Baseball Pitches
What is a 'breaking ball' in baseball?
A breaking ball is a ball thrown from the pitcher that has an unusual amount of movement. In baseball, we say it changes planes, which means that a fast ball is on one plane and it may move just a little bit left or right or down, but a breaking ball is something that has more of a significant arc to it and has significant movement to it.
What is a 'four-seam fastball' in baseball?
A four-seam fastball is a fastball that's thrown by a pitcher for the purpose of maximizing the velocity. It's known in baseball circles that when you throw with four seams, the ball is going to stay straighter. It's not going to move very much because of the way the ball's thrown. But the idea is that it has more power behind it, and so therefore it focuses more on power than movement.
What is a 'two-seam fastball' in baseball?
A two-seam fastball in baseball is a fastball that's thrown more for movement. The idea is that because the ball's not rotating with four seams, the two seams help create more movement, whether it's to the right or to the left. It won't go as fast as a four-seam fastball, but will tend to have more movement within the baseball game.
What is a 'curveball' in baseball?
A curveball is a technique of baseball pitching that's thrown by a pitcher that has a noticeable break, or arc in the ball. The idea is that it deceives the hitter because it is slower. The way it rotates, it actually dips down, usually very hard toward the strike zone, where the hitter is about to hit. Because it's breaking down, it's harder for the hitter to make level contact, which is the goal of the hitter, to hit the ball squarely.
What is a 'slider' in baseball?
A slider is a pitch that is very similar to a fastball. It's thrown with almost the same velocity as a fastball, but it has a little bit more movement than a fastball and has a lot less movement than a curveball. Other characteristics of a slider are that it will move from a right-handed pitcher from right to left, and it won't just move slightly across. It'll move slightly across and slightly down whereas a curveball tends to have more of a downward action with a bigger arc.
What is a 'split-fingered fastball' in baseball?
A split-fingered fastball is a fastball that's thrown literally by splitting the fingers, so your fingers make this big V shape. The pitch itself, the action of the ball is to be thrown like a fastball. It has similar velocity to a fastball, maybe three or four miles an hour slower on a major league pitcher, so from maybe 90's down to 86, and the split fingers action is to go straight down with very late action.
What is a 'circle change-up' in baseball?
A circle change-up is one of many change-ups thrown. The idea to a change-up is to deceive the hitter, because it looks like a fastball to a hitter. A circle change-up specifically is held by making this sign that we call the "OK sign", and by placing the ball in the three fingers. What this grip allows you to do is to throw the baseball like a fastball, with the same arm action, and because of the way you're holding the ball, it's actually taking a lot of velocity off the ball. So the circle change-up is really just one form of many kinds of change-ups.
What is a 'knuckle ball' in baseball?
A knuckle ball is a very tricky pitch in baseball and therefore very few people can throw it and very few people even know how to throw it. But the idea is you get your fingertips on the ball and you hold it in a way that as you throw the ball you don't really break your wrist so to speak. You keep a stiff wrist and the idea is that the ball has the characteristics of almost like a butterfly, it can move any direction, you don't know which way it's going to move because the way you're holding the ball you don't get a lot of velocity behind it, which is really not that important, the idea is it just flutters and it is very difficult to read and it's very difficult to throw, but if you can learn how to throw it's a great pitch.
What is a 'spitball' in baseball?
A "spit ball" is actually an old term for a very illegal pitch. It doesn't mean that you literally spit on the ball, which maybe in the old days they used to do it, but it's more like you're taking a foreign substance which could be tobacco, juice from your spit, which is maybe where term "spitball" came from and put it on the ball. But it's really in a way, doctoring the ball illegally and it could be from something as simple as juice from tobacco that a pitcher may have in his mouth or it could be from oil or grease that he has hidden somewhere in his glove and that you're applying that foreign substance to the ball and because you're applying that foreign substance to the ball, the ball has a very unusual action that a hitter's not used to seeing. So it's extremely difficult for a hitter to hit the ball because he's never really seen that type of action on the ball.
What is a 'beanball' in baseball?
A 'beanball' in baseball is another term for a hit's batman. It means the pitcher throws the ball and it hits the hitter. In baseball terms we say the hitter was beaned. A beanball is nothing more than the pitcher throwing a ball that gets away and hits the batter.
