First Pitch

quote:

The only uncertainty comes when the umpire has demonstrated that he'll call a pitch well off the plate a strike. Take a pitch he'll probably call a strike or swing at a pitch nobody but Vlad could hit well is just a no win situation.

CaDAD...well said.. your out either way and some days are like that. I wish more coaches would take it easy on their hitters when that situation arises. Keeping them confident when they made a good decision and got called out is good coaching. You don't want them swinging at junk next time up right? And making a "show" for the fans to embarrass the hitter happens all too often in youth ball with inexperienced coaches

Just trying to short circuit bad coaching advice.

I think you got the picture.

I believe hitters who haven't been well-Coached to hit need a game plan at the plate......Heck, they can't hit half the pitches a pitcher can throw according to what I'm hearing.....

Trying to foul off pitches with two strikes, or anytime for that matter, is, well, to be nice, not the thing to do......

what if the pitcher throws a nasty splitter on the lower outside corner that is basically unhittable?

Don't swing? Swing and miss? or try to put the bat on the ball, hoping to foul it off and get a better pitch?

GoMo,

While you have certainly pointed out a tough pitch to handle, with proper mechanics and batspeed, there is no such thing as an unhittable strike. Some are certainly more hittable than others.

With poor mechanics or/and poor batspeed, most pitches are probably unhittable.

A good hitter with two strikes would attempt to hit that pitch to the opposite field. It is quite possible that the result may be a foul ball which would not be considered a negative consequence but it wasn't the goal of the batter to foul the pitch off.

Teach, I'm a little disappointed you didn't add me to your list.

Purely an oversight, SBK. Your are in my corner very often.

As far as the splitter on the outside corner.....I'm ok with the hitter taking it and having it called strike 3. If he knows he can't hit it, why break youself down trying.

Tip your cap.....get em next time.

Simply playing the odds while at the same time protecting your plate discipline.

Coaching from the standpoint that every pitch can be handled every at bat as long as you do this this and this is a recipe for failure.

The hitter has to take part of the zone and make it his. Better hitters take larger parts of the zone. But, they don't shorten up and protect in an effort to cover the entire zone.

if its early in the game, and the at bat isn't critical, then yes, I'd tip my cap.
SBK - I don't think you give good pitchers enough credit!!

but if its the bottom of the 9th (of 7th for us!!), 2 outs, and the tying run is on 2nd, I gotta try to do something with that nasty pitch.

I will certainly agree that *most* of the time, I'll either put my best swing on it, or tip my cap, but there are situations where a "2-strike approach" may be appropriate.

Well, I think we're starting to exhaust this discussion as well. I for one, appreciate all the input. The point of all this is to put all our opinions on the table, and use what we think is best.

How many future at bats are ruined because he lost his discipline this time?

Rule #1: Keep your discipline.

GoMo,

“SBK - I don't think you give good pitchers enough credit!!”

You are probably right. I’ve always had a hitter’s mentality.

I believe if you have proper mechanics and enough bat speed for the level of pitching you are facing, every pitcher’s strike can be hit. I also realize that even the best hitters may only hit the ball hard less than half the time. I also realize as do all here that some pitches are much harder than others to hit hard. I absolutely do respect tough pitchers but I also believe that an outstanding hitter should expect to hit a strike hard if they offer.

While on the subject, I also believe that a hitter that possesses enough bat speed and optimal mechanics still needs one more ingredient to be successful as they go up the food chain. They still need to face that higher level of pitching for a while before I would expect them to have the kind of success their talent deserves.

SBK

That is why we have select travel teams at the HS level--hitting against the best is KEY !!!!

Absolutely!!!


With good mechanics and bats speed being the other primary keys to succeed.