This week's podcast is with the legend, Tom House.

"I believe pitchers will be able to throw 118 mph one day" 

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Your Approach at the Plate

Today, I'm going to talk about game planning against pitchers. More specially, high-level pitchers. As much as I don't like them, pitchers are getting better and better. Heck, on my podcast this week, Tom House said that based on his research, pitchers might be able to throw 118 mph! 

To prepare our hitters to face the best pitchers, we must educate them to become their own hitting coach. I put pitchers into two categories.

1. Role out of bed

2. Blueprint

Role out of bed means you can role out of bed and hit them. They have average stuff. Blueprint pitchers mean you need to have a blueprint to beat them.

Today we're talking about the blueprint pitchers.

"Unfortunately..." most miss the most important point.

If you try to cover everything, you end up covering nothing.

• They don't buy in

• They don't eliminate pitches.

• They don't know their bat path.

• They don't know the FB movement. 

Credit to @pitchingnija below

Here's how step by step:

Step 1: Eliminate Pitches

"Watch what the pitcher does. If he doesn't have a feel for a certain pitch, he's not going to throw it in a key situation"

- Ken Griffey Jr.

Anytime we can simplify hitting, I'm all in. Eliminating pitches is an easy way to do that. For coaches with data on the opposing pitcher, this is easy to do. You can look at percentages and take an educated guess on what pitches you can eliminate.

For coaches without this kind of data, you must watch the pitcher warm up and how they throw to the first few hitters. Early on, you can see what pitches they have working that day.

Here are some examples:

1. "Be great at what you're good at" Let's say you have a hitter who destroys FB but struggles with the breaking ball. You can have them only look for FB and spit on anything with spin.

2. Can't locate the FB. They're only throwing off-speed pitches. Depending on the shape of the breaking pitch, the hitter can look for it to appear in a certain window and take it if it's not there.

Step 2: Top/Down Approach

If the movement of a pitcher's FB has a high vertical break, or in softball, a rise ball, I'd recommend a top/down approach for some hitters, which means they expect the ball to be thrown in the top part of the zone, increasing the chances of being able to hit it.

1. The hitter will make better swing decisions.

2. Have a better chance to not miss under.

When hitters swing and miss at a FB, they're under it or late. This strategy helps with that.

Step 3: Shape of breaking ball

The next thing we need to know is the shape of the breaking ball. I put those into two categories.

1. Sweepy (east/west movement)

2. Tight (north/south movement

If the pitcher has a sweepy slider, the hitter may need to see it start on the inside part of the plate for it to be a strike. If they see it start on the middle of the plate, it's a take.

For a tight-breaking ball that has north/south movement, how much does it break?

Is it a 12/6 where we let it go if we see spin below the pitcher's release point, or is it a tight slider? These are all questions you have to answer before you game plan with your hitters. 

Summary:

1. Eliminate pitches

2. Know the FB movement.

3. Shape of the breaking ball

Bonus Tip: Small ball doesn't beat elite pitching. You're more likely to get a few big hits than scraping together several high-quality ABs against good pitching. 

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