Softball in need of a change, maybe two ...
Isn't time for high school softball to limit pitchers to 10 innings a
week, same as baseball?
Watching a pitcher dominate game after game doesn't determine which is
the best team, but rather it often merely means one team has the best
pitcher.
Of course, limiting how much a coach can use a pitcher would mean
coaches will have to develop a second pitcher. And some coaches appear
hesitant to take that responsibility because of the specialization
involved. Many pitchers have their own pitching coach.
And how about this: Consider moving the pitching rubber, now 40 feet,
back a couple of feet, or maybe even make it the same distance from the
plate as in college (43 feet. There has been speculation for several years about this).?
Changes like these would make the game more competitive, and make a sport
already enjoyable even more so. Put the ball in play more. Involve
the defense more. Make it truly a team game instead of just the pitcher and
catcher playing catch.
Sounds good from here.
Is St.Paul looking for a new softball coach? Morales is not returning??? What happened? Did Amat have anything to do with it?
Someone posted your thread at Galletti's blog, here is my response:
First of all it is nice to see softball continue to develop its popularity with the dynamic ratings that it received for the World Series. And in a way I am glad to see another "journalist" try and tell softball how to make its game better while it comments with no disdain toward baseball that regularly has three hour games with dominant pitchers being the highlight of their day. Knowing that if their were no physical limitations on baseball pitchers you would rarely see more than one in a game, but the overhand throwing motion rightfully stops that from happening.
I very much support moving the rubber back to 43', mainly because it is being done on every other level and pitchers have to work backwards to pitch at 40'. But, I wouldn't expect it to make dominant pitchers less dominant. Most pitchers who do well, move the ball, and in college and 18 Gold competition it has been shown that the best pitchers start to move their ball around 40' making it often times harder to hit them at 43'. In other words the "curve" curves more, the "screw" screws more, the "drop" drops more, and so on.
As far as limiting innings, I think the dominant pitcher argument is overstated. There are very few dominant pitchers and you can see that by checking the college and high school era stats, only a few really have dominant stats. This makes them more valuable as players and they should not have to compromise their talent. Dominance is the goal in pitching, whether in softball with an individual or in baseball with a pitching rotation.
The arguments against limiting innings for pitchers is similar to why you would not limit the innings of a dominant power hitting short stop. There are no physical limitations prompted by chronic injury in softball pitching, so you would ultimately be putting competition limits on a player and coach because of the depth of their success, essentially saying that "this player is too good to play all of the time so we are going to force a substitution." That would be unprecedented in any sport above the rec ball level, and in my opinion unnecessary and damaging to the game.Let me ask this: What happens when a team has two dominant pitchers?
Just imagine a player like Kobe Bryant being told that he can only play a limited amount of minutes because he is making his team disproportionally good and we need to develop some players to be like him. That would change the game for the worse. That is the same effect that pitching limitations would do for softball, make you beg for the great pitcher to be back in the game. And since there are no physical limitations, like in baseball, let them live up to their potential as players.
If it aint broke don't fix it.
Why not focus on improving the batters? You know the dominant pitchers are putting in countless hours of training...it's not automatic...The players(batters)have to want it. Time to put in countless hours of BP.
First of all it is nice to see softball continue to develop its popularity with the dynamic ratings that it received for the World Series. And in a way I am glad to see another journalist who is barely aware of the nature of fastpitch softball try and tell softball how to make its game better while it comments with no disdain toward baseball that regularly has three hour games with dominant pitchers being the highlight of their day. These comments are made knowing that if their were no physical limitations on baseball pitchers you would rarely see more than one in a game, but the overhand throwing motion rightfully stops that from happening.
I very much support moving the rubber back to 43', mainly because it is being done on every other level and pitchers have to work backwards to pitch at 40'. But I wouldn't expect it to make dominant pitchers less dominant. Most pitchers who do well, move the ball, and in college and 18 Gold competition it has been shown that the best pitchers start to move their ball around 40' making it often times harder to hit them at 43'. In other words the "curve" curves more, the "screw" screws more, the "drop" drops more, and so on.
As far as limiting innings, I think the dominant pitcher argument is overstated. There are very few dominant pitchers and you can see that by checking the college and high school era stats, only a few really have dominant stats. This makes them more valuable as players and they should not have to compromise their talent.
The arguments against limiting innings for pitchers is similar to why you would not limit the innings of a dominant power hitting short stop. There are no physical limitations prompted by chronic injury, so you would ultimately be putting competition limits on a player and coach because of the depth of their success, essentially saying that "this player is too good to play all of the time so we are going to force a substitution." That would be unprecedented in any sport above the rec ball level, and in my opinion unnecessary and damaging to the game.
Just imagine a player like Kobe Bryant being told that he can only play a limited amount of minutes because he is making his team disproportionally good and we need to develop some players to be like him. That would change the game for the worse. That is the same effect that pitching limitations would do for softball, make you beg for the great pitcher to be back in the game. And since there are no physical limitations, like in baseball, let them live up to their potential as players. Save those rules for little league.
If it aint broke don't fix it.
Roger your blowing it,
Its football time, spring training is almost over and you haven't had a football trhead in how long? How do the Del Rio & Almont fans like the new Southeast division?
Moving the rubber only makes the ball have more time to have more movement or drop on the ball!! If you think your girls can't hit now, move the rubber back and you will really make that pitcher a dominant one!!
Great idea... How do we get it done?