Lauren doesnt

[SoonerNorm]

It's something akin to menopause, isn't it?

Look, Norm, if, in your estimation, throwing a change-up means lobbing a floater over the plate, then Paige never throws one. There's a world of difference between changing speeds and throwing an eephus pitch.

A change is usually best when the pitcher takes around 6-8 mph off her fastball, which is usually sufficient to throw the hitter's timing off. Paige's fastball clocks (normally) at around 63-65 mph; when she changes speed, her pitch usually comes in around 55-57 mph. If you're watching on TV, you may not even be able to tell when she is changing speeds (unless the TV people show the pitch speed on the screen).

Did I say that?

 

[soonermike22]

Jennifer White (Jasons sister) was a college quality pitcher for tuttle high school. She had a great fast ball, and her change-up looked like the fast ball coming out of her hand-except it was a slower and dropped some. High school players almost fell down swinging they were so out of sync swinging at what they thought was a fast ball, coming over the fat part of the plate.
I don't remember if she threw it for the first pitch to batters later in the game, but she did not early in the game. It did drop some, but mainly the speed change on a pitch that looked like her fast ball was what fooled the batters. Never saw it hit, but did see lots of foolish swings.

 

[sybarite]

Changing speeds is a very underrated aspect of baseball and softball. It was a strikeout pitch of Ricketts' which was very effective with her speed and cropduster. Michelle used it as a strikeout pitch. Stevens doesn't throw that hard, but got us to the CWS last year with changing speeds.

The most effective example that I ever saw of changing speeds was Stu Miller, known primarily as a relief pitcher although he started early in his career. He really had no fastball or curve of note. Both were inadequate. What he did was throw a "fastball" at about six different speeds. Most pitches looked just like the last one, but was a bit slower or faster. He won as many as fourteen games in a season as a reliever, which is rare. In his later years, he had an ERA in the middle twos, just by changing speeds on every pitch.

Put it where you want and with the speed that you want. That's usually enough.

 

[womenssports]

It's something akin to menopause, isn't it?

Look, Norm, if, in your estimation, throwing a change-up means lobbing a floater over the plate, then Paige never throws one. There's a world of difference between changing speeds and throwing an eephus pitch.

A change is usually best when the pitcher takes around 6-8 mph off her fastball, which is usually sufficient to throw the hitter's timing off. Paige's fastball clocks (normally) at around 63-65 mph; when she changes speed, her pitch usually comes in around 55-57 mph. If you're watching on TV, you may not even be able to tell when she is changing speeds (unless the TV people show the pitch speed on the screen).

A forum for women's softball and you insult women? Words have consequences and that really is denigrating to women though I am sure you don't see it. Really not trying to put you down, just to make you aware. Not going to engage in an argument, just making a point.