Travel Ball Realizations

[riseball]

Coaches don't communicate with softball pitchers like they do baseball pitchers. So yeah, a girl hangs around, warms up and never gets in, never knows when she will get in, so she gives up and plays another position. The pitching situation is pretty bad. Last year at our local college that hosts a showcase on campus (not sure why they are allowed to.. but good for uncommitted seniors), the leading team's pitcher had a FB, change up. That's it. Got rocked all over the place, but boy can her team play defense and hit.... She is B level at best, although it really is a bummer she was not supported to develop her pitching further.

That may be your view from under the bridge, but here in the daylight that is not how it works.

 

[Rocketech1]

IMO, today there aren't enough good pitchers because only the best pitchers get to pitch and the others stop developing/playing because they don't get a chance.

Or....they don't want to put in the effort to be an effective pitcher. Windmill pitching is not natural and is very difficult to master. It takes a tremendous amount of dedication, lots of practice, and money for lessons to become a consistent and effective pitcher. It's not that the good pitchers are taking up all of the circle time, its that the secondary pitchers are not putting in the time to be effective, so head coaches really have no other option than to pitch the girl who can get the job done. Also, it helps ALL of the batters to face a pitcher that has some command of the strike zone and has multiple movement pitches. You can't become a better hitter by facing inferior pitching, just like you can't become a great pitcher by facing weak batters. Windmill pitching really exposes the pitcher who doesn't put in the time and effort to practice and this fact becomes readily apparent when facing strong hitting teams.

 

[Greenmonsters]

Or....they don't want to put in the effort to be an effective pitcher. Windmill pitching is not natural and is very difficult to master. It takes a tremendous amount of dedication, lots of practice, and money for lessons to become a consistent and effective pitcher. It's not that the good pitchers are taking up all of the circle time, its that the secondary pitchers are not putting in the time to be effective, so head coaches really have no other option than to pitch the girl who can get the job done. Also, it helps ALL of the batters to face a pitcher that has some command of the strike zone and has multiple movement pitches. You can't become a better hitter by facing inferior pitching, just like you can't become a great pitcher by facing weak batters. Windmill pitching really exposes the pitcher who doesn't put in the time and effort to practice and this fact becomes readily apparent when facing strong hitting teams.

Chicken or the egg first? Maybe they are putting in the practice time, but stop when it doesn't pay off in circle time.

 

[slingnit]

Here's the problem when you start limiting innings, you are not really cutting down much on the number of pitches thrown. Say they are limited to 12 innings a day and playing 7 inning games. You are playing PGF Nationals double elim. and lose the first on Sunday. Now will play 3 more games to get to the championship game(5 total for the day). You throw #2 the first game, sure of an easy win. She gets lit up in the 4th and you bring in Ace to save the game. The team never recovers the runs and get the loss. So ace with warm up of 20-30 pitches plus 2 1/3 innings. Now under the gun Ace has to throw 2nd game. So maybe 5 +/- warm up pitches and 4 innings of ball before coming out with game in hand. So 2 games in and 6 1/3 innings pitched. Game 3, throw #2 or go with Ace that has innings piling up? Go with Ace again, another 10-20 warm up pitches and 2 innings til game is again in hand. So now she is sitting and getting cold and muscles tightening up, AGAIN. Same scenario for game 4 and 5. She took part in 5 games to get her 12 innings but in the mean time she has thrown an extra 80-100 pitches warming up.

And this scenario may not be the norm but my point is that every time a kid is pulled to save innings or put in to save a game the extra number of warm up pitches add up and negate the limited amount of innings allowed to throw. And even though teams may be 3-5 deep at the P we all know that when it's crunch time only 1 or 2 of them are relied upon. You see it every year, a smaller club team that has a stud Ace and goes deep into National tournament. They ride her to the end. She either is getting the innings all in a row til she is DONE or the innings are scattered out and the start/stop of warming up then cooling down. Either case is not good for the kid but you can't regulate non game number of pitches thrown. Put in there an early morning practice by an overzealous coach and that just adds to the pitch count. This would be worst case scenario but it is not unheard of either.

 

[riseball]

Limiting of innings by the NFHS may lead to the end of some HS softball programs. Many schools are lucky to have 1 competent pitcher.

 

[Little Angels Softball]

High school ball doesn't matter. They can do what they want. The top pitchers just won't play if innings are limited. Where legal, they'll just stay with their travel teams since that is where the recruiters are, anyway.

There should never be inning restrictions in top-level travel ball. Do we need a culture change on the use of pitchers? Hell yes. But doing a Little League thing that is based on research conducted years ago on boys throwing overhand does nothing for the game of fastpitch softball, even if we try and paint a rosy picture like LL does and say it is to "help develop other pitchers and to make sure others get to pitch."

 

[riseball]

High school ball doesn't matter. They can do what they want. The top pitchers just won't play if innings are limited. Where legal, they'll just stay with their travel teams since that is where the recruiters are, anyway.

There should never be inning restrictions in top-level travel ball. Do we need a culture change on the use of pitchers? Hell yes. But doing a Little League thing that is based on research conducted years ago on boys throwing overhand does nothing for the game of fastpitch softball, even if we try and paint a rosy picture like LL does and say it is to "help develop other pitchers and to make sure others get to pitch."

I agree. The top level travel teams will simply migrate away from organizations that went down that road. I have always believed that the LL pitch count rules were more about equitable opportunities than the protection of the athlete.

 

[Classof2020]

I think it is a bit easier with baseball. Even if you have never pitched before you can go to the mound and pitch in baseball. Not quite the same with softball.

I assume this was just some comment used to make your point about softball but it couldn't have actually been thought out. Do you have a son who pitches? If we are talking about LL minors fine, but you better have 3 good pitchers in baseball at any level higher than that, and they better work outside the sport and usually with a private coach too. I hear this comment fly around a lot and it's silly that we would put down baseball and disrespect hard working baseball pitchers - and that any guy thinks they are going to walk out on a baseball field and "pitch" just because they can throw a ball overhand to a catcher.

 

[riseball]

I assume this was just some comment used to make your point about softball but it couldn't have actually been thought out. Do you have a son who pitches? If we are talking about LL minors fine, but you better have 3 good pitchers in baseball at any level higher than that, and they better work outside the sport and usually with a private coach too. I hear this comment fly around a lot and it's silly that we would put down baseball and disrespect hard working baseball pitchers - and that any guy thinks they are going to walk out on a baseball field and "pitch" just because they can throw a ball overhand to a catcher.

I was not putting down baseball pitchers. Far from it. My point was that in the face of arbitrary pitch counts someone can go to the mound and throw some strikes so the game can continue. Will they get lit up? Most likely. However, unlike fastpitch they will not walk 6 hitters in a row without throwing a single strike.

 

[amandascarborough]

It's not that the good pitchers are taking up all of the circle time, its that the secondary pitchers are not putting in the time to be effective, so head coaches really have no other option than to pitch the girl who can get the job done.

I believe this FULLY. If you love it, if you TRULY love it, you are going to do it and work at it. If you're not working at it, then it means you don't have a passion for it. If you love it, your passion and love for it should not be swayed by playing time. Work even harder than everyone else, even if you have to put MORE time and effort into it.

REAL passion is shown through fastpitch pitchers because as you said, fastpitch is not natural, by any means. You have to make sacrifices and not everyone is willing to do that on a consistent basis. The ones who love it deep down will work at it. Even if they are not the best at a young age, they are the ones who stick with it BECAUSE of their love for it, and end up being the better ones in high school and college. The 2nd and 3rd string pitchers who aren't getting innings, aren't practicing to get better to EARN their spot will weed themselves out and end up quitting "because of playing time" when really I believe it's that they quit because they don't have a deep down passion for it.

To be a pitcher you UNDERSTAND to its fullest what passion even means. ESPECIALLY if you are one of those pitchers who isn't THE starting pitcher for your entire life.

Been there. Done that. I was NOT always the best nor was I the one pitching the championship games. But you know what? I freakin' loved it. So I worked my tail off and enjoyed every single second with my dad and my pitching coaches...then eventually...it pays off.