Softball UT Invitational

#29
#29
Hoosier said:
need a new softball thread --- on slap hitting, I wonder whose bright idea it was to change the rules to (basically) outlaw slap hitting -- some people who wanted softball to be more like baseball? bad idea IMO --- change it back!

I am wondering when (if?) we are going to see Rogers pitching again -- anybody know?

Stanford beat ETSU 5-3 and they had to bring Vawter in in relief ---- LVs vs. Toledo game starts at 12:30 (ish)
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So the intention of the rule was to adjust the advantage that slap hitters had and make it a little more even. What they wanted to do was to keep the front foot from being completely out of the FRONT of the box when the ball was struck, as was often happening. That ended up being pretty easy for hitters to fix.

The unintended consequence was that players were stepping out more on the side of the box, in the "river" between the box and the plate. It used to only be an out if you stepped on the plate. I don't know what the numbers were last year or this year (or even if it's still being formally tracked), but after the first year of the rule in 2018, nearly 90% of the hitters called out under the new rule were out for stepping between the box and the plate. Right at 10% of hitters were being called out for the thing the rule was intended to "fix."

Some coaches want the rule adjusted, others have just moved on from slappers. Kids trained under the new rules will cycle in to college over the next couple of years and you'll see slapping tick up again. But kids in college currently that have trained one way for a decade have had a hard time breaking old habits. It doesn't help when there's an entire segment of umpires that literally never look at the box and won't make the call, while others are looking for it on every pitch, especially among those that are notorious for stepping out.
 
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