Every time a pitcher gets hit hard, his (and others’) first thought is “I must be tipping somehow. They knew what was coming.” Well, maybe.
I happen to think it is good baseball to study a pitcher’s grip or mannerisms to determine if he is doing things differently on fast balls and breaking pitches. I did that for three years coaching first base for the Longhorns, and I was able to let the hitters know who wanted to know what was coming. Our first baseman, Bob Snoddy, won the SWC batting title my senior year and gave me credit in a newspaper interview, making Coach Falk apoplectic at this disclosure. One has to be certain when calling pitches for hitters because crossing the hitter up is dangerous and loses his trust in the credibility of the info.
I did this as often as possible coaching HS also. At McCallum in the ‘70s, we faced an outstanding pitcher named Tommy Boggs for three years. I called every single one of his pitches for three years because of a mannerism he had by sticking his tongue in his cheek on curves. He threw very hard, and this helped hitters get ready for his fast ball. Knowing what was coming helped us beat him every time we faced him his sophomore and junior years.
Despite our knowledge, Tommy beat us three times in close games his senior year, including a playoff game. Shoddy defense at times plus bad luck contributed, and our hitters’ knowing what he was throwing was not the deciding factor in these games. Tommy was big, strong, a fierce competitor, and he had improved so much he was drafted second overall in the first round by the Rangers and played several years in MLB for the Rangers and the Braves.
Here is the bottom line on this issue, as Boggs showed us and as Glasnow showed the Astros after the first inning last night: a hitter can know what the pitcher will throw, either by a call from the bench or by watching for the tell, but he still has to hit the ball. Using tipping pitches as the excuse for being hit hard is at least partially valid, but the excuse also denigrates the hitters’ skills.