Wcws

[klamath632]

Whoever the whistler is in the Oregon/Alabama game....I would love to punch them right in the lips. I'm about to turn the game off, because it's so horrible to listen to.

I have been complaining about the whistler, too. Can't the guys in the audio booth, hear that? It has been going on for 2 days.

Yep, it sounds like someone is letting off whistler fireworks in the stadium. It's so incredibly annoying.

 

[cuzmail]

I don't like some of the saying either, but coming back from several games in person, the break is much more evident in person. The depth perception on tv is not realistic.

I agree in what I have seen in person versus TV coverage.

However, on TV you have the added value of slow motion replays with frame by frame DVRs for us arm chair coaches I don't care how much break the TV "misses". I see spiral spin pitches called curves because they are outside, spiral spin pitches called drops just because they are low, and pitches called a rise or riser just because they are high.

IIRC, the pitch McCleney hit out was called a curve that was fat when in slow motion is was 7-1 back spin (rise) that didn't go up. At least they got the fat part right! I like Michelle's strategy comments, I just think maybe they should stop calling pitches if they really can't see or tell what it is.

 

[obbay]

My own corollary to the Hanson Principle - assume anything Michelle Smith says is wrong unless you can see otherwise in slow motion video of athletes at the highest levels.

 

[Jojo]

Whoever the whistler is in the Oregon/Alabama game....I would love to punch them right in the lips. I'm about to turn the game off, because it's so horrible to listen to.

Thats the #1 think my husband complains about, that and how they know what the team is thinking.

 

[JJsqueeze]

For what it is worth, when it comes to identifying pitches, I kind of defer to the Olympic gold medalist pitcher who is there watching it live vs. my opinion of the pitch based on TV coverage. I have no idea where their booth is and what angle they have but I know that the standard offset center field camera angle hides break vs a view from right behind the catcher. According to what I see from the center field angle, there is no such thing as a curve ball, but when I see the behind the catcher angle I can pick up curves easily.

A for spin, my take on that is that when I have been lucky enough to see a slow motion relay of riseballs, I have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of backspin I see vs. bullet spin. Most of the good replays I have seen that show riseball spin have had a significant amount of backspin (not 6-12) but definitely not bullet.

 

[starsnuffer]

The pitchers for these teams are recruited when they are in 8th grade based on the coach/scout assumption that they are going to be big, tall, and strong. After that the kids have immense pressure to throw hard and fast. There is too much on the line for them to take a step back, break down their mechanics, and learn to pitch "right" in order to maximize movement.

If you want to see good "pitchers", you have to look outside of the crop of throwers recruited when they're 13.

-W

 

[cuzmail]

For what it is worth, when it comes to identifying pitches, I kind of defer to the Olympic gold medalist pitcher who is there watching it live vs. my opinion of the pitch based on TV coverage.

Well then you are in luck tonight, tomorrow night, and possible Wednesday night !

 

[JJsqueeze]

Well then you are in luck tonight, tomorrow night, and possible Wednesday night !

So the announcers don't know how to identify pitches, the coaches recruit throwers instead of pitchers and the pitchers who make it to major D1 and the WCWS can't throw breaking pitches. Meanwhile Oregon gets blanked by both the teams in the championship? I guess those Oregon hitters just can't hit fastballs unless they are fat.

At some point you have to add up the evidence and conclude that maybe those pitches really are breaking enough to fool the hitters and maybe just maybe an athlete with Smith's credentials throw in some decent opinions along with the air filling fluff needed to keep a broadcast moving.


I refuse to believe that the WCWS is populated with pitchers that throw bullet spin on every pitch, playing for coaches that recruit speed and don't know the value of good break and announcers that have played all their lives and played at the highest levels that can't ID a pitch.

 

[cuzmail]

So the announcers don't know how to identify pitches, the coaches recruit throwers instead of pitchers and the pitchers who make it to major D1 and the WCWS can't throw breaking pitches. Meanwhile Oregon gets blanked by both the teams in the championship? I guess those Oregon hitters just can't hit fastballs unless they are fat.

At some point you have to add up the evidence and conclude that maybe those pitches really are breaking enough to fool the hitters and maybe just maybe an athlete with Smith's credentials throw in some decent opinions along with the air filling fluff needed to keep a broadcast moving.


I refuse to believe that the WCWS is populated with pitchers that throw bullet spin on every pitch, playing for coaches that recruit speed and don't know the value of good break and announcers that have played all their lives and played at the highest levels that can't ID a pitch.

Wow. Now there's a jump to all sorts of things !

The only thing I said is that they are not identifying pitches from the booth based on the ones I saw in slow motion and I stick by it. I don't know where the rest of that came from. I never said those pitches weren't effective.

 

[JJsqueeze]

it was a general response to a few posts in the thread by a few people, one saying the girls are recruited early and are throwers without movement. Some saying the announcers don't know what they are talking about and others saying the pitches are throwing bullet spin. They all fall into a general category of us watching at home know more that the pitchers/coaches/announcers so I grouped them together. You did not make all of the statements I was responding to.