How do you feel about intentional wild pitches

[ElmoBlatch]

I see no problem with throwing a "waste pitch" on an 0-2 or 1-2 count. Depends on the batter and the situation. I wouldn't say throw a wild pitch, but maybe one intentionally out of the strike zone, that the batter might be tempted to swing at.

 

[Lozza]

Those pitches have a point though. You're ahead in the count and take the chance that a batter might swing at a ball that's slightly outside the strike zone.

A wild pitch though? A wild pitch to me is the catcher needing to move out of their crouch position, a ball that a player will rarely swing at. They're also much more obvious from the hip that they're not a strike and will be left accordingly.

A wild pitch to me doesn't say that the pitcher is unpredictable and could throw anything, it says to me that the pitcher isn't that good.

 

[chinamigarden]

In 12u, My daughter had bouts of wildness. Along with pace on the ball that is usually faster then the other team is used to. She plunked a few girls, maybe 7 in 100 innings last year, but none on purpose. She also threw some into the backstop (also none on purpose). 1 of 2 things usually happened after she hit someone or threw a wild pitch.

The next batter looked really nervous up there and would swing real late at the next strike, or she took a stance much deeper in the box then before and would not swing. It always had an affect. But not one I would waste a pitch for. Most girls need to get in a rhythm and once in that rhythm I wouldn't want to risk it by calling for a pitch over the head of the ump.

 

[Greenmonsters]

I'd love to get the groups thoughts on this.

My last pitching rotation (3 girls) pitched in the 54-58 speed range. We weren't an over powering group but all had great control. Something I often did was call an intentional wild pitch. My pitcher would throw a fast ball high and away, sometimes up and in; often times off the back stop. Why? I felt the goal of pitching was to keep hitters off balance and guessing. We wanted to find that ideal mix of pitched strikes vs balls (70% seems to be a good number). Putting that doubt in the batters mind that they were kind of wild worked wonders in terms of controlling the plate. We obviously did not do this with runners on base.

Thoughts?

If your pitcher squints and your catcher casually mentions that the pitcher lost a contact lens/broke her glasses/is blind as a bat, you achieve the same effect without even wasting a pitch.