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Online now: 2 members: TABLE SETTER 11, dawg888; 116 anonymousDiscussion: Intentional walk used to nulify a dominate hitter.
| Posted | Discussion |
| March 30, 2021 franjan 22 posts | Intentional walk used to nulify a dominate hitter. Our team has a strong hitter with power. He is usually pitched very carefully and on occasion walked intentionally depending on the situation, which is good strategy and fine and we do it also. The problem lies when he is never thrown a hittable pitch throughout the entire game, therefore taking the bat out of his hands and making him a total non factor. I have played in leagues where the umpire would warn the pitcher that another flagrant walk would result in the batter going to 2nd base and if it happened again he would award 3rd base. This is a deterrent and the penalty can be avoided. Is there any known option for dealing with this situation, which we view as un-sportsman like behavior. |
| March 30, 2021 STL0 Men's 60 231 posts | Consistently not pitching to someone in league play is pretty crappy. Maybe bat him at lead off and at least you get someone on base to start the game each time. The only real cure for that is having someone that can mash right behind him so it costs the team walking him. |
| March 30, 2021 Ollie4 Men's 60 8 posts | Most pitchers are ego driven and the most difficult to deal with on the team. My solution is, walk the pitcher every time he bats, and the problem of him intentionally walking or not pitching strikes to a specific hitter will handle itself. |
| March 30, 2021 franjan 22 posts | The problem with that is the pitcher is not always their best hitter and putting him on base is doing them a favor. |
| March 30, 2021 DaveDowell Men's 70 4321 posts | franjan ... I suspect Ollie4 wasn't considering (nor would I) how formidable their pitcher might be as a hitter ... This is likely, in my view, applying a "dose of his own medicine" to see how he might like having the bat taken out of his hands every time ... I would do it in a heartbeat as an opposing manager ... |
| March 31, 2021 Turbo 34 Men's 50 47 posts | I can't stand when they won't pitch strikes to the hitter and throw four balls behind him or roll it. Just point to first! I've seen times when pitchers walked batters two or three times with stupid pitches, then the dude comes up with no home runs left and they pitch to him and get upset when the batter absolutely blows up the middle. Don't make a mockery of the game by pitching stupidly, then getting upset when it comes back to bite you! |
| March 31, 2021 grayhitter59 Men's 60 345 posts | in south Florida we have a league that if a batter weather intentionally or not walks once in the game, the batter has the option to restart the count if he is walked on the next at bat. That is league play. If this a tournament team it's called getting protection ( another power hitter) to hit behind. |
| March 31, 2021 curveball Men's 65 705 posts | Our league made that simple, no batter walks. If the batter gets 4 balls, "put a runner on." Count goes back to 1-1. Can't pitch around a batter. At least everyone gets their swings... |
| March 31, 2021 stick8 1992 posts | Franjan the solution to your problem is to have two strong hitters batting behind him. That protects him. |
| April 3, 2021 MurrayW Men's 65 221 posts | Intentionally walking the opposition, even if it isn't their best hitter, will draw their attention. In league play years ago, playing with a 50-minute time limit, there was a batter that would take until he got two strikes, and after every pitch, he would step out and go through a long process of adjusting everything and then asking for timeout when he got into the box. He probably took about 5 minutes off the clock every game, which often meant we played one inning less. We started intentionally walking him every time he came up. After the 3rd time, he started begging us to pitch to him, and from that point on, he didn't take forever to get ready to hit. |
| April 4, 2021 stick8 1992 posts | MurrayW, could that person you described been Mike Hargrove? 😀 |
| April 6, 2021 DRB22 Men's 50 58 posts | I played with a pick-up team several months back. Format was 4 games, 2 sat, 2 sun. After the first game I received 1 intentional walk then 5 unintentional/intentional pitch around walks the rest of the weekend. There was no one behind me to in the lineup to protect me and the strategy worked out great a few times for dbl plays. As a competitor I don't mind anyone trying to win a game if its done within the rules, plus I ended up with a 900+ bat avg that weekend..lol. |
| April 7, 2021 ChiPrimeMarty Men's 60 104 posts | In Senior tournaments if a hitter is so dominant he gets intentionally walked on a regular basis, that's a clue he should probably move up to the next competitive level. If he's already on a Major Plus team, he's one helluva hitter! I'm not advocating the intentional walk, just adding my $.02. |
| April 8, 2021 Michael Plunkett Men's 70 45 posts | Insofar as this discussion group is about rules not your feelings I appreciated hearing about some league rules. There are no SSUSA rules that would apply - as they say “it’s part of the game.” |
| April 9, 2021 garyheifner 649 posts | CURVEBALL--I LIKE YOUR LEAGUE'S WAY TO HANDLE THE SITUATION |
| April 10, 2021 Slammers28 Men's 55 13 posts | I'm just coming back from a long battle of illnesses, 3 years to get back on the field, first game absolutely horrible hitting, second game started to come around, 3rd game on fire, next game intentionally walked 4 times, once to load the bases. It's not a tournament or a state championship for goodness sake. It's basically practice and having fun, it's a shame that people take a league game that seriously. The balls I did hit after the bunny hoppers were pretty hot, never over 10 feet and to the fence. I heard a few people say I hit to hard and may hurt someone, I would never intentialy do that. I have played every level of ball and was on a major team before my illness put me on hold for a bit, I have worked my ass off to get back. Quess we will see what happens in the league next week. If they want to hit like that as well I suggest going to the gym like I do, hit 100 balls a day like I do, don't pay 800 for some bat that's supposed to help hit it harder. What happened to actually putting in the work ?? |
