43 feet/Homeruns

I like it too. It takes the edge off a dominant pitcher and puts the ball into play more often. It is a little harder on the weakest teams.

 

The numbers say 43ft has made a difference. But I'm not sure thats all of it. I've seen 25 games or so this year. And just do not see dominate pitching this year as there was maybe 5 years ago. I don't think that at 40ft it would be a great deal differenet. Certainly hitters as a whole are much better than 5 years ago. I believe many young ladies are working hard in the off season to improve their swings. One thing for sure this debate will go one for awhile

 

....what HR changes?
Pops posted 5 or 6 kids who have from 6-11 HRS this year, are you telling me that in years past 5 or 6 kids did not have 6-11 in any given season?

marlin

 

Unless I am misunderstanding the excitement in the homerun thread, it sure sounds like the number of homeruns and girls hitting them is higher this year. I dont have official stats... maybe I am wrong.

 

You are not wrong. A lot more HRs this year than ever before. A direct effect of 43'. I saw where one team has already hit close to 20 HRs for the year so far. It has done what it was designed to do, put offense in the game. I think 43' is a good thing. It's not that there are less dominate pitchers than in years past it is just that the added distance made many of the pitchers that were already there less effective. I've seen this in several pitcher who had much more success last year

 

....hey scpal, stay with me here now, are you saying that more kids are hitting HRs or more HRs are being hit from the dominate kids. What I'm asking is ...if Pops is right and I'm sure he is, and he says that 5 or 6 kids have 6-11 HRs this year, then maybe last year at this time, and the year before last at this time, 5 or 6 kids had 6-11 HRs as well.
Pops can tell us how this year compares to past years, and I'll look forward to his reply. As for now, its cool to see excitement building in the game.

Thanks SCFanPal

Fishman

 

I had to go back to the original OP to find out what level of softball we are talking about here.

In HS, absolutely there have been (and will be) more home runs at 43' vs. 40'. This is because most HS pitchers are NOT top notch PITCHERS (most are "throwers").

At ASA Nationals on the other hand, I don't think there will be more homeruns against the top 25 teams in 16U or higher. This is because at these levels you will be seeing the 100 or so best pitchers in the country.

The extra distance will in fact give the batter a small amount of extra time to "see" and to "get to" the ball allowing batters to more easily catch up to speed. By time these same batters "see" and "get to" the ball, the ball will be somewhere else when thrown by a top level pitcher.

The advantages and disadvantages will equal out at Nationals.