Is it true, speed kills?

[SBFAMILY]

CoogansBluff you can look it up on most college web sites, but I bet you will never find it on most high school stats, because they count them as hits! I'm good friends with a couple of college coaches that ask that question when they look at some stats from high school. One asks them how many ROE's and I laugh when he tells me the responses he gets. Most good teams now are using ISCORE of some other stats keeping device that tracks about any stat you want. Spray patterns and the count. Still the person keeping stats needs to understand the rules, which few do. DD had 18 her last year year in high school. Still lead the team in walks and run scored, but her batting average was good but not in the top 20 in our area. Had to hit over 500 (joke) to get mentioned.

 

[guero_gordo]

It is amazing the variances we've seen. A girl on our team who normally tests at about 3.4/3.5 tested 3.1 at Pennsbury Recruiting Camp. She said she was in shock with the time she got.

I'm a bit leery of times, bat speeds, throwing speeds from paid camps, it is in their business interest to have you improve dramatically while you're there, and to tell you you're n percent above the national average, etc.

 

[cmustangsfp]

Also fast mixed with softball IQ is deadly. We had a girl on our team last year (12U) that had absolute free range to make her own decisions in regards to base running. She was small but deadly quick. She reached home more times on a delayed steal (on the throw back to the P) than I care to remember. She was quick, but also knew how to agressively slide, how to read the release of the ball and how to go from 0 to 60 MPH without hesitation. When she went, she went with the mindset that she was going to succeed, no matter what. And she probably only got thrown out 5% of the times she went. She also was not afraid of getting caught in a run-down, I actually think she lived for those situations. Since she was so quick, she had lots of options at the plate, she could bunt, slap, hit or go for the fences. If a team expected her to bunt/slap she would hit or sometimes she would even bunt/slap and challenge them to throw her out.

Man if I could have cloned her we would have been unstoppable, unfortunately I had 11 other girls that just didn't have "it". I had some that were fast but not quick, if you know what I mean. This girl had the situational awareness to put her quickness together with the situation and then the drive to go all out and the switch to turn it from the moment she left. There was no hesitation in this girl. Now she also had the ability to recognize when the situation changed and she needed to slam on the brakes when stealing bases (unless she was headed for home, then it was for all the marbles). She also had the confidence to challenge the people in her path and would "play" them and try to make them make a mistake.

 

[sdsoftball]

For me speed is more important of defense than offense. We have a CF who can flat out fly and she saves so many runs for us it is ridiculous. Her problem is she is not a good baserunner. She still has all that amazing speed but once she gets on first base she has a terrible time getting a good jump and then she is terrible at reading the ball off the bat and taking extra bases etc. On offense I would rather have a girl with average speed but who is a great baserunner. You can steal a lot of runs by being smart aggressive baserunners. That being said, if you have a really really slow runner that does kill. No fun having a really slow runner clog up the bases for everyone else.