Pitch for contact or pitch for strikeout?

[jonriv]

Seen very successful college k pitchers

I have seen successful college contact pitchers

I have seen both types get smoked by certain lineups

All depends on the pitcher and/or the lineup

Really? You think so, Doctor?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgPaWpxl2cw

Be nice Tyler!!!

My point is that we tend to ask Black and White questions and usually the answers are various shades of gray

[Desmo13]

efficeincy.. ground them out, pop them up, next batter.

[Sam]

I've seen enough stupid replies. NOBODY pitches to contact. NOBODY. The GOAL of the pitcher is to PREVENT the batter from hitting the ball. Period. Anyone that says different has no idea what they are talking about.

There are certainly situations where your pitcher will attempt to throw more hittable pitches....walk three in a row in a tie ballgame late with at 3-1 count.....you might groove a pitch just to avoid walking in a run. Other than that, your pitcher and the person calling the pitches, have one goal.....strike out every batter.

I don't want any pitcher that gives up on striking out every hitter.

[curveballerguy124]

I've seen enough stupid replies. NOBODY pitches to contact. NOBODY. The GOAL of the pitcher is to PREVENT the batter from hitting the ball. Period. Anyone that says different has no idea what they are talking about.

There are certainly situations where your pitcher will attempt to throw more hittable pitches....walk three in a row in a tie ballgame late with at 3-1 count.....you might groove a pitch just to avoid walking in a run. Other than that, your pitcher and the person calling the pitches, have one goal.....strike out every batter.

I don't want any pitcher that gives up on striking out every hitter.

Well Sam I beg to differ, respectively of course.....Don't get me wrong I see your point about being aggressive and having the approach of wanting to strike out every batter. Truth is, that ain't gonna happen and the pitcher and the coach needs to know what that pitchers ability is and use her strengths to their advantage.

Example; This past month I pitched at the mens nationals in Reno. I was throwing WELL velocity was up, hitting my spots, moving the ball well. We faced a very tough team, strong hitting squad a lot of upper division and open ball hitters. Guys that have faced pitchers the likes of Adam Folkard, Ramon Jones ISC level type pitchers. I went in with the, "F these guys they've never seen or faced me before I'm going at them hard rack up some K's ". Needless to say, I never made it out the 2nd inning and gave up 8 EARNED runs. The guy that came in, in relief of me basically pitched to contact working low and to the corners and the D made the outs, we almost came back to win.

My point is, its ALWAYS the pitchers job to PREVENT the batter from hitting the ball WELL!!! If you get a strike out or two or three along the way then great but max strikeouts should not be the the main objective in my opinion. Getting out of a inning or game with the least amount of pitches thrown should be.

I lost sight of that in that game because I was going after K's and bragging rights but the next day I pitched with my standard approach of "keeping the batter from hitting the ball well". I racked up 3 K's and the win against the team that mercy'd the team that beat the shit out of me the day before...

[Desmo13]

I think the pitcher and catcher work with what they have that game, and the hitters faced. Example, faced with a bunt situation, the catcher will call pitches that will pop the bunt up, or foul it off until 2 bunt strikes, then call for the swinging strike.

[Sam]

I've seen enough stupid replies. NOBODY pitches to contact. NOBODY. The GOAL of the pitcher is to PREVENT the batter from hitting the ball. Period. Anyone that says different has no idea what they are talking about.

There are certainly situations where your pitcher will attempt to throw more hittable pitches....walk three in a row in a tie ballgame late with at 3-1 count.....you might groove a pitch just to avoid walking in a run. Other than that, your pitcher and the person calling the pitches, have one goal.....strike out every batter.

I don't want any pitcher that gives up on striking out every hitter.

Well Sam I beg to differ, respectively of course.....Don't get me wrong I see your point about being aggressive and having the approach of wanting to strike out every batter. Truth is, that ain't gonna happen and the pitcher and the coach needs to know what that pitchers ability is and use her strengths to their advantage.

Example; This past month I pitched at the mens nationals in Reno. I was throwing WELL velocity was up, hitting my spots, moving the ball well. We faced a very tough team, strong hitting squad a lot of upper division and open ball hitters. Guys that have faced pitchers the likes of Adam Folkard, Ramon Jones ISC level type pitchers. I went in with the, "F these guys they've never seen or faced me before I'm going at them hard rack up some K's ". Needless to say, I never made it out the 2nd inning and gave up 8 EARNED runs. The guy that came in, in relief of me basically pitched to contact working low and to the corners and the D made the outs, we almost came back to win.

My point is, its ALWAYS the pitchers job to PREVENT the batter from hitting the ball WELL!!! If you get a strike out or two or three along the way then great but max strikeouts should not be the the main objective in my opinion. Getting out of a inning or game with the least amount of pitches thrown should be.

I lost sight of that in that game because I was going after K's and bragging rights but the next day I pitched with my standard approach of "keeping the batter from hitting the ball well". I racked up 3 K's and the win against the team that mercy'd the team that beat the shit out of me the day before...

CBG,
I understand your position and believe that we actually agree....you just look at it differently. I would argue that your reliever was trying to strike out the hitters by throwing to locations that were difficult to hit....thereby attempting to strike them out..... but was successful because the hitters were unable to hit the ball hard.

Side Note: Years ago I put together a team to play Eddie Feigner and The King and His Court. A local friend, Harry Fish (RIP), pitched for us and kept them off balance with offspeed junk all game long and we won 4-1. He struck out quite a few of them...which is what he was trying to do, though he wasn't going to be able to blow them away with speed.

[GIMNEPIWO]

I've seen enough stupid replies. NOBODY pitches to contact. NOBODY. The GOAL of the pitcher is to PREVENT the batter from hitting the ball. Period. Anyone that says different has no idea what they are talking ar

I don't want any pitcher that gives up on striking out every hitter.

Of course the goal of a pitcher is to have the batter not make any or any good contact .. My point was from the perspective that strike outs, or a lot of strike out are not always the best thing for the teams defense.

[Skarp]

I've seen enough stupid replies. NOBODY pitches to contact. NOBODY. The GOAL of the pitcher is to PREVENT the batter from hitting the ball. Period. Anyone that says different has no idea what they are talking about.

There are certainly situations where your pitcher will attempt to throw more hittable pitches....walk three in a row in a tie ballgame late with at 3-1 count.....you might groove a pitch just to avoid walking in a run. Other than that, your pitcher and the person calling the pitches, have one goal.....strike out every batter.

I don't want any pitcher that gives up on striking out every hitter.

Well Sam I beg to differ, respectively of course.....Don't get me wrong I see your point about being aggressive and having the approach of wanting to strike out every batter. Truth is, that ain't gonna happen and the pitcher and the coach needs to know what that pitchers ability is and use her strengths to their advantage.

Example; This past month I pitched at the mens nationals in Reno. I was throwing WELL velocity was up, hitting my spots, moving the ball well. We faced a very tough team, strong hitting squad a lot of upper division and open ball hitters. Guys that have faced pitchers the likes of Adam Folkard, Ramon Jones ISC level type pitchers. I went in with the, "F these guys they've never seen or faced me before I'm going at them hard rack up some K's ". Needless to say, I never made it out the 2nd inning and gave up 8 EARNED runs. The guy that came in, in relief of me basically pitched to contact working low and to the corners and the D made the outs, we almost came back to win.

My point is, its ALWAYS the pitchers job to PREVENT the batter from hitting the ball WELL!!! If you get a strike out or two or three along the way then great but max strikeouts should not be the the main objective in my opinion. Getting out of a inning or game with the least amount of pitches thrown should be.

I lost sight of that in that game because I was going after K's and bragging rights but the next day I pitched with my standard approach of "keeping the batter from hitting the ball well". I racked up 3 K's and the win against the team that mercy'd the team that beat the shit out of me the day before...

CBG,
I understand your position and believe that we actually agree....you just look at it differently. I would argue that your reliever was trying to strike out the hitters by throwing to locations that were difficult to hit....thereby attempting to strike them out..... but was successful because the hitters were unable to hit the ball hard.

Side Note: Years ago I put together a team to play Eddie Feigner and The King and His Court. A local friend, Harry Fish (RIP), pitched for us and kept them off balance with offspeed junk all game long and we won 4-1. He struck out quite a few of them...which is what he was trying to do, though he wasn't going to be able to blow them away with speed.

Agree that this is a distinction without a difference. If you are pitching to make hitters miss, you are by definition also pitching to make hitters mis-hit when they do manage to make contact. Intentionally trying to induce contact is playing with fire, imo.

[Lace]

I tell my pitchers their job is to help us get three outs as fast as possible. Hit your spots move the ball and lets get outs.

[Sam]

So.......Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP) is always higher than Batting Average on Balls Not In Play (BABNIP)......which is always .000

So.....if your pitcher isn't attempting to strike out every hitter, .....you should remove her because she is thereby attempting to allow the opponents to get hits/runs/wins. Thats math.