What Baseball Can Learn from Rec League Softball (Part 1)

There are few things more embarrassing in softball than striking out swinging. It is the epitome of anti-manhood as your certain-to-be-a-home run turns into teammates attempting to avoid your eyes as you return to the bench, save for the one person shaking his head at you laughing, and the other person telling you that it happens to everyone.*

You can't overpower someone in arc softball yet you can certainly destroy confidence. You know what else kills confidence? A weak ground ball back to the pitcher. When I pitch in softball I love a weak grounder back to me.

In major league baseball, current wisdom holds that the greatest prediction of future pitching success is lots of strikeouts. Overpowering someone is the best determinate of MLB success since if the hitter can't make contact then nothing bad will happen. A good year for a pitcher such as Scott Feldman is considered luck and Jaimie Moyer's entire career considered an outlier.

They are not overpowering power pitchers. These type of pitchers had success year after year, though they are far more difficult to predict. They are outliers.

Except they shouldn't be - they are the victim of bad data. In softball an unlimited height arc pitcher has enough skill to throw a ball 20 feet in the air and drop it within a small zone. The pitcher can vary the height (effecting velocity), spin, and location; to educe consistent outs without any strikeouts.

They are not outliers. They are knuckleballers with bad press** - the ability to get people out since no one knows what is coming.

With the changes in catcher targeting technology, pitcher intention (which can be measured based on the consistency of where the catcher sets up v actual movement), and the continued collection of data we will soon find what is obvious to rec league softball players everywhere - you CAN get people out with soft pitches. You can separate a good soft throwing pitcher from the bad and you will be able to predict how well people without overpowering stuff can perform.

And then everyone can get made at so many soft grounders back to the pitcher.

Wayne

*I have been in all three of those positions
** Knuckle ballers never seem to get good press. The pitch can't be predicted so it seems to be that people think it is an easy skill.