breaking balls? Your thoughts on this please.
2006-07-25 07:21:21 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Sports ➔ Baseball
I couldn't agree more. I'm not sure what the lesson is supposed to be with hitting the next guy...
I have no problem with pitchers busting someone inside, or hitting a guy if he's leaning over the plate. But if you have to hit the guy who comes up after a homer, then it's probably a sign that you're not a great pitcher, and that there are likely to be more homers in the future.
2006-07-25 07:30:21 · answer #1 · answered by Craig S 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Once a batter homers off of you, you definately should not bean him on the next at bat, that's just bad sportsmanship. Personally me, I'm a fireballer, so whenever someone gets a big hit off of me, I never bean him. What you should do is throw a brushback pitch. Throw him some chin-music to show him you're not gonna back down. This way, you intimidate him and stay in the game.
The idea of not throwing hanging breaking balls is a good one, but at the same time it's hard to complete. Hanging breaking balls tend to be mistakes, unless you're not a very smart pitcher. The only way to completely avoid hanging breaking balls is to not throw any at all, which makes it much harder to be a dominant pitcher, unless you have a lot of pitches besides breaking balls.
When you bean the batter, you show not only that you have a bad attitude, but that you are just afraid to face him again, this encourages the batter to belt another home run off of you. If you throw the brushback to back him off of the plate, you actually intimidate him instead of just pissing him off. After that all you have to do is just pitch him hard on the wrists and use your change-up and breaking balls on the outside corner of the plate.
2006-07-25 16:34:37 · answer #2 · answered by vincanity 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If they took throwing at the other ream out of the game, Bob Gibson would not have been a great pitcher. Same w/Nolan Ryan, Clemens or any other great fireballer. It's part of baseball. Always has been. Great terms like "brushback", "chin music", "bail out", etc. I'm a purist & it was OK in baseball for 100 years. Why change now? Just because the roid rage causes the fights? Test on the spot fo steroid or HGH to see if that's the cause. if so....
2006-07-25 14:29:17 · answer #3 · answered by byhisgrace70295 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A lot of times, hitters get too 'comfortable' at the plate and aren't afraid to dig in or dive into the pitch so they can drive it into the outfield. A properly placed "high and tight" fastball will remind hitters that this baseball is being thrown HARD and the pitcher owns the plate.
2006-07-25 16:29:59 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋