One of our favorites was "what's next?" as in — always be prepared for what might happen next, and what you should do in that situation.

Also, "you never know" usually said on the first pitch of the first batter of an inning — as in you never know if someone might bunt. And if they do, you need to know "what's next".

Hit it where they aint

Glove to the ground

Follow through

Just throw strikes

You may run like Mays but you hit like $h!t

Forget the curveball Ricky, give em the heater

or anything Lou Brown

Finish him Johnny! (Sorry just loved the Karate Kid)

Don't drift (for outfielders to set up behind the ball)

ground up

one pitch/one spot

get ahead in the count

Hope you share your final works of art. I would like to see them 

Hit the cutoff! or There's no crying in baseball! (insert something with Tom Hanks from League Of Their Own for both)

One that you hear a lot (and its a pet peeve of mine) is for a head coach to holler out to a pitcher that is struggling with command to "make an adjustment." Unfortunately this command is almost never accompanied by instructions on exactly what adjustment is necessary and how to do it. Therefore it is almost always ineffective coaching.

Start with Allen Iverson saying "We're talking about practice" followed up with him saying "Just throw strikes"

Protect the plate!  Or "gotta protect" (with 2 strikes)

Bear down!

See the ball, hit the ball (Pete Rose I think?)

Quick hands

There's gotta be a million of em.

I  "hate" hearing anyone call out "JUST THROW STRIKES"............as if the struggling pitcher is not trying to do just that.............

Pitching isn't easy.........throwing hard isn't pitching..........control of the pitch can be fleeting.......a ball "closer" to the zone after 4 in the dirt, still isn't a strike..........

Many times after that comment, the pitcher goes off the rails even worse as they Press.......or they slow down the velocity to regain command or get it closer and they get hammered.....

substitutes ?........take a breath...pitch and catch....or "time please!" ....private conversation is good in these cases.....  

forgot one of my favorites — when things are not going well for the pitcher and the coach yells "have fun out there!"

work ahead

all the way back

be good with two

battle

do your job

nothin' thru - get dirty

nothin' over top

make sure it's thru

one more secondary

get off, get off

less than two, fly ball, first step back

finish

stretch the zone

know the zone

flush it

clear and reset

new arm, get a look

hold on a line

read it

get thru it

relax, dammit 

Ball doesn't move us

Double out of the box

Stick to your plan

Turn it up the middle

set your feet

Never taught my kids to catch with two hands unless they were camped under the ball...and even then it was still personal preference. I saw two many kids lose range of motion trying to catch on the move with two hands. 

Some of my faves include the following:

Keep your eye on the ball. 

Hit the ball where it’s pitched. 

Stay behind the ball. 

Run it out. 

Can’t steal first. 

Hustle in and out. 

Strike one/0-1 and good things happen.

Grab the first out. 

Right guy, right time!

Take it the other way.

Not baseball, but my HS football coach used to say over and over, "Christ, we're burning daylight" every time folks started screwing around in practice.  You knew not to make him say it a second time (still am traumatized by bear crawls).  

HARD 90!

Nowhere to put you.

piaa_ump posted:

I  "hate" hearing anyone call out "JUST THROW STRIKES"............as if the struggling pitcher is not trying to do just that.............

Pitching isn't easy.........throwing hard isn't pitching..........control of the pitch can be fleeting.......a ball "closer" to the zone after 4 in the dirt, still isn't a strike..........

Many times after that comment, the pitcher goes off the rails even worse as they Press.......or they slow down the velocity to regain command or get it closer and they get hammered.....

substitutes ?........take a breath...pitch and catch....or "time please!" ....private conversation is good in these cases.....  

calling out to pitchers alone could fill a meme website. In addition to the "Just Throw Strikes" I love "Finish!" and for younger kids "Just play catch". I made it simple for my two boys, I told them whenever   a coach yells out "just throw strikes" or "play catch" he really means "throw harder". 

There are certainly times that, "just throw strikes" is appropriate.  Such as, late in the game with a big lead and your pitcher is STILL throwing to the edges of the plate.  Or throwing his secondary pitches trying to get hitters to chase outside of the zone.  Of course the idea that a pitcher who is struggling to find the zone will suddenly right the ship after such a powerful que as "just throw strikes" is silly.

real green posted:

There are certainly times that, "just throw strikes" is appropriate.  Such as, late in the game with a big lead and your pitcher is STILL throwing to the edges of the plate.  Or throwing his secondary pitches trying to get hitters to chase outside of the zone.  Of course the idea that a pitcher who is struggling to find the zone will suddenly right the ship after such a powerful que as "just throw strikes" is silly.

We say “pitch to contact” in those instances. 

Best pitch right now!

Only one pitch away!

d8 posted:

Hope you share your final works of art. I would like to see them 

That one's a little tough to get out in one breath.

Hunt fastballs.

Go44dad posted:

Hunt fastballs.

Personally, I like “hunt mistakes” better. :-)

Began reading coach Degg's book last night and there was a statement he makes to his players that I really liked, "Sometimes you just have to overcome the coaching, boys"

Not you.

Barrel to the ball conjures up a scene from that old movie "Coast to Coast" and the truck  driver with the double barrel pointed up at his crotch while he's straddling a cattle shoot.

From a productive, but hardnosed coach.....

"Don't celebrate contact"

No "nice try", if you aren't trying you shouldn't be here.

Thank you guys so much and sorry I've been swamped at school with bad weather January.  I think out of all our January athletic events only two have taken place on their original date.  This week alone we have 3 home basketball games and I've not left here until about 11 each night.  I'm going to work on these this weekend.  We start Feb 14th so I have a little bit of time but I will definitely put them on here.