- Jul 4, 2013
- 128
- 43
Development aside, if a batter can't catch up to her fastball, I wouldn't call a change. I've rarely seen hitters who were over-matched make an adjustment to catch up during one at-bat. The change is a gift to those hitters. One of my favorite wins last season was against a pitcher with a dominant fastball. She'd given up nothing until late when she ran into a control issue and loaded the bases. She got the batter to two strikes with fastballs she swung through and then threw a change for her grand finale. Tie game after that and a momentum shift.
I'm probably reading too much into pitch selection from your initial comment. I know you mentioned throwing it early in the count, too. But using the change most frequently with two strikes is a pet peeve of mine. At your daughter's age, pitchers who have a change (or people calling pitches) seem to love to throw it with two strikes. I bet easily more than half the changes we saw at 12u were thrown with two strikes. The hitters know that tendency too. It's a pretty common strategy for a hitter take a more aggressive swing early the count and to shorten up and try to make contact with two strikes. Going to the change with two strikes can make it less effective because good hitters are more on their guard for it. (And a well located fastball would have handled the lesser hitter.) I agree throwing it out of the zone can keep hitters off balance, and, again, I'd do that early rather than late in an at bat.
I'm probably reading too much into pitch selection from your initial comment. I know you mentioned throwing it early in the count, too. But using the change most frequently with two strikes is a pet peeve of mine. At your daughter's age, pitchers who have a change (or people calling pitches) seem to love to throw it with two strikes. I bet easily more than half the changes we saw at 12u were thrown with two strikes. The hitters know that tendency too. It's a pretty common strategy for a hitter take a more aggressive swing early the count and to shorten up and try to make contact with two strikes. Going to the change with two strikes can make it less effective because good hitters are more on their guard for it. (And a well located fastball would have handled the lesser hitter.) I agree throwing it out of the zone can keep hitters off balance, and, again, I'd do that early rather than late in an at bat.