Pitching and Pitchers Discussion Where are all of the pitchers at?

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I guess one might ask the question, Why are there so many teams...mabey because alot (not all) of folks spend tons of money on pitching lessons with some instructors texting and clapping their hands on every pitch telling the kid she is one of the best and ill cya next week at the same time and those parents buy in to it and think there is no way my dd is a number two, we will find a team or mabey start a team of our own.Hey it is just a thought ...anyone on that page ??

I certainly don't disagree. I will say, there are parents of girls who play other positions who do the same thing. And then you have the chronic "shoppers". From what I can tell, pitchers and/or their parents tend to have a higher instance of "dissatisfaction" and tend to team hop more so than other positions. Always looking for a better deal. The problem is, there are too many teams and too few quality players, all across the board.

 

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I consider myself lucky I have four (in my opinon) quality pitchers.

 

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We are out of the Canton, Ohio area. A total of two pitchers showed up for tryouts. And one of those said that her dad made her come. We have been posting for additional pitchers ever since.

 

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I consider myself lucky I have four (in my opinon) quality pitchers.

WOW
How you going to keep four pitchers happy with tourneys being an avg. of 4gg

 

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This I know; I explained it all to them; one of my pitchers lives in Florida she will joing us in May and she wants and understands she gets the less time becasue she plays year round. Another pitcher wanted more of an opputunity to just pitch; play another position. Two pitchers are in High School, one may not want to play High School so that means we can start early (April) and get more reps than. And of course hope for more than four games on a weekend and I believe we are very capable of that.

 

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WOW
How you going to keep four pitchers happy with tourneys being an avg. of 4gg

Would you like to purchase one of them for a small fee?

 

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I forgot to mention I turned two away.

 

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Would you like to purchase one of them for a small fee?

Maybe

 

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Maybe

What the heck I'll throw in a wife too.

 

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I need some quiet time. See...I can post this cuz she has not idea that this web site is here.

 

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Another poster mentioned this, and so will I. It has been said that Ohio is behind the rest of the softball world because we are obsessed with speed, spin, control, and accuracy. Ypou know, the ones who can throw at a batters head one pitch, then throw that outside pitch that gets them to buckle their knees.

I believe most teams have their pitching machines set to those same speeds that everyone is looking for. So, if we are setting the machines for that speed most, if not all of the time, then why do teams still look for that flame thrower? ;&

 

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MHO If they are not walking everyone and the balls not being hit to the fence everytime, they are doing there part. There are 8 other girls out there let them do thiers.

 

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Alleluia, FPM3! Couldn't have said it any better!

 

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I agree, jd. Every coach wants his #1 to be Cat Osterman, so dominant as to be unhittable even by good hitting teams.

Which IMO is ridiculous -- especially at 43'. How many girls are there like that in each age group in the state? I would say fewer than ten probably. Maybe as few as five.

In my experience there are other sneaky good pitchers who aren't always noticed or respected -- who can pitch to a specific stitch on the catcher's glove, who can keep batters off balance by changing speeds and locations, who can throw with enough bend on it that it will stay out of the way of most bats, and whose strike zone isn't shaped like a circle, but rather like a doughnut.

Pitchers like that aren't noticed because the hitters are able to put it in play. Those pitchers are only notching three or five K's per game, instead of ten or twelve.

But the hitters are off balance and can't ever seem to get a good swing on the ball. Every inning you think the hitters are going to start hammering this pitcher, but at the end of the game they're only able to score a couple runs.

Anyway, those pitchers often don't seem to get the respect they deserve because they're not recording no-hitters every other game.

The really good fastpitch coaches are people with imagination. Anybody can win with Cat pitching for them. But the measure of a great coach is, what can you do with a team full of re-treads, also-rans and castoffs? With a pitcher who's good but not dominant?

Takes brains to be a great softball coach -- and hoping for the next Cat to show up to your tryouts doesn't qualify as anything but wishful thinking...


#1 DOMINANT SUPERSTUD PITCHER NEEDED

So-so team with coach of limited vision and abilities looking for next NCAA World Series phenom pitcher to materialize out of nowhere. Her fastball must have enough zip to part the Red Sea, since this pitcher will deliver our team from the slavery of mediocrity to the Promised Land of showcase tournament championships. Pitcher must be able to make my dull, lackluster life bearable, if only for a few months.

good post Briney!! you hit the nail on the head - our dd's pitching coach always told dd that from 16u on, the girls are going to hit you , so make them pop-up etc. and let the rest of team do their job -speed is important to make junk pitches work, but only plan to throw the fastball occasionally -thanks for the great post

 

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good post Briney!! you hit the nail on the head - our dd's pitching coach always told dd that from 16u on, the girls are going to hit you , so make them pop-up etc. and let the rest of team do their job -speed is important to make junk pitches work, but only plan to throw the fastball occasionally -thanks for the great post

My DDs pitching coach told her she is no longer allowed to throw a fastball. A fastball implies a single plane pitch. No sense in throwing a pitch that never changes planes, way to easy to hit.
She only "attempts" to throw drops, offspeed drops, and change ups.

 

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What the heck I'll throw in a wife too.

Now your just being silly,I can't afford the one I have

 

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I completely agree!!! My daughter went to several tryouts. She has been a pitcher for 4 years and averaged 2 walks a game last year, to me that is awesome!!! she is 13 and her fast ball is 52mph and she has 3 good pitches now, working on her 4th. She had several offers because she is willing to play any position just so she can play but was definetly overlooked as a pitcher. That did not kill her spirit though she is still going to private lessons and practices daily in our back yard. I feel sorry for the teams that overlooked her because she's not a "superstar" and she will work her way back into a spot, thats just the motivation she has and maybe having to earn a spot will make her even better!!! Dont let your DD's get down tell them to keep practicing and it will work out in the end.

 

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Now your just being silly,I can't afford the one I have

ha- you know darn well it's the dd's you can't afford! lol

 

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My two cents--real life example. DD throws pretty fast. We have been working hard because pitching coach is teaching 3 pitches besides fastball, because anyone should be able to adjust to a fastball. Game situation-head coach calls for the "ole number 1" in position 3 or 6 90% of time(low outside or middle outside). Can't figure out why suddenly DD is "hitable" after being so dominant when we let the catcher call the game. A couple of biomechanical facts come in to play(this is for you Howard--lol)
A. DD can get lpretty fast with pretty good control
B. Decent batters can adjust to higher speeds, especially if every pitch is pretty close to same position just like a pitching machine
C. A 60ish fastball can go pretty far and/or be hit hard to right feild if the batter is waiting for it
By the time you get to C, DD is prety frustrated. It is painly obvious coach knows NOTHING about pitching, because a pitcher (and our catcher) knows it isall about moving teh ball around at different speeds. It is real easy to call a game for Moninca Abbot, see if you really CAN adjust to a mid-70's fastball; true pitchers call for more actual knowledge and insight into the game. I fell i am only weakly echoing the excellent post earlier, but QED...

 

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Another problem is as was already mentioned there are too many teams in our area. Many call themselves select showcase teams but in reality they are not. They are just looking for that stud pitcher that can make up for what they are lacking to be a college showcase team. Now don't get me wrong, there are some very good athletes on some of these teams but they just don't have the numbers of strong players to make them shine above the rest as many are just daddy ball teams. Two or three good players and the rest are fill-ins. That can't make up for the difference of level of play. Or players jumping from team to team to find a good fit. By the time they get to 16 or 18U they have wasted too much time jumping around and not enough time developing into a player who can adjust to any situation. I really doubt you are going to go to your college coach and say if I don't play this position then I want to play this position or else I am going to go play for someone else. We all know what they are going to say.