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Generating Offense Cornerstone!

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Generating Offense Cornerstone! GENERATING OFFENSE CORNERSTONE! Generating Offense Without Hitting Many times, you will hear coaches and players mistakenly refer to offense strictly as "hitting." They will say things such as "we just didn't hit today," or "we could not hit that pitcher." There is no doubt that on a day when you don't score many runs, those statements are true, however this rationale shows an imperfect understanding of how runs are scored. Coaches and players need to realize that some days, you will not be able to “hit” the pitcher. On days like these, you need to be able to score runs without hitting. This four part series will look at the various ways to generate offense without hitting. Part I: Getting on base There are seven different ways a batter can reach base safely. Two of the seven, are largely out of the control of the hitter (catcher’s interference, drop third strike), and one of them (fielder’s choice) requires that someone already be on base and gives no real offensive advantage. Other than getting a hit, there are three ways to get on base that offense has control over: walk, hit by pitch, or reaching base due to an error. Let’s examine each of those three carefully to determine how your players can give themselves the best chance to get on base without getting a hit. Hit by pitch: Watch a high school or college game and you will hear screams of “wear it!” or “we got ice!” coming from the offensive teams dugout anytime a player jumps out of the way of a pitch. Whether you teach your kids to stand in the box and take a pitch off their body or not is an ethical dilemma that each coach and player will have to sort out. Usually there is little negative side effect from Copyright 2013 © Cornerstone Coaching Academy GENERATING OFFENSE CORNERSTONE! getting hit by a pitch other than a bruise, however it is undeniable that getting hit by a baseball poses some risk for injury, and puts a player’s safety at risk. There is one area where most coaches and players will agree, and that is hanging in on breaking balls. When a hitter sees a breaking ball inside, they need to hold their ground. Sometimes the ball will take the break, and end up in the strike zone, other times it won’t and will end up inside, and may hit the batter. Either way, holding in the box is a winning strategy, you increase the possibility of hitting a breaking ball, and you increase the chances of getting on base via a hit by pitch. Reaching on an error: It may not be apparent how the offensive team can affect the defense’s ability to make a play. There are two basic ways the offense can impact the defense’s ability to make plays. The first is by hitting the ball hard, but remember this is a day when we are not hitting well, so hitting the ball hard may not happen very often. The second is simply to hustle out of the box on every single ball put in play. The more pressure you put on the opposing defense by hustling out of the box, even if you are not that fast, will increase the chances they make an error by trying to hurry a throw. As a coach, you have the ability increase your players’ willingness to hustle in several ways, many of them depend on your individual coaching style and may vary from coach to coach. One proven method is to point out to the whole team examples of players whose hustle causes opponents errors. I have found that positive reinforcement is a great tool for molding behavior. Taking walks: It is a misconception that a walk is only the result of a wild pitcher. It is no coincidence that the same players are at or near the top of MLB in walks year after year after year. One of the keys to taking walks on a regular basis is having a patient approach at the plate. This approach is not one that actively seeks walks. This approach has one simple goal, getting a good pitch to hit. This approach requires your players to do three things. First, your players must be patient. Second, they must not swing at pitches early in the count just because they are strikes and thirdly, players cannot be afraid to hit with a two strike count. Other than producing more walks by being patient, waiting for your pitch and working counts deep, you are also running up the pitcher’s pitch count. On a day when you are not able to generate offense by hitting, the pitcher is unlikely Copyright 2013 © Cornerstone Coaching Academy GENERATING OFFENSE CORNERSTONE! to have to pitch in many tough situations and is unlikely to throw a lot of pitches. Since he is obviously difficult to hit, you would like to get him out of the game. It is possible through being patient to run up a starting pitcher’s pitch count that he will need to be removed from the game. Days when you cannot hit can be very frustrating for coaches and hitters alike, but rest assured, there are many things that are in your control that your team can do to get runners on base. As you know, getting runners on base is only one part of the run scoring equation. When you do get runners on, the coach has to make a difficult decision. Do you try to make something happen by putting runners in motion or bunting, or do you let your hitters try to break through and come up with a few big hits. To many coaches, the answer is clear, you try to force the issue and try to make something happen. Even though this may seem obvious, I caution you not to just automatically put on a sacrifice bunt, straight steal or hit and run in an attempt to break through. I encourage you to consider the situation carefully to determine which of those methods will work best in any given situation. Know your personnel It sounds very simple, but many coaches do not truly know who on their team can bunt, bunt for a hit, run, get good jumps, or put the ball in play consistently. In order to obtain this knowledge, you should take time out of practice to watch base runners stealing live against pitchers and catcher, watch hitters sacrifice and bunt for hits against live pitching. You should also take time out of practice to time players in the 60 yard dash, home to first, first to third, and from their leadoff to second base. All of this information will play a role in your decision to bunt, hit and run, straight steal, or let your hitters try to move the runners on their own. Sacrifice bunt On a day when you are not hitting, or you are facing a pitcher who doesn’t give up too many hits, I see very little value in bunting a runner from first to second. However, it may be beneficial to try to create some havoc with bunting. So instead of bunting with giving up an out in mind, but with the idea of creating havoc and putting pressure on the defense. Copyright 2013 © Cornerstone Coaching Academy GENERATING OFFENSE CORNERSTONE! I do believe that moving a runner from second to third, or from first and second to second and third is a much better move, especially in a close and late situation. Getting a runner to third with less than two outs in a low scoring game is a big deal. There are several ways you can score from third with less than two outs and in a game where you may not score many runs, every run is precious. How do you know when you should sacrifice bunt a runner from second to third? If the middle of our order is up, or one of your better hitters is up, I would recommend letting them swing away. Even though you aren’t hitting much on that day, I still believe it is a bad idea to take the bat out of your best hitters hands to move a runner 90 feet. I would also advise against bunting a runner to third if you have a very fast, good baserunner on second. If you have one of your best base runners on second, it may be a good idea to let your hitter swing away with no outs, then try to steal third with one out if he doesn’t move the runner or come up with a big hit. Moving a runner to third by a sacrifice bunt is a good idea when you need only one run late in the game, or if have weak hitters who put the ball in play coming up. They may not be likely to get a hit, but they may be able to hit a ground ball or sacrifice fly to score the runner. Likewise, it is a bad idea to bunt a runner to third in front of someone who strikes out on a regular basis. A lesson that I learned early in my coaching career is to be careful bunting runners over to put your best hitter at the plate. During one of my first years of coaching, we had runners on first and second late in the game with our number two hitter up. Our third hitter was by far our best hitter, so I bunted the runners to second and third hoping he could come up with a hit to give us the lead (we were down one run).
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