Little things that win big ball games: part 1

Coach and Athletic Director, Jan, 2004 by Jim Mason

You want them to keep their cool, avoid overconfidence, and deflate the opposition. Their coaches should never take these things for granted. They should watch the pitchers carefully both on the mound and in the dugout, checking for attitude problems.

9. Work counts and pitch totals.

The N.Y. Yankees are famous for this, but it is much more applicable on the college and high school levels. Pitching is thin in baseball, and it's almost always true that the pitcher who starts the game is almost always better than the pitcher who comes in later.

That is one of the bigger reasons for working counts and pitch totals. If you can get the starter out of the game, you are going to get an inferior replacement unless, of course, the opponents have one of those killer closers.

While this is a long, grind-out way of playing the game, it is effective. Moral: The deeper you get into the bullpen, the better are your chances of facing weaker pitchers.

10. Handling the time between innings (pitchers).

This is a very under-appreciated area of the game. How many coaches work with their pitchers on such strategies as dealing with a long offensive inning or creating a routine to use in their warm-up pitchers on the mound?

That could be the reason why your pitchers struggle after their offense has had a long inning. Many pitchers, for reasons that may not always be their fault, may feel uneasy at the start of an inning. They may feel cold or perhaps believe that they lost their fastball a few innings before and don't know how to get it back.

Coaches can use the time between innings to restore the pitcher's confidence before he returns to the mound.

11. Infielders knock down ground balls.

Another critical but unpracticed part of the ball game. These are the balls which the infielders cannot make a play on with runners on base. By at least knocking the ball down, they may prevent the runners from advancing more than one base. This can make a difference in a close game. Why not teach it?

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12. Playing the infield in.

There is a tremendous disparity in the way teams do this. Some teams won't adjust their depth to the speed of the base-runners. Other teams will take one or maybe even two steps during the pitch. Still others will stay put regardless of whether the hitter is right-handed or left-handed.

I have seen pitchers throw from a wind-up with their infield in--which makes no sense if you're planning to cut down the runner at the plate. You should also be trying to limit the runner's lead. Since all kinds of strategy are being employed at such critical points of the game, how can coaches fail to spend a lot of preparation time on this facet of the game?

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13. Extrapolate information from foul balls.

You can learn a lot about what a hitter is trying to do from the foul balls he hits. For example, when a hitter fouls the pitch straight back, it usually means that he had the pitch timed perfectly but just missed getting the barrel on the ball.

When I see a pitch fouled straight back, I will usually call for something different on the next pitch. (Changing speeds is good here.) If a hitter has a pitch timed but just misses it, I don't want to give him another shot at that pitch right away.