OU thats a neat story.In baseball I played 1st base,and I hated pitchers that had good off speed pitches.Our coach was a look for the fastball first,and you can adjust if you don't get one type.I don't know how many times I looked foolish when a savvy pitcher fed me a off speed pitch,with me looking for a fastball.I took this lesson to fast pitch softball,and even though I wasn't all that fast,I got a lot of batters out with a knuckleball and a slow drop.You can throw the ball 95 mph,but if that's all you got,the good hitters will find you!
Dobey
Dobey...I was low 90's on my best days and in High school that was good enough. At the Div 1 level...that is just a bit better than ordinary without something off-speed to enhance it (fork, slow-curve, slider, or a changeup). Guys at that level will work the count on you if you're a fastball guy...as a pitcher, if you get ahead in the count the batter KNOWS that you are NOT going to throw a strike...he knows you will try to get him to reach with a pitch close to the strike zone or just plain fool him with a real crappy pitch. Well, quickly the count is 2-2 and now, as a pitcher thats' out-pitch (that was almost my in-game name) is a fastball, he knows whats coming and can sit on it and wait. That is when you get crushed because everyone at that level can hit a mid 90's fastball...with very few exceptions.
If you think about it, its the same way in this game...there are pilots that are criminally good at BnZ (fastballs) and there are pilots that deceptively good on the deck stall-fighting (off speed). The best pilots I can think of
, Bruv, Grizz, DrBone, Lazer, Krupnski, Sunsfan, SHawk, Batfink, SkyRock, JunkyII (NuffSaid), perdweeb, Sunbatt and Dodger have BOTH pitches...they will kill you either way and in fact, can actually set you up for an off-speed pitch!! They will hit you from above, dodge someone on the pass and lose a touch of E, go ahead and kill the other guy and bleed off most of their remaining E knowing that you are waiting to hit them when they appear most vulnerable...low and slow (off speed)..and then WHAMMO! Here comes the changeup pitch and you are back in the tower. If you have one competitive bone in your entire body, you are demoralized and left foolish after being struck out by a changeup or some form of off speed spoiler pitch OR being set up by one of those guys...it escapes no one.
Lots of similarities in the games
V/r
Changeup