• The KillerFrogs

TCU vs CSF Game #3

bc puckett

Active Member

Deep Purple

Full Member
Only Oregon State resembles the TCU hugeness.

A&M falls in that category as well.

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LSU isn’t the broad billboard type logo (we used to have the identical style with a T instead of an L) and neither is A&M.

Au contraire.

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The LSU logo letters aren't as heavy as the TCU logo, but are just as large and the logo is considerably taller. Very comparable in size.

Many teams have a an interlocked style logo, LA, St Louis, et al. Just a personal preference.

Agree. Possibly most teams use some form of interlocking letters -- which is why I would hate to see us use it. Much prefer a distinctive TCU look over just following the madding crowd.

Cal doesn’t wear that hat.

Cal does wear that hat. It's an occasional variant to their normal cap, like our retro interlocked TC variant. Even Cal's normal cap currently sports a gi-normous letter C logo.

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Paint It Purple

Active Member
Then why do they go chasing them?
Stand at the plate and see an unhittable 89-91 mph fastball on the outside corner for strike. Next pitch is a slider or change that looks just like the pitch before, except it sinks into the dirt as you swing. So many great baseball fans haven't ever played what is a very difficult game.
 

Deep Purple

Full Member
Stand at the plate and see an unhittable 89-91 mph fastball on the outside corner for strike. Next pitch is a slider or change that looks just like the pitch before, except it sinks into the dirt as you swing. So many great baseball fans haven't ever played what is a very difficult game.
tell me you never played the game without telling me....

And yet, never having played the game in an organized league beyond junior high school, even an amateur like me can detect the difference between a breaking ball just off the plate and the same pitch that goes awry a foot outside of the strike zone -- yet still draws a lunging swing from the batter.

Sorry, gentlemen, you haven't convinced me. Batters do not always know a ball when they see one. Heck, even some umpires don't.

Oh, and Paint It Purple? There is no unhittable 89-91 mph fastball. I've seen plenty of batters really belt them.
 

hometown frog

Active Member
And yet, never having played the game in an organized league beyond junior high school, even an amateur like me can detect the difference between a breaking ball just off the plate and the same pitch that goes awry a foot outside of the strike zone -- yet still draws a lunging swing from the batter.

Sorry, gentlemen, you haven't convinced me. Batters do not always know a ball when they see one. Heck, even some umpires don't.

Oh, and Paint It Purple? There is no unhittable 89-91 mph fastball. I've seen plenty of batters really belt them.
Please somebody setup a live streaming event w any of the current TCU pitching staff throwing live BP to Deep so he can teach us all how to quickly identify two different breaking balls and which ones will stay around the zone and which ones drop out/away. Ill even offer up a couple of the dudes off my 15U team to see if you can figure out their breaking stuff successfully….

its REAL easy to sit in the stands or your couch and lament when dudes swing at stuff in the dirt. (I even do that sometimes.). But having done it myself at a borderline collegiate level, and now coaching it all the time, it’s really friggin hard to do.
 
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Deep Purple

Full Member
Please somebody setup a live streaming event w any of the current TCU pitching staff throwing live BP to Deep so he can teach us all how to quickly identify two different breaking balls and which ones will stay around the zone and which ones drop out/away. Ill even offer up a couple of the dudes off my 15U team to see if you can figure out their breaking stuff successfully….
I have sat next to countless folks at ball parks all over America that believe they could "hit that pitch".

Straw-man arguments. I never said I could "hit that pitch" or expertly judge one breaking ball from another. I only took issue with the statement "hitters know a ball when they see one," which is an absurd claim on its very face.

Obviously, batters don't always know a ball when they see one or we would never see anyone taking a lunging swing way outside the strike zone or arguing called balls and strikes. In fact, we wouldn't even need a plate ump because "hitters know a ball when they see one."

Sorry if that made anybody feel like I was stepping on personal toes. Wasn't my intent.
 

froginmn

Full Member
Straw-man arguments. I never said I could "hit that pitch" or expertly judge one breaking ball from another. I only took issue with the statement "hitters know a ball when they see one," which is an absurd claim on its very face.

Obviously, batters don't always know a ball when they see one or we would never see anyone taking a lunging swing way outside the strike zone or arguing called balls and strikes. In fact, we wouldn't even need a plate ump because "hitters know a ball when they see one."

Sorry if that made anybody feel like I was stepping on personal toes. Wasn't my intent.
How about you two agree on "when the ball hits the catcher's mitt, the batter knows whether it was a strike"?

As to the point about assuming the call, I always coached my players to assume it was a ball. I often saw other batters look back at the umpire after the ball went by, and when you do that the umpire will almost always call it a strike.

There's definitely a "polite" way to assume the call and you never want to show up an ump, but I coached them to never look back at the ump.
 

Paint It Purple

Active Member
How about you two agree on "when the ball hits the catcher's mitt, the batter knows whether it was a strike"?

As to the point about assuming the call, I always coached my players to assume it was a ball. I often saw other batters look back at the umpire after the ball went by, and when you do that the umpire will almost always call it a strike.

There's definitely a "polite" way to assume the call and you never want to show up an ump, but I coached them to never look back at the ump.
I told them to look back at the umpire and say, with all due respect sir, that [ Finebaum ]'s outside." ;)
 

FrogBall09

Active Member
Straw-man arguments. I never said I could "hit that pitch" or expertly judge one breaking ball from another. I only took issue with the statement "hitters know a ball when they see one," which is an absurd claim on its very face.

Obviously, batters don't always know a ball when they see one or we would never see anyone taking a lunging swing way outside the strike zone or arguing called balls and strikes. In fact, we wouldn't even need a plate ump because "hitters know a ball when they see one."

Sorry if that made anybody feel like I was stepping on personal toes. Wasn't my intent.
man - are you this much of a blowhard in real life?

Let me be real direct - 98% of the time when the pitch hits the catchers glove - the batter knows if they made a good decision or a mistake without the umpire saying anything. If you are good enough to play D1 ball, you have a really strong feel for the strike zone. The other 2% is the edges that change based on the ump.

Being able to figure out if that pitch is a ball, strike, your pitch, something you need to just foul off, etc during the .4 seconds it takes a 90 mph fastball to reach the plate is an entirely different thing and the main difference between guys that hit .400 and guys that hit below the Mendoza line. Ability to execute your swing is the other main difference.
 

FrogBall09

Active Member
Straw-man arguments. I never said I could "hit that pitch" or expertly judge one breaking ball from another. I only took issue with the statement "hitters know a ball when they see one," which is an absurd claim on its very face.

Obviously, batters don't always know a ball when they see one or we would never see anyone taking a lunging swing way outside the strike zone or arguing called balls and strikes. In fact, we wouldn't even need a plate ump because "hitters know a ball when they see one."

Sorry if that made anybody feel like I was stepping on personal toes. Wasn't my intent.
the average person sitting in stands can't even see a 90+mph fastball coming at them - it is shockingly funny when we would get our "dads" in the cage and turn up the machine - took them 5-10 swings to even figure out how to track it and that was when they basically knew where the ball was going to be coming from and the path out of the machine.
 

Paint It Purple

Active Member
the average person sitting in stands can't even see a 90+mph fastball coming at them - it is shockingly funny when we would get our "dads" in the cage and turn up the machine - took them 5-10 swings to even figure out how to track it and that was when they basically knew where the ball was going to be coming from and the path out of the machine.
This reminds me. Could a certain current TCU ballplayer simply need his eyes examined and maybe start wearing corrective lens? Went from an above avg hitter, to looking like he can't see the ball at all.
 

FrogBall09

Active Member
This reminds me. Could a certain current TCU ballplayer simply need his eyes examined and maybe start wearing corrective lens? Went from an above avg hitter, to looking like he can't see the ball at all.
not going to say no - I had a teammate that was seriously a real life Wild Thing situation where his eye sight had slowly gotten the point he could not see that well and got glasses - everything changed.

But there are a few players on the team that have now had enough cycles at the plate where other teams have figured out their weakness and that is all they see now - i.e. outside breaking pitches that a "elevate the ball" swing with a lot of hands has zero chance of doing anything with beyond foul balls or rolling over a grounder to a middle infielder...

Happens every year with Nunez - he starts strong, then teams remember he doesn't hit breaking pitches well and he goes in a rut. Then he generally gets one stretch where teams seem to forget and he gets his eyes and hands working well again and has a good string of games.
 
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