Baseball Pitches and Movement
Common Pitches Thrown With Diagram of Movement and Trajectories
Sep 20, 2008
Four Seam Fastball
This is the standard pitch in baseball and is generally the fastest. There is little movement, but when thrown exceptionally well can appear to have a rising or hopping motion, resulting in swinging strikes, pop ups, and fly outs. Pitchers who rely to heavily on the four seam fastball may give up a lot of home runs.
Two Seam Fastball
A two seam fastball is thrown the same way as a four seam fastball, but the fingers are held along the seams rather than across them, giving it more movement and slowing it down. It's usually thrown in the lower part of the strike zone when a groundnut or double play is desired.
Cutter
A cutter is a type of fastball which breaks slightly as it reaches home plate. It is somewhere between a slider and a fastball, thrown faster than the slider with more motion than a fastball. The common way to throw it is to release a two seam fastball with a slight pressure from the tip of the finger.
Splitter
A split-finger fastball is similar to a sinker but has more of a downward break. Batters tend to over-swing or swing over the ball. It looks like a fastball as it approaches the plate but then dives downward.
Forkball
The forkball appears to “tumble” out of the strike zone rather than breaking out of it. It looks like a fast dancing knuckle ball. If there is any kind of wind it is impossible for batters to predict where to hit it.
Curveball
Contrary to popular belief, the curveball does not really curve, but breaks straight down with a 12 to 6 trajectory. It is often a slower pitch and is sometimes referred to as an “off-speed breaking ball.”
Slider
The slider breaks faster than the curveball. While it is not as fast as a fastball, it is typically faster than the other pitches, often reaching into the 90's. It usually breaks from 10-4 or 9-3.
Slurve
A slurve is a slider but thrown as fast as a curveball. It looks like a slider coming out of the pitcher's hand to the batter, but then fools the hitter by taking longer to reach the plate.
Screwball
This is a “backwards curveball”. When thrown by a righty, it breaks like a lefty curveball and vice versa. Lefties throw it against right-handed hitters and righties throw it against left-handed hitters.
Change Up
The change-up is a slow pitch and throws off the hitter's timing. When it's thrown perfectly, the pitcher has the same arm motion but with much less speed on the ball. It is effective on it's own, but also increases the effectiveness of the pitchers fastball.
Palm Ball
The palm ball is a type of change up. The pitcher places the baseball tightly in the palm and then throws it like a fastball, taking some of the velocity off of the ball. The intended effect is the batter swinging before the ball gets there.
Circle Change Up
This is a type of change-up similar to a screwball. To the batter, the ball looks like a slow two-seam fastball being lobbed toward the plate, but then the ball breaks at the last moment.
Understanding the pitches and how they work will help increase the enjoyment of new and old fans alike. Feel free to print out the poster. Play Ball!
(Poster of pitch trajectories Used By Permission/ Lokesh Dhakar under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 3.0 Unported License.)
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