OU Vs UF WCWS Championship

[Sweet Lou]

The sad part is that maybe 25% of the viewership truly appreciated that 17 inning, 5+ hour battle. For many it was too long, with not enough action. One of the best games ever.

Awesome game.

Having no dog in the fight I was just rooting for it to go as long as possible.

 

[90210]

Even though she could not hit Munro was behind the plate because she could catch. Wheaton is there for her stick, certainly not because she can catch.

Really? Wheaton has a 1.000 fielding %, one of the best catching arms in the country, and decent looking WP/PB stats. If she's losing a lot of strikes with her framing it definitely does not show in Florida's pitching stats.

 

[Eric F]

Been meaning to ask this for a few weeks: This seems to be a softball-only thing (admittedly - haven't watched much of the CWS this year), and I've seen it in at least one catching instructional video (youtube, from a NJ instructor, no idea if it's part of NECC teachings or not). And I saw Wodach do this a few times last night. I think it occurs more often on what would be an outside pitch to a RHB, with a RHT C. The "presentation" of the C has the glove-arm appear to be locked straight out, and the C is bent/leaning sideways - as if she's trying to tilt her head to match the tilt of her glove. (My description is not doing it justice!). I know they don't have a lot of time to fully shift and get behind the ball - it's just the "tilt", and ensuing holding/presentation of the ball from that position, seems exaggerated, and isn't something I see in MLB, or baseball in general. Wondering if it's a coaching thing? Perspective due to field dimensions?

Responding via PM to keep this thread about the game and players rather than a side-track of broader technical discussion.

 

[Eric F]

Really? Wheaton has a 1.000 fielding %, one of the best catching arms in the country, and decent looking WP/PB stats. If she's losing a lot of strikes with her framing it definitely does not show in Florida's pitching stats.

Wheaton's receiving mechanics are awful...

I saw this kind of movement repeated all game long.

How would one keep track of lost strikes due to poor receiving? (EDIT: Duh. Sweet Lou pointed out something I already knew.)

 

[Sweet Lou]

How would one keep track of lost strikes due to poor receiving?

Not to side track this thread..

I doubt it is being done at the NCAA level in either softball or baseball but I can tell you for a fact that pitch framing skillz are absolutely being tracked at the MLB level and analyzed to the Nth degree.

sites like statcorner, baseball prospectus, and fangraphs all have the data available which gets regujutated by more mainstream sites like yahoo, cbssports, etc. And I'd be shocked if many teams didn't have the own internal proprietary analytics on the subject.

 

[knightsb]

I strongly dislike the way UF's catcher, Janell Wheaton, pulls her right knee down and in. Very frequently it leaves her in a very awkward mitt position on movement pitches, which leaves her highly vulnerable to passed balls. She's not anywhere near the receiver that Aubree Munro is. OU's catcher, Lea Wodach, over-frames on a lot of pitches near the edge of the zone, and (IMO) is losing strike calls for her pitchers.

FFS noticed the same mechanics in another pitching thread.

 

[sluggers]

I've never seen anything like this game.

I was rooting for Oklahoma, but both teams were excellent.

It seems that after Mendes' homerun in the 6th Florida stopped calling the rise. If a batter hits your best pitch, you still have to throw it.

As to umps, I thought the guy behind the plate was pretty good for an NCAA umpire. You can't expect NCAA ump's making $5000 a season as you do from a $180,000 a season MLB ump. T

 

[90210]

Wheaton's receiving mechanics are awful...
I saw this kind of movement repeated all game long.

How would one keep track of lost strikes due to poor receiving? (EDIT: Duh. Sweet Lou pointed out something I already knew.)

After further research Florida does have a few too many wild pitches compared to past years and compared to hit batters (a proxy for wildness), so a bunch are probably on Wheaton (she only has 4 PBs).

I'm not convinced that she's losing strikes doing it though - I just watched a bit of the Washington game and she was getting strike calls on probable balls while doing it. That and the ridiculous Florida ERA are fairly compelling evidence in my support.

 

[riseball]

Not to side track this thread..

I doubt it is being done at the NCAA level in either softball or baseball but I can tell you for a fact that pitch framing skillz are absolutely being tracked at the MLB level and analyzed to the Nth degree.

sites like statcorner, baseball prospectus, and fangraphs all have the data available which gets regujutated by more mainstream sites like yahoo, cbssports, etc. And I'd be shocked if many teams didn't have the own internal proprietary analytics on the subject.

Unfortunately for the vast majority of college programs it is an area of minimal concern. If a kid who has a weak stick thinks they are going to wow a college coach with decent receiving skills, blocking, and pop-times they are sadly mistaken. Few pitchers hit so if it is the difference between a mediocre catcher hitting .250 and a good catcher hitting .200 they will go with the stick every time.

 

[CoachJD]

Unfortunately for the vast majority of college programs it is an area of minimal concern. If a kid who has a weak stick thinks they are going to wow a college coach with decent receiving skills, blocking, and pop-times they are sadly mistaken. Few pitchers hit so if it is the difference between a mediocre catcher hitting .250 and a good catcher hitting .200 they will go with the stick every time.

And that could be the right call for college programs (though I'm pretty sure if it is, they're right by accident). We can't know unless we can quantify how many runs the good receiving catcher is saving over the poor defensive catcher. That requires a lot of work and, probably, strike zone technology that I don't think has made its way to softball yet. I think it probably will at some point though.