#mlb #pitches OB Daz and OB Aidan react to the best curveballs in MLB history. Support us on Patreon: / officeblokedaz Instagram: officeblokedaz Link to original video: • MLB Best Curveballs
I participated in a Phillies Phantasy Camp in 2000. Former Phillies 1B and current Phillies broadcaster, John Kruk, was asked how to approach hitting a curveball and his reply was, "Wait for a fastball."
@@firebird7479 Then its a coin toss though... It could be a clear strike and be a ball or could be 5 inches off the plate and be a strike. Never would want him behind the plate
@@Fly-The-W Daz and Aiden are reading this and have no idea who we're talking about. LOL. I'm sure there's a compilation video of bad Angel Hernandez calls...and there's more than enough to go around!
The curveball is the first pitching skill that eliminates a lot of hitters as they hit their teens. They might crush fastballs all over the place, but if they can't figure out the curveball, they're toast.
You are absolutely correct. I played American legion and high school ball. At 16 I had a decent fastball throwing in the mid 80's MPH, But I had a wicked curveball that was very hard for most batters to hit. However the curveball is also what ended my pitching career, back when I was playing there were no rules about pitch count or how often you could pitch. I got used up by pitching to often, sometimes back to back games. At 17 I had Tommy John surgery, by the time I was able to pitch again I had missed my chance at being drafted of getting a college scholarship.
Kerry Wood pre-injuries had a completely unhittable curveball. It was the prototypical 12-6 curve that started at head height and dropped straight down to the ankles. And when everyone was geared up trying to catch up to his 97mph fastball they had absolutely no chance of adjusting when he mixed in the curve. He made the best hitters in baseball look like they'd never held a bat before. The fact that he destroyed his arm and was a shadow of his former self after his first couple of seasons was such a shame. You should definitely check out some footage of him from his rookie season. It was just crazy how nasty his stuff was.
The compilation of Kerry Woods pitches during his no hitter is the greatest performance of pitcheing we've ever seen. All around, every aspect, its the most impressive outing ever in regards to pitch selection and delivery.
Pitching is an art. Every pitcher's hand is a different size so the grips will be slightly different. Add in other variables like arm slot, velocity, R/L handedness, etc and you'll notice everybody's curve ball, for example, is not the same (different plane, different break).
Sports Explained has a good video on baseball pitches and MLB also has one that shows the grips for each pitch. Pitching becomes a lot more impressive than just how fast the ball is going when you know what goes into each pitch.
The spin comes from where you grip it, where you release it, arm angle, and how hard you grip it and how hard you throw it. All of that can change if it’s straight, if it’s fast but curves a lot, if it’s slow and breaks a lot, if it has a small amount of break, etc
The thing is the way the seams on a baseball and how the pitcher holds the ball are what differentiate the pitchers. Some you hold with the seams, some against, and so on. And then there is the knuckleball where you want as little to no spin as possible.
What makes these pitches so effective is that most can also throw 2 kinds of fastballs that are 10-20mph faster and have different types of movement. That's why it's kind of a chess game. Bc as you mentioned, if you're sitting in a curveball...most hitters and gonna send it to the moon. But if you're wrong, that ball is by you before you even react. Same as if you sit on a fastball...if you make contact, it's gone. But if you're sitting fastball and get a breaking ball, you end up looking silly like in these clips
They often miss curves because they are waiting for ("sitting on") a fastball and guess wrong. As kids we were taught to watch the spin of the ball and wait on the curve to break--don't bail out thinking it is a fastball--problem is, sometimes it is a fastball and if you read it wrong and hang in, it ends up in your ear, or if you can react quickly enough, you end up on your ass. Just imagine how frightening Nolan Ryan was (fastest pitcher ever) who had a killer curve. Large part of the reason he threw record 7 no-hitters (next closest threw 4). He also threw 12 1-hit games and 18 2-hit games! Beast.
Different pitchers will use different grips based on what feels the most comfortable, but the goal of a curveball is to get top spin on the ball, which causes it to break downward or down and to the side depending on the spin angle. There are definitely videos showing pitch grips and releases
I once heard Kerry Wood describing how he threw a curveball (which was particularly sharp and nasty, and contributed to him eventually needing Tommy John surgery). He showed his index and middle fingers gripping along one of the seams of the ball, and as he would release the ball, his two finger would come over the top of the ball and release with a snapping motion like when you snap your fingers, to deliver the needed topspin.
When I was 14, I had a coach who was a former minor league pitcher, and like 50 years old. So not even major league level or near his prime, and in batting practice he’d throw curveballs and it legit looks like the ball is coming right for my head before it breaks to the low and outside corner of the plate. It was insane. The natural reaction is to want to jump out of the way. You have to train yourself to stay in there even when it looks like the ball is going to hit you.
Batters only have a split second to try and figure out what pitch was thrown. Depending on how many balls and strikes there are the batter can narrow down which pitches will probably be thrown, then they have a split second to try and read how the seems on the ball are spinning and that can tell them what the pitch is. Then they'll swing based on where they think the ball will go, not where it looks it's heading.
There are 3 types of breaking balls. There is the curveball, slider, and screwball. The curveball follows two different paths, depending on the arm motion of the pitcher. The overhand curve drops from 12 o'clock to 6 o"clock and is thrown with the hand\arm basically pointing straight up at release. The other is thrown more often and curves down and away from the pitcher's throwing arm. The pitch is released with the arm\hand at about the 1 or 2 o'clock position. Both pitches are thrown with all four seams cutting the air. The slider basically curves on a flat trajectory away from the pitcher's throwing arm. The screwball is rarely thrown anymore because it is tough on the pitcher's elbow. The pitcher twists his arm\hand in the opposite direction than when a curveball is thrown and the pitch will curve in the opposite direction.
What makes hitting the ball so difficult is that each pitch has not only its own style of movement, but also speed. They all look pretty fast but there can be 10, 15 or more miles per hour difference in the speed of the ball. So you're trying to determine both where the ball will end up and how fast it will get there. Good pitchers mix both locations and speeds effectively.
you would be amazed at the pitch grips there are in the MLB! There must be something out here showing the finger placement and the throw & release of pitches? I played little league with the boys, I was a long ball hitter and had an arm to match. but....that was a long time ago . lol
As a LA Dodgers fan I've been lucky to see Clayton Kershaw pitch and his curve can be nasty. It'll peak around the batter's eye level and then drop down below the knees at the end.
The amount of different pitches and throwing motions make it way harder to see and track the ball to the bat. If you hit off a pitching machine it’ll be close to the same motion and movement on the ball.
Any MLB hitter can hit a curveball fairly well if it's in the strike zone and they know that's what's coming. The problem is, they don't know if a curveball is coming, and even if they can somehow figure that out from the way the ball is spinning, they still have to adjust midswing for where it's going to be -- because hitters have to start their swing as the pitcher is releasing the ball or they'll never catch up to the fastball.
@@areguapirifor example, most batters go up watching for the pitcher to throw one pitch out of their arsenal, like a fastball or a slider. Say the batter is looking for a fastball, he will most likely be out in front of a curveball as the velocity is much slower usually.
There is so much that goes into it. Philosophically, you look for the fastball, put your front foot down and as you're starting your swing, you decide whether to actually fire if it's a fastball in/near the zone, or slow yourself down a fraction of a second before you swing and try to track the curve/offspeed pitch. A lot of that is dependent on having an efficient swing, a swing that stays in the strikezone for a long time to allow yourself some room for error, being athletic as fuck, having great eye sight, knowing what the pitcher throws, the pitcher actually throwing where he's supposed to, etc. It's absolutely insane
Hitting is really more of a guessing game. The hitter is essentially waiting for the pitch they think they're going to get. The batter is actually watching the ball as it's released from the pitcher's hand. They're looking for the rotation of the ball. A fastball will spin away from the batter, and a "breaking ball" that is, anything other than a fastball, will spin towards the hitter. This is why pitcher's will experiment with different release points, and arm angles. Anything to make it harder for the hitter to see the release point, which dictates timing, and spin which dictates whether or not they're going to swing.
I played American legion and high school ball. At 16 I had a decent fastball throwing in the mid 80's MPH, But I had a wicked curveball that was very hard for most batters to hit. However the curveball is also what ended my pitching career, back when I was playing there were no rules about pitch count or how often you could pitch. I got used up by pitching to often, sometimes back to back games. At 17 I had Tommy John surgery, by the time I was able to pitch again I had missed my chance at being drafted of getting a college scholarship.
A major league batter will read a pitcher release and grip on the ball while they are in their motion and know a curve is coming. Still a good curve is very difficult to hit, you have to anticipate where it might curve as a batter. That said, if someone is piping in 100 mph fastballs and then throws a change up at 70mph, the release is the same and it’s almost impossible to wait to swing on it.
teams study the batting form of the opposing teams productive batters and heavy hitters so they can throw the bait pitches that they will go for, but the curve balls or a pitch that breaks low at the plate or may be low and outside, high and inside...will seem like the ball is coming in hot to that batters sweet spot, buuuut ...feck off....eludes the bat at the plate. ...its fascinating.
Great pitchers throw the curveball like a fastball. It comes out of the hand looking like a fastball, but is 20+ miles per hour or 32+ kilometers per hour slower and with ridiculous curve. Some curveballs move a bit diagonal usually in 1 O'clock to 7 O'clock motion or 11 O'clock to 5 O'clock motion while others move downward 12 to 6 movement. Really depends on arm angle. Some could move 2-8 or 10-4 which looks like more of a slower slider.
The way you throw it is look at the “horse shoe” on the ball. Right 2 dominate fingers on the edge of it. Then instead of throwing it like you would a fastball you grab those seams and pull them down or pull them 3/4 of the way. It’s actually hard to put that in text if just have to show you with a baseball in hand
5:05 yes their is different realizes Fromm every ball, even a two seam and four seam fastball which r the both stasalss. both one sort of rises and the other drops or stays
Yeah you're right about the grips and how to throw it. besides gripping it differently, a fastball comes off the tips of you index and middle finger, a curveball comes off the inside of your index finger while kinda going over top of the ball with a wrist flick. Probably very similar to cricket
I looked like a fool swinging at a curveball my first time up in a high school game. The next time up I got hit right in the helmet with a fastball because I wasn't bailing out again.
Translated to cricket, a good breaking ball in baseball would be like the cricket batsman expecting a full toss and it's a yorker, or vice versa, is the way I see it.
There's lots of pitching videos on RU-vid that teach the different hand grips for each kind of pitch. It takes a long time for pitchers to learn and develop new pitches before they're confident enough to use it in a live game. The minor leagues is where they train until their "stuff" is good enough to use in the major leagues.
You 2 should watch a Greg Maddux video... He had 6 different pitches he threw pretty regularly & he could throw them all at different speeds.. He never really threw over 89 mph, but a lot of players just couldn't hit against him.. He threw a complete game in 78 pitches once & a lot of his games were under 2 hrs... His baseball IQ was off the charts & won 4 straight Cy Young awards with 15 consecutive seasons with 15 or more wins....
The pitcher Trevor Bauer has a great RU-vid channel, and he breaks down how to throw each pitch with consistency and power. He is a phenomenal pitcher. It is an absolute shame what the MLB has done to him. Give his channel a watch if you want to actually learn how and when to throw different pitches.
When a hitter steps to the plate he has an "approach." An approach is a plan. His approach is based on his knowledge of the pitcher, his own strengths and weaknesses and other factors taking place in the game. Most hitters are looking for a fastball and attempt to adjust down from there. Very few are looking curve ball because it's much more difficult to adjust up.
Curveballs are slower and easier to read than something like a change up, which decievingly looks like a fastball. Curveballs can be the easiest balls to hit when they're misplaced higher in the strikezone because professionals can read it easily at that eye level. They're nicknamed "hangers", or "hanging curveballs".
Also, there are different types of 3 basic categories of pitches. Fastball, change up, breaking ball. Each category has different pitches that do slightly different things. Also, sliders should definitely be mentioned. Curveballs and sliders should be considered a subcategory for breaking balls.
PLEASE React to MLB Hall of Fame Pitcher Nolan Ryan's career highlights. Ryan holds over 50 MLB pitching records. He is considered one of the greatest Pitchers ever.
The most difficult pitch to hit is the knuckleball. It 's too difficult to describe the grip of the baseball used, but the result is the ball/pitch has no spin on it. The lack of spin causes the ball to float erratically from the moment it is pitched. So much so, catchers, when catching a pitcher who throws knuckleballs use a much larger glove/mitt and still struggle to catch the pitch.
I could hit a "greased BB on the dark" when it came to fastballs, but I could not hit a good curve to save my life. A good curve starts out of the zone, theyre hard to read. Hardest pitch to hit is a really good knuckleball.
A curveball spins _less_ than usual, not more. A ball traveling through air with minimal spin is more chaotic, and can be deflected in random directions along the way by the state of the air. Even the pitcher doesn't necessarily know how it will break.
A proper curveball goes from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock. Most of the pitches in this video were sliders. A slider goes from one side of the plate to the other. Then there's a half way between pitch, that's called a slurve. It goes from one side to the other, while also going down. There are videos that explain all of the pitches.
5:20 There are many videos on youtube on how you hold a ball for each pitch. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CVi6zNFTTlE.html goes through a bunch different pitches and I seem to remember it being a pretty solid video.
Curveballs can be nasty but are still the easiest offspeed pitch to hit. Sliders are the hardest imo. Curves have a broader curve to them so if you can sit back on that bag leg you can hit it. Some guys have 12-6 curves which are tougher. The slider though comes in like its a fastball and then at the very last moment just slides out of the zone. Curves tend to be about 8-10 mph slower than sliders so you have less time to react on sliders. I faced a guy in high school that enfed up playing in the Yankees Minor league system and actually ended up w a winning record for his career. He had a 94 mph fastball and a 88mph slider. That slider was scary as fuck lol. Looked like a fastball coming straight at your face then boom, snaps right into the strike zone while you flinch or jump out of the way lmao. I fouled one off and was happy w that. I was no bum either. That dude was just on a completely different level. Check out sliders…
I would say a good knuckleball is harder to hit. It is thrown with no spin, and acts very erratically. The problem is that if one is not thrown just right, it comes in slow with no movement and likely gets clobbered.
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZN_PjtsbQRM.htmlsi=IFB-ErbrAh-C80RA This is a phenomenal 32 seconds video with a demonstration of a few different pitch grips with clear visuals of the finger placements, it's a short video but no filler!
Ill argue slider is tougher. We face knuckle balls as kids daily when playing whiffleball. We get some practice on it. Its tough to practice hitting a 90mph slider though bc only the elites can throw them. Theres no comparison for kids to learn the timing of a slider until they get to HS or college.
Ive faced both. I played HS ball against a guy that went onto the Yankees minor leagues and had a winning record for his career. He threw an 88mph slider that just made ppl look silly jumping out of the box lol. Then I have an uncle by marriage that played in the White Sox farm system as a catcher in the 90s. He can throw a nasty knuckler even w a softball. Id rather face that knuckle than the slider. Knuckleball wont hurt lol. Sliders look like their about to destroy your face then snap into the zone last moment. Very scary pitch to deal w
3:20 The next 2 clips the batter is Mike Trout. He's widely considered the best MLB hitter over the last decade. Now age and injuries have started to drop him down in the rankings, but he's still one of the best. The 2nd of the clips the pitcher is Clayton Kershaw. For about a 7 year period, he was probably the best pitcher in the world. Age and injuries have also gotten to him. He lost some velocity and had to rethink his approach. He's returned to being quite excellent.
