Softball CWS

Good luck GDF. We'll be cheerin against each other but you can still pull your lawn chair up to the backstop and sit by me.

 

Lane violation must be the entire foot outside the 24" plate width. I see chalk coming up so it's not a lane violation IMO.

I believe the correct violation here is "Leaping", not crow hopping. It's a fine line but both feet are in the air simultaneously and that's a leap. I don't believe it results in a 5 mph advantage, maybe something less. It does result in her being closer to the batter which means lesser response time. The trade-off then becomes control. Check her stats. I'd be willing to be she gives up more wild pitches than most and doesn't have much in the way of drops or risers.

What you are also missing is a brush violation. Pitchers like her with speed will try to brush to increase control. When the pitching arm contacts the hip prior to release, it provides tactile feedback as to the location of the arm. Based on that, the pitcher can be more precise on location and release time, leading to increased accuracy. Some might think this slows the pitch but in reality If the upper arm gets slowed, the momentum is transferred to the forearm, resulting in increased speed of the ball at release.

Also, a pitcher using brush resistance develops a reflex to the arm touching the body. In response to the brush, the pitcher releases the ball a few milliseconds later. This allows a pitcher to become incredibly accurate.

Of course a coach can say something and sometimes they do. It's not in a formal video review, but a side conversation in-between innings. They simply ask the ump to check. The problem is multi-layered. LOTS of pitchers could get called for this if they regulated it like the EPA. It makes the game sloooooow. Women's softball needs viewers on their big stage. Calling this violation every time it happens will end up with a very small audience. If you ask an ump to look, he/she will look at your pitcher too. It's been going on for awhile, trying to rein it in now would be a challenge. And even then, it's a judgement call.

As far as HBP, in the top 50, Florida has just 2 players, one at #37 and one at #48.


To address some of the earlier misunderstanding about obstruction, the rule was changed just this year.

Rule 1.36 The act of a defensive team member that hinders or impedes a batter’s attempt to make contact with a pitch or that impedes the progress of a runner who is legally running the bases, unless the fielder is in possession of the ball, is fielding a batted ball or is in the act of catching a thrown ball. The act may be intentional or unintentional and applies to live–ball action only. Rationale: • Replaces "about to receive” with “in the act of catching” to better define specific protected action. • “About to receive” is a longer time frame than being “in the act of catching” a thrown ball.

So, ucla got a bad call the other night. And if you think they weren't pissed, you should have seen Lisa Fernandez today actually brush an ump and get ejected for a non-obstruction call against A&M.
http://www.espn.com/espnw/video/19528662/wild-double-play-leads-ucla-coach-ejection

 

Let me preface by saying illegal itches are seldom called. Not sure why. If a pitcher's foot maintains contact with ground they can replant all day and it won't easily be called.

That is true for a batter/batter's box but pitcher has to have entire foot inside the lines.

You are both correct. It could be either cause it's both. She does not maintain contact with the ground (leap) and she also appears to replant the pivot foot (crow hop). Illegal pitch either way.

Incidentally, dragging the pivot foot in contact with the ground is required BUT, if a hole has been created, the pivot foot may drag no higher than the level plane of the ground."

This is very interesting. I'd never heard of it. I guess that's the difference living in a world where you're surrounded by former softball greats who've won National Titles and coach in your facilities. Lucky dog!

 

Terry and vball, if y'all want to phuck shane and tirk up, tell them about the "Look-back Rule." lol

 

Like I said, they don't get called very often because if umpires kept to the letter of the rule, a game would never finish and people would get bored. Pitchers are held to a pretty tight standard and that's why there's so much freedom for umpires to call it as they see it.

You know that unless the foot is entirely out of the box it's not going to get called. Pretty much the only time that gets called is if the pitcher sidesteps. As long as the foot is making forward progress, it rarely gets called.

Both calls are very similar and I agree that she could technically be called for either. What that highlights is the difficulty for an Umpire to call it and be consistent. Since it requires a judgement call, the game could turn out to be nothing but an evaluation of a pitcher because every coach is looking for an angle. Brushing violations are actually encouraged by coaches even though they know it's illegal.

Since my daughter gave up the sport I'm not really in the world anymore but I still like to watch games when it gets to the end of the season.

The key to advance the sport and to keep people watching is to emphasize the speed of the innings, the shortness of the game, and the momentum swings that come from small ball. If the game becomes nothing but identifying illegal pitches, the sport will die.

 

Congrats. Your fat girls beat our fat girls.