Players not moving and getting drilled by the pitch

Andy


Bad nite last nite????

I took one for the team in the fifth and again in the seventh...not bad huh coach?

Actually saw this new strategy twice, last year - once in a double header and once in a tournament.

Son's team was up by a couple of runs in the dbl hdr. Other team was struggling to get on base. Son took the mound in the 4th. He throws a fastball with a lot of movement. I can't describe it much beyond that but I know it moves inside on right handed batters. Other team's pitcher stepped up to the plate and leaned over it so that his elbows were in the strike zone. Son threw a fastball, kid didn't move and took it on the inside of his right elbow. He got first base, but about 20 minutes later, he was en route to the emergency room.

That was bad. What was worse is that another player tried the same thing next inning. Can't remember if he struck out or grounded out but, as he passed his teammate who was stepping up next, we heard him tell the kid to remember coach wanted them to get hit. Take one for the team and get on base. Somehow we got through the rest of the day with nobody else going to the hospital, but we were floored that those players had actually been told to allow themselves to get hit. If for no other reason, the coach should have changed that strategy after the first injury.

Two weeks later, the team encoutered the same thing in a semi-final tournament match-up. Team was up, again, and son went in as the closer.

First pitch - inside fastball. Ball one.
Batter looked to coach for sign, moved closer to the plate and leaned forward.

2nd pitch - low and in - ball two.
Batter again checked with coach, and then moved forward so that his toes were literally touching the plate, and he again leaned forward.

This time, the umpire called time and loudly announced (so that coach at third could hear) "Son, if you get hit, it will be a strike because you are standing in the strike zone."

Kid backed up. Nobody else tried to repeat his strategy.

Andy,

1) I know your story is a total fabrication. We all do.

2) I'm guessing you haven't stepped in the batters box against a 90 mph FB at your head. It isn't so easy to get out of the way.

3) No one would deliberately take one in the dome.

Redbird as usual you have no clue what you are talking about. Luckily for the hitter the fastball was only 91 mph, he had throw 93 mph on the pitch earlier.

My son pitches and he's noticed an increase in the number of batters that will crowd the plate. Don't know if they actually want to get hit or not, but it certainly seems like it. As a matter of fact he did hit one not long ago - right on the butt - and the kid never made a move to get out of the way. It's like he was waiting for it.

When my son was younger I taught him to crowd the plate because the umpires expanded the strike zone for the younger pitchers and he was getting called out on pitches that were 3-6 inches outside. He continued it over the years and still crowds the plate. However, he is not in the strike zone and gets out of the way of everything except some off speed junk.

I have noticed quite a growing number of players who crowd the plate over the past few years.

Crowding the plate properly is an art in itself, some are very good at it and don't mind taking it for the team and often used when runners are badly needed, but I don't think any coach would tell someone to take a 90mph fastball in the HEAD.

I think a big reason for it is the disappearance of pitchers pitching inside and trying to get the hitter to move back.

I have seen umpires not award the free pass (there was a video posted here recently where that happened) because they knew that getting hit was what the hitter had in mind.