Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The typical motion of a pitcher. In baseball, the pitch is the act of throwing the baseball toward home plate to start a play. The term comes from the Knickerbocker Rules. Originally, the ball had to be thrown underhand, much like "pitching in horseshoes". Overhand pitching was not allowed in baseball until 1884.
To illustrate pitching strategy, consider the "fastball/change-up" combination: The average major-league pitcher can throw a fastball around 90 miles per hour (140 km/h), and a few pitchers have even exceeded 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). The change-up is thrown somewhere between 75 and 85 miles per hour (121 and 137 km/h).
The pitch is used often by the pitcher to get ahead in the count or when he needs to throw a strike. This type of fastball is intended to have minimal lateral movement, relying more on its velocity and vertical 'rising' movement. It is typically the fastest pitch a pitcher throws, with recorded top speeds above 100 mph.
A pitcher can induce a strike by expertly painting the corners or fooling a hitter with a pitch out of the zone, but the simplest way is by throwing a pitch over the plate.
Numbers from 110 to 115 mph have been thrown out there. Sam McDowell delivered the forward to the book "Dalko" and said Dalkowski threw the fastest pitch he had ever seen.
The cutter is typically 2–5 mph slower than a pitcher's four-seam fastball. In 2010, the average pitch classified as a cutter by PITCHf/x thrown by a right-handed pitcher was 88.6 mph; the average two-seamer was 90.97 mph. [ 3 ]
“I know as a pitcher, I'm not 100 percent right on what I throw, and I know the catcher may have a good vantage point of understanding what we're trying to do, but the catcher is not 100 percent ...
This image depicts the path of an eephus pitch thrown by pitcher Rip Sewell in the 1946 MLB All-Star Game, which was hit for a home run by Ted Williams. An eephus pitch (also spelled ephus) in baseball is a very high-arcing off-speed pitch. [1] The delivery from the pitcher has very low velocity and often catches the