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

[_MIA_]

I think many want to believe accuracy and spin matter more because they can Improve those faster.

This..Many people want to believe you can be as good as you want to be with hard work..until they run into somebody with truly freakish athletic ability…

 

[ArmWhip]

One of the things I ask new students is whether either of the their parents played college sports.

 

[Nimrod]

...you have to have enough speed or nothing else matters at all. Therefore speed has to matter the most.

Agree. People are mistaking what often separates fast pitchers in the WCWS (location, change of speed, etc.) from with what got them there in the first place (speed). Speed is the foundation, and more than anything else, it defines a pitcher's potential.

How many of the all time great softball/baseball pitchers threw in the 50’s/80’s..yeah that is what I thought.

And meanwhile, we sometimes do see elite pitchers who occasionally struggle with accuracy. Here are two examples from 2013:

Tatum Edwards walked or hit 16.7% of batters faced - 1 in 6. She was a 3-time All-American and led Nebraska to its only WCWS that year. Went 30-10 w/ 1.91 ERA.

Blaire Luna walked or hit 17.2% of batters faced - more than 1 in 6. Also threw 24 wild pitches. She led Texas to the WCWS that year and went 32-7 w/ a 1.28 ERA. Won 100+ games in her career. She's the best non-Cat pitcher in Texas history.

If you take every pitcher in college softball, from Oklahoma to Maranatha Baptist, I'd guess only the top 10% in speed have a chance to be an ace on a top-20 NCAA D-I team. Accuracy - while certainly valuable - does not have to be top 10%, IMO. I imagine there were some D-II pitchers who could've beaten Edwards and Luna in an accuracy contest. But I doubt any was faster.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

This..Many people want to believe you can be as good as you want to be with hard work..until they run into somebody with truly freakish athletic ability…

My daughter developed a useable curve ball in a few weeks, but significant speed jumps take a lot longer.

The only time I've seen a significant speed jumps (3 MPH or more) happen in real short order is when there's a mechanical or motion change, i.e. the start back instead of two feet in contact with the rubber. Most other jumps take a long time.

 

[_MIA_]

My daughter developed a useable curve ball in a few weeks, but significant speed jumps take a lot longer.

The only time I've seen a significant speed jumps (3 MPH or more) happen in real short order is when there's a mechanical or motion change, i.e. the start back instead of two feet in contact with the rubber. Most other jumps take a long time.

My point was that many people don't want to believe that their kid has a lower ceiling then some other kid...At the end of the day it doesn't matter, control what you can control, but when people start saying things like speed doesn't matter or it isn't that important, this is what you are running into..

 

[LEsoftballdad]

My point was that many people don't want to believe that their kid has a lower ceiling then some other kid...

Oh, you're spot-on, Pattar. Normally, the parents I hear talking about how well their daughter spins the ball are the ones that don't throw as hard.

I can't tell you why my daughter throws as hard as she does at 15. She certainly doesn't outwork the other girls, because if she did, she'd be unhittable. She just has what they used call a love arm in baseball. That's not something you can teach.

 

[torpedo #8]

How many of the all time great softball/baseball pitchers threw in the 50’s/80’s..yeah that is what I thought.

You can throw hard and fast all day but if you can't locate, bye bye. I've seen so many pitchers who can throw hard but can find the plate to save their lives

 

[_MIA_]

You can throw hard and fast all day but if you can't locate, bye bye. I've seen so many pitchers who can throw hard but can find the plate to save their lives

Yes, nobody is saying you can throw it wherever you want. Only that if you locate perfectly, but only throw 55 MPH, we won't be seeing your mug in the WCWS.

Now it could be that there is an inherent bias from coaches that kids like that won't get a look at the OUs of the world regardless of whether they could get kids out on that level..not sure.

Like somebody said (or perhaps multiple somebodies), the best typically throw hard, locate and change speeds very well so....

Out of curiosity, does your kid pitch and if so how hard does she throw compared to her peers..?

 

[torpedo #8]

My point was that many people don't want to believe that their kid has a lower ceiling then some other kid...At the end of the day it doesn't matter, control what you can control, but when people start saying things like speed doesn't matter or it isn't that important, this is what you are running into..

“No you don’t”. Which is in reply to me saying “you have to have enough speed or nothing else matters”. If you do not realize that what I said is absolutely true you must be watching a different game than me. What was the names of the pitchers in the WCWS or the super regionals that were throwing low 50s but super accurate, because I must have missed them.

I didn't realize you said that and you are correct at having enough speed. But if you can't locate your pitches especially with runners on base you are going to have a hard time getting them out. You have to hit your spots to have any effect on the batter. I have seen so many times where pitchers can't hit their location and start walking batters. Then what happens, they try to blow a fast ball by them down the middle and get rocked.

 

[JayW]

No you don't. You can have marginal speed and be very good if you can hit your location with all your pitches. I guarantee if all you have is a fastball you won't last. I guess you're right about 1 thing

why assume that a fast pitcher only has 1 pitch? the harder you throw the better it spins. the harder you throw the better the change up works. the one pitch hard thrower is a fallacy repeated over and over on this site.