Spin, Speed or Spot??? in light of the WCWS

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Oct 9, 2018
396
63
Texas
After watching the WCWS for another year and seeing more bullet spin/gyro pitches, has the WCWS shown that the most important qualities of a pitch are :
1. Speed 2. Spot and then 3. Spin?
 

LEsoftballdad

DFP Vendor
Jun 29, 2021
2,838
113
NY
Pitching in baseball and softball is the same as in real estate; location, location, and location.

My daughter has a beautiful change that she usually locates very well. This weekend, she gave up two homers on changes. What was the reason? She missed her location both times and left them over the plate. Good hitters will hit poorly located pitches, so it's best not to miss your spots.

Virtually every home run I saw hit in the WCWS was on a pitch over the heart of the plate. The great pitchers can thread a needle with their pitches. It is very rare a pitcher will blow hitters away at the top levels for very long. Speed is important, as is spin, but you better to be able to locate or you're going to get hit.

Oh, and stop with the screwballs. They're inside fastballs with bullet spin and hardly any movement.
 
Feb 15, 2017
920
63
Pitching in baseball and softball is the same as in real estate; location, location, and location.

My daughter has a beautiful change that she usually locates very well. This weekend, she gave up two homers on changes. What was the reason? She missed her location both times and left them over the plate. Good hitters will hit poorly located pitches, so it's best not to miss your spots.

Virtually every home run I saw hit in the WCWS was on a pitch over the heart of the plate. The great pitchers can thread a needle with their pitches. It is very rare a pitcher will blow hitters away at the top levels for very long. Speed is important, as is spin, but you better to be able to locate or you're going to get hit.

Oh, and stop with the screwballs. They're inside fastballs with bullet spin and hardly any movement.
Not according to ESPN and their WCWS staff...

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk
 
Apr 12, 2015
792
93
oh boy, here we go on the screwball debate.
Might as well add that riseballs don't rise . . .

After watching the WCWS for another year and seeing more bullet spin/gyro pitches, has the WCWS shown that the most important qualities of a pitch are :
1. Speed 2. Spot and then 3. Spin?

It depends on a variety of factors.

If you are throwing in the low 70s, proper spin becomes much less important than if you are throwing in the low 50s. I say proper spin because the 0.001% of pitchers you are speaking of, the ones that play in the WCWS, spin the living hell out of the ball, even if it is bullet spin. And a decent number of them achieve "proper" spin on at least some of their pitches.

Regardless of any of that, the most important aspect of any pitch is location or spot. We've all seen flamethrower pitchers dominate a game. And we've seen flamethrower pitchers get hammered. We've seen slow pitchers be very effective and we've seen slow pitchers get hammered. I don't think anyone can say they've ever seen a pitcher have success leaving the ball fat over the plate.

After that, spin or speed . . . well, a lot of it will depend on the individual pitcher, their skill level, and age.
 
Jun 20, 2015
848
93
ever watch a HS pitcher warm up and think good velo, she might do ok. then you watch her in game and she gets shelled? It's often cause her pitches are straight and over the plate. That movement down, up, in or out due to spin is often the difference b/w those easy flares or grounders and shots to the fences.

having correct directional spin is one of the earliest things that should be taught to pitchers. that 12-6 drop spin on a fastball, 3-9 on curve etc. entirely too many young pitchers and parents get all wound up as to number of pitches she 'knows' versus actually being able to throw any correctly and to all locations.

having 7 pitches that all move like FB down the middle, does not equal having 7 pitches.
 
Last edited:
Jan 28, 2017
1,662
83
I would say location is more important the higher the level. Speed the lower the level. All three are important
 

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