Pitching

Some may wonder how can pitchers in baseball get there ball to curve, sink, go left, or go right. It's all a matter of physics, the pitchers grip, on the ball and the way he throws the ball. There a few common pitches that almost most every pitcher may throe. First there is the simplest pitch which is the four seam fastball. It might be the simplest but a pitcher has to have a good fastball in order to be effective. The objective of a four seam fastball is to obviously throw it fast so the opposing batter cannot catch up with the speed of the ball. But not only is speed a factor but location is huge. a pitcher can have the hardest and fastest fast ball, but if they can't throw it as a strike, then its useless.

Another common pitch that many pitchers like to throw is the curveball. Now there are many types of curveballs depending on what type of pitcher there is. There can be a slow up to down curveball, a fast up to down curveball, a slow diagonal curveball, or fast diagonal curveball. To throw this pitch, the pitcher needs to grip the ball on one half-side of the ball and keep you middle finger and pointing finger together on a seam. when you throw the ball, the objective is to get as much spin on the ball as possible. The spin is what makes the ball move. The pitcher should flick his wrist down as if he were casting a spell on someone. the ball should feel like its slipping out of your hands and before you know it, its in the air. A curveball is somewhat hard to throw because your target is not at the strike zone. Your target is actually at the batter's head. A pitcher must throw it at the batter's head or somewhere relatively around there because when the curveball drops, it will end up in the strike zone.

The last pitch I would like to talk about is a pitch I'm trying to work on myself. It's called a splitter. Typically, it's only a good pitch if you've got bigger hands. That's because the pitch itself should be "choked" deep in the hand. This is how splitters get their downward movement. Your index and middle fingers should be placed on the outside of the horseshoe seam. The grip is firm. When throwing this pitch, throw the palm-side wrist of the throwing-hand directly at the target while keeping your index and middle fingers extended upward. Your wrist should remain stiff. This confuses many batters because when the ball is approaching the plate, it looks like a fastball right down the middle until it suddenly drops in the middle of their swing.