When I work with pitchers in lessons during the season and we get to talk about their most recent game performance, I often hear frustration or disappointment from them that isn't warranted.
"How did your last game go?"
"Terrible, I gave up 10 hits and 6 runs."
It's extremely common in a young pitcher's mind to tie their opinion of their outing to how many hits and runs they gave up - after all, they watch games on TV and hear the commentators talk about a "bad outing" whenever a guy gets knocked around.
Here's why that type of thinking is unfair to Little League pitchers and unproductive to their development.
THE BEST PITCHERS IN LITTLE LEAGUE WILL GIVE UP THE MOST HITS.
I'm sure that doesn't make too much sense at first read but let's dig in.
If we all agree, as we should, that a pitcher's primary job is to throw strikes, let's look at can happen when they do.
- The pitcher throws a pitch, the batter doesn't swing, and the ump calls it a strike.
- The pitcher throws a pitch and the batter swings and misses.
- The pitcher throws a pitch and the batter hits it foul.
- The pitcher throws a pitch and the batter hits it fair.
In all 4 of these scenarios, the pitcher has helped his team get closer to getting an out.
The fourth scenario is when young pitchers easily get down on the themselves...but they shouldn't!
When a batter hits the ball fair, one of three results will occur.
- It's a clean hit.
- The defense will make the play.
- The defense will make an error.
First, giving up clean hits isn't bad! No-Hitters are a big deal for a reason - they rarely happen! And as we all know in baseball, the difference between a hit and an out is often only a matter of inches. Do not get upset or frustrated when the other team gets hits. Giving up hits is a big part of being a pitcher and it absolutely does not mean a pitcher isn't do his job when it happens.
Second, sometimes the other team hits it and our defense makes the play. This is great! As players continue to develop their defensive skills, getting outs becomes a lot easier because that groundball to 2nd or flyball to Left is going to get fielded much more often.
(A quick story from my own career. In May of 2003 I was pitching against Ivy League hitters with an Ivy League defense behind me. In June of 2003 I was pitching against professional hitters with a professional defense behind me. Things changed quickly!
I'll never forget my first professional outing pitching in the big (empty) stadium in Lakeland, Florida during my first Spring Training. It was an intersquad game and the only people in the stands were Tigers' scouts, coaches, and executives checking out their newly drafted players.
I can't remember exactly what happened to the first 2 batters I faced but I got them both out (maybe a strikeout and a routine groundball). I was cruising on my way to the Big Leagues! Not so fast, Spring.
I got the 3rd hitter into a 2-2 count and then threw my slider, which was my best offspeed pitch. I threw a good one. A really good one. 3 weeks earlier facing the 7 hitter from Yale or the clean-up hitter from Princeton, a slider like this one was going to end in a strikeout nearly 100% of the time. Against a professional hitter...not so much. This hitter stayed right on the pitch and drove it hard into the right-centerfield gap. I gave up plenty of hits in college and I knew extra bases right off the bat when I saw it. This was at least a double, maybe a triple. But then something incredible happened. My professional centerfielder calmly tracked the ball down about 10 steps in front of the fence for an out. 1-2-3 inning!
No disrespect to my teammates in the Outfield at Brown, but there was just no chance they were getting to a ball hit like that in the gap. None. That's why before the ball even got out of the infield I was preparing myself to have get out of the inning with a guy in scoring position. But with a Top 10 round draft pick roaming Centerfield behind me...OUT!
I learned two very important things in my first professional outing. 1) The hitters get better the further up the ladder you go and 2) the defense gets better the further up the ladder you go. I was still going to challenge hitters in pro ball, but I absolutely had the luxury of using my defense to get outs more than I could in college.)
Third, it's great when the defense makes the play and gets an out but let's be honest there are LOTS of errors in Little League games, especially at the Minor and Intermediate levels. Just because the pitcher threw a strike, the other team hit it, and the ball went between the Shortstop's legs DOES NOT mean the pitcher didn't do his part to help the team.
So unfortunately in Little League, 2 of the 3 outcomes when the batter puts the ball in play feel like failure: they get a hit or they reached base by error. Lots of hits and errors add up to lots of runs and now a kid who actually did a great job of throwing strikes feels like he let his team down. No way!
This isn't to tell pitchers to be selfish and only focus on how well they did on the mound in terms of throwing strikes. Rather, they need to learn that while games are won and lost as a team, each player has a role and as long as they are doing their part to help the team (while supporting their teammates in their effort to do their part to help the team), they'll be able to stay in a positive frame of mind.
The flipside is when the pitcher isn't throwing many strikes and therefore isn't giving the hitter, umpire, or his defense a chance to help him get closer to an out. When these outings happen, we need to remind young pitchers that throwing a strike is HARD! If fact, it's the most difficult throw in baseball because the target (the strike zone) is so small.
Sometimes pitchers struggle because they feel like they have to strike out everyone on the other team and start overthrowing, leading to wild pitches.
Sometimes it's because they're so focused on throwing strikes that they aim or guide the ball towards home plate.
Sometimes it's because they just had a bad day.
And most often it's because they're still learning a very difficult position, are still getting comfortable with their mechanics, and simply need to just keep playing ball and keep practicing.
And here's how hard pitching is...once they do throw a strike a lot of things still have to go right for them to get an out! It's so important that we as parents and coaches stay positive while encouraging our pitchers to stay positive as well.
I hope we get to play games soon, but we can help get our pitchers to start adopting a positive mindset during practice by simulating game at-bats (while still being socially distanced). Instead of having your pitchers throw in the bullpen, have them throw to a live hitter while keeping track of the count. Then when the batter hits it, the result (out or safe) doesn't matter! Did they throw strikes? Then they did their job! This will also help your hitters start to get their minds back to "game" ready.
PLAY HARD, HAVE FUN!