While at ABCA 2017 in Anaheim, I had a few thoughts and discussions pop up about plate approach that I want to organize here.
For anyone unsure of what this topic means, what it is is what do you tell hitters to look for as they walk up to the plate? Should they always sit on fastball and adjust to offspeed? Should they look locationally, say "middle-in"? There are different views on this and some of the ones I mention above are common thoughts. Steve Springer mentions in his talks that he believes that batters should be hunting pitches based on what they see the pitcher throwing. The batter might be a fastball hitter, but if he watches the pitcher and sees that the pitcher is throwing consistent offspeed, the batter should begin to sit on the offspeed pitches that he's seeing thrown. Another approach that I discussed at length with another person was the thought that the player should understand his or her own strengths. The player should learn through practice both what TYPE of pitcher he or she is good at hitting (e.g. fastball, curveball, etc.) AND what LOCATION the hitter is best at hitting (e.g., outside, inside, middle, etc.). I definitely liked the idea of this approach about knowing as a hitter what your strengths are, particularly knowing what pitch locations you hit the best. However, I did not like being dependent on a particular TYPE of pitch in your approach. So, for me, I think I would take a hybrid approach - definitely know what type of pitch you're best at hitting, know what pitch location you're best at hitting, and also know what type of pitches the pitcher is throwing. At the HS level, my assumption is that pitchers will be throwing mostly fastballs so I think it's safe to assume that we can sit fastball the majority of the time. But, we need to make sure of this by watching the pitcher. I also assume that most HS hitters will also be best at hitting fastballs, but it's worth knowing whether hitting fastballs is your strength or not and if not, what pitch is your strength. Based on information that you learn from watching the pitcher, I would then develop your approach. If he's pitching fastballs, sit on the fastball that's in YOUR ZONE and take anything else until you get to two strikes. Once you get to two strikes, you've got to go into battle mode and make contact on strikes, no matter what the location or type of pitch. Interested in your thoughts! Tom
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AuthorI love to write about baseball, travel and other life situations. Archives
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