Most Australian pitchers too. (including national pitchers here) I've been at the national championships all this week and I've seen quite a few fastballs being thrown. None of them down the centre (which no ball should EVER be thrown to) but I've seen fastballs. Multiple fastballs. They just hit their spots.
When to throw a fastball.
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Most Australian pitchers too. (including national pitchers here) I've been at the national championships all this week and I've seen quite a few fastballs being thrown. None of them down the centre (which no ball should EVER be thrown to) but I've seen fastballs. Multiple fastballs. They just hit their spots.
Back to OP-I think this thread is blown out of proportion as what you are referring to is a FB down the middle.
At 14U and up a FB in the middle is a miss by the pitcher. FB is valuable but you must hit your spots
The way I look at it is that the four-seam, 12-6 spin fastball is the precursor to the "peel drop". Hillhouse goes even further and advises that the peel drop IS your fastball. The goal should be to move away from a limited spin "fastball" and work on throwing the peel drop as your fastest pitch that has more movement than the generic fastball. Movement, location, and speed are critical.
Greenmonsters
Wannabe Duck Boat Owner
So....which is more important in determining what pitch to throw: pitcher's strengths, batter's weaknesses?
It isn't that simple. A pitcher will throw each batter 10-15 pitches each game. Good batters adapt to what the pitcher is doing. E.g., if a pitcher has a great riseball, she can't throw 15 riseballs. She also can't set up the batter the same way three times.
A good batter versus a good hitter is a battle of wills. How many times in a row can the pitcher make a great pitch? How many times in a row can the batter foul off the great pitch and make the pitcher throw another one? Sooner or later, one of them makes a mistake.
The goal is to make the batter swing at pitches which the batter can't handle.
Exactly which is why a fastball on the hands or above is a great pitch after fouling off a few good drops on the outside corner. As much as a drop pitcher perfects the drop, good hitters will foul balls off. Or conversely why, when a hitter knows she's facing a good drop pitcher they don't expect a fastball on the black to start an at bat.
In the D1 games that I attend locally I don't generally see a lot of variety in pitch selection. Local D1 is not quite at the top 25 level. But from the sideline or behind the backstop it is often difficult to tell the difference between various spin pitches. One reason for this is that with the exception of the drop most spin pitches seem to be variations on bulletspin, or tipped bulletspin as I define it. Bulletspin with the axis tipped a little to right for a rise, tipped up a little for a curve, etc.
When did hitters become infallible at placing the sweet spot of their bat on a fastball? Have you watched the Home Run derby that MLB puts on during the All Star celebrations? The hitters have their own batting practice pitchers throwing meatballs up to the plate and they still have a low percentage of balls hit out of the park. Not many perform like Scott Hamilton did last year (whenever).
Let's not make pitching such a precarious enterprise -- the pitcher has a 17" wide by maybe 24-30" tall zone to place that pitch, which should be 3-10 mph's faster than her junk. So every batter standing in the box can time that pitch, find it with her bat's meat, and take that pitch downtown? I don't think so.
jim
Let's not make pitching such a precarious enterprise -- the pitcher has a 17" wide by maybe 24-30" tall zone to place that pitch, which should be 3-10 mph's faster than her junk. So every batter standing in the box can time that pitch, find it with her bat's meat, and take that pitch downtown? I don't think so.
jim
