I agree with you that upright hitters should be better able to hit the rise or a high pitch better than hitters with more hinge. But an upright stance should make it harder to get down to a drop or a ball low in the zone. I am surprised that standing more upright when expecting a riseball isn't discussed as a strategy. In MLB the hitters guess a lot, I don't know about D1 softball. A lot of this kind of analysis is really very subjective because there are no stats about it.
Angled vs Breaking? Go To vs secondary?
- Thread starter Tatonka
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- Aug 21, 2008
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Well, the only way to be "expecting a riseball" is to have the pitcher picked. Since so many have a hard time picking pitchers, that's unlikely. For me, I never changed stances or place in the box even when I knew what was coming, facing a slower pitcher, etc. I tried to keep my stance and positioning the same.
The count is 0-2, in this situation the pitcher has thrown a change up several times already. Are you looking out for a change up? Why is it any different if she has been throwing riseballs on 0-2 counts?
- Aug 21, 2008
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Personally, I stayed away from throwing change ups with an 0-2 count. Many hitters choke up on the bat, shorten their swing, and simply look for contact with that count. When someone is doing a 1/2 swing or something similar, they're more likely to hit the change. On a power hitter who doesn't shorten their swing on any count, changes the dynamic and it can be effective. The bottom line is, whichever pitch is unexpected and working well is the right one. There's a lot variables to this.
Most of the time, pitchers throw the 0-2 riseball as a "waste" pitch. I'm not a believer in those either. I don't believe in wasting anything. It doesn't make any sense to me.
- Oct 14, 2019
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I like this. Don’t like wasted pitches as a pitcher or taking the first pitch as a batter.
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