Archive for June 10th, 2009

It’s extremely important to pitch using the information a batter provides.  On a basic level, this is just understanding what a foul ball means.  If you throw your best fastball down the middle, and the batter fouls it off to the opposite field, he is late.  If he pulls that same pitch, he is early.  To the batter who is late, you force feed him your fastball and move it in on his hands if he starts to catch up.  If he is early, it’s probably time to show him an offspeed pitch. 

By giving a late hitter an offspeed pitch, or something away in the zone, you’re doing him a favor by accommodating his inferior (in respect to your velocity) batspeed.  By throwing offspeed to the early hitter, however, you are exploiting the fact that he is not keeping his hands back long enough in the zone. Read the rest of this entry »