Your coach ever call this pitch?
- Thread starter NWIN
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Never call it because DD throws it on her own. She tests both the umpire and players on the other Team to see what she can get away with.
- Jan 25, 2011
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well I will call some up in the zone to get them to chase it,or outside or low on a batter with 0-2 count,besides every pitch my dd is going to throw for the most part is a ball,just close to the strike zone.You can get away with one down the middle only when they are little ,or alot of rec leagues.Not so much in TB,those ones are the ones that hit the fence,or over the fence.
I think we have all called for pitches out of the "strike zone". 0-2, you expand the zone and try to get a batter to chase. What about the batter that swings at a high pitch? I teach my DD to go right back there again. I wish my DD would miss the strike zone more often. She seems to have given up a lot of 0-2 hits this summer. Can't get her to expand the zone enough.
Greenmonsters
Wannabe Duck Boat Owner
Why would a pitcher ever want to throw the ball over the plate if they didn't have to???
A ball. DD told me coach was calling this pitch a lot this weekend. What? I said what do you mean? She said he calls balls for pitcher to throw to see if batter swings? I said on purpose? Yep. What?
Yes, its called a "waste" pitch and we'll have our pitchers throw just outside the strike zone often until it is not effective. Once you have good location and are throwing to specific spots regularly, in general, you want to throw to the corners or even outside the corners often. The goal in pitching is not necessarily to throw strikes but to get the batter out anyway you can. Keep the batter guessing and off balance. Induce them to swing at bad pitches so even if they make contact, its a weak grounder that can be fielded easily.
I guess my question to your DD would be "how did the coach ask her to throw a ball in the game"? Is there a sign for "throw a ball"?
More likely is that the coach had the catcher set-up outside the strike zone and asked the pitcher to hit that location?. Its understood that the pitch will be outside the strike zone but I would not ask a pitcher to "just throw a ball"; its always a specific pitch (ex. high fastball) to a specific location at or around the plate.
A few years ago in one particular game, my DD's coach asked her to "bounce" the pitch and she didn't understand what he was talking about so she would throw the pitch 10 feet in front of home plate. After the game, we had a talk with the coach and what he was asking her to throw was a "low pitch in the dirt" just out of the strike zone. Communication is key.
By the way, I think a first pitch "strike" is key to being an effective pitcher, whether its a called strike, swing and a miss, or a foul ball.. This way the batter is behind in the count after the first pitch and your DD can be more effective in her subsequent pitches, working her location away from the strike zone.
Until we can just walk a batter, w/o throwing a pitch, we will always call for pitches that are balls.
- Jul 26, 2010
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+ 1000
Pitchers need to learn to throw all of their pitches for either strikes on the edge of the zone, or outside/inside the zone. The point of pitching is for the batter to have an unsuccessful at bat. Strikeouts are great, but forcing the batter to swing at a bad pitch that results in a weakly hit ground ball or pop up is just as good.
Now, pitchers that know how to call their own game with their catcher generally learn when to do this and don't need a coach telling them. There are, of course, batters the coach may want to intentionally walk.
-W
Coach has three called "ball" pitches 0, 1 and 5. 1 and 5 are off the plate and usually called in 0-2 and 1-2 situations. Two objectives of the pitch: #1 make the batter swing at a pitch way out of the zone and if they make contact the result is usually an easy grounder or pop-up. #2 test the boundaries of the PU strike zone. Every so often one of the pitches will be just so that it rings up the batter on a looking K. Pitch 0 is an intentional in the dirt pitch. Reserved for no runners on base and a batter who can and probably already has hit everything you can throw at her. This is akin to an intentional walk but sometimes can result in a weak grounder when an effective drop leads the batter to swing.
