A pitching primer

Major League hitters track the ball directly out of a pitchers hand. They read whether the ball comes UP out of the hand or DOWN out of the hand. Breaking balls need to be thrown with a high trajectory so it can reach the plate. Fastballs need to be thrown down in order to be low enough for a strike.

That is the background. Here are the pitches.

Straight fastball: If a pithcer has an overhand delivery, holds the ball with his fingers across the seams and snaps his wrist straight down, the ball will travel relatively straight. This is good if the pitcher needs a strike. It is a rarer ability than one would think. With power pitchers this is called the "rising fastball" or "heater". Becasue the backspin causes it to fall less wuickly than other fastballs, keeping the pitch high and around the hands.

Tailing fastball: A pithcer holds the ball across the seams and turns his wrist to the outside on delivery causing the ball to fall less quickly and tail slightly in.

Sinker: A fastball held WITH the seams causing the ball to fall more rapidly than a regular fastball.

Cutter: Cutters are held in a myriad number of ways but the idea is for the pitcher to turn his wrist in to get the ball to tail inside of a batter of the opposite hand.

Split finger: This is thrown like a fastball but the finger are placed on the OUTSIDE of the seams causing the ball to have very little backspin to keep it afloat. This is why it drops so quickly.

Change up: There are many types of change up. The classic change is thrown as a four seam fastball without a wrist snap which will lower the speed of the pitch. this does two things, it destroys the timing of the hitter and causes more movement becuase it does nit have as much backspin. It is deceptive because it comes down out of the hand and therefore looks like a fastball.

Types of change ups:
Circle change
Straight change
Forkball
Palmball


Types of breaking balls:
Curve ball (breaks differently depending on grip and delivery of pitcher

Screwball (rare pitch, it breaks the opposite way of a curve ball)

Slider:The slider is thrown like a fastball so it comes down out of the hand but because of various grips and severe wrist rotation, the ball either dives away (or inrto) the hitter or drops sharply. The only way to read a slider from a fastball is by judging rotation.


This is from a combination of Dr Adair's book "The Physics of Baseball" Mike schmidts book on hitting and Tom Seaver's book on pitching as well as conversations with Barry Bonds and a couple of minor leagers.


In case you ever wonder why Greg Maddux is so good he throws:

Straight fastball
Tailing fastball
Sinker
Straight change
Circle change
Curveball
Slider

and throws them all for strikes.

by contrast, Felix Rodriguez of the Giants throws:
Tailing fastball
Tailing fastball
Tailing fastball