A fan’s guide to identifying pitches.
I‘m a baseball fan. I’ve watched my share of televised games and attended a few handful. After all this, I was still in the dark about the difference between pitches. I knew a curveball broke downwards, but what exactly was a circle changeup?
The diagrams below are the results of skimming through baseball books and doing online research. This is not a complete guide. 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. For example, Pedro Martinez throws a curveball, circle-changeup, an occasional slider, and a fastball. Do a little research on the pitcher before the game.
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. For a casual fan though, it might be a bit much and I don’t illustrate or discuss any of the latter three items.
Reading the Diagrams
Take note of the speed, movement, and break of the ball. Don’t worry about where the baseball is shown in the the strike zone. You can throw a fastball in the middle of the strike-zone like the one illustrated, or you can throw one high and away from the batter. It’s still a fastball. Location doesn’t determine the pitch.
I’ve collected all twelve of the pitch diagrams below, minus the text notes, into a single PDF:
Four-seam Fastball
85-100 mph
- Fastest, straightest pitch. Little to no movement.
Two-seam Fastball
80-90 mph
- Also known as a Sinker.
- Moves downward, and depending on the release, will sometimes run in on a right handed hitter (RHH).
Cutter
85-95 mph
Splitter
80-90 mph
- Breaks down suddenly before reaching plate.
Curveball
70-80 mph
- Commonly called a 12-6 curveball. The 12-6 refers to the top to bottom movement (picture a clock with hands at 12 and 6).
Slurve
70-80 mph
- 11-5 movement. Similar to a curve but with more lateral movement.
Palmball
65-75 mph
- Ball is gripped tightly in palm.
- Just like a changeup, this pitch is slower than a fastball, but thrown with the same arm motion.
You’re an infographic machine!
Yo
this guy doesn’t know the first thing about pitching. I can guarantee any other site about pitching is far more reliable than this.
Cool stuff… but where’s the knuckleball?
you cant draw a graphic for a knuckleball because its so unpredictable. it can break a million different ways depending on the wind.
You can break wind a million different ways
Very clean looking graphics. Informative too. I’m not the biggest baseball fan but you’ve listed some pitches I’ve never heard of.
excellent illustration!
Where are the spitball and “gyroball”?
wtf
wtf is a fucking gyroball, are you a fucking homo or what?
The AL East knows what the gyroball is.
Actually I was mistaken. I wrote “the AL East knows what the gyroball is,” referring to the Red Sox’ Daisuke Matsuzaka’s “gyroball” pitch. Based on what I have heard, however, Matsuzaka apparently never threw that particular pitch during any games.
spit ball is illegal and only dicek knows how to throw a gyroball
Hey, supernice illustrations! I liked your coffee-appraoch aswell. Now it’s just drinks illustrated left ^_^
Godspeed
I expect a chart illustrating the objective ratings of all cheap beers by morning.
nice.
and you can’t diagram a knuckler. don’t you know, ese? a knuckle ball is loco.
seriously, though, a good knuckle has no spin at all, so the air catches the seams in weird ways and the ball pretty much bounces around at random. pretty hard to hit. also, tears up your arm pretty good (i was a knuckler for 1 1/2 years in high school, then my arm died…).
sucker
That’s not true. At all. Kunckleball puts less stress on the elbow and shoulder.
u are so stupid it puts alot of stress cuz ur arm is moving fast but the ball goes really slow it puts alot of stress most offspeed pitches do
you baseball fans are so fickle. i can throw a shitty little baseball far harder,faster more accuate than any so called pitcher. any obect i get il hit at more than your precious 100mph
In your dreams, dork. I’m guessing you through like a girl – a little girl at that.
You are crazy, 100 is next to impossible. Go to a batting cage and see what 60 or 80 looks like. Nuts.
1 of my coaches is a smi pro pitcher and he only throws 98
u couldn’t hit 100 even if u were using a 1 oz bat
If you throw the knuckle ball properly it should not tear up your arm .
A true knuckleball should actually prolong your pitching career. However, it is not recommended for children because their muscles, tendons, etc., are not fully developed, and it CAN damage their arms. They should be in their teens before trying to pitch a knuckler.
I was just wondering–is the position of the laces the same (as you show it) between a two-seam and four-seam fastball? I always thought that a two-seam was as you show it, but a four-seam was “across” the laces, i.e. the laces were horizontal. Or am I completely wrong here?
where does it show how 2 hold the ball when throwing these pitches
I know nothing about baseball, but I love these illustrations, especially how you color-coded velocity. The site itself looks awesome by the way.
-onur
I would argue a “gyro” is actually a two seamer with a little pronation of the wrist. And yes, Dave, four seam is across the laces.
However, more importantly is the stadium in which you are watching the game (on TV). Each stadium has slightly different locations for the camera crews, each with a different angle between them and home plate and the pitcher’s mound and home plate. This distorts the direction and/or magnitude of the particular pitch. Teams scouting through a television have know these angles and can therefore better record pitches.
But great job with the illustrations.
I never thought someting beautiful could came out from baseball
-Aysen
http://studio208.a2o2.com/
Of course, these would be opposite coming from a left-handed pitcher.
Awesome. Huge Baseball fan as well. Uh…can we see the illustrations that show how the ball is gripped for each pitch as well :)
Seriously though, Great Work!
Thanks this is what I have been looking for
Sam and RT,
There are quite a few references for pitch grips online. I thought this trilogy of videos did a good job:
Baseball Pitches (1 of 3)
These are good, but I’m wondering if you forgot the knuckleball. Also, these would be different for left-handed pitchers, correct?
hey great site man and nice illustrations ….
liked the coffee illustrations too …
whats next in store ???
Excellent job!
I have had the hardest time tryng to find illustrations like yours on the internet.
Thanks!
loser.
thanks for helping me with this gudie
Great diagrams, half of what I was looking for. Now I just need to see how the ball would be gripped in each one. Thanks for your diligent effort.
Truly fantastic!
I would only add… that some fastballs — don’t know if there is a specific name — can break upwards.
rising fastballs, same grip but more whip action on the release
there is no such thing as a baseball that breaks upwards. it is impossible because of gravity.
if you can get 20-22 backward rotations on a 90 mph fastball, it will rise.
A knuckleball would just be a big “?”
and @Eloy, a “rising” fastball is a trick of perception. Usually a pitch that appears to rise is just a harder fastball that arrives quicker — less time to drop — and spins faster — futher cutting down the air drag that would cause the ball to drop.
What about the gyro-ball?
While a sinker and a two-seam fastball are thrown with the same grip, they are not the same pitch. Most sinkerball pitchers throw with slight pronation (or finger pressure or off-center grip) so there is some additional sideways spin. The break is slightly different, but probably not enough different to warrant its own chart.
Interesting. Especially to discover that a “curveball” doesn’t really curve at all.
Peter – curveballs really do curve; it’s just that the break of a 12-6 curve is essentially straight down. What Lokesh calls slurves and screwballs are also curveballs with more horizontal break. Mike Mussina’s knuckle curve is also a curveball (not a knuckleball).
When I was growing up the curveball was what the announcer would say a lot. I don’t hear that term anymore. Do they no throw it anymore or do they call it something else. Sure would like to know what happened to the term curveball.
pretty basic stuff. good info for rookies.
Eloy,
It is IMPOSSIBLE for a ball to break upwards. Anyone who tells you otherwise is falt out WRONG! Ask any physics professor worth his salt.
while a ball cant really break upwards, whipping your wrist alot on a fastball could have it sail more than a regular one, hence the rising fastball
That fastball’s going to get crushed! It’s coming right down the middle!
These are fabulous. Thanks for sharing with the world.
You can actually make the 2 seamer run in or out for a RHH if the seams are vertical and you aplly more pressure to one side. For a 2 seamer to have a slight drop just have the seams horizontal and throw.
thanks man!! great job!!
the ball will break in the direction of rotation and a four seam fast ball thrown straight overhand can hop slightly upward if the rotation is back toward the pitcher on the top of the ball. The reason is the reduction of atmospheric air pressure on top and the constant atmospheric pressure (unchanged on bottom) lifts the ball. It’s the same principle that makes an airplane lift.
i like that explanation more than mine lol
Edward Tufte would be proud
Where is the Eephus pitch??
when was the last time you saw that thrown in real life??
The Knuckleball was in the running to be included in the diagrams but sadly it was dropped. Both the perspective I illustrated from and the large width of the ball trail made it difficult to come up with a rendering that captured the randomness and floaty-ness of the knuckleball’s movement.
@Moon
The Eephus pitch a.k.a. the Bloop Curve is there. You can see a small version of it right-aligned below the the title of this blog entry. Scroll up!
Few curveballs are truly 12-6. Most of them are 1-7 or 11-5. Correspondingly, the slurve shouldn’t be described as having that kind of break. It’s relatively equal in terms of horizontal and vertical displacement rather than being primarily vertical.
Comment by Kim: “the ball will break in the direction of rotation and a four seam fast ball thrown straight overhand can hop slightly upward if the rotation is back toward the pitcher on the top of the ball. The reason is the reduction of atmospheric air pressure on top and the constant atmospheric pressure (unchanged on bottom) lifts the ball. It’s the same principle that makes an airplane lift.
First off, to be “clearer”, the ball (an official baseball) pitched by an average human being would break in the direction of rotation, that is, the direction of the rotation from the perspective of the batter; further more, a ball pitched is only capable of breaking in the downwards direction, horizontal directions, or in a downwards-horizontal combination direction.
Now it is not an error that I left out that a baseball thrown by a normal human being (whether professional MLB player or not or) is capable of breaking upwards. The reason being is because it simply is NOT possible, not with a baseball at least — perhaps a machine capable of producing extreme spin could cause a ball to break upwards, but not a person/ any person known with that capablility as known to date.
Yeah, you explain about the reduction of atmospheric air pressure and whatnot. That’s basic fluid dynamics. A lot of people ARE aware of this, as I am sure the commentor who previously explained that fastballs cannot rise (break upwards basically) knows that as well. So if he and I know about this physical property, then why would we state that a baseball cannot break upwards? The answer is, you have to take into account that gravity is a variable in the entire picture. With the mass of the ball, no person up to date is able to produce enough backspin/downwards spin in order to force a baseball to rise. You need to be able to generate tremendous backspin in order to overcome the gravity in order to create a true upwards break.
You must have fooled into the “typical” fallacy that wicked fastballs will rise as it approaches the plate. Well that fallacy has been proven to be wrong by sports scientists (google this subject, you WILL find many articles on it).
It’s still okay to describe a fastball as being a rising one (provided that one knows the truth that in reality it doesn’t actually break upwards). It would be ok to describe a fastball with more “hangtime” as being a riser-fastball.
The thing about the backspin imparted on the baseball is that it DOES cause the ball to resist dipping more, as the air pressure from above the ball is less than the bottom. …but it simply is not enough to break the ball upwards. The backspin keeps the ball path “straighter” or keeps the ball afloat longer than any other type of spin/no-spin pitches.
…My 2 cents to prevent others from being misinformed.
Kim, I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but you are dead wrong. It doesn’t happen. What it is is actually an optical illusion. Of course, I don’t have the time to debate it, but it’s the truth, and whether or not you agree is irrelevant. (I sure like your moxie, though!)
Just read this post…Duh. I guess if you don’t pay attention to baseball or put on mute while you watch a game then you might get something out of that.
The best way to determine a pitch is yes by the speed and the way it breaks. How about the why the pitch does what it does? This is attributed to the spin. It all starts with the way the pitcher holds the ball and the way he breaks his wrist at the relase point. For example the curve you throw more or lease over the top and you pull the ball down creating a circular spin on the ball. The laces of the ball catch the air around it in such a matter that the ball dives. To the batter the ball apears to have a white spot in the middle due to this rotation. This is the best way to identify a pitch.
Posted by: LeftyPower
Kim, I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but you are dead wrong. It doesn’t happen. What it is is actually an optical illusion. Of course, I don’t have the time to debate it, but it’s the truth, and whether or not you agree is irrelevant. (I sure like your moxie, though!)
———————————————————————————
Yes, LeftyPower is correct in saying that it is an optical illusion. The reason why some players will say that a fastball seems to rise is that it stays more aloft than usual — that is, there reactive reflexes expected to see the ball drop down, but with a wicked fastball, the ball floats longer due to wicked fastball with tremendous backspin. Now the ball doesn’t actually rise/break upwards. It appeared or felt like it did to the batter, since the pitch caught their natural expectation off guard.
That is why some batters will say that the ball rises. It’s only an “illusion”.
Great graph~
clear explanation with illustrations!!
good job dude!!
Thanks, You helped me out alot w/ my baseball project!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sinceraly, Johnny
Hey, Its John again (the kid from yesterday). Thanks again Im about print out your page.I hope you read these messages. My AIM screen-name is Jlapacik043. If you 1, maybe we could massage. BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yea what red coyote said at the beginning, awesome illustrations, very helpful for explaining to my mother and girlfriend but where’s the wakefield knuckelball?!?
You live in our wonderful city and no knuckleball!?
Wow! Thanks. I’ve tried for years to identify pitches, but am still frustrated by most of them. This helps a great deal.
First off I will start this by saying that I played 20 years, of baseball including 4 years at the college level. Also I for the most part was a starting pitcher all those years. I have played against plenty of pitchers who are now in the pro’s.
First off, the one guy who said that he threw knuckle balls in college and that knuckle balls hurt your arm. It wasn’t because you were throwing a knuckle ball. Of all the pitches knuckles do the least damage because the way you get the ball not to spin is by not snapping your wrist and elbow hard, which is what hurts your arm. You must have had another problem or you were throwing incorrectly.
Also you can’t chart a knuckleball, it moves different every time. Knuckleballs move so much that when a knuckleball pitcher comes in normally the catcher switches to a big mit and still has all kinds of problems catching the ball. If a catcher has a hard time catching it just imagine how hard it is to hit it. It is extremely hard to throw a knuckleball, that is why there is really only one knuckleballer in pro baseball today.
Second, everyone is right it is impossible for a fastball to rise. Trust me I have batted against a guy who throws 96 mph the ball doesn’t rise it just gets to your really fast. Also something else that no one else mentioned to make it even more impossible to make a ball rise is that you are throwing from a mound, downhill. If the ball wasn’t moving down the ball would be as high as the batters head every time.
Third, someone said something about a curveball having the “white dot”. If you see a white dot which is created by the spin of the ball you are actually seeing a slider, not a curveball. Any good curveball looks exactly like a 4 seam fast ball only it is spinning down instead of up. All you see is seams no white spot. This doesn’t change for someone who doesn’t throw a 12-6 curveball. If they are throwing a curveball the reason it isn’t 12-6 is because of their arm angle, they don’t throw straight over top, they are most like a 3/4 thrower, but still you would never see a white dot.
Also yes you can get a two seam fastball to move either direction depending on the way you put pressure on your fingers. There are two major factors in the movement of a baseball. First off is finger pressure. I actually threw a 4 finger change-up in college. With this pitch I could get the ball to basically move any direction I wanted (except up of course). So the first time a batter saw my change-up it moved one direction, then the next time it moved a different way. Kept them off balance which is the key to pitching. The second major factor is the angle of your wrist at release. For example when you throw a fastball, your fingers are straight over the top of the ball and your wrist is straight. When you throw a curve your hand is actually turned to the side and your hand is on the side of the ball.
Also for identifying pitches, speed is one the best ways. I can tell what a pitch is simply by the speed 90% of the time. If you know a guy throws a fastball, a curve, and a change-up (which are probably the 3 most common pitches), and lets say he throws is fastball 90mph. The fastball is easy to spot it is the 90mph one. Next comes the curve, a normal curve will be anywhere from 10-15mph slower than the fastball. Finally the change-up, the change-up is the slowest it should come in around 20mph slower if they have a good change-up. For other pitches, sliders are normally only about 5-10mph slower. Cutters and Splitters a lot of the time are only a speed decrease of a few mph, sometimes they are hard to spot unless you see the break.
Anyway if you have anymore questions for me let me know I would be happy to answer them.
knuckleball ???
good job! :)
one problem
you have to realise that at the point where the ball is relased, the relase point is ABOVE the strike zone. you have drawn this in the catchers view
Balls !! ;)
my girlfriend said weres the knukelbal
I like it.
I am doin a report for school and this is just what I needed.
12-6 CurveBall is a great pitch
I have to disagree with the post in the fastball section. A forkball thrown the right way is actually more of a knuckleball. Jose Contreras has a “forkball”, but really it’s more of a nasty splitter. I’ve thrown the forkball a bit, and it is definitely one of the harder pitches to control. Look around on the internet about the forkball, you’ll find that most people agree with me. The thing with the forkball is that your fingers are on either side of the baseball, and when you release the ball, your fingers slide off the ball, leaving it with little to no spin. It moves very much like a knuckleball, which is how it is also called “the poor man’s knuckleball”. And Jeff, throwing a knuckler is probably the healthiest pitch for your arm. Look at Tim Wakefield, he’s getting up there in age, but he could pitch the entire game. Knuckleballs are thrown with almost no arm action, so it doesn’t hurt to throw it over and over.
not even close, a forkball is just a splitter with your fingers as wide apart as they can go
WHERE DOES IT SHOW WHAT TO DO WHEN THE BALL COMES BLASTING AT YOU ????
If some of you disagree on the looks of a Curveball look at one of the greats curveballs: Nolan Ryan or Barry Zito.
The Curveball is 12-6 or 1-7
thank you for helping me with my projeck
I love the visuals. Read quite of few pieces of pitch explanations without visuals. It’s kind of like having a blind seeing-eye dog… just doesn’t work. Nice job with this.
best blog post ever
awsome, but iwas wondering how do you grip a screwball
First grip a 2-seam fastball, with the seams, not across them. If you move both your index and middle finger to the right seam, that is how most people throw a slider. A lot of people who throw screwballs, which isn’t very many, do the opposite and move both fingers over to the left seam. But really the most important thing to any pitch is your wrist angle at release more than grip. Screwballs are hard to throw because it isn’t a very natural motion. On a slider you start with you two fingers on top and rotate them down to the right so your thumb is straight up and down. A screwball is the opposite, you are taking your two fingers that are on the top and rotating them down to the left so you palm is facing away from you body. However, I wouldn’t recommend throwing this pitch, it puts a lot of stress on your arm and not many people’s arms can handle this unnatural motion. I would recommend working on a two seam fastball and trying to get it to come in on the batter. Work with putting different amounts of pressure on your index finger and middle finger, you’ll be amazed by the different movements you can get just by doing that and not changing anything else. In college I actually used a four finger change up and could get it to move basically any direction I wanted by doing this.
Awesome illustrations and descriptions of different types of pitches!
This is great! I’m a Brit who has really got into watching baseball over the last year since going to an Angels game on holiday last August. For a beginner, the game happens so fast that it’s hard to work out the difference between different pitches so this is really helpful. I also bought the new MLB game for my PS3 and I’ve been gradually working out what the different pitches do, but I was unsure how fast I should be pitching them (except for the 4SFB of course!) so again this is awesome. Thanks so much!
Thanks for showing the different pictures so the average person can understand the pitches.
I’m confused. I assume these are pitches coming from a right-handed pitcher. But every diagram shows the release point of a left-handed pitcher.
yeah that kinda annoyed me too
Hey,
Those were great illustrations, but if youshowed how to grip those pitches than this website would be alot better…. nice try though.
Thats alot of baseball tricks
Im cool
Rising fastball
Its an illusion. This illusion occurs because the brain is almost always seeing a baseball drastically affected by gravity. From the moment a ball thrown overhand is released gravity begins to pull it down towards earth
When the ball is thrown fast enough, with no movement, it is stopped by the catchers mit before gravity can pull it down too much. We expect the ball to drop further–and because what we expect doesnt happen, to our minds, it can appear to rise.
Also, some pitchers, like Roy Owswalt, drop down so far that they are almost throwing up–but that is trajectory–not upward curving
show how to throw them and the effect and know wonder you can’t display the knuckle ball because it goes a different way every time i have a sweet knuckle ball and it goes a different way every time nice job otherwise though
the two-seamer is not also known as a sinker. the two-seamer breaks in on a right-handed hitter, when thrown from a right-handed pitcher. so it breaks like this:
O=>O
and a lefty:
O
You should show how to do the pitches
i agree with ur gf bob. Wheres the knuckle ball?
wow~~~ great… impressive…
They might be better if with shape of grips.
I came here following coffee pictures~ from KOREA~~
good to see you…
hey um i just wanted to tell u that it would be better if u showed how to throw them. i like what you’ve done so far though
Nice website. Love the pics.
I just wanted to say describe the pitch not base it on the movements of a clock but other than that nice web site. :]
Thank you for helping me with my project on baseball movements. I seartched the web for a site like this so thank you again!
i need to know how you did these diagrams, using what website, or application please!!!!!!
get more pitches
u dont even have a sinker and no theres a huge difference between a sinker and a 2 seem fastball. and a curveball and 12-6 r 2 different things a 12-6 has more topple spin and drops down while a regular curve has alot more tight spin and moves diaginal
other than tht its all good
SHOW ME HOW TO GRIP THEM!!!
how do u throw them
what about the knuckle-curve
power curve
freeze ball
smoke ball
slo mo
and this website has weird graphics
not as wierd as those pitches
good but theres more than a 12-6 curve and u missed alot of pitches i like how the movement is shown
freeze ball smoke ball have u been playin backyard baseball
do another one with knuckle and ephus and the gyro but other than that excllent job man
you forgot the knuckle curve ball, knuckleball, ephus, and the gyro ball but other than that you are a baseball pitching machine
nice but what about the grips…we cant pitch it if we dont know the grip!
ALSO KNOWN AS: (General fastball terms)
heater, cheese, smoke, cheddar, big dog
AVERAGE SPEED: 89-91 mph
WHICH MARINERS THROW IT: All
BEST IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE* (ALL
FASTBALLS): Pedro Martinez, Boston; Troy
Percival, Anaheim; Bartolo Colon, Cleveland
Pitching 101
Four-seam
fastball
Changeup
Two-seam
fastball
Slider
Curveball
Split-finger
Forkball
ALSO KNOWN AS: Sinker
AVERAGE SPEED: 89-91 mph
WHICH MARINERS THROW IT: Garcia,
Halama, Moyer, Paniagua and Sele throw
mostly two-seamers. Everyone else except
Rhodes throws it with varying frequency.
ALSO KNOWN AS: Off-speed pitch,
dead fish, fosh, skirt, horseshoe
AVERAGE SPEED: 7-11 mph slower than
fastball
WHICH MARINERS THROW IT: Abbott,
Franklin, Garcia, Halama, Moyer, Pineiro,
Rhodes, Sele
BEST IN THE LEAGUE*: Pedro Martinez,
Boston; Brad Radke, Minnesota;
Jamie Moyer, Mariners
ALSO KNOWN AS: Hammer,
yellow hammer, whip, yakker
AVERAGE SPEED: 11-14 mph slower than
fastball
WHICH MARINERS THROW IT: Garcia,
Halama, Pineiro, Sasaki, Sele. Moyer and
Abbott have the pitch, but generally throw
fewer than five per game.
BEST IN THE LEAGUE*: Mike Mussina,
New York; Aaron Sele, Mariners;
Troy Percival, Anaheim
ALSO KNOWN AS: No common nickname
AVERAGE SPEED: 4-6 mph slower than
fastball
WHICH MARINERS THROW IT: Abbott,
Charlton, Franklin, Halama, Nelson,
Paniagua, Pineiro, Rhodes
BEST IN THE LEAGUE*: Jeff Nelson,
Mariners; Pedro Martinez, Boston;
Tim Hudson, Oakland
ALSO KNOWN AS: Splitter
AVERAGE SPEED: 4-6 mph slower than
fastball
WHICH MARINERS THROW IT: Franklin,
Paniagua
BEST IN THE LEAGUE: Tim Hudson,
Oakland
ALSO KNOWN AS: Fang
AVERAGE SPEED: Varies, as fast as
84-86 mph but usually slower
WHICH MARINERS THROW IT: Sasaki,
Charlton and, rarely, Nelson
BEST IN THE LEAGUE: Sasaki, Seattle;
Roger Clemens, New York
* 2001 survey of American League managers by Baseball America; otherwise determined through informal poll of players and coaches
Source: P-I research, Mariners pitching coach Bryan Price
“Every batter has
nightmares about
catching a fastball
between the eyes.
Stare at him and plant
that dream in his head.
Make him afraid, and
he’s half invisible
already.“
John Sayles,
”Pride of the Bimbos“
”The power pitcher —
the man who can rear
back and fog it by the
hitter — is the
brightest star in the
pitching firmament.“
John Thorn and John
Holway, “The Pitcher“
”In the confrontation
between batter and
pitcher, it is the
curveball that makes
the batter the
underdog.“
Martin Quigley,
”The Crooked Pitch“
”It is the pitch that has
changed the game of
baseball. … You can
see the spin, but unless
you anticipate it or the
pitcher hangs it, there
is not much chance of
your hitting it solidly.“
Lou Piniella,
Mariners manager
”The key to an
effective split-finger is
to think fastball.’’
Roger Craig,
former pitcher, coach
”Hitting is timing.
Pitching is upsetting
timing.“
Warren Spahn,
legendary left-hander
THE RELEASE: Tight spin,even
bottom-to-top rotation
THE RELEASE: Release mimics
fastball, but grip slows it
THE RELEASE: Same as fastball
THE RELEASE: Same as fastball
THE RELEASE: Ball tumbles over index
finger, opposite rotation from fastball
THE RELEASE: Tight spin, off-center
rotation
THE RELEASE: Leverage fingers pull down
on seam for tight, off-center rotation
ALSO KNOWN AS: Knuckler, dancer,
various expletives
AVERAGE SPEED: Anywhere from 50s
to 70s
WHICH MARINERS THROW IT: None
BEST IN THE LEAGUE: Boston’s
Tim Wakefield is the most effective
knuckleballer of his generation. Detroit’s
Steve Sparks is the only other AL
knuckleball starter.
Knuckleball ”Like some cult religion that
barely survives, there has
always been at least one but
rarely more than five or six
devotees throwing the
knuckleball in the big leagues
… Not only can’t pitchers
control it, hitters can’t hit it,
catchers can’t catch it, coaches
can’t coach it, and most
pitchers can’t learn it. The
perfect pitch.“
Ron Luciano,
former AL umpire
THE RELEASE: Straight forward, no spin
WHAT IT DOES: The knuckler is rare, difficult to learn, difficult to control and even
more difficult to hit. Gripped with the tips of the first two fingers on top and
anchored at the bottom by the thumb, the knuckleball is pushed straight out at
the release. There is ideally no spin at all, and the air moving against the
seams pushes the ball around at its will.
Knuckleball pitchers throw the pitch almost exclusively, but usually
mix in a fastball. Hitters hate the knuckler because it is so slow it’s
difficult to time, and even if you know when it’s going to get
there, there’s no way to predict where it’s going to be.
Dick Allen, a star first baseman in the ’60s and ’70s,
said the safest thing was to take your three swings
and sit down: “I’m afraid if I even think about
hitting it, I’ll mess up my swing for life.“
WHAT IT DOES: The most basic fundamental pitch, this is the only one thrown by
everyone. It is the easiest pitch to locate (put it where you want it). The fourseamer
is thrown at maximum velocity, with the ball coming off the first two
fingers and rotating bottom to top (6 to 12 on a clock) as viewed by the
batter. It gets its name from the way the four parallel seams spin
toward the batter, and that’s what the batter is looking for to
identify it.
WHAT IT DOES: For the two-seamer, the first and second fingers lay across the narrow
area between the two horseshoe-shaped seam outlines. It is released the same way
as the four-seamer, but the slight difference in the pronation of the hand causes it
to rotate off-center; where a four-seamer rotates 6-to-12 on a clock face in
the batter’s view, a two-seamer still rotates bottom to top, but might be
4-to-10. That causes the ball to sink to some degree, though this is
not considered a ”breaking pitch“ and is thrown at full velocity. It’s
called the two-seamer because, due to the grip, the batter sees
only one pair or horizontal seams spinning, instead of two.
This pitch is slightly more difficult to locate than the fourseamer,
but still is thrown with good control.
WHAT IT DOES: The changeup is the great impostor, meant to look like the fastball, but
coming in slower to throw off the batter’s timing. The arm motion and release point are
ideally the same as the fastball, but the difference is the grip. The most common grip is
some form of the “circle change,“ in which the thumb and forefinger touch to
create a circle on the side of the ball, which sits back close to the palm. The
remaining fingers are spread around the ball. Where the fastball uses
leverage to impart force and spin using the first two fingers, the
changeup spreads the force around the ball, concentrating it in the
middle of the ball and taking speed off. Variations on the grip
include the palm ball, where the ball is held all the way back
in the palm, and the horseshoe or pitchfork change, in
which fingers are spread evenly around the ball,
without the thumb-and-forefinger circle.
WHAT IT DOES: The curve is unusual in that it rotates from top to bottom, rather than from
bottom to top like the fastball. That’s because instead of being released forward, in the
direction of the fingers toward the batter, the curve is thrown with the wrist
cocked so that the thumb is on top. With the arm coming down, the ball
rolls over the outside of the index finger, causing a downward spin. The
curve sinks dramatically and can be thrown for a strike or as a ”miss“
pitch. Depending on the arm position of the individual pitcher —
straight over the top or more sidearm — the ball might also
break across the plate and wind up outside. On this pitch,
having the hand speed to transfer leverage to the front of
the ball is more important than arm strength.
WHAT IT DOES: The slider is the next-fastest pitch to the fastball, and it relies on a tight
spin that mimics the fastball, plus a pronounced late break down and away (in a rightyvs.-
righty matchup). The grip has the first two fingers close together and off-center,
positioned down the length of a seam. On release, the pitcher uses the contact
along the length of the seam and pulls downward to create spin. The slider
uses the leverage of the seam, rather than a wrist action, to impart
spin; try to do both at the same time and you’re headed for arm
problems. The spin is not straight through the ball, but offcenter,
due to the grip, and that spin pattern eventually causes
the ball to “snap off“ at a downward angle as it approaches
the plate. The speed is below that of the fastball, but the
closer a pitcher can get to throwing it at fastball speed,
the better.
WHAT IT DOES: The splitter comes in with tight rotation and good velocity and dives
straight down at the last second. The grip is similar to the two-seam fastball, but
with the fingers spread farther apart to change the rotation and add break. This
pitch is generally not thrown for strikes, but to coax a swing and miss.
WHAT IT DOES: For the fork, take the split-finger grip and spread the fingers out
as far as possible so that they are almost at the sides of the ball, and the ball
sits back more toward the palm. The pitch was allegedly invented by Dave
Keefe, a pitcher from 1917-22 who held the ball between his index and
fourth fingers because he had lost the middle finger in a childhood
accident. This grip takes a lot of velocity off the ball but causes
an extreme break. Like the splitter, the fork is not thrown for
strikes and usually winds up in the dirt. But if you can get
a batter to commit his swing when it looks like it’s
headed for the strike zone, by the time the bat gets
there, the ball’s underneath it. This one can make a
batter look very bad.
NOTE: Children should not throw the curveball, as serious arm problems can
result. Most coaches say the curve can be safely introduced at about age 15,
and it should be learned only under supervision.
There are many variations thrown in the major leagues, but these eight pitches form the foundation.
”If you throw a 97-mph
fastball, then come back
with a 87-mph forkball, the
hitter sees the same wrist
each time. Not only could he
end up out front of the ball
(swinging early), he could be
swinging at a ball that has
just plunged into the dirt.“
Roger Clemens,
Yankees pitcher
thats got to be the most useless comment ever
this is the wibsite i found this
Informative website . . . could be improved . . . but the major change I would make involves a simple statement before your graphics as a few of your readers suggested:
1 . . A pitch that moves sideways for a RHP is opposite that thrown for a LHP.
2 . . Most of your diagrams, if viewed from the catcher, appear as those of a LHP but a cutter, slider, etc break away from a RHH if thrown by a RHP. I’d suggest clearing this point up.
3 . . Good Luck
Don’t be afraid to diagram a Squirrell Ball! It’s really squirrelly!
Awesome diagrams, makes a lot more sense now- would you mind adding a 3rd diagram denoting the trajectory when view from above the field with the RHH and LHH box , plate and mount.
Interviewer : You hit a Home Run in today’s game
What kind of pitch did you hit?
Baseball player: It was slider,,, a little bit Centered.
=> Right Expression? Any correction? I’m not a English speaking person. But I have an interwiew with a baseball player.. Especially I wonder if “pitch” is right or not. I ‘ll appreciate If you help me..
the only thing you should include is how to hold and throw the ball for each pitch.
Nice graphics but u should have included a lot more pitches such as the gyroball, the knuckle curve ball, the knuckleball, and the ephus. But other then those few technacalities, great job. It helped me get an A+ on my project that was worth 30% of my grade.
Oops, I forgot 2 add 2 really cool pitches. The stopball and the frogball. Now, please don’t think im crazy ’cause im not. If u don’t believe those 2 r actual pitches, then u should read the book Maniac Magee. It’s awesome and talkes about the awesome pitches I just named.
you forgot the mike marshall maxline fastball and the mike marshall sinker.
They are being used today…..And I see the maxline pronation curve being thrown by several major league pitchers, even though they wont admit it when asked….
There are sooooo many pitches…..the Tv commentators just generalize for the viewing public….or maybe they dont know….
Strong work! Thanks for making this. I have friends who don’t appreciate pitching (and therefore baseball) to whom I’m always trying to explain the subtleties. Great graphics. Thanks especially for the PDF.
the only thing you should include is how to hold and throw the ball for each pitch…
Great production on the article and something that can definitely be a great reference… except I’m afraid some of your information is fairly wrong. The main thing is that there is no such thing as a sudden or late movement on the ball. In fact, any breaking force caused by the spin of the ball is going to be relatively constant (if anything, it decreases as the pitch travels because the angular velocity of the spin declines due to air resistance — friction — as the ball travels). This can be seen pretty clearly now since they have started to make available trajectory information from games since they have pitch tracking equipment running on most games.
What is most important is not the actual motion of the ball so much as the motion of the ball relative to the expectations of the batter. The 2-seam fastball feels like it’s sinking only in comparison to the 4-seam fastball which actually has some lift-force causing it to not fall as far as a neutral-lift ball of the same speed and starting angle would fall. Splitters and other curving pitches that don’t start high like the 12-6 curveball seem to have a lot of “late” or “sudden” break on them because the constant curve can still result in a greater-than-linear increase in the vertical displacement depending on the starting angle. (Wish I had your graphics skills to present this clearly…)
Anyway, there’s a lot of good data now for actual trajectories, and if you compare a bunch of pitches from the same pitcher on the same day, you can really get a feel for how these pitches really travel. And you start to see why some guys have particularly nasty extra cuts on their 2-seam fastballs or sliders, that for instance, may give them opposite-movement (pitch movement is usually in the direction from the pitchers throwing arm to their glove arm; that is, balls from a RHP naturally come in on a left-handed batter; this is considered easier to hit than the other way around so that managers try to stack left-handed batters against RHP’s and vice-versa; therefore, a RHP who has pitches that drift away from a left-handed batter can take back the advantage).
It’s definitely interesting stuff. Keep up the good work, avoid getting worked up about the mythical “gyroball”, and add a section for the knuckle-ball, which is a ball that has little-to-no spin, and therefore does not fly on a stable trajectory, and can randomly drift and dart in ways the pitcher can’t even predict.
This guide is worthless. First, it doesn’t distinguish a left handed pitcher from a right handed pitcher. Their pitches GO THE OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS from each other. Second, from the perspective of physics, there are only about four types of pitches. First, a fastball has no extra spin (but not no spin) so that it doesn’t appear to move. Second, a curveball/slider has spin that moves it left or right (depending on the arm throwing it). A screwball is simply a curveball with spin in the opposite direction, so its movement is also opposite that of a curveball. Third, a sinker, because of its top spin, moves downward. It is simply a curveball pointed downward. Fourth, a knuckleball moves irregularly because it doesn’t spin – the movement of air over the seams provides the force that gives the ball motions. Since the seam are slightly different in orientation in each pitch, the motion appears almost random..
All other “types” of pitches are simply slight variations in the angle of the spins with respect to the movement of the ball through the air or variations in the speed of the ball as it moves through the air (a change up, for example). The way one “grips” the ball has little to do with the motion of the ball, with the possible exception of a knuckleball, where the grip ensures that the ball does minimal spinning in transit.
If you want to understand baseball motion, you have to understand physics. This will demonstrate to you quite clearly the limited number of possible motions of a ball through the air. This guide ignores the physics and is thus worthless.
nice colection but missing a few
On your four seem fastball diagram you need to rotate the ball 90 degrees so you see four seems as the ball is spinning not two
Thank you, Lokesh. The graphs of the different types of pitches makes it a lot easier to grasp- ‘pictures worth more than a thousand words’.
It would be nice to see the arm movements to execute for each pitch.
Any way nice blog!
Where is the Gyro? And the Efis?
does Gyroball exsist?
i dont get it
i really hate the people wno take it seriously their like man u have a great site, or gret collection
whoever mtbaseball better not get in my face or i wil ROUND HOUSE their ass
Mt baseball ur a LOSER who has NO LIFE AT ALL
i mean really how much time did u spend on that, i mean do u have any friends or do u just sit on ur computer typing three pages of SHIT that no one in this fucking world gives a shit about, either go to therapy or head to ebay and there are thousands of people who would sell u their live there
i want to eat yao ming for breakfeast
now seriously, how useless is that?
SWEET HOME CHICAGO
LE2BR3ON OW23NS
YA
this wuz so helpfull!!!
i never new that a 2 seam sunk. I thought the sinker and the 2 seam were different! Thats SO cool
Here’s a good video on the subject:
http://postscripts.typepad.com/friday_5/2008/07/baseball-name-t.html#more
By the way, is the slider illustrated correctly here? The diagrams are from a left handed pitcher, correct? This shows the pitch breaking back on itself, i.e. back to the left (from the pitcher’s point of view). I thought a slider from a left-handed pitch would break left to right (from the pitcher’s point of view).
I agree to you
Interesting & informative. I learned a lot!
I had some other questions, but many were answered by plenty of replies, AND your link to: “Baseball Pitches (1 of 3)”. Actual photos of intitial grips might be helpful, too. Ony one question for me remains:
How was the changeup named? I’m not certain what changes, and what’s “up”. My best educated guess is that the slower speed (from a fastball) is the “change”.
And mtbaseball: BREVITY is the soul of wit. TL;DR. I Suggest you get your OWN website.
Thanks!
wheres the knuckle curve
you need to add more complicated pitchs so more people could learn them life the fosh or eephus.Only 1-2 people are good at those pitches(Scott Kazmir=eephus and Al Nipper=Fosh
Ca c vraiment cool de voir tous les effets que les balles peuvent faire et surtout le montrer en images.
were is the knuckle curve?
Great article….Can you recmmend a book that illustrates and shows the types of pitches (as seen by the batter) in MLB???? tHANK YOU…
hey could you do like a diagram of eephus picth?
i have a pitch that moves from way behind the hiters head and moves to the othere side of the plate and droops about 2.5 feet,. I dont think its a curve or a sluve but i throw it with a curve ball grip what pitch is it? i need hilp
I appreciate how you mapped the speed of the ball to color (red=fast, orange=medium, orange/yellow=slower speed), and how you increased motion-line thickness to indicate it’s proximity to the batter. I also like the small “spark line” images you drew to show each pitch from a second side-view perspective. The dark shade of the ball and motion-line layer nicely over the quiet gray of the pitcher’s mound and home plate to further illustrate and differentiate one pitch style from another. Very good information design, Lokesh!
What about knuckleballs?
this is truly scientific. Who would’ve guessed.
Don’t know why so many people bugging about no illustration of the grips… the man said he wasn’t going to deal with that here. He accomplished what he set out to do. I used this site to help explain pitches to a budding baseball fan and it was very useful; I learned a couple of things, too. Nice work.
dude nice page, but i really want to know what the fuck a gyroball is
this is good but there are also alot of things wrong with it ex.’s are a curve and a 12-6 are 2 diffrent pitches a slurves breaks far out side and down but a tad slower than a slider a slurve is not a backwards screw a screw is a backwards curve circle change up is a grip like a knuckle curve so it would break like a change up most of your pitches that beak inside or outside normaly dont break that much or break like that at all and you are also missing quite a few pitches but for what u did get right which was a 4 seam change up and screw ball were right but i suggest you do more reseach before hand next time cause lots of these are wrong and ur missing several pitches
and for all u dumb asses that thought this was right he fucked you up if this is what most of pitches are doing
where is the shutto gyroball spitball knucklecurve epphus a real curve running fastball your misssing to many pitches and some are wrong it you tell me how to do this i can make it with more and updated pitches and the way the break
OK I’m getting pissed looking at these comment about this was helpful and my friends will understand this or that this is wrong only 3 pitches are right so shut the fuck up unless u know what your talking about i may only be 14 but i play and I’m not retarded these last 3 comment by me are true dude you suck make the diagrams right or don’t make them cause people will not be able to throw the pitches right if they think they do something they don’t damn they might not even be able to throw and you also forgot some key pitches dude your a dumb ass get a life a girl friend and learn how to play baseball cause clearly you don’t know shit about baseball
Very helpful thanks!
fag
Very nice. You should add a note stating that all pitches and movement shown are based on a right handed pitcher. For a left handed pitcher the lateral movement would be reversed. Also an infographic for the knuckleball is doable, you could even show multiple possible trajectories in the same graphic. I agree that grips should be your next addition…fine work though.
THANKS, for the brief baseball lesson. I watch a fair amount on TV, but still did not know some of the pitches. I appreciate your efforts!
im going to shove one of those fake hearing devices so far up ur ass u can hear ur small intenstine as it produces shit!
– Will Ferall, Step brothers
u blow at baseball, u like joe buck he knows every fucking thing about baseball but hes not on the field for a reason, cough cough, like u. HE SUCKS COCK at baseball, he couldnt hit a ball off of a tee if it was to save his life.
pusey
never forget 9/11 those fuckin middle eastern terrorist spicks will burn in fucking hell those pieces of shit if i was in a room with osama bin laden, hitler, and some other bad human being and i had a gun with two bullets, i would shoot hitler twice and then just beat the living shit out of osama, i would lock him in that room for so long that he would starve to death, but right before he died i would tie him to a chair and whale on his fuckin piece of shit ass. then i would shoot him in the foot to keep him from dieing so he would get an adrenaline rush to keep him alive i would make his life a living fucking hell
USA is not afraid all u spick mother fuckers did was make us pissed we r fucking gonna beat the fuking shit out of u, u pieces of shit i wanna fucking beat the fucking shit out of u so fucking bad i just want to shoot u until i cant c ur face anymore u fucking pieces of shit i would tear ur fukin beard off with my bear hands and then stab the fuck out of u. USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! fuck u bin laden u piece of shit ur fuckin retarded ur so fucked up the ass u piece of shit i wanna shove a gun down ur throt until u throw up a million times and then shoot u down ur throt until ur so fuckin and ive fuckin shot a thousand bullets into ur fuckin stomach
USA!
im sorry for my crud language i just had to let out what i needed to the things that the terrorist did were unthinkable and they really get me mad sorry for the language but i dont take back wat i said i just wanted to vent some place other than my mind never forget SEPTEMBER 11th 2001 usa will never faulter, God Bless America My true home sweet home, God bless all the great firefighters and policemen and great people who gave their lives up for others in 9/11 NEVER FORGET!
We are the greatest . period
I LOVE MY COUNTRY
WE ARE ONE TOGETHER IN THE FIGHT AGAINT THE TERRORIST SPICKS
Support the troops and vets we will never forget those who have served and those who have died in the sake for our country the greatest in the world. those are some of the greatest people to have lived on this not so perfect world respect the few and the proud.
even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i fear no evil for you are with me.
– MR. President George Bush
None of us will ever forget this day, yet we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world, thankyou, goodnight, and God Bless America. – President George Bush
Thank you to everyone who supports our great country the United States of America, the greatest country in the world. We love everyone who has every had anything to do with the keeping of freedom in this great country of ours. Thankyou and God Bless America, and all the Great people we have lost. Sighning out. Goodnight and God Bless.
never forget 9/11 and the great american people we lost especially those on flight 93 who gave their lives for this great country. They showed what true americans are made of and what we as a people can do when we set our minds to it, no terrorists will ever get in our way of this country. The people on flight 93 are some of the bravest people i have ever heard of. They stood for the history of this country and how we got to this day in age, they stood up for washington D.C. and the great momuments and buildings which stand there. which stand for something greater than them. They stand for all the hardships are leaders had to go threw to get us here from the revolution to the cilvil war to the cilvil rights movement. They knew what those buildings and monuments stand for and they werent going to let a couple of terrorists leave their mark on some of the greatest buildings and monuments in the world. They knew they are not no ordinary pieces of construction these were what represents the greatest country in the world these buildings represented the counrty they lived in and all they lived for. That is why they did what true amerians do. They stood up for our country and did all they could possibly do to stop the terrorists from doing on what they intended to do. At the end of the day we did not allow the terrorists to accompish their goals. But in the process we lost some great people and we will ever be greatful for what they did for the american people and the american government we will always be in their debt. We are witnesses today to the actions those people took, we still have the white house and the capital thanks to them, the greatest people in the world. live in the greatest country in the world we will always remember the people of flight 93. Thankyou and God bless them for they are the true heros’ in this world. Thankyou .
NIce Illustrate because im begginers in baseball in philippines Thank you!!!!!
great illustrations. need to show this to my friend who’s a sports analyst.
that’s quite helpful for baseball-starters..
this is good information i was actually wondering what those diagrams meant while watching the world series
Pitching machines come in different styles. An arm action machine and a circular wheel machine are very popular. Pitching machines are useful for batters who can practice on their own.
hello?from china
Good job dude! Excellent!
Those are very amazing illustrations. Just got some few idea for our sports club.