Limit on HBPs

[josh]

Stupid rule. My town still has it, I believe, though it's gone through extended periods of no enforcement. Never been a fan. My buddy and I went around and around on this for hours, but he is flat-out wrong. He could not provide a single example of anyone in our league who had been injured or sidelined by a pitch. If a player misses an inning because she got hit on the elbow, that same injury could've happened anywhere on the field.

If you can't get out of the way of a rec pitcher, you are going to have a problem getting out of the way of a line drive or hard overhand throw. The pitchers throwing really fast are generally the ones that work on it and not the ones hitting batters, there are exceptions of course.

I'll say maybe 8u in our area is an exception because they have the girls pitching from a wickedly close 28' and the good ones have the ball getting there fast.

 

[wichita]

Normally I would say no there shouldn't be a rule For HBP. But way back in rec ball we had a kid that was pretty big for her age and threw hard but was wild as hell she would literally hit 7-8 kids a game it got to the point that we would run out of kids for that days games ( double headers) with injuries from being hit ( mostly knees shins and arms) so I could see that being a local rule and some leagues around here do have that rule.

 

[chinamigarden]

the answer to this question is ZERO, exactly ZERO girls are leaning into pitches in rec ball against better pitchers trying to get them out of the game.

Is that because there isn't a limit that would make a coach encourage it?

 

[quincy]

I do not think so, as others have metioned I do not think the pitchers are trying to hit anyone and I do not think the players like getting hit. I do not think the free base is worth it.

Some batters ask the umpire if they can still bat after being hit, sometimes the Umpire lets them.

 

[chinamigarden]

Really you guys have never heard a coach yell at the batter. "You need to wear that. She's not throwing that hard." I've heatd that 100 times over the past 10 seasons. No one yell great job getting out of the way. But you hear way to take one for the team countless times in a tournament.

Getting hit by pitches is encouraged and coached by plenty of
Coaches

 

[collinspc]

Really you guys have never heard a coach yell at the batter. "You need to wear that. She's not throwing that hard." I've heatd that 100 times over the past 10 seasons. No one yell great job getting out of the way. But you hear way to take one for the team countless times in a tournament.

Getting hit by pitches is encouraged and coached by plenty of
Coaches

You are effectively stating what everyone else has, in Tourny but not Rec. I believe the OP was questioning for rec.

 

[Rocketech1]

Really you guys have never heard a coach yell at the batter. "You need to wear that. She's not throwing that hard." I've heatd that 100 times over the past 10 seasons. No one yell great job getting out of the way. But you hear way to take one for the team countless times in a tournament.

Getting hit by pitches is encouraged and coached by plenty of
Coaches

Actually I have never heard that said and I have coached or attended 100s of softball games over the past 6 years including rec, rec all-stars, tournament teams, and travel ball teams. Maybe it is said more at 14U and older but than again you shouldn't have a HBP limit at these ages anyways.

To Josh's post:

"If you can't get out of the way of a rec pitcher, you are going to have a problem getting out of the way of a line drive or hard overhand throw. The pitchers throwing really fast are generally the ones that work on it and not the ones hitting batters, there are exceptions of course."

This isn't necessarily the case in my experience. Our local rec league starts kid pitch at 8U and the pitching distance is 30 feet (releasing the ball at 25 feet) which doesn't allow for a lot of time to get out of the way of a pitch. I have seen both hard and soft throwers who were very wild and would hit some batters.

With that said, I still don't think you need to mandate maximum # of HBP per inning and then the pitcher sits because most reasonable coaches will pull a pitcher anyways if she is completely ineffective. There are also positives for teaching the pitcher to work out of a jam if she hits several batters but if she can keep her composure and get the next few batters out, that is a great learning experience. This is one of the differences to just being a thrower and being a "pitcher".