college pitchers

being a pitcher in college must be a tough deal. I've watched a bunch of regional & super-regional games the last 2 weeks & those guys with the metal bats just hit, hit, hit, & hit some more.

same deal for a pitching coach!!!!!!

 

Get rid of metal bats and you would have outs, outs, outs. I hate everything about metal bats. It makes a mockery of the game The justification about costs does not hold water at the D1 level.

 

At this point, it has nothing to do with costs; but, it still has everything to do with economics...specifically, revenues. The bat companies routinely use the endorsements of college programs to promote metal bats to younger players.

The next time you see a copy of "Baseball America" on the newstand, pick it up, and you won't have to look far for a full page ad touting such-and-such bat company's bats being used by leading college programs. Meanwhile, the fees paid the universities for these endorsements are important revenue sources to the programs that endorse the bats.

After all, it's not like professional clubs and their players can endorse metal bats. If they could, the colleges would be left in the dust by the bat companies.

As a pitcher's father, I'm sick to death of seeing bloop singles hit over the heads of infielders and line drive home runs (not to mention the risk of line drives to pitchers); but, as long as the bat companies continue to provide as much income to major college programs as they do, nothing is going to change.

 

Wood

I agree; players need to learn how to hit with wood. Does anyone have any stats. on how many pitchers in high school and college have been hurt because of metal bats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

nextlevel5 i am pretty sure the statistics would be very low based on the amount of injuries per players available...
But!!!

1 injury is 1 too many if it is caused by an aluminum bat...

my son pitches and i fear the day some heavyweight come back up the middle and he doesnt have time to get set to defend...

He plays for the Copperheads in the Southern Collegiate Baseball League , a woodbat program endorsed by Major League Baseball approved by the NCAA.

The play is slower just like in the bigs... but they do have a DH and an EH used for that extra player to get in the games... I really enjoy watching or listening on the internet when they play away...

www.scbl.org

 

As the father of a pitcher heading off to college, I too worry when I watch how hard the ball comes off the metal bats. I have said here before that the NCAA could force the bat companies to manufacture the bats to specified "HOT" level that should approach that of wood.

 

The only reason wood would be effective is because players cannot swing with the same speed as a metal bat. When players get acustom to swinging a wood bat and their bat speed picks up you will see balls hit just as hard and maybe farther than with meta. Since wood has more mass than metal, when swung at the same speed a baseball would come off a wood bat faster. But wood does have a smaller sweet spot.

 

powrptcher27....not sure I agree with you here. Did you see the shot Horacio Ramirez for Atlanta took off the forehead the other night....I don't think he would have walked away if the batter was swinging a metal bat.

The power the High School guys generate is scary....I don't like thinking about the college guys with metal in their hands.

Being a pitchers dad also I'm with Prepster.....it's very frustrating when you see a pitcher make the pitch he wants to make in on the hands or out away from the plate and the batter get a "bloop single" to score runs or get on base....I also agree that based on the revenues involved I don't think we will see any changes with metal anytime soon.

 

Aluminum

Yeah, playing in both wood and aluminum bat leagues in my career, there is no way balls come off the bat at the same speed as aluminum. I see balls coming off of aluminum daily by some pretty good hitters.

Someone on this site posted a really good comment about wood vs. aluminum a couple of months ago and I wish that I could find it. I believe that aluminum is part of our game in college. I do not want to see it change. I am a pitching guy so I am not partial to the hitters. Don't get me wrong I'll shout a few curses out on a blooper every now and again, but I truly believe that is one of the things that makes our game unique. Games are going to be more offensive minded, but I also believe that if pitchers make pitches they will get outs.

Did anyone see that game 3 of the Georgia USC super this weekend? The strike zone was 10 inches wide. The umpire shut down the inner half completely. That Pelzer kid from SC made some good pitches early in that game and did not get them. As his pitch count rose, he started making a few more mistakes and eventually retired with a big deficit.

My concern with college baseball is this (It doesn't happen all of the time, but a good portion of it) Pitchers train to attack corners in and out up and down. When you take a majority of those away from them then hitters get into offensive minded counts. Put aluminum in their hands, sport specific training, and take the fear of the corners away from them, they are going to come UNGLUED at the seams. This is where your going to see people get hurt.

Want to see some pitching in Omaha... Watch Fullerton, Carolina, Oregon State, and Rice. Gonna be some good matchups there on the mound. Miller vs. Roemer (Fullerton) proves to be a classic. Miller and Roemer are two of the best in country and their numbers back it up.

 

Bats

You got to be kidding me. We have to get these kids back to wood if only to get back real baseball. I,m tired of seeing 15 or 16 runs scored, not to even talk about safety. As far as bats it has already been proven that the exit speed of the ball off of metal is much higher than wood.