talan37 wrote:I can't recall off the top of my head... but there are a decent amount of women putting up these kinds of numbers. The best teams have 2 pitchers, usually 1 stud who pitches a lot... rarely ever gives up a run, and averages like 2 strikeouts an inning. The numbers are ridiculous and gaudy... but they aren't that unusual as I recall....I may be remembering incorrectly, but I remember discussing this with someone and we came to this conclusion.
They can't be as gaudy as hers. She won a national award.
George Steinbrenner might have made a big mistake.
Maybe instead of luring future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens out of retirement for a generous $4.5 million a month, the Yankees owner should have turned his scouts' attention to Allen Park, Mich.
This year, Allen Park's Cabrini High School featured one of the most dominant young pitchers in America -- Katie Osburn. Of course, until Major League Baseball allows underhand pitching, Osburn can't pitch for the Yankees. And that might be a good thing for opposing hitters.
Osburn, a 17-year-old junior, pitched every inning of every game for Cabrini's girls' softball team, leading the Monarchs to an undefeated season and a second consecutive state title. But the championships tell only part of the story.
Among Osburn's junior season stats? Twelve no-hitters and an ERA of 0.04. No, that's not a typo.
Osburn gave up a paltry 38 hits, allowed just one run, and had 320 strikeouts and a 35-0 record. She also set records by netting 26 consecutive shutouts during the Monarch's 74-game winning streak.
Stats like these are nearly impossible to achieve and are rarely seen at any level of competitive baseball or softball -- and certainly no one in the Major Leagues has ever come close to such numbers.
Over a similar span of 300-plus innings in 1963, legend Sandy Koufax's air-tight 1.88 ERA and 306 strikeouts pale in comparison to the marks set by the Michigan superstar.
And while Koufax wasn't known for his bat, Osburn is a pitcher who can also handle the lumber. She hit .485 this season, knocking in 36 RBIs and clubbing four home runs.
Osburn, who is committed to Miami University in Ohio, enjoyed a strong supporting cast, including the other half of one of the most commanding batteries in sports: junior catcher Amanda Chidester.
Chidester etched her name in Michigan softball record books with an astonishing .740 batting average and finished the year with 16 home runs and 90 RBIs in 35 games. She has her sights set on playing at the University of Michigan after next season.
Head coach Debbie Norman called the championship season a team effort, but made it known that the team was lead by some phenomenal athletes.
"[Katie] and Amanda are the focal points of the team," Norman said in an interview with ABC News.
"Katie is one of our marquee players, and her teammates look to her for keeping our opponents in check."
Osburn will enter her senior season without every losing a game as a Monarch.
That 0.04 ERA taints her accomplishments. I mean the pitcher in the original post had a 0.00 ERA.
The pitcher in the original post, I know she's from Louisiana and I think thats a big reason she chose to go ULL, but I'm sure she probably had her pick of schools, she could have gone to a bigger school with an even stronger softball program, say Arizona. Or do softball players only get partial scholarships so finances did enter?
ERA in high school is very subjective. All depends on who is keeping the book on a particular day. The Strikeouts is by far the more amazing number in that stat line. Crazyness. I'll bet she strikes me out a few hundred times in a row.
Chidester etched her name in Michigan softball record books with an astonishing .740 batting average and finished the year with 16 home runs and 90 RBIs in 35 games. She has her sights set on playing at the University of Michigan after next season.
Make that catcher bat against those two pitchers. That would be an interesting matchup.
Yes doctor, I am sick. Sick of those who are spineless. Sick of those who feel self-entitled. Sick of those who are hypocrites. Yes doctor, an army is forming. Yes doctor, there will be a war. Yes doctor, there will be blood.....
Did the quick research. While she is a great talent, and I certainly don't mean to "dis" her achievements in anyway, i think my original assertion is correct. There is absolutely no correlation between pitching in baseball and softball, and the best pitchers in softball do in fact put up the ridiculous gaudy numbers she did, even in Division 1 against the best players and hitters.
It's much much tougher to hit a softball than a baseball. The reaction time that a softball hitter has is similar to the time they have on a Joel ZUmaya fastball. In addition to this, softball pitchers put a ridiculous amount of movement on thier pitches,due to the underhand motion... hence almost every hitter bunts in a "sacrifice situation"....
buffalobillsrul2002 wrote:It's much much tougher to hit a softball than a baseball. The reaction time that a softball hitter has is similar to the time they have on a Joel ZUmaya fastball. In addition to this, softball pitchers put a ridiculous amount of movement on thier pitches,due to the underhand motion... hence almost every hitter bunts in a "sacrifice situation"....
Much tougher?? I disagree. I see a few obvious factors for each side but I still fail to see how it is "much tougher" to hit a softball. There are few pitchers that throw as hard as some such as Monica Abbott so her 96 MPH (MLB equation) fastball is somewhat of an anomoly. Even assuming that every softball pitcher threw that hard, and they don't, the ball is still much larger (relatively). When you combine the fact that it doesn't break as much as a normal baseball pitcher, I still don't see how it is tougher to hit a softball. The only thing that I can see is that there are more inferior hitters in women's softball.
Lofunzo wrote:The only thing that I can see is that there are more inferior hitters in women's softball.
I wouldn't say inferior nearly as much as I would say that the disparity between the top and bottom of the quality pool is much more pronounced in women's softball than it is in men's baseball.
Lofunzo wrote:The only thing that I can see is that there are more inferior hitters in women's softball.
I wouldn't say inferior nearly as much as I would say that the disparity between the top and bottom of the quality pool is much more pronounced in women's softball than it is in men's baseball.
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by StlSluggers » Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:00 pm 
