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silveradept[This is part of a series exploring the Baseball Tarot.]
...control. Where Power is generally brute force gathered and moving at high velocity, not easily resisted or dissipated (but often easily redirected), Control does not usually gather enough force to have someone standing in direct opposition to them. That makes it harder to spot the use of Control until it's too late. Control is patient and waits for an opportunity to attack, having spent a lot of time setting up the right scenario beforehand.
Hitters that exercise Control are generally considered hitters for average - they may lack the showstopping power of hitting home runs, but when they get up to bat, there's a good chance they will get on base, through patience at the plate and an uncanny knack for hitting balls where the fielders just can't get to them. Singles, bunts, and the occasional steal, along with speed on the bases, make the Control player manipulate the game to their own speed and desired ability. Enough Control players near each other in the lineup can manufacture a run of two by themselves or help begin or extend a rally that could become a high-scoring affair. The snowball effect is the way Control hitters work - little things strung together that suddenly create big things. Apparent coincidences or seemingly weird behaviors turn out to have had a plan behind them the whole time.
Control is usually applied to pitchers more than hitters, in the same way Power is usually applied more to hitters than pitchers, helping to set them up as opposite powers of the game. A pitcher must have command and control of their pitches to deliver them to the spots requested by the catcher in the manner requested, or they will have to deal with the consequences of wild pitches, hitting batters, or having those batters hit their pitches to the farthest reaches of the ball park. Usually, though, when taking about Control and pitchers, the archetypal one is a pitcher that lacks velocity as their singular effective characteristic, and instead has a variety of pitches to select from, most of which have some form of break to them, so that it is incredibly difficult to predict what pitch will be coming next, where it will originate, and what kind of movement it will have. In this situation, hitters are often reduced to reacting to the pitch and hoping to foul off enough wrong guesses until they collect a right one and do something with it. Control pitchers are starters and middle relievers, whose game has gone beyond sheer velocity into finesse and manipulation. They know when to take heat off the ball as much as when to put it on.
Control's weaknesses, though, are just as present than those who rely on Power. Applied Power is often able to withstand or break schemes involving Control, by taking advantage of the ease in which a single mistake or out-of-place support or action can bring down the entire affair. A power hitter only needs one lapse of control to hit a home run or an extra base hit and drive in several runs. A power pitcher can often overwhelm a control hitter and prevent them from getting the placement they want by keeping them trying desperately to just catch up to the pitch enough to put it in play.
And, sometimes more so than with power pitching, control pitchers get tired more quickly and have their time on the mound shortened by every batter who takes more than the plan's allotment of pitches to them. Control pitchers are also usually away from their intended game and style when there are runners on base, providing pressure that might rush the mechanics or pull the defenders out of alignment. It is quite possible for a Control pitcher to snowball themselves in the same way a spinning top eventually develops a wobble and then comes to a halt, no matter how well-spun the top was at its beginning. The chaos that develops when things come crashing down is the risk of trying to impose your control on others.
Ideally, Power and Control are in harmony with each other in a player, equally able to harness either as the situation demands it. This doesn't produce quite the extremes of good associated with either, but it also doesn't produce the excesses of bad associated as well. The best players can do both consistently, and usually that requires coaching to develop the part that the player naturally lacks.
The Tarot equivalent of this card is The Chariot, which requires a driver of multiple horses to be in control of them so that they will work together. Classically, the chariot races were matters of big money and prestige as well as entertaining spectacles for the watching audience as the chariots would jostle each other for position in the track - not unlike race car driving in our own times. The card represents the influence of control on the situation, and it can be self-control or other control. It's not necessarily a universal good, either - the card may be signifying control exerted that needs to be broken or adjusted to produce good results. It depends on where you are and what sort of forces are arrayed against you. Fighting Control with Control can work, and it can just as easily become a very tangled mess. Handle with care.
...control. Where Power is generally brute force gathered and moving at high velocity, not easily resisted or dissipated (but often easily redirected), Control does not usually gather enough force to have someone standing in direct opposition to them. That makes it harder to spot the use of Control until it's too late. Control is patient and waits for an opportunity to attack, having spent a lot of time setting up the right scenario beforehand.
Hitters that exercise Control are generally considered hitters for average - they may lack the showstopping power of hitting home runs, but when they get up to bat, there's a good chance they will get on base, through patience at the plate and an uncanny knack for hitting balls where the fielders just can't get to them. Singles, bunts, and the occasional steal, along with speed on the bases, make the Control player manipulate the game to their own speed and desired ability. Enough Control players near each other in the lineup can manufacture a run of two by themselves or help begin or extend a rally that could become a high-scoring affair. The snowball effect is the way Control hitters work - little things strung together that suddenly create big things. Apparent coincidences or seemingly weird behaviors turn out to have had a plan behind them the whole time.
Control is usually applied to pitchers more than hitters, in the same way Power is usually applied more to hitters than pitchers, helping to set them up as opposite powers of the game. A pitcher must have command and control of their pitches to deliver them to the spots requested by the catcher in the manner requested, or they will have to deal with the consequences of wild pitches, hitting batters, or having those batters hit their pitches to the farthest reaches of the ball park. Usually, though, when taking about Control and pitchers, the archetypal one is a pitcher that lacks velocity as their singular effective characteristic, and instead has a variety of pitches to select from, most of which have some form of break to them, so that it is incredibly difficult to predict what pitch will be coming next, where it will originate, and what kind of movement it will have. In this situation, hitters are often reduced to reacting to the pitch and hoping to foul off enough wrong guesses until they collect a right one and do something with it. Control pitchers are starters and middle relievers, whose game has gone beyond sheer velocity into finesse and manipulation. They know when to take heat off the ball as much as when to put it on.
Control's weaknesses, though, are just as present than those who rely on Power. Applied Power is often able to withstand or break schemes involving Control, by taking advantage of the ease in which a single mistake or out-of-place support or action can bring down the entire affair. A power hitter only needs one lapse of control to hit a home run or an extra base hit and drive in several runs. A power pitcher can often overwhelm a control hitter and prevent them from getting the placement they want by keeping them trying desperately to just catch up to the pitch enough to put it in play.
And, sometimes more so than with power pitching, control pitchers get tired more quickly and have their time on the mound shortened by every batter who takes more than the plan's allotment of pitches to them. Control pitchers are also usually away from their intended game and style when there are runners on base, providing pressure that might rush the mechanics or pull the defenders out of alignment. It is quite possible for a Control pitcher to snowball themselves in the same way a spinning top eventually develops a wobble and then comes to a halt, no matter how well-spun the top was at its beginning. The chaos that develops when things come crashing down is the risk of trying to impose your control on others.
Ideally, Power and Control are in harmony with each other in a player, equally able to harness either as the situation demands it. This doesn't produce quite the extremes of good associated with either, but it also doesn't produce the excesses of bad associated as well. The best players can do both consistently, and usually that requires coaching to develop the part that the player naturally lacks.
The Tarot equivalent of this card is The Chariot, which requires a driver of multiple horses to be in control of them so that they will work together. Classically, the chariot races were matters of big money and prestige as well as entertaining spectacles for the watching audience as the chariots would jostle each other for position in the track - not unlike race car driving in our own times. The card represents the influence of control on the situation, and it can be self-control or other control. It's not necessarily a universal good, either - the card may be signifying control exerted that needs to be broken or adjusted to produce good results. It depends on where you are and what sort of forces are arrayed against you. Fighting Control with Control can work, and it can just as easily become a very tangled mess. Handle with care.
no subject
Date: 2016-07-07 02:39 pm (UTC)I think I'll mull on the Chariot and Control some today. n_n
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Date: 2016-07-07 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-07 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-07 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-07 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-07 09:29 pm (UTC)On the weakness of Control being that gap in the plan or execution where things just don't work out--that echoes some of my experience. Sometimes it's the last straw--why would have the controller expected that one thing to be what triggers Power in another?
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Date: 2016-07-07 10:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-07 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-07 11:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-08 12:02 am (UTC)That one has to be one of my favorites.