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

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Jun 8, 2016
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I'm sure your calculations are correct with a wooden bat and a baseball. However I played baseball for a wooden bat league for MANY years before I started playing men's fast-pitch. The harder pitching, to be honest really only hurt the hands and broke more bats but the ball never really went much farther.

When I started playing mens fastpitch about 20 years ago (I still play) the biggest difference I felt was how fast the ball came off the composite bat. The slower the pitcher the less likely the ball was gonna leave the field, the faster the pitcher the more dingers and stingers we hit..... Like I said I'm sure your numbers are right but coming from someone who actually plays, I'm not sure I agree, respectfully of course.
The formula is exit speed=q*(pitch speed)+(1+q)*(bat speed) where q is 0.2 for wood bats, 0.5 for bbcor baseball bats and 1.15 for USSSA baseball bats. Couldn't find q numbers for softball. So the "better" the bat the faster it comes off (obviously) everything else being equal and yes the higher the q value the higher the percent of the exit velocity which will come from the
pitch speed so your observations line up with that assuming the q is pretty high for fastpitch.

So a slight mea culpa from me..I was stuck in MLB ;)
 
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LEsoftballdad

DFP Vendor
Jun 29, 2021
2,838
113
NY
The formula is exit speed=q*(pitch speed)+(1+q)*(bat speed) where q is 0.2 for wood bats, 0.5 for bbcor baseball bats and 1.15 for USSSA baseball bats. Couldn't find q numbers for softball. So the "better" the bat the faster it comes off (obviously) everything else being equal and yes the higher the q value the higher the percent of the exit velocity which will come from the
pitch speed so your observations line up with that assuming the q is pretty high for fastpitch.

So a slight mea culpa from me..I was stuck in MLB ;)
Isn't the Fastpitch bat 1.20?
 
Jun 20, 2015
848
93
the funniest of all is when Pitcher X is on the rubber facing your team, mom is on sideline flapping lips about how her DD is awesome pitcher, going D1, talking with SEC schools, blah, blah, and she can't make it out of the first inning. All this at a small little local tourney. Really? Maybe take off the rose colored glasses and join rest of us on planet earth. She's throwing straight balls, minimal spin, @ 53 mph. not cutting ricotta cheese in 18u.
 
May 2, 2018
200
63
Central Virginia
the funniest of all is when Pitcher X is on the rubber facing your team, mom is on sideline flapping lips about how her DD is awesome pitcher, going D1, talking with SEC schools, blah, blah, and she can't make it out of the first inning. All this at a small little local tourney. Really? Maybe take off the rose colored glasses and join rest of us on planet earth. She's throwing straight balls, minimal spin, @ 53 mph. not cutting ricotta cheese in 18u.
Wow, that seemed very specific, lol.
 
Jun 20, 2015
848
93
oh it 100% happened. It's one of those events your relive with other parents / coaches. always good for a laugh or 6.

I mean i'm coaching 3b, listening to mom talk and watching her DD pitch and was looking back and forth like "WTH are you smoking?"
 
Jun 23, 2021
20
3
This will settle it. You are creating a pitcher, and have 250 percentage points to stretch across three categories: spin, speed, and control. Where do you put the percentage points, i.e.

90 spin, 80 speed, 80 control


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
Having been through this process twice now (once is SB, now in BB), speed will open way more doors than spin or spot. As much as I even hate to admit it, speed will always trump the other two, especially if you’re looking at D1. College coaches think they will be able to improve upon spin/spot.

I’ve seen great HS pitchers with spin/spot get rocked if they don’t have speed at D1. Same goes for speed-only pitchers.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
I know nothing about softball pitching.

With that, if you sent an 18 YO kid who threw upper 60’s but couldn’t spin it to a top pitching coach how long would it take them to teach them good spin assuming they worked their as* off? 1 month? 6 months? Possibly never?

Edit: realizing that a pitcher may have to lose a few mph to spin it better
 
Last edited:
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
I know nothing about softball pitching.

With that, if you sent an 18 YO kid who threw upper 60’s but couldn’t spin it to a top pitching coach how long would it take them to teach them good spin assuming they worked their as* off? 1 month? 6 months? Possibly never?
Depends on the body awareness and coachability of the pitcher. Some might be able to pick it up very quick, some not at all.
That‘s why you’ll see some pitchers who dominated in HS and TB never get off the bench or transfer after not pitching much their first year in college. It’s when they have to pitch the full 7 innings in college where 1-9 can truly hit and they need to have more than just speed to make it more than twice through the lineup. I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve been to many high level TB games/showcases where one pitcher pitches the whole game. Usually it’s 2-3 innings tops because coaches are there to see other pitchers, as well.
 

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