Offensive Ejections..

[Wik]

That's a damn stiff penalty but I understand the thought process. I'd really look at playing up, know it's not the solution you're looking for but that's a really strong deterrent.

There is a good chance we will get bumped before the season is over (IMO anyhow) but the inning ending out is still really tough. Obviously no residual punishment like in E, but if you have guys blasting HRs out non stop, playing up isn't gonna help as much as figuring out how to hit better and correct your underlying issues, again, IMO.

And just to clarify I would LOVE to play up....I'm not like some of these guys who want to sandbag in hopes of getting a ring or snatching worlds away from a team that legit belongs in "x" division. So, I'm not trying to dismiss that, I just don't think it address the underlying issue because a couple buddies who play up have had games where they blew out a bunch real quick and ended up getting pooped on later in the game.

 

[TWmccoy]

The frustration(s) I have arent anything related to league tho. I mean, I want to win and get swings but my tournament team is what I care most about and as a result is the cause of frustration. Blowing 5 or 6 HRs out is the kiss of death in tourney ball. I have come close but luckily have not had to personally deal with it.

This was more of a thread to get into the psychological aspect of knowing when you can or cannot hit a HR and how you adjust to that situation. Saying "dont hit a HR" seems easy enough but there has to be a practical and physical plan at the plate that a hitter has in order to do damage but not put his or her team at risk of either offensive ejections or inning ending outs. Just trying to figure out what some of you guys do in that case.

I agree with all of this. I play with guys who CANNOT keep the ball in the park in vital situations. They're simply not smart hitters. They bring the same hot bat to the plate every AB and don't take anything off their swings. Then they act all shocked and frustrated when they hit their 4th DBO of the tourny.

Avoiding DBOs as a powerful hitter does take some smarts. Especially if you're playing in cold weather with hard balls on shortish fields. It turns more into a placement hitting game rather than trying to smash balls through guys. One thing I do know is that the harder you try to hit the ball hard and down the more DBOs you'll inevitably have.

Seriously, keep one crappy bat in your bag and don't be afraid to pull it out if you're leery of hitting a DBO. You're better off taking a hard swing with a crappy bat than a weak swing with a very hot bat.

 

[chrometip78]

There is a good chance we will get bumped before the season is over (IMO anyhow) but the inning ending out is still really tough. Obviously no residual punishment like in E, but if you have guys blasting HRs out non stop, playing up isn't gonna help as much as figuring out how to hit better and correct your underlying issues, again, IMO.

And just to clarify I would LOVE to play up....I'm not like some of these guys who want to sandbag in hopes of getting a ring or snatching worlds away from a team that legit belongs in "x" division. So, I'm not trying to dismiss that, I just don't think it address the underlying issue because a couple buddies who play up have had games where they blew out a bunch real quick and ended up getting pooped on later in the game.

That's just a tough spot to be in, I hate HR rules.

Only other thought I have is we've used equipment tires standing up as hitting targets placed at the 3-4 and moved around the 5-6 or holes in a 5 man. Aim for the tires with solid grounders. Can probably use anything good size and durable as a target.

 

[jbo911]

It's just a horrible combination. The equipment is way too hot, and the penalties for dbos are too severe. Play up? Now you're Fielding even harder hit balls with the same too hot equipment, playing against teams that hit better than your team in every way. Yeah, you're not offensively ejected, but how realistic are your chances? Don't forget the c teams playing d at the top. It makes no sense.

 

[jbo911]

Utrip just kept changing the ball without changing testing. Unless they can the classic m the current bats hit harder than they did five years ago because the test never changed. These balls are worse than the 44/400 we used to have because the lower Cor increases the trampoline effect now that the bats have caught up

Sure a 44/400 is hotter of a single than a classic m but you can design a composite to hit the m better. Especially when it's cooler out because of their natural properties. They wanted to save the players a little money and buy do what ASA did and now we're in a worse situation overall. They might figure it out if participation keeps plummeting, but I doubt it.

 

[chrometip78]

It's just a horrible combination. The equipment is way too hot, and the penalties for dbos are too severe. Play up? Now you're Fielding even harder hit balls with the same too hot equipment, playing against teams that hit better than your team in every way. Yeah, you're not offensively ejected, but how realistic are your chances? Don't forget the c teams playing d at the top. It makes no sense.

Agreed, but I was trying to avoid a personal rant. I couldn't even tell you how to go about moving up around here cause far as I know there's only a few teams ranked up that you end up having to play anyways because they're the only team that's ranked up. My info is a couple years old though.

If I ruled the world, there would be no HR rules, 52/300's would be the only ball used across sanctions, and every state would have 4-5 different ranks of competition with an equal-ish spread of teams across those ranks. That 5th ranked division would only be for teams in their 1st or 2nd year, mandatory bump after that. Then there would be some hocus-pocus formula where players would be ranked by the team they played with and how that would affect ranking their current team. Somewhat similar to how BLD does their league rankings.

No HR rules would get more people involved because everyone wants to hit the dinger, more outs because everyone wants to hit the dinger, safer for pitchers because everyone wants to hit the dinger. 52/300's would be safer for everyone, perform better with newbies crappier bats, and tame the performance of super hot bats and shavies.

 

[jlee]

Early on my playing career my swing did not translate from baseball to softball. In baseball there is no such thing as DBO's, naturally you swing for the fence/gaps/etc. When I first got into E ball I had my fair share of DBO's, these weren't moon shot homeruns, they were hard line drive home runs. Regardless a home run is a home run. I don't think moving up a level changes anything. Good teams save there homeruns for when they need to use them. I rarely see the best teams in our area every hit solo homeruns. They string hits together and do not waste there homeruns. It might help you in certain situations, but I have found these things to be true.

1. Know your swing, I absolutely hate when people aren't accountable for their swing and say OOPS. You know your swing. You know what you're capable of. If you are in a game and there are no homeruns or homeruns left make an adjustment, which leads me to my second point...

2. Bat control. Since my swing was all or nothing I had to learn to have BAT CONTROL. Often, mostly new players want to go up there and swing as hard as they can. This isn't some pick up game where people can see who hits the ball the farthest. When I first got into the game, I struggled because I had an all or nothing swing (good chance of it going out or total weak swing). I got scared to swing hard because I knew there was a chance of it going over, but since I had no bat control if I tried to alter my swing it was a lame pop up or ground ball. Learn to do both. BP BP BP BP, can't stress this enough. Work on line drive swings. Back side swings. Situational hitting.

3. Make adjustments. I think this is an often overlooked part of the hitting game. You can start to get tendencies of how the pitcher is throwing to you. Is he constantly throwing you low pitches, high pitches, quick pitches etc. Where do you often hit the ball out? Do you naturally hit certain pitches differently, pop up, home run, line drive, grounder, etc? Personally, I like the low ones and hate high ones. I try to stand back in the box to get that low pitch adjustment. If I have a guy throwing low balls I can move up.

 

[jbo911]

In a fantasy world there would be player IDs with a unique number that would be used across all associations.

Instead of homerun rules you'd use director discretion and average runs for to determine bumps. There would still be some hr limits, but the penalties wouldn't be severe.

 

[TonyB]

I don't understand the dead bat thing other than a poor band aid type fix. If you can't keep a ball down inside the park so you choose a dead bat to fix this, you're now just hitting a fly ball to the outfield.

More of the HR I hit are line drives than fly balls. A line drive with a Hammer is still a line drive. Also, a 301' pop up with no outs and no HR left is 3 outs, whereas a 250' pop up in the same situation is at most 1 out.

i aim for the top of the ball and don't chance anything else. its a grounder or a liner. occasionally i'm not true and it goes over but its not often. i don't like switching to anything deader than a newer bat in these situations because i still want to hit the ball hard somewhere.

You can still hit the ball hard with a bad bat, it's just not going to be a scud laser missile rocket.

 

[TonyB]

I stopped by DBAT today after work and jumped in the cage with Pitch Trax with my Hammer. Usually I can hit 105ish swinging all out with a composite bat. I was hitting in the mid-90s, swinging all out. I hit 95-96 several times in 3 rounds and averaged 93 on the first 2 rounds. So a bad bat is about a 10mph difference for me. 93-95 mph is still scooting in my book

 

[baseman]

Two words. Easton Hammer

 

[TWmccoy]

It's just a horrible combination. The equipment is way too hot, and the penalties for dbos are too severe. Play up? Now you're Fielding even harder hit balls with the same too hot equipment, playing against teams that hit better than your team in every way. Yeah, you're not offensively ejected, but how realistic are your chances? Don't forget the c teams playing d at the top. It makes no sense.

Softball is a very flawed game for sure. I played a tourny today in CO Springs. 300' fields. USSSA using Baden C+s. The balls themselves weren't exceptionally jumpy, but I still saw inordinate amounts of HRs hit on mediocre swings.

 

[TWmccoy]

Agreed, but I was trying to avoid a personal rant. I couldn't even tell you how to go about moving up around here cause far as I know there's only a few teams ranked up that you end up having to play anyways because they're the only team that's ranked up. My info is a couple years old though.

If I ruled the world, there would be no HR rules, 52/300's would be the only ball used across sanctions, and every state would have 4-5 different ranks of competition with an equal-ish spread of teams across those ranks. That 5th ranked division would only be for teams in their 1st or 2nd year, mandatory bump after that. Then there would be some hocus-pocus formula where players would be ranked by the team they played with and how that would affect ranking their current team. Somewhat similar to how BLD does their league rankings.

No HR rules would get more people involved because everyone wants to hit the dinger, more outs because everyone wants to hit the dinger, safer for pitchers because everyone wants to hit the dinger. 52/300's would be safer for everyone, perform better with newbies crappier bats, and tame the performance of super hot bats and shavies.

I would also add that bats must have a compression of 300 or higher. This 220 business is garbage. That's way too low a threshold. If you hit .52 300s the ball will do a lot of the work anyway. I would make a HR something a guy has to legitimately earn.

 

[chrometip78]

I would also add that bats must have a compression of 300 or higher. This 220 business is garbage. That's way too low a threshold. If you hit .52 300s the ball will do a lot of the work anyway. I would make a HR something a guy has to legitimately earn.

Agreed, and I'd definitely be swinging wood exclusively in that instance, way more fun.

 

[jbo911]

I think just 52 across the board is a more reasonable first step, and if things continue as they are a compression number of 250-275 would be fine. That type of change would take time across any association. You have to give the companies a chance to engineer the bats to meet it, and you have to decide if all the old bats that don't will be grandfathered or not.

 

[Wik]

I will admit, i dont like the 52s idea.....only because I hear alot of people talk about how spongey they are and how they take ****ty hops and bounce all over. But raising the compression limits seems plausable to me, and certainly the bats should probably be dumbed down. I dont think making the balls mush AND the bat trash is worth it, i think fixing one or the other would be suffecient.

 

[chrometip78]

Soon as you make bats stiffer again, dudes will shave them down just as fast. Eastons get cut a lot being so cheap and durable.

Think it's worse playing with a hot ball too. Get used to grounders coming through then have a shavie blast one past you or at you socks. I think the 52 rep comes from seeing something new and different. The hops are more consistent IMO, I think it's cause they don't hug the ground like a 40 then kick up on something.

For being softer and not feeling great with composites, the 52's feel great with wood and metal bats. Just my opinion.

 

[jbo911]

The way the 40s hug the ground and then jump at your face is exactly why I hate them. Even 44)375 are much better imo.

We played on a very dusty field two weekends ago and the ball sounded like a Velcro ball rolling across a blanket.

 

[Wik]

Soon as you make bats stiffer again, dudes will shave them down just as fast. Eastons get cut a lot being so cheap and durable.

Think it's worse playing with a hot ball too. Get used to grounders coming through then have a shavie blast one past you or at you socks. I think the 52 rep comes from seeing something new and different. The hops are more consistent IMO, I think it's cause they don't hug the ground like a 40 then kick up on something.

For being softer and not feeling great with composites, the 52's feel great with wood and metal bats. Just my opinion.

Ya, I just feel like dudes will shave bats no natter what the rules are. Not to get off on a tangent here cause I dont want to get weighed down by this endless topic of altered bats, but unless we all went back to aluminum I think we are boned in that regard (and im sure there was something back in the aluminum days you could do as well lol)

 

[chrometip78]

Ya, I just feel like dudes will shave bats no natter what the rules are. Not to get off on a tangent here cause I dont want to get weighed down by this endless topic of altered bats, but unless we all went back to aluminum I think we are boned in that regard (and im sure there was something back in the aluminum days you could do as well lol)

Agreed. Really why I like the 52, minimizes the benefit of cheating. I'd rather hit good 44/375's or even blue dots and everyone swinging legal bats but that's fantasy land.

 

[jbo911]

With the 52 shaving still gives some avatar but it's much less than the classic ms.

Blue dots and singlewalls would be fun, but we'd burn though dented bats.

 

[TWmccoy]

Soon as you make bats stiffer again, dudes will shave them down just as fast. Eastons get cut a lot being so cheap and durable.

Think it's worse playing with a hot ball too. Get used to grounders coming through then have a shavie blast one past you or at you socks. I think the 52 rep comes from seeing something new and different. The hops are more consistent IMO, I think it's cause they don't hug the ground like a 40 then kick up on something.

For being softer and not feeling great with composites, the 52's feel great with wood and metal bats. Just my opinion.

Soon as you make bats stiffer again, dudes will shave them down just as fast. Eastons get cut a lot being so cheap and durable.

Think it's worse playing with a hot ball too. Get used to grounders coming through then have a shavie blast one past you or at you socks. I think the 52 rep comes from seeing something new and different. The hops are more consistent IMO, I think it's cause they don't hug the ground like a 40 then kick up on something.

For being softer and not feeling great with composites, the 52's feel great with wood and metal bats. Just my opinion.

I personally don't mind the feel of .52s. They do feel nice when you smash them on the sweetspot.

 

[TWmccoy]

The way the 40s hug the ground and then jump at your face is exactly why I hate them. Even 44)375 are much better imo.

We played on a very dusty field two weekends ago and the ball sounded like a Velcro ball rolling across a blanket.

Yeah. I will readily agree that .52s can take some ugly hops. However, I don't think classic Ms or .44 375s are any different. I agree they hug the ground and then shoot up at the last possible moment. At least with .52s they'll bounce throughout.