What kind of pitches are there in baseball

Help spread the wonder of families learning together. We sent you SMS, for complete subscription please reply. Follow Twitter Instagram Facebook. What are the different pitches in baseball? What is the fastest pitch in baseball? How do ballplayers throw different pitches? Wonder What's Next? Try It Out Play ball! Find a grown-up who can help you with the activities below. Still trying to picture what the different baseball pitches look like?

Check out these handy illustrations. Which pitch do you think would be the most difficult to hit? Discuss with a friend or family member. Read about two famous baseball players— Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth.

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Join the Discussion. Related Wonders for You to Explore Mix of a slider and a fastball. Faster than a slider but with more movement than a fastball. Like a splitter , but with a less dramatic, more gradual downward movement. Commonly called a curveball.

The refers to the top to bottom movement picture a clock with hands at 12 and 6. Breaks down and away from a RHH. Between a fastball and a curve. Slower than a fastball , but thrown with the same arm motion.

Ball is gripped tightly in palm. Just like a changeup, this pitch is slower than a fastball , but thrown with the same arm motion. A changeup with moment like the screwball. All twelve pitch diagrams, minus the text notes, are collected onto a single page PDF.

Twitter Email. A fan's guide to identifying pitches I'm a baseball fan. I've picked twelve of the more common pitches: Fastballs : Four-seam, Two-seam, Cutter, Splitter, and Forkball Breaking Balls : Curveball, Slider, Slurve, and Screwball Changeups : Changeup, Palmball, Circle Changeup Learning to identify pitches The list of pitches might seem like a lot to keep track of, but remember that each pitcher utilizes only a selection of these pitches.

Things to watch for that will help you identify a pitch: Speed Movement - the general direction the ball is moving Break - a sudden shift in direction There are a few other things that can help you identify a pitch: ball rotation, point of release, and grip. Reading the diagrams Take note of the speed, movement, and break of the ball.

If a pitcher throws 95 mph or more with their 4-seam, as long as they miss the heart of the plate, all locations of a pitch that fast can be effective and difficult for professional hitters to handle.

There are many ways to succeed as a big league pitcher, but the most common trait in successful professional pitchers is a quality fastball. Again, as we discussed above, the 4-seam fastball is the easiest pitch to locate.

And location is super important for pitchers. Compare that with, for example, a curveball which we will discuss in depth later.

Curveballs trick hitters and are difficult to square up and hit. But the problem for pitchers is this: because it moves so much, it is difficult to consistently locate it right where they want it.

So if they are behind in a count and need to throw a strike, it is risky to rely on a pitch that has a lot of movement. Now, it is also important to understand that some professional pitchers are so good, that they can consistently locate even their pitches that have a lot of movement. This is what makes these pitchers the best of the best.

But many professional pitchers cannot locate consistently their pitches with the most movement. For these pitchers, the fastball is what they rely on. If they have a quality, hard fastball that they can consistently locate as a strike, they can throw it in counts where they must throw a strike, but because the pitch is so fast, they can still miss a bat with it. Success as a big league pitcher is dependent on many things, but perhaps the most important is this: can they throw a pitch in the strike zone and still miss a bat?

Sure, any professional pitcher could avoid contact by throwing balls out of the zone, but this would fail long term as a strategy because hitters would wise-up and take walks.

Those who are blessed with the arm talent that it takes to throw this hard can be elite professional pitchers because they can both attack the strike zone, and miss bats. It can carry extreme velocity up to 95ish mph but also have late arm-side movement. A combination of elite velocity, like 95 mph, and late movement makes it very difficult for batters to square-up and drive.

Those two outcomes are very different, in that one is a win for the batter and the other is a win for the pitcher. One issue professional pitchers commonly have is getting opposite-handed hitters out consistently. For example, a right-handed pitcher may often struggle against left-handed hitters. In the Major League Baseball season, right-handed pitchers league-wide held right-handed hitters to a. I cite that statistic to again illustrate that right-handed pitchers will struggle, more commonly, against left-handed hitters.

Despite this, some right-handed pitchers are very effective versus left-handed hitters. One trait that many of those pitchers have is a quality 2- seam fastball that they use to neutralize left-handed hitters. Of course, a 2-seam fastball can also be very effective against a same-sided hitter because the pitch can start over the fat part of the plate, then draw back in with the late movement and jam the hitter as they swing. As with any pitch in baseball, the later the movement, the better.

When a pitch breaks early, the hitter sees it and adjusts the swing. When a ball moves late, the hands of the hitter are already committed, and the outcome of late movement is usually a missed bat or weak contact, both of which are wins for the pitcher. This is due to the late sinking action that occurs when many pitchers throw this pitch. It is important to remember that no two pitchers are exactly alike. Arm angles, release points, seam grips, height, arm strength, wrist movement, all these types of things will vary from pitcher to pitcher.

This means that on any given pitch, one pitcher may get different movement than other pitchers, even if they are both attempting to throw the same pitch. The pitch is gripped and released in a way that causes arm-side fade, but the exact amount will differ from pitcher to pitcher and is the sum of all the variable parts that make up a pitcher and a pitching motion. The grip for a sinker is often the same or very similar to regular 2-seam fastballs. Some pitchers may tweak it to try and get even more sinking action.

Although both can be very effective fastballs, these are two things that make these pitches different:. Not all pitchers will throw both of these types of fastballs. Usually, what fastball a pitcher throws will come down to the quality of the pitch out of their hand. If they can generate extreme velocity, they will likely use a 4 seam fastball, but if they can get late, nasty break on a hard 2-seamer, they may choose to throw it.

Some starting pitchers because they face so many batters may choose to use both over the course of a start, depending on the specific situation. One reason that cutters are so reliable is the movement is so tight and late, that pitchers can still easily control the pitch.

Both right-handed and left-handed pitchers will use this pitch effectively. In modern baseball, this pitch has gained popularity due to the success that New York Yankee great Mariano Rivera had with his cutter.

The cut fastball is a pitch, when thrown effectively, that is hard to square-up as a hitter even if you know its coming.

The movement on the pitch is so late and so sudden, that it tricks the eyes into thinking the pitch will be in a different location than it is when it crosses the plate. A cutter can be effective for pitchers to use against both right-handed and left-handed batters. A pitcher can also use it effectively against an opposite-side hitter. One of the most underrated things for a pitcher is their ability to produce weak contact from a hitter. If they get weak contact, it saves on their pitch count and also produces consistent outs.

Here is an illustration:. When a pitcher throws both a 2-seam fastball and a cutter, this allows them to move the ball both directions at a similar velocity.

This makes it even harder on hitters if the pitcher has a repeatable delivery and release point, the ball starts on the same path, then depending on pitch it may break in or out. This creates a lot of guesswork on the part of the hitter. Although a splitter is called a fastball, it functions more as an off-speed pitch. It is similar to a fastball in that the arm speed and release point for a splitter is the same as a normal fastball. The difference is the grip releases the force to the outer edges of the baseball, which causes the baseball to lose velocity and dive as it nears the plate.

This late diving action is difficult for batters to deal with because when the ball is halfway to the plate, it looks like a fastball. For example, if a pitcher has an excellent mph 4-seam fastball, and a hard mph tight slider, even if both pitches individually are quality pitches, he might not succeed because there is basically no difference in the timing of the two baseball pitches.

So when batters face a pitcher like that, they can easily time the pitcher because they know the two main pitches that the pitcher throws both run about 95mph. This means they will be on time with most all their swings, and will have to only worry about matching the barrel to the baseball based on location.

If pitchers allow quality professional hitters to consistently time their pitches, bad things will result. Professional hitters have exceptional hand-eye coordination and great hands that can adjust to location as they swing. If batters can time pitchers, they will make a lot of hard contact regardless of how good the individual pitches are. So if we go back to our example, if a pitcher has a quality fastball and slider than both run near 95 mph, they will need to mix in an off speed pitch that can keep hitters off-balance meaning the hitter has to adjust to multiple speeds of pitches.

Many pitchers will use change-ups to keep hitters off balance we will discuss these below. But some pitchers prefer to use a splitter instead. The choice between a splitter and other traditional off-speed pitches such as change-ups will come down to what the pitcher feels most comfortable using and what is most effective. When a pitcher who has a quality fastball and quality slider that both sit near 95 mph, if they mix in a slower pitch, like a splitter, that makes that premium fastball and premium slider even harder to deal with.

So in our example, if the pitcher also started throwing a quality splitter, which looks very similar to the fastball when it is halfway to the plate before it sinks late , it creates a situation where the batter is now dealing with a large variation in speed between pitches.

Now the batter not only has to worry about the location of the pitch, but also has to worry about the timing of the pitch. The more problems a pitcher can cause for a batter, the better. If a batter has to worry about both timing and location, they will be less comfortable, and the at-bat will involve much more guesswork for the batter.

And although, as we discussed above, professional hitters have exceptional hands that can adjust mid-swing, the problem is if their timing is off for example they swung thinking they had a 95mph fastball and instead its an 85 mph splitter even if they adjust their hands and make contact with the splitter as it dives near the plate, their balance is off. An effective splitter can help professional pitchers keep hitters off balance at the plate.

Some splitters depending on pitcher may also have some arm-side fade as they sink near the plate. A breaking ball is a pitch that has significant spin-created movement to it. Below is an illustration of the four main types of breaking balls in baseball:.