Slap Hitters

[Rolling Hard]

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Slappers MUST be a threat to swing away too. If not the 3rd baseman plays about 25 feet from home plate(without a mask) With today's bats it doesn't take much to slap the ball over the LFers head.

 

[joe720]

My DD is a slapper, and when i see 3rd base move in, i have to look away. She can put the ball over the fence slapping. She's blown up a couple of kids over the years thinking they were going to get a dinky poke dropped in front of them.

 

[uncdrew]

We've been playing a shift against slappers lately with solid results. Caught many line drives in LF foul territory.

If the girl pulled one down the RF line she'd have a homer. Not the good kind, but still...

 

[warbird]

Too many parents and coaches turn young weak hitters into slappers to take advantage of the young undisciplined defenses. Just put the ball in play and get on base. These hitters don't have the physical abilities to turn into an effective slapper when they get older and face capable defenses. If you can't force a perfect play by the infield with your speed or prevent the outfield from playing "in" with power, slappers are easy outs as you get older.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Lot of lefties power slappers on this list.

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[joe720]

We've been playing a shift against slappers lately with solid results. Caught many line drives in LF foul territory.

If the girl pulled one down the RF line she'd have a homer. Not the good kind, but still...

It's funny my DD works hard and can put the ball where ever. When ever they shift against her like that she will pull the ball. Couple of inside the parks this way but usually a standup triple.

 

[Northball]

Too many parents and coaches turn young weak hitters into slappers to take advantage of the young undisciplined defenses. Just put the ball in play and get on base. These hitters don't have the physical abilities to turn into an effective slapper when they get older and face capable defenses. If you can't force a perfect play by the infield with your speed or prevent the outfield from playing "in" with power, slappers are easy outs as you get older.

To expand on what you say about weak hitters, they aren't as likely to put in the work to become decent hitters, much less the ADDITIONAL work needed for slapping.

Two other things working against these younger kids (like you touched on) is not understanding how fast you need to be to have an advantage over straight-up hitting. Just because a kid is the fastest on the team doesn't mean she has the speed to beat the defense.
Also is is rare for the younger kids to be playing on a field that is hard enough to get that high infield hop you see in college games on tv. Maybe it's different in southern states with more sun-baking of the infields.

Either way, I'm not likely to recommend slapping unless I see an exceptional talent.

 

[benjey]

Slappers MUST be a threat to swing away too. If not the 3rd baseman plays about 25 feet from home plate(without a mask) With today's bats it doesn't take much to slap the ball over the LFers head.

I hear forms of this all the time, most commonly as slappers must be a "triple threat" to be successful. My DD almost never swings away or bunts and is fast but not lightning fast and she was very successful at the National Level in travel ball and in her freshman year of college. I think like many things in sports there are lots of ways to get the job done.

 

[BT3100]

Too many parents and coaches turn young weak hitters into slappers to take advantage of the young undisciplined defenses. Just put the ball in play and get on base. These hitters don't have the physical abilities to turn into an effective slapper when they get older and face capable defenses. If you can't force a perfect play by the infield with your speed or prevent the outfield from playing "in" with power, slappers are easy outs as you get older.

Agree 100% I know some slappers are good, really good but they don't pose much of a threat to a strong pitcher with good stuff. Now a weak pitcher who gives in, maybe but a strong talented pitcher with skills likes pitching to slappers.

 

[inumpire]

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.

And they have made so many rule changes it is hard to keep track of them. Not to mention the Umpire powers to be have to think they have to change mechanics etc. I will never understand why we had to take such a simple game and try to make it difficult.