Slap Hitters

[SoonerSpock]

The use of slap hitters has dissipated in recent years what has attributed to the change?

 

[Vertigo]

Depends on what level of teams you watch. I’d say many colleges still utilize them - more so the triple-threat slapper. I do think many coaches and fans prefer the long-ball hitter (same as in baseball these days) but the slappers are still out there.

One possibility you might be seeing it less is that the rule-change made it much more difficult for the slappers who weren’t lightning fast to make it to 1B anymore on a drag bunt or soft slap, so they faded out a bit. Triple threat slappers/hitters are invaluable IMHO.

 

[SoonerSpock]

When referring to Riley Boone I was referring to what you refer to as a triple-threat slapper. Hence by inquiring was regarding the disappearance of the traditional slapper. And what I too see is the transition to your label triple-threat slapper

 

[Vertigo]

When referring to Riley Boone I was referring to what you refer to as a triple-threat slapper. Hence by inquiring was regarding the disappearance of the traditional slapper. And what I too see is the transition to your label triple-threat slapper

Sorry - did I miss another post somewhere that mentioned Rylie Boone?

I always thought that the triple threat was the traditional slapper - it at least looked like most could power slap instead of just tapping the ball into play when I watch the top colleges play.

My DD’s hitting instructor was a P5 triple threat who played in the late 90’s, so I just assumed they were a “thing” for a while now. She taught dd to be a triple threat. To me it always seemed like the players who could only drag or soft slap in travel never made it very far once the rule changed unless like I mentioned above - they were lightning fast. Even then a team can figure out how to play them to get the out.

 

[Gambler Bob]

The use of slap hitters has dissipated in recent years what has attributed to the change?

Any part of the foot being out of the box has certainly hurt slappers.

I also believe defense has gotten significantly better than it was 20 years ago in softball. Everything from throwing, footwork, glovework and overall athleticism. Not so sure slappers have gotten significantly faster.

 

[RADcatcher]

Some of my thoughts~
Hard to make a general statement about this because there are so many different levels of softball. Where some strategies play out better than others. Meaning in some situations bunting is still causing pressure on the defense.

The rocket ball produces.
Lefty One, two steps = Crush and run.

Regardless of the ruling of their feet and the batter's box line.
imo not seeing fewer lefties with footwork.

Certain teams including at college level have a collection of them.

 

[benjey]

It's been covered on here before but as a biased parent of a slapper I will go on the rant. The NCAA changing the slapper rule was one of the worst examples of a solution looking for a problem. There was already the beginnings of a power explosion in the sport, can't imagine why the powers that be felt a need to curtail the speed game. Instead they made a completely illogical rule targeting part of the game that wasn't an issue.

Why do I say illogical? Well in softball (and baseball) the line is in. We all know the foul pole is really the fair pole, strikes only have to touch the outside edge of the strike zone, and my favorite pitchers only have to have some part of their foot on the lane line. The NCAA decided the one place in the sport where this shouldn't hold true is for slappers who can not have any part of their foot over the line even 1 cm.

So this off-season after much complaining over this being called during the WCWS what rule changes come down the pike, a liberalization of pitching rules of course.


Edit to add:
All.that said I think the OP's observation is most likely based on the softball they watch on TV where the P5 schools can recruit HR hitters up and down the lineup. At the mid major D1 level where DD plays we still see most teams employing a slapper in the lineup and one team we faced uses 3

 

[RADcatcher]

It's been covered on here before but as a biased parent of a slapper I will go on the rant. The NCAA changing the slapper rule was one of the worst examples of a solution looking for a problem. There was already the beginnings of a power explosion in the sport, can't imagine why the powers that be felt a need to curtail the speed game. Instead they made a completely illogical rule targeting part of the game that wasn't an issue.

Why do I say illogical? Well in softball (and baseball) the line is in. We all know the foul pole is really the fair pole, strikes only have to touch the outside edge of the strike zone, and my favorite pitchers only have to have some part of their foot on the lane line. The NCAA decided the one place in the sport where this shouldn't hold true is for slappers who can not have any part of their foot over the line even 1 cm.

So this off-season after much complaining over this being called during the WCWS what rule changes come down the pike, a liberalization of pitching rules of course.


Edit to add:
All.that said I think the OP's observation is most likely based on the softball they watch on TV where the P5 schools can recruit HR hitters up and down the lineup. At the mid major D1 level where DD plays we still see most teams employing a slapper in the lineup and one team we faced uses 3

Good read!
Good points made about other boundary indicators on the field.
Reminder that Pitching Lane Thing was an adjustment pitchers had to make also!

My opinion about the rule is they wanted to observantly make this so much more distinctive that it impacted the mentality of what batters are doing.
In that way might have made it harder for those that were not conscientiously being more accurate with where they were stepping. ( because some were clearly stepping way out of the box)

However for those that are going to grow up with this rule (the way it is now)
it will be as normal as ever.
And it will already be conscientiously built into their hitting habits.

Simply things have changed in the game over the years and this is one of the more current things. Players adjust.

 

[Comp]

It's been covered on here before but as a biased parent of a slapper I will go on the rant. The NCAA changing the slapper rule was one of the worst examples of a solution looking for a problem. There was already the beginnings of a power explosion in the sport, can't imagine why the powers that be felt a need to curtail the speed game. Instead they made a completely illogical rule targeting part of the game that wasn't an issue.

Why do I say illogical? Well in softball (and baseball) the line is in. We all know the foul pole is really the fair pole, strikes only have to touch the outside edge of the strike zone, and my favorite pitchers only have to have some part of their foot on the lane line. The NCAA decided the one place in the sport where this shouldn't hold true is for slappers who can not have any part of their foot over the line even 1 cm.

So this off-season after much complaining over this being called during the WCWS what rule changes come down the pike, a liberalization of pitching rules of course.


Edit to add:
All.that said I think the OP's observation is most likely based on the softball they watch on TV where the P5 schools can recruit HR hitters up and down the lineup. At the mid major D1 level where DD plays we still see most teams employing a slapper in the lineup and one team we faced uses 3

Its the coaches that vote on the rules in NCAA, so the coaches are ultimately the ones to blame for the rules changes. 15 years ago NCAA and the other rulesets all used to be pretty similar with only a few minor differences. Now, NCAA has made so many rule changes about the only things that do compare between all the rule sets are the number of strikes/balls per batter and outs per inning.

 

[uncdrew]

It's been said for decades: "Chicks dig the long ball."