Pitching vs Defense and Hitting

Well, unless you get the pitching staff to where they are striking out a majority of the hitters they face, it won't do you any good if your defense can't field ground balls or make plays.  The focus should be on a "well rounded" team, you are going to need all of those components you mentioned, not just one.

Just being a dad who has watched a ton of HS games the teams that always seem to win and or be competitive (particularly in the BBCOR era) are teams that pitch and defend well. Pitch meaning able to throw strikes, keep the ball down and change speeds. Nothing fancy, just don't walk a bunch of batters. Next have a solid defense that does not make too many mistakes and is fundamentally sound. Start this process on your Freshmen team so they are prepared when they get to Varsity and just pound it into them from day one. Third is hitting and I am not referring to great looking perfect swings, but just put the ball in play and let the other team make mistakes, learn how to move runners over, hit behind them, bunt them over. Shorten up their strokes and just learn how to keep putting balls in play, and foul off pitches they can't handle. Have a team full of "arm swingers". 

You may not have the most powerful team in the world, but you will win a ton of games and always be competitive. You will be surprised how many 3-1 games you win with the other coach scratching his head thinking what just happened. JMO. 

BOF,

I pretty much agree with everything but some of the pitching part.

Throw strikes for sure, but the other two things get murky. The reason they’re murky is, a lot depends on the guy calling the pitches. If the pitch location called isn’t down, what’s the pitcher supposed to do? If the pitch types called don’t vary speeds, what can the pitcher do?

I just had virtually this same conversation with a group of incoming Fr parents last night. They were going on and on about how this pitcher knew how to use both sides of the plate, and how that pitcher changed speeds really well, and I listened patiently. After about 10 minutes of listening to that stuff, I told them they and their kids needed to learn one thing about pitching, and the sooner they learned it the better.

Pitchers in our program have no say in what they throw or where they throw it, and that’s the way the vast majority of teams are. Even more to the point, back in my day when coaches rarely called a pitch, 95% of the time pitchers only threw what they were old to throw and threw it where they were told to throw it, or to be more accurate, tried to throw what they were told and where they were told to throw it.

Why can't you have the team focus on all areas of the game?

You could, but some things are easier to teach than others and pay bigger dividends.  

You could focus on teaching everyone how to hit HRs, but not only is that difficult to teach, it's pretty hard to do in the BBCOR era.  OTOH, teaching solid fielding fundamentals is substantially easier, and given that everyone else has just as much trouble hitting HR, you're going to get plenty of balls in play for your well trained defensive players to turn into outs.

Your not coaching if your not teaching every aspect of the game. Pitching, Defense, Hitting, Base running. And within those areas it gets even more specific. Hitting- Bunting for a hit, sac bunting, situational hitting - Pitching, holding runners, solid mechanics, fielding your position, developing your arm in and out of season. Defense- Catching, inf play, outfield play, situational play. Base running is something that every team could be good at. And then there are team specific areas. Cut game, 1st and 3rd defense, situational defense, bunt defense, pick plays, etc.

So you work really hard on hitting and don't on pitching? Or don't on defense? Why? You work hard on pitching but don't on defense or hitting? I never had a problem coaching the game. And the game is the game. Not just one aspect of the game. The entire game. Even to include the mental aspects of hitting, pitching and defense. You can't say your coaching a kid to hit if your not teaching him ball strike recognition, approach, game plan, situational hitting along with the swing process itself.

Your job as a coach is to teach the players the game and to coach them. Not one or two aspects of the game. Your not helping your team, program and certainly players if your doing this. How easy something is to teach has a lot to do with the player and players your teaching. One player may struggle with an area of the game and another may not. I also felt it was my job to prepare the players to win. Not only the next game. But to help those players become the best baseball players they can possibly be. To help them reach their full potential while I had them. And to see everyone of them that had the desire to play at the next level do so. I can't see how teaching them one aspect of the game over another does that.

You can coach and teach the entire game. And you should if your going to coach a team. Its not fair to the players otherwise.

Thanks for the help in understanding the game. I only coached to the showcase level. You are not going to teach a kid who physically can't hit homers to hit homers. Therefore, that was a poor example. My question was more rhetorical. I believe any coach who ignores an area of the basics is doing a poor job. Then drilling down into the basics the coach decides what style of ball the team will play and emphasize the skills required to execute that kind of play. Coach May's response, in my view the best detailed response. Anything less than what he described is shortchanging the players and the team.