Pitcher fielding the ball

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Nov 18, 2013
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Why? Are pitchers not capable of making throws? Or catching pop ups? Or fielding ground balls? Of course they are, until it’s been trained out of them.
There isn't an EYEROLL reaction on here....so here it is.

Pitchers are doing hard underhand throws all game. Much better to have the 8 other players make the good throws for the plays.


There are definitely times where it makes more sense for infielders to make the play rather than the pitcher, but it’s silly to think they’re working too hard pitching to waste their efforts folding balls right to them. That’s just laziness.
 
Jan 25, 2022
880
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Go for the ball until you are called off. I'm not saying you should run into the OF to catch it, but if you can catch it. I don't understand the mentality of only having 8 fielders when they give you 9. It's a little different in baseball with a mound but still the same thing there.

This is how we do it. Probably even more so. We teach them things like a ground ball to the pitcher's right side belongs to 3B if at all possible, but in general we tell them anyone can and should go anywhere if they can track it down the fastest, and militantly stress that they should be calling it for themselves and each other when it becomes clear who's getting to it in the best position. I'm not saying we were great at it, but we had no collisions and not too many hits drop between two confused fielders. We certainly teach and expect them to use common sense, but we would rather have multiple girls moving toward the play to take advantage of a possible opportunity than to have them standing idle, watching whoever is "supposed" to make the play

And honestly, our main pitcher easily had the most plays for outs, and many of them were out of the circle. My daughter also pitches, and she told me she wants every hit to come to her..lol
 
Last edited:
Oct 26, 2019
1,375
113
As a pitcher I would rather field everything myself (until called off) to avoid the exact scenario here - having a ball dropped and not being an out when it should be.

I remind our pitchers all the time - you have a glove on for a reason.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Knowing the variety of pitchers have played with on the field... There are some pitchers we (defense) would actually yell out MOVE and catch the ball 'inside the circle' for her.

😏Just sayin'
Pitcher and defensive player are two different things!

*A pitcher who is both a pitcher and a defensive player is worth two players on the field!
 
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Strike2

Allergic to BS
Nov 14, 2014
2,044
113
The pitcher should initially be trying to get to any fly ball that will land in the vicinity of the circle, but the middle infielders should be calling for anything landing beyond the circle. It's the same concept as middle infielders going for any fly ball in the short outfield; unless the outfielders were lined up deep, they'd better be calling infielders off.
 
May 1, 2018
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Pitcher has the circle and everything in front of her until the catcher calls it. On a bunt with a runner on 1, she covers to the Right foul line in our cover 2
 
Aug 6, 2013
392
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Where is the 1st baseman?
DD's team runs a coverage where as 1B she stays back sometimes. Mostly on lefty quick hitters. Assuming for a couple reasons - sometimes 2nd is racing to get to 1B and TBH they don't field quick throws as well as DD and that causes problems and sometimes I think it is to make sure SS can cover 3rd so a runner doesn't go from 1st to 3rd.
 

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