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43 Changes
by Dave
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The 43 feet vs. 40 feet pitching distance seems to change just about everything!
I don't know which states have switched their high school pitching distance to 43 feet and which will wait until next year but our state has switched for this year. I have been to perhaps a half dozen or so scrimmages thus far and I have to say it makes quite a bit of difference. Lots more balls are hit into play and this changes everything!
It finally occurred to me that I had harbored a misconception when comparing Gold/showcase ball to high school ball. I always assumed that the hitters were far more skilled at the showcase level. They probably are more skilled but not nearly as much as I previously thought. The hitters are better but they are made to seem much better by the further pitching distance.
I have always enjoyed viewing showcases because the quality of play seems so high. The fielding at this level far exceeds what one sees in high school because more players are more gifted and much more experienced and well trained. Whereas in high school games, the average team might have one to five very experienced and gifted kids, the average showcase team at the events I have viewed is filled with that level of player.
A high school team is generally put together with whatever level of ability is available from the, somewhat limited in size, student body. A showcase team might have kids from several states or at least some of the best players within its home state. In any given year, a high school might or might not have a stud pitcher, catcher and shortstop who will play at the next level, and, only in limited circumstances, a lineup of quality hitters from 1 through 9. Very often, there are girls on a high school team who have played little more than a few rec games each year. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that as folks are free to choose what their own priorities are. And many schools have as few as 100 girls from which to fill slots on the softball, tennis, lacrosse, etc. teams, not to mention other time consuming pursuits.
The result is many high school teams have been able to do well despite perhaps having as many as 4 or 5 fairly weak players in their field and batting lineup. One super stud pitcher with perhaps a couple other studs at key positions could propel a team to a relatively high finish within their conference, county and maybe even the state playoffs. That is probably no longer true except in very limited circumstances.
As I said, top showcase teams generally have more depth in the field and seldom "hide" weak fielders. But to be honest, the level of hitting is not quite as gifted as I once thought. That has become evident because now that our high schools pitch from 43 feet, there are a lot more balls hit into play which makes the batters seem more skilled. What has become more apparent is the disparity between the two types of play when it comes to defense.
Generally girls who play showcase ball care deeply about their games. They not only play between 50 and 100 games each year, but also they spend more time working on their skills. They attend clinics, see private coaches, and work hard on their own to be strong defensively as well as with the bat. There are often a lot of girls lined up to make successful showcase teams. The coaches have to pick their roster by deciding between several very skilled girls. They don't generally have to grab some kid to fill a slot even though her defensive skills are weak. There are not many times that a good showcase team will be unable to put together an infield or outfield filled with kids who are at or close to being all conference high school players, at the very least.
Long ago, somebody told me, "the typical high school team is put together with 3 or 4 travel ball players while the typical travel team has 12 travel players." That's obvious enough but the point is, high schools often have a fairly large number of kids who did not have the time to play travel softball. Perhaps they chose to play travel soccer or some other sport. Perhaps they are academic demons who would prefer spending their free time reading scientific journals. But when they thought about what they wanted to do in high school, they decided to go out for softball. And because the total number of kids in their class who went out for softball numbered just 10 or 12, they not only made the team but became a starter.
I can't speak for every high school, and in truth, I'm not really speaking for ours. But I understand from talking to several coaches that many schools do not have freshman teams because, in any given year, they are unlikely to have 9 kids in one class. Some schools I know of struggle to field a JV team. It is quite enough for them to gather 9 live bodies with which to populate the varsity roster. I recall one year in which a particular team had 10 on varsity and 9 on JV. I don't know what they would have done if somebody was injured or quit the team.
The top softball schools in our area have more than enough travel ball players to fill a team, including subs. But that frequently spans more than one class. And some of the younger players, while very skilled, lack the level of experience one might see in a high level showcase or Gold team.
Before I get a bunch of e-mails, please understand that I do know there are some run of the mill "showcase" teams which are very weak. I also can appreciate that there are nominal travel teams and some very weak genuine travel teams. I suppose I'm not really referring to them. I can appreciate that some kids who play some level of travel may not be as good as some other kids who are outstanding athletes but just do not have the time for travel softball. But the general rule is that a girl who plays almost 100 games per year, plays spring, summer and fall, does 2 practices a weak in the "off" season, and receives generally better coaching from the age of 10, 11 or 12, is going to be a better player than one who merely plays a dozen or so rec games for 3 months of the year.
In any event, I'm beginning to blather and dance around the points I want to make. The change to 43 feet has resulted in several important changes to the high school game which I was able to ascertain by watching just a few scrimmages - our regular season begins next week.
The first item on my list is pitchers who once were able to get through games without being touched very much are getting hit much harder. We've been over the speed vs. movement vs. location argument before on this blog. I stick to what I said several years ago. Of speed, location and movement, which is the most important? Yes!
All three elements of pitching are very important. And I'll add to the three biggies with change of speed, deception, and breaking down hitters. A pitcher who has speed but no movement and a mediocre change is going to find trouble unless that speed is somewhere around 65+. There are not many, perhaps any, girls hitting 65 and up on radar guns during their high school years. Actually, there aren't many in college doing that. But a girl who is hitting high speeds may still be able to overpower hitters. Still, more kids will hit balls into play against her than ever before.
If she changes speeds very well, our power pitcher will probably have much greater success. It is easier to overpower even a good hitter with a 62 mph fastball if you just made her swing and miss or stand with a blank stare at a 42 mph change. Throw that same hitter 6 pitches at 65+ during three at bats and I like her chances to catch up with one and drill it a long ways.
If our pitcher can throw a mediocre speed, sharp moving drop, she may not strike out as many batters but she is going to generate a lot of weak grounders. There is certainly room for speed pitchers, especially against weak hitters but movement has been raised up a notch in importance at the high school level with the move to 43. As I said, I hold to my ideal pitcher with speed, movement, location, etc. but at the high school level, I think the girls who got by on speed alone will find it much more difficult to do so this year.
Along with more balls being hit into play comes, obviously, lots fewer K's. Some pitchers are going to have a difficult time soothing their bruised egos when they graduate from games routinely 14 strike-outs to those with just 4. Also, innings which started out with an error and ended with the runner stranded and the score stuck at 0-0 will be fewer. Gone are the days when our once overpowering pitcher will be able to work her team out of trouble by blowing a few past the next three hitters. A much more likely scenario is maybe one K and two grounders or outs made someway else. Runs are going to score against many teams and pitchers unaccustomed to the experience.
So what happens to those balls hit into play? Well, they either drop as hits or are fielded by defensive players and played into, hopefully, outs. Because pitchers will continue to use the full extent of the strike zone and areas around it, those balls are going to be sprayed all over the place. All 7 defensive positions, excluding the Ps and Cs, are going to have to field their positions much more than in the past. In the course of many games I have watched, there have been a high percentage of those in which one particular fielder or several of them have not made a single play, excluding backups or base running ones, during a full game or several games consecutively. I do not believe that will be the case with the new pitching distance.
The other day, I watched a weak team play a scrimmage against a pretty average one and over just two rather difficult innings, I saw balls hit to every fielder. The innings contained several strike-outs as weaker hitters eventually made their ways through the order. But there were more balls hit into play than I have ever seen at any one game in just those two innings. And the weak fielders became very evident.
I recall a similar game a couple years ago in which the score ended at 2-0. despite the teams each containing weak fielders, few balls were hit into play and very few were hit well. One kid was responsible for both runs as she had a 2 for 3 day at the plate. The runners who scored on each of those hits were the only other base runners the team had. The opponent had perhaps 3 or 4 who were stranded after successive strike-outs. Of the total of maybe 8 baserunners for the whole game, for both teams, there were perhaps 3 hits, 2 walks and 3 errors. the game was played in well under two hours. based on what I saw in this scrimmage, that same game probably would have been 12-10 with 20-25 hits, 10 errors, etc. Of course games between two good teams with two good pitchers, etc. will still be won by one run. But I suspect rather than being 9 inning, 1-0 quick flings, they will be 9 inning, 3-2 exciting affairs. Games between good teams will be longer, involve more baserunners and runs, and see saw back and forth more than in the past. Games between bad teams will be high scoring and involve a lot of misplays.
At another scrimmage I watched a team comprised of two teams with mostly travel ball players, I had to remind an acquaintance of mine who was the father of one pitcher that the distance had increased. He had watched his daughter play top level showcase ball for a couple years but was unaccustomed to seeing her get hit in high school games. He was besides himself. When I mentioned the distance change, his face lit up and he calmed down. He had forgotten about that little item.
Despite all the balls being hit into play, his daughter's team did well. They were mostly very skilled fielders and played most balls into outs. They scored some runs and easily defeated their scrimmage partner. I think they'll do quite well this year because their defense is very sound. Solid defense is going to win a lot of games this year. Defenders are going to get lots more experience actually fielding balls!
In years past I have watched a team that had good fielders but which also sported a very dominant strike-out pitcher. She threw lots of no hitters. Many of the games she pitched involved very few balls hit into play. She was so dominant that the fielders could have sat down at a table in center field and had tea for most of the innings. Occasionally, they would have to get up when she walked someone. But the rest of the time was pretty leisurely. And this was problematic for the team when they got into championship play.
During the later part of the season, when better teams play against better teams, the team which makes the biggest mistakes usually loses. This team with the dominant pitcher never really got its defense into sync. The players were talented but having played very few games in which the defense was tested at all, their combined defensive skill was not what it might have been. They faltered at a bad time and were eliminated despite probably having the best team in the competition. This year, with many more balls being hit into play, I imagine they will gel to a much higher degree.
When fielders stand in their positions for a long time without balls being hit to them and with the expectation that there is a low likelihood that they will see any action, they atrophy. They get back on their heals, think about their next at bat, and otherwise drop out of the game for half an inning. On the other hand, when a fielder expects that, on any given pitch, she is likely to have to make a play, she is going to play defense. She will be ready. She will be on her toes. She will be sharp. So good defensive players are likely to really enjoy the change in the pitching distance.
On the other hand, poor fielders are going to tense up and make errors with more balls being hit into play. When an unskilled fielder has a high expectation of a ball being hit to her which she doubts she will be able to field cleanly, she gets so tense that, in general, she will make worse errors than she would if she were relaxed and confident. The best cure for this is going to be good coaching and loads of repetition. Coaches who want to be successful with less talented players than they would like are going to have to make the difference by working hard with their weakest players. Fundamental skill teachers will see their teams compete better than coaches who just round up their kids and work plays.
Certainly plays will continue to be important but in prior years, with fewer overall balls being hit into play, coaches could round up their best players, populate the higher profiled positions with them and work plays that didn't involve those with lesser skills. In general, that means infield because with very few balls hit into play, the focus was much more on dealing with baserunners, short game considerations, and that sort of thing. Fewer balls were hit to the outfield and teams could hide kids in the corners.
Every member of the defensive team is going to have an important role to play in determining who wins and who loses games. Skills of the weakest players are going to be tested. , i Kids who cannot field well are going to make bad plays. Outfield cut-offs, for example, are going to be much more critical. It is one thing when a 1-0 game is determined by a runner from third scoring on a short fly. It is quite an another when, in a 5-3 game, there is a fly ball with runners on second and third and the outfielder throws late and offline to home, allowing the runner from second to move up and score on the next fly ball. Girls are going to not only need to know the cut-off plays but, perhaps more importantly, be able to throw very well so as to hold runners from advancing.
I think of the various scrimmages I have watched, the majority of additional baserunners over prior years has been due to balls being played badly and the additional runs came from mental mistakes made by players with apparently less experience. Soft liners that would be caught at a higher level find the ground. Over throws start the merry-go-round to spinning. And throws to wrong bases have provided the opportunity for more runners than ever before to move up. The game most certainly has changed.
In games between good, sound defensive teams, in the past a runner might get aboard somehow, move up on a bunt and then languish as the next two hitters struck out. Now, it is more likely that such runners move around the bases on balls hit into play, if not necessarily for base hits. If a team gets a runner on third with less than two outs, the likelihood that a run will get pushed across will be much higher than in years gone by. The value of a grounder hit up the middle is going to go up. That means the defenses which are able to play such balls and nail the runner at the plate are going to have an advantage.
Aside from this, defenses are going to have to short-circuit potentially big innings. They may have to get hitters out at first instead of always playing to stop the run. That takes some discipline, planning and coaching. Too often, in the past, I have seen fielders always seeking and failing to get the lead runner. That is not such a huge deal when the next couple of hitters go down swinging. But when runners are moved via productive outs, bigger innings will follow such mental mistakes.
In short, the reduction in the number of strike-outs is going to change more than the face of the game. Pitchers are going to have to become more crafty and rely less on overpowering hitters. They will have to change speeds, move the ball and hit spots. Defenses are going to have to be better in order to win games. Fundamental skills will be far more important. Coaches are going to have to train their weakest players better than ever before. Scores will go up, games will get longer, and weak teams are going to have a heck of a time. Better tams will still play exciting games against better teams but more of the thrill is likely to be out there in the field.
I have always considered myself a baseball and softball purest - I like 1-0 pitchers duels. But having seen some of these games with more balls hit into play, I have to say that I agree with the powers who decided to put this in motion. The game is vastly improved by having more balls hit into play and involving defensive teams more. It is no less exciting to watch two very good teams play to a 3-2 final score than it was to sweat it out through a 1-0 one.
The only issue I have with this change is I happen to have one kid in middle school. Their conference always follows the high school rules. They are pitching at 43 feet! In the past their games have been relatively high scoring, rather long and involved fairly large numbers of errors. I am somewhat afraid of what this year will bring.Labels: batting, defense, high school, rules
 
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