Stupid Things Coaches Say...

[parrot]

How does it help the batter in between pitches of an at-bat to be told that she should've swung at the last pitch?

If it helps, I'm all for it, but my belief is that the batter needs to be focusing on the pitcher and not relying on help from the outside, which I view as a distraction, unless it's basic encouragement, which doesn't need to be processed like a critique of each pitch does. I'd rather analyze her pitch selection after the at-bat is over. The situation changes after each pitch and with every new count. Doesn't matter what she should've done on the last pitch. It's about the next pitch.

It is about the next pitch. I think the implication is pretty obvious; "now you've seen it, if you see it again let's be swinging at it."

 

[Cowdogz]

I'm just a parent, but for me, "now you've seen it" is a positive, encouraging way of saying, "hey, that was a strike."

"Now you've seen it" is one of those innocuous, perhaps mildly encouraging, things that coaches say when they feel like they need to say something. One of DS's old baseball coaches, when a player looked at a strike, used to say "Hey, so what, right?" Coaches are notoriously uncomfortable with dead air.

 

[Cowdogz]

The inside river may be called for a strike, and your right in saying if she's not comfortable with that location to let it go...but that is hardly a meatball! With no strikes she can be a little picky and selective on her locations but if she gets two on her, then she'd had better be looking to hit anything that halfway resembles a strike....and that absolutely includes the river, chest, and shins!

Except that I wasn't talking about balls off the plate. I said "inner half," and that's what I meant. The coach thinking that a pitch is a "meatball" doesn't mean that the hitter can drive it. Every hitter has a "happy zone" where they hit the ball better. You get two strikes to wait for a pitch in that zone. If you don't see it, then you have to hit whatever they give you. This is why good two-strike hitters are hard to come by.

FWIW, Ted Williams said that he watched 90% of first pitches. The only reason he swung at the other 10% was to keep the pitchers honest.

 

[CoogansBluff]

FWIW, Ted Williams said that he watched 90% of first pitches. The only reason he swung at the other 10% was to keep the pitchers honest.

Specifically, Ted said he generally took the first pitch in his first at-bat of the game against a pitcher, not later at-bats vs. the same pitcher. But point taken.

 

[Cowdogz]

Specifically, Ted said he generally took the first pitch in his first at-bat of the game against a pitcher, not later at-bats vs. the same pitcher. But point taken.

You're right. And it was actually 95%.

 

[00fpdaddy]

That's a great theory. But I may not be able to have that good conversation until 4 hours later. After she may have been benched. After we have played 3 more games. It may not be until next weekend. So if I say nothing, she is free to assume that the world rests on her shoulders and she let me down, thereby dooming the earth and all civilization. If I say something slightly positive, she might not dwell on that 3rd strike the next 5 at bats.

Wow, 4 hours later to see why she didnt swing at a pitch down the middle of the plate. If the coach is on your case it means he cares, if hes not on your case it generally means your a lost cause.

 

[Huskerdu]

When my kids were small (10u) I used to tell my catcher, "Dre' be a catcher not a chaser!"

 

[cmustangsfp]

FWIW, Ted Williams said that he watched 90% of first pitches. The only reason he swung at the other 10% was to keep the pitchers honest.

FWIW, Ted Williams also had 20/10 vision. He said he could see the seams of the ball as it came toward him.

 

[jacman]

Never watch a first pitch strike.

Any body who strikes out looking is gets pulled immediately.

(to non-starters as a group during practice) If you want to play, you need to start giving me 100%. (Believe me, they already did.)

 

[Cowdogz]

FWIW, Ted Williams also had 20/10 vision. He said he could see the seams of the ball as it came toward him.

"I had 20-10 vision. A lot of guys can see that well. I sure couldn't read labels on revolving phonograph records as people wrote I did. I couldn't 'see' the bat hit the ball, another thing they wrote........What I had more of wasn't eyesight, it was discipline" [The Science of Hitting, p. 25]