going to sound like an elitist opinion, and it's not meant to be. So, trigger warning for anyone who doesn't like to hear this:. An overwhelming majority of hitting coaches didn't play fastpitch. And before you say, "My DD's coach played D1 for XYZ University!!!" Then I'd ask who taught her to hit? And who was that person's coach? Eventually, in most cases, you find a dad or a guy who was the hitting coach, probably a baseball convert. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. I'm just saying the art of picking pitches doesn't start at a young age and it SHOULD. But it's very clear that the OVERWHELMING majority of male hitting coaches haven't played and don't know how to do this. And now, I can list you 20 guys off the top of my head coaching in D1 that were big time fastpitch players. And that's off the top of my head, there's probably more and even more than that in other divisions of college ball. Even the US Olympic coach Ken Eriksen was on the US men's team. And if you point to Mike Candrea, I'd counter with the fact he ALWAYS has a male fastptich pitcher on staff in one capacity or another for this type thing. That's just one man's opinion though.

What grinds my gears is there are people who think this can't be taught to a young lady. I learned it in my teens, why can't a girl? They can. If the coach knows how to teach it. And as I said, it's not that hard. Do things different when you do BP, or even "soft toss" you can work on having the hitter notice differences for high pitches, low pitches, change ups, etc. IT CAN BE TAUGHT.

I support the comment about coaches not talking enough on reading pitches.
( or at all)
About what hitters can look for in pitchers mechanics and specifically releasing the pitch.

Have previously commented about the importance of live pitching at hitting practices for this reason. Atleast it gives batters more views even if the coach doesnt speak about visual mechanic cues to look for.

Like to include arm motion and mix in snap releases in soft/hard toss.
Adds a visual to detect pitch location.

 

[_MIA_]

JUST wanted to add when hitting
i read the pitchers mechanics and release of pitch.

Back swing or not.

Personally as a hitter doing this would be more beneficial to me than having somebody yell something to me after the pitcher has started his/her windup. Outside of the Astros wrongdoings and a man on second relaying the pitch to the batter, both of which occurred/occur before the pitcher started/starts their motion, this is how players in MLB do it. I don't think I could focus and still be able to try and listen for a coach yelling something out . Obviously the coach yelling out a pitch works for some and maybe it is something you can learn to do.

 

[Hillhouse]

Lest we forget, and I'm speaking from SERIOUS experience here.... a coach who has a pitcher picked will get into that pitcher's head!!! You have no idea how badly that messes with a pitcher when they know what's coming. Yes, I know they still have to hit the ball, but when you know it's coming that's 1/2 the battle. And when the pitcher knows that you know what's coming... it's more than a little unnerving.

 

[_MIA_]

Lest we forget, and I'm speaking from SERIOUS experience here.... a coach who has a pitcher picked will get into that pitcher's head!!! You have no idea how badly that messes with a pitcher when they know what's coming. Yes, I know they still have to hit the ball, but when you know it's coming that's 1/2 the battle. And when the pitcher knows that you know what's coming... it's more than a little unnerving.

I guess my point is when you know it is coming, and whether or not the method of determining it takes you out of your normal routine, makes a difference too.

 

[texasheat]

There are MANY other things to look for. Is the wrist curled in the backswing? Do you see more ball in the hand on one pitch vs. another? Is the pitcher palming the ball, indicating a change up? This is just a couple.

You nailed it. Thank you.

Checkers vs. Chess.

I don't know of any coaches who pick it up in the backswing. That's just when they yell it out. The pick happens when the pitcher doesn't know how to hide their grip of the ball. Yelling it during the backswing makes it too late for the pitcher to change it.

I've picked several pitchers' in their backswing. It can be done. Knuckle change is the easiest. See it when the hand leaves the glove and yell "Drive it". Hitter knows to wait on the change. As you say, you have to yell it in the backswing so the pitcher doesn't change the pitch.

Like I initially said though, most of the time the pitch is picked while the ball is in the glove. A great majority of the time really. Probably 90-95% of the time.

 

[radness]

Lest we forget, and I'm speaking from SERIOUS experience here.... a coach who has a pitcher picked will get into that pitcher's head!!! You have no idea how badly that messes with a pitcher when they know what's coming. Yes, I know they still have to hit the ball, but when you know it's coming that's 1/2 the battle. And when the pitcher knows that you know what's coming... it's more than a little unnerving.

Picking the pitch also happens with redundent pitch calling sequences.
Same ol' set up each batter.

Which imo is more relative to giving batters a hitting signal.
( take or swing away)
Yet not the same as the batter reading the actual pitch.

 

[MattM]

The other part of it is stealing signs. Have experienced this first hand on teams of the past that did not adequately protect their signs and the impact can be immediate and dramatic. Not as impactful on a power pitcher that is effectively wild. On a pitcher that relies heavily on the change up it renders that pitch from an asset to a deficit. It opens up the batter on every pitch since they also know when it is not coming as well as when it is.

 

[radness]

I guess my point is when you know it is coming, and whether or not the method of determining it takes you out of your normal routine, makes a difference too.

Heres a perspective in agreement with that.
Think it can work both for and against to know what pitch is comming.
After all it could be the pitch they like the least. For some it may be 'oh no not the change up'.

There wasnt a pitch i would purposely stay off of.
But some are very much more selective.
Or could be pitching to their weakness and get in their head.

 

[Hillhouse]

Heres a perspective in agreement with that.
Think it can work both for and against to know what pitch is comming.
After all it could be the pitch they like the least. For some it may be 'oh no not the change up'.

There wasnt a pitch i would purposely stay off of.
But some are very much more selective.
Or could be pitching to their weakness and get in their head.

Especially if the pitcher is struggling or incapable of throwing a certain pitch for a strike, yet you as the batter, know that particular pitch is coming. Can't throw your riseball for a strike? Or change up? Then imagine knowing it's coming, well in advance and you can just keep the bat on your shoulder. That's a small example of how important this can be.

The Houston Astros have been mentioned several times. I find it absolutely incredible they didn't capitalize on that cheating more than they actually did. There was several examples of pitchers, noticing something was amiss and it threw them out of their game. But, the hitters should've been CRUSHING the ball. Maybe they realized if they capitalized too much it would become too obvious. I mean, they weren't picking signs from a coach or anything that is gamesmanship. They flat out cheated.

 

[radness]

The Houston Astros have been mentioned several times. I find it absolutely incredible they didn't capitalize on that cheating more than they actually did. There was several examples of pitchers, noticing something was amiss and it threw them out of their game. But, the hitters should've been CRUSHING the ball. Maybe they realized if they capitalized too much it would become too obvious. I mean, they weren't picking signs from a coach or anything that is gamesmanship. They flat out cheated.

Capitalize on cheating more?
LOL...
Maybe the Astros did cheat more, and all those years stats are the result.= aka they needed to cheat to perform how they did.