Posted by: skip (piks5@sbcglobal.net) on Wed Jun 27 19:19:14 2007

> The high school coach of my son, likes to have their kids batting on one strike count. I believe that if a batter has shown discipline by swinging most of the time at good pitches, he should get the green light when at bat unless the pitcher is wild or the tying run is at 3rd with the bases loaded. The players on one strike have to cope with umpires that many times make mistakes in favor of the pitcher, then come the foul ball(s), then they have to face the hook. What's your opinion.
> Thanks

I think that this is a very bad coaching practice.

Pitchers are instructed to get ahead. Sometimes they do this with a get-it-over fastball. Hittable. Against 3-4-5 batters, it might be a curve instead, but lots of curves hang.

The first pitch of the at-bat might be the most crushable pitch you see. By a significant margin, 0-0 counts see the most home runs in MLB.

Umpires are smart. By the third batter, they'll get the picture. Umpires root for the pitcher when they know that batters have decided ahead of time not to offer. They'll call strikes on marginal pitches.

This coach does not trust his batters' basic game intelligence. Or, he read a book somewhere and wants to "control" the game with some cockamamie theory. Ted Williams could do this; normal people shouldn't.

No choice but to go along with it. You'll lose more games, but the kids will get used to adversity, which isn't a terrible thing. Though the game is supposed to be fun-- that's why they call it a game, isn't it.?
Skip