#mlb OB Daz and OB Aidan react to all the different types of pitches thrown in MLB. Support us on Patreon: / officeblokedaz Instagram: officeblokedaz Link to original video: • What is the difference...
Yeah that is unbelievably tragic. As soon as I saw him I was going to write Rest in Peace...but for some reason I thought that he had drowned. I realize now I was confusing him with former Patriot's QB Ryan Mallett who drowned in 2023 at the age of only 35.
Bob Uecker famously said about catching the knuckleball (he was a catcher), that the best way was to just wait until it stops rolling and go over and pick it up.
Sinkers and Splitters induce a lot of groundballs because of the vertical movemen they get. A pitcher throws a Sinker, a batters sees it and thinks its a regular fastball and swings, but the downward drop on the Sinker will make the batter hit the top of the ball instead of square on, which is how ground balls are hit. They hit it into the ground because it sinks below their bat path.
When you see this video, you start to realize how hard it is to hit a baseball. Hell, if you get 3 hits per 10 at bats for a career, you'll likely be a hall of famer. It's so hard to hit a baseball that failing 7 times out of 10 is great.
And the vast majority of guys won't even average 3 for 10 consistently year to year, much less over an entire career. Most hitters are streaky as hell, 6 for 10 one series and 0-16 the next.
Ground balls are NOT caused by the spin of the ball, but rather the PATH of the ball. The ball dips, drops, or sinks to prevent the bat barrel from hitting the ball squarely, just the lower portion of the barrel, driving the ball towards the ground for a ground ball. The PATH or MOVEMENT is caused by the air flow around the ball interacting with the specific rotation of the seams (spin) and velocity of the pitch. Different grips will cause different spins which cause different paths or movements. GRIP -> SPIN -> PATH/MOVEMENT 😊
Sinkers and splitters tend to get more ground balls, because they break downward and hitters are more likely to get on top of the ball. It's the opposite for 4-seams, which get more fly balls because the backspin keeps the ball from dropping and hitters swing under the ball.
It's believed that Nolan Ryan's 4 seam fastball was 108-112 mph when we has first with the California Angels in the early 1970s and has his mechanics fixed by their coaching staff. That's why he was able to pitch until he was 46; when he lost gas off of his fastball, it went down to the upper 90s.
Threw out the first pitch at a game when he was an executive with the Rangers after he retired. He was 66 years old and he still threw the first pitch 88 mph. Unreal.
I googled this, and EVERY source says BS on 108, no one or article mentioned ANY pitcher EVER hitting 112. The mythical speed pitches are 108.1 for Ryan, and Bob Fellers 107.6, and EVERYTHING says both those pitches or numbers are BS. Fastest pitch is officially Aroldis Chapman for his 105.6 pitch on 2010. No one is hitting 105 or higher back then and then 40-50-60 years go by and with athletes being as big and strong with advancements in training to eating and now the last 5-7 years the obsession with spin rates and velocity and no one else can come close to 108. These numbers are fairly tales.
I'd love to see a pitcher throw nothing but knuckleballs and eephus pitches and troll the hell out of a batting lineup. If a pitcher could pull that off it would be comic gold.
One thing I wish this video got more into is the psychology of pitch selection during an at bat. For example, if a pitcher has a 1-2 count against the batter the pitcher can choose to do a few things. He can try and blow a fastball by the batter knowing that the batter will be swinging defensively, or he can try some off-speed or breaking pitches to get the batter to chase. Also, in that 1-2 count if the pitcher got there by mostly throwing fast balls depending on if the batter swung and missed or fouled some off that will determine pitch selection too. If he was swinging and missing at the fastballs it means he’s not seeing the ball well and another fastball may do the trick, whereas if he fouled them off it means he is seeing it well and the pitcher will want to go with the offspeed. In a 2-1 count the batter has the advantage, and the pitcher will need to be throwing more towards the zone to get back into the count. In this situation, breaking balls may not work because the batter won’t be as eager to swing. Hoping the pitcher will walk him. One last thing, I wish this video discussed hanging pitches as well. I think all of this stuff is important to understand when watching a full game so that you’re not just blankly watching waiting for contact to be made. Rather you’re playing along too, wondering where the pitcher will go and if the batter can catch him.
I pitched up until 7th grade, and it wasn't until we reached high school that they even allowed us to throw a curveball or basically anything other than a fastball or changeup, because they were afraid it would mess up our elbows later on in life. Not that it mattered, or could be enforced. At that age, we were just trying to throw it as fast as possible over the plate in the strike zone haha
There was a kid from a rival high school who threw a 86 mph fastball. I could hear the ball "sizzle" from how fast it was spinng when it went down the middle. I can't imagine batting against a 105mph fastball.
To make a ball spin "forward" (curveball) you rotate your hand so your palm is on the side of the ball (facing your ear) instead of behind the ball (facing forward). You can then flick your wrist or "snap your fingers" to create spin. It's a pitch that pretty much every baseball player attempts, but few truly master it because it changes your arm motion.
The camera lenses make it look like a shorter distance from the pitcher's mound to the plate than it really is. Most major league pitchers are quite tall.
I love this MLB video on pitching. They did an amazing job on it. Glad you guys are watching this. Baseball is amazing but I’m American of course. Pitching is an art form & difficult. You have to throw all of these pitches from the same arm angle or slot with the same motion & speed despite having to use different grips, spins, etc As a hitter you have something like .4 seconds to swing or not where you are trying to his a round ball with a rounded cylindrical bat. This is why baseball is such an amazing & beautiful sport.🙂👍
Usually the bat striking the ball negates any spin the pitcher imparts. The inducement of ground balls has more to do with the ball moving downward on the pitch, getting the batter to strike the ball slightly above its center, driving it into the ground.
To throw a curve you basically make a question mark or hook gesture with your throwing hand to the side of the ball. On the outside. Hence why some people called the pitch a hook. The lm when you release it your hand is coming around on the outside of the ball and you work your wrist down so that your top finger, either your index or your middle finger pulls down on the ball as it comes out of your hand. So get on the outside of the ball with your hand and your fingers are on top but your palm is basically facing back at you. Then snap down. Everyone has a different grip and technique. Also the axis you hold it on influences the type of curve it has, a straight vertical one or something sort of on an angle. It’s hard on your arm though so they don’t like kids throwing them when they’re young.
You snap your wrist with your 2 fingers on the seams forward, while you are throwing it to make it spin forwards, you have to watch how they are releasing the ball to in slow motion or up close to see this, just look up a video on how to throw a curveball and you will see
Spin is mainly relevant to movement of the pitch itself. It is the contact point with the bat that is important when analyzing the path of a struck ball. Spin, at that point, is less relevant
When you boil it all down there are really only 3 kinds of pitches: fastball, breaking ball, off-speed. Every pitch falls under the umbrella of one of those. The only difference is the grip on the ball and finger pressure for the most part.
Milliseconds are just what we use to measure lengths of time under a second. No one says .15 seconds. Grounders aren't so much about the spin but about making them come in low, so the batter can't hit them at a high enough angle to fly far
It’s not necessarily the spin that causes a ground ball, it’s where on the bat that they hit it. A sinker drops so usually the batter barely skims the ball by swinging higher on the ball. A fly ball is from hitting lower on the ball. Just simple physics.
You guys gotta react to some of the NBA and NHL playoff games. There have been some absolutely fantastic games in both playoffs so far and we are just getting started.
The spin on the ball is to create a specific type of movement . The aerodynamics of it are--- The side of the ball which is spinning in the same direction it is going will encounter more air resistance than the opposide of the ball which is spinning away from the direction the ball is moving . The side which encounters the most air resystance will travel slower than the opposite side , which pulls the ball in the direction of the slowest side , thus making the pitch curve or drop .
On the subject of pitching, react to Randy Johnson, a 6'10" pitcher with a wildly fast pitch speed and incredible anatomy to launch a baseball like a bullet.
True sinkers are just 2-seam fastballs thrown straight over the top. A breaking ball is basically any pitch that is thrown with a reverse spin of a fastball. Typically a curveball is thrown by lining the inside of your middle finger against the seam and snapping the ball downwards on release to get that forward spin. This video is just about the basic categories of pitches. It's a lot more complicated as we haven't even started talking about changing speeds or changing arm angles of the release. Greg Maddux for example had 4 or 5 different pitches that he could throw each one at 4 or 5 different speeds. David Cone was a master of changing his arm angles. Pitchers throw from one of four angles....over the top, 3/4, side arm or submariner. The vast majority of pitchers throw over the top or 3/4 with righties tending to be more over the top while lefties tend to throw 3/4 (no one knows why and we just chalk this up to lefties being weirdos to begin with lol) As I said though, David Cone was a guy that could throw any of his pitches over the top, 3/4 or sidearm so batters never knew where his release point was going to be. Cone was particularly nasty in his prime when he would even drop his entire body down 6-8 inches from time to time to screw the batter up even more lol.
It's a shame they don't give a quick description of what was the screwball. Tug McGraw (Tim's McGraw's father) perfected that pitch. The movement would break away from the hitter...in his case, being a lefty, McGraw's screwball would break away from right handed hitters. If he threw it against left handed hitters, it would come in on them and jam them. Screwball also described Tug's personality.
Daz there are certain pitches that are designed to cause hitters to ground balls or pop ups. Usually high velo fastballs up in the strike zone cause pop ups and sinker fastballs down at the knees or below cause ground balls
The fastball is loved, but a fastball can be hit... maybe not consistently, but it can be hit. A fastball that moves though... Now you've got something. When a big hitter gets ahold of a fastball, lookout. There is footage somewhere of Mark McGwire, in the 1998 season, hitting a Randy Johnson fastball that came in at 95+ mph, and left at over 100mph. On the other hand, legendary Yankees closer, Mariano Rivera had one pitch, a cut fastball. You knew it was coming, and there was nothing you could do about it, in fact, the most likely outcome was the batter breaking his bat.
Pitching is extremely hard. It’s all about technique. A strong man can throw his hardest but if he doesn’t have form it might go 65mph. That’s slower than a very slow change-up hahaha
Sinking pitches cause ground balls because they get hit with the lower part of the bat, not because of the spin. Its not like tennis, where the ball is being caught by the strings of the racket, then re-launched. The roundness of the bat is the key factor, not the spin.
Baseball isn’t considered the hardest sport I would say because of the dead time between plays and the fact there’s a couple positions where can you skate being not in great shape, HOWEVER, hitting a baseball against high level pitching much less MLB level is hands down the single hardest thing to do in all of sports imo
I consider sliders more of a fastball than a breaking ball bc it has speed of a fastball w a snap of a tight curve just sideways instead up and down. Imo the slider is the toughest pitch to hit in baseball. Get in the batters box against a guy w a 90+ mph slider and youll shit your pants I promise.
Knuckleballers are like the Sith; there are always two of them active, whether you know it or not. It's an evil and unnatural pitch, capable of driving men insane.
For pitching you have to quit comparing it to bowling in cricket. Probably closer to free kicks in football. The air is what changes it. Not the ground as much
I'd love to see you guys get a wiffle ball and wiffle ball bat, and try some pitching out. Make sure you get the official set though, there's a lot of fakes out there!
I'm 50. Been watching since I was 5. I watch a game everyday and I think these videos are confusing. lol Also, they keep showing Phil Nikro saying he is throwing this and that and ALL he threw was the knuckle-ball and that is what he is throwing when they are saying he is throwing something else. lol
The seams on a baseball act just like the wings of an airplane. The create an air pressure differential as they pass through the air. Like the wings of an airplane, the ball wants to move in the direction of low pressure. That's what makes a baseball move. The very best pitchers in the game make all of their pitches look like fastballs at the moment of release. Pitchers can make their fastballs move in different ways by how they grip the ball and varying the pressure they put on the ball with their fingers at release. Hitting in cricket in not ever close to how hard it is to hit a baseball. You guys are swinging a basically flat piece of wood at a round ball. In baseball, batters are trying to hit a round ball with a round bat and hit it SQUARELY. There is a reason why players who can hit with a .300 average are paid millions of dollars. The last MLB player to hit above .400 in a season was Ted Williams in 1941. He hit .406 that year. The player who has come closets to hitting the .400 mark was Tony Gwynn who hit .394 in 1994, coming up just 3 hits shy of reaching .400. It says alot when you are considered successful when you fail 70% of the time. If you pay attention, you will NEVER see a MLB umpire reuse a ball that has been thrown into the dirt. That is because the dirt can put a scuff mark on the ball which a pitcher can use to make the ball do unnatural things. Every pitch that is thrown into the dirt is thrown out of the game and used for batting practice the next day. Before every MLB the home plate umpired rubs a special mud onto 8 dozen baseballs to take the "shine" or slickness of of the new balls. This mud is sold by only one business and is gathered from a location known only to the owner of the business. MLB umpires swear by it.
Not true. Ryan's fastest pitch was recorded at 100.8 mph. Alroldis Chapman of the Reds threw a measured 105.8 mph fastball in 2010. That is 5 mph faster than Nolan Ryan, which is an incredible amount more considering how fast the pitches are going. Ryan's fastest pitch is often surpassed these days with the more current younger pitchers.
@@garyi.1360 I just did. That's how I got those numbers. The Guinness Book of World Records lists Chapman has having thrown the fastest pitch of all time. So I suggest you do your research.
@@garyi.1360 You need to stop the man-love for Nolan Ryan. I only needed to provide ONE ACCURATE source of a faster pitcher to disprove your original post. ONE FASTER PITCHER means your original post is incorrect. Thorough has nothing to do with it. Your original post was incorrect.
Forward spin is very possible, you can use a curveball grip and turn your wrist fully in so your first and second finger actually push down on the top of the ball as you throw it, like you're swinging a hammer. if your fingers are strong enough you can use a knuckle ball grip but put the ball farther back in your hand so your thumb and pinky are wrapped around and your 'knuckle fingers' are more tightly wedged behind the ball and flick your first and second fingers forward strongly as you release it. Both create tons of downward movement, but can be easier to see because the stitches are red. That's one thing batters look for is what the pattern of the stitches is doing. Usually if the stitches are spinning in a way to maximize their aerodynamic effect to create movement, the pattern that the batter sees is more uniform and easier to see. You can hold the ball in a different orientation without changing grip to kind of "mix up the pattern", but this will cause the pitch to move less. Some pitches naturally have a more randomized stitch spin pattern, but these tend to be variations on the fastball
