Over pitching – Part 2

In yesterday’s post I brought up the concept of over pitching.  It happens at all levels but you will most often see it with young

pitchers who feel they have to do too much out on the mound.  In todays’ post, I’m going to give some game situations where over pitching tends to come up.

First inning. One of the more common situations where over pitching occurs is early in the game.  You’ll notice it when a pitcher uses all of their pitches in the first inning.  If a pitcher gets in a jam in the first, it is perfectly ok to use all his pitches to get out of it.  However, a pitcher will be facing these hitters a few times in the later innings so if he can, it is to his advantage not to show all his pitches early on for all to see.  

Facing bad hitters.  At the younger levels there tends to be a noticeable drop off in hitting ability after the 4th or 5th batter.  When that drop off occurs, pitchers usually can get away with just some well placed fastballs.  Snapping off your best out-pitch(es) to these guys is usually unnecessary.  Go after them with your fastball until they prove to you they can hit it.

Two outs-bases empty.  Few things annoy pitching coaches more than a pitcher who nibbles with off-speed stuff when there is nobody on base with two outs.  It’s another situation where the pitcher is making things more complicated than it has to be.  You don’t need your best stuff here.  Just go after the hitter.

I could go on with more examples but I think you get the point.  Over pitching is any situation where the pitcher tries to unnecessarily trick the hitter instead of just going after them.  I wrote about this before when I said pitchers often forget how hard hitting a baseball is.  

It still is probably the hardest thing to do in sports.  Don’t pitch like it is one of the easiest.