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Types of fastballs as thrown by a right handed pitcher and viewed from the catcher's perspective: four-seam, sinker, and cutter Many varieties or 'shapes' of fastballs have been described throughout baseball history, including four-seam fastballs, rising fastballs, two-seam fastballs, sinkers, running fastballs, cut fastballs, and split finger fastballs.
Finger grip on a four-seam fastball Finger grip on a four-seam fastball. The four-seam fastball is designed purely for velocity; it travels to the batter's box with little or no "break" from straight-line flight—the intent being to challenge the batter's reaction time instead of fooling him with a pitch that breaks downward or to one side or the other.
The sinker drops 6 to 9 inches more than a typical four-seam fastball, which causes batters to hit ground balls more often than other fastballs, mostly due to the tilted sidespin on the ball. [1] Horizontal movement also occurs when sinkers are thrown. [2] Sinkerball pitchers can often get called strikes and swinging strikes on the pitch.
His inability to land his secondary offerings meant that the Dodgers could expect a healthy heaping of fastballs. Rodón threw 60.3% four-seamers, his highest usage on the pitch since mid-April ...
From 2020 to 2022, Smith did much of his damage against four-seam fastballs, batting .292 against the pitch with a .588 slugging percentage, 21 home runs and only an 18.6% whiff rate.
Angels closer Ben Joyce threw a 105.5-mph fastball to strike out Dodgers' Tommy Edman, making the pitch the fastest recorded to fan a hitter and third-fastest overall.
When thrown correctly, the split-finger's apparent last-second drop causes many batters to hit the top half of the baseball, thereby inducing a ground ball. The split-finger fastball is a very effective pitch with runners on base; a common tactic is using the split-finger to cause the batter to hit into a double play.
Last season, MLB hitters managed a .212/.265/.355 batting line against sliders and sweepers, whiffing on 34.2% of their swings. Against fastballs, their line was .262/.346/.425, and they whiffed ...