Pitch calling -- you have to mix it up

[Ken Krause]

Just finished up a lesson with one of my high school pitchers. Understand this is a girl whom I recently clocked throwing 60 mph, so she has good speed.

Unfortunately, so far her team is 0-2 behind her. When I asked about it, she told me a tale that's all too familiar.

It seems her coach has been calling the pitches, and he's apparently not to clever about it. She said he's mostly calling low outside fastballs and drops. It works for a while, but eventually the other team figures it out and starts jumping on the pitches. Then the coach gets annoyed and wonders why she keeps getting hit.

Anyone who knows anything about the game can figure that one out. If you throw the same pitch at the same speed in the same location all the time, you're going to get hit. It's just like using a pitching machine. No matter how fast you set it, sooner or later everyone can hit it.

Now, this pitcher has an excellent change -- 15 mph off her fastball with no loss of arm speed. She also has an excellent rise and a pretty good curve. Using those pitches, and moving the ball inside as well outside would help keep hitters off balance rather than letting them get zoned in. But for whatever reason this coach doesn't seem willing to do that.

The real killer is both the pitcher and I consider the drop her weakest pitch. At best it's competent, but it's hardly reliable. But she can toss the change and the rise like there's no tomorrow. Seems to me the coach needs to take a little time to learn what his pitcher can throw (and throw well) rather than calling what he likes.

The pitcher is quite frustrated by the pitch calling. She's been trained on what each pitch is for and longs to use them properly. I told her perhaps she needs to take matters into her own hands a bit more. Like when the coach calls for the umpteenth fastball, throw a rise instead. Who will know? Or if the situation calls for a change, then throw it, get the out, and shrug your shoulders and smile saying "It seemed like the right thing to do."

I hate to advise a player to go against a coach, but sometimes a stubborn coach has to be saved from himself. Maybe when he sees what she can do he'll broaden his pitch selection a little more. We can only hope.

What about you? Have you faced this situation before? If so, how did you handle it/advise it should be handled?

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[Coach-n-Dad]

My DD is currently facing a similar situation. She is the starter on her HS Varsity team and is currently 2-5 (Coach has her in the circle for every tough team in the preseason tournaments). She has awesome speed (won't say what she is clocked at), great control, and 3 pitches that she has command of including a CU. She pitches for an 18 Gold team and has a very good record, even against high ranked Southern California teams.

Her problem isn't the coach, he knows nothing about calling pitches; her catcher calls the game and knows less than the coach you talk about. The catcher sets up 4 feet behind and directly in the center the plate for every pitch. It is a regular occurrence that she gets hit on a 0-2 count. DD has been advised by parents and Gold Coach to throw what she thinks should be thrown regardless of what is called, and to target catchers knees and shoulders instead of the glove. She says that she tries to do that but continues to get hits against her. She tells me that she has NO confidence in her catchers abilities. She also tells me that when she (sophomore) throws breaking pitches that the catcher (senior) can't handle, the catcher and a couple of upperclassmen on the team give her a hard time about not hitting her spots. When I watch from behind the catcher it is obvious that she is still targeting the glove. It seems that she is more concerned about what others on her team think than about not getting a hit against her.

She has talked to the coach and the catcher about her dilemma with no success.

The good news is that the competition in league is nowhere near what they have seen in tournaments. I told her that worse case scenario HS ball is only a few months, she will be playing summer ball soon. In the meantime, try to figure out how to throw to your catcher without throwing batting practice to batters.

 

[chinamigarden]

C&D Maybe you could ask this catcher to come to your DDs pitching lesson. She could catch her lesson and maybe learn a thing or two about pitch location and movement.

 

[Greenmonsters]

The probem isn't the catcher, its the "girl who catches". There's a difference and you don't want to insult those who play the position well. You can only hope that the girl who catches improves as the season progresses. The more she catches your DD the quicker she'll improve, if only out of self preservation. Your DD's best bet is to call her own pitches (making sure that the C knows whats coming) based on the situation and consideration of the harm of a drop or miss by the C. For example, with noone on and less than 2 strikes, its all fair game. With 2 strikes, maybe she needs to try to get the K w/ the pitch the C handles best. Maybe trying to pitch to more contact on or just off the corners would be an option or by using more changeups. Alternatively, a change in mental approach may help - view it as a challenge where she has to figure out how to perform effectively despite only being able to use a portion of her arsenal.

Any well, I feel for her. Hopefully you both can take some delight in crossing off the calendar days until travel season starts.

 

[shockcoach]

Ken,

Didn't you post a similar article last year about HS coaches calling mainly fastballs? Or was that Marc? I thought I had saved it and was looking for it today on the puter. One of our club pitchers is really good, but not doing well in HS ball because her coach is only calling FB's with a few change-ups during a game. At 43' that makes for nice BP for many girls.