Posted by: Dumber than Dirt (joe.flowers@nofreewill.com) on Sat Jul 23 03:48:35 2011

On pre-game BP:

I'm convinced that matching the game pitches as much as is reasonably possible is best, including speed and distance with one VERY IMPORTANT caveat. The most important thing is to do this in such a way that increases the players' confidence and not diminishes it.
If they can't hit the damn thing or are frustrated then you've hurt more than helped. You have to build their confidence #1.

I think it's a mortal sin for the first pitch they see that day to be from an opposing pitcher in the game.

But, if you must sin mortally, soft toss is better than the T for warm-ups. On soft toss, *if they are hitting well* and there is a fast opposing pitcher, I will make the tosses faster and mix in some loops to give them a chance against the off speed pitches (or slower pitches) - I mix it up if I am pitching to them too and they are having a lot of success (confidence).

Confidence is #1 in this situation (pre-game BP), but I don't want to sin mortally either if I can help it.

----