What did British Guys Think of Baseball / MLB Different Pitches? 

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The four seam and two seam fastball are determined by where you grip the ball across the seams

I can't explain why this so enjoyable to me as a die hard baseball fanatic, but I love the open curiosity they approach baseball with

I absolutely love the fact that you guys aren't trying to present that you know what is going on, but are genuinely learning as you go.

I got a good smile out of hearing you refer to the batter swinging as "having a go at it" Thanks for learning our sport!

Some definitions: Strike Zone -- The box you see on TV broadcasts above home plate. It is 17 inches (a little less than half a meter) wide horizontally, goes from the chest of the batter to the bottom of the knees of the batter in their stance vertically, and depth-wise is also about 17 inches (it only exists just above home plate) Strike -- A pitch that either: is hit by the batter into foul territory ("foul ball") that isn't caught, swung at and missed by the batter, or thrown through the strike zone. Ball -- A pitch that isn't swung at by the batter and does not pass through the strike zone Foul Ball -- A pitch that is hit by the batter, but not into the field of play. This is marked by the white chalk lines going from home plate out to first base and third base and also by the big yellow poles at the corners of the outfield. Walk -- The batter is awarded first base. Out -- The batter or runner is retired (leaves the basepaths). Three outs ends a team's turn at bat. So with those definitions in mind, here are the ways an at-bat can end: -- if the batter receives four "ball"s, they are awarded a "walk", and get to go to first base. -- if the batter receives three "strikes", they are "out" unless the third strike was a "foul ball" that wasn't caught. In this case the batter remains on two strikes. -- if the batter hits the ball into play -- if the batter hits a "foul ball" that is caught, they are "out". -- if the batter is hit by the pitch, they are awarded first base in the same way as if getting a "walk".

The MLB's official RU-vid channel has a surprisingly entertaining vid named "What is the difference between pitches? And why are there so many?" It breaks down and explains more of the history of all these terms and pitches. Great place to start

I VERY strongly suggest watching Jomboy breakdowns. Just start anywhere. His videos are so informative to experts and novices alike. 🤗

growing up watching baseball, I kinda forget there's so many intricacies of the sport it can be hard for new fans to understand/appreciate. hope you guys keep watching

The knuckleball is a wild phenomenon. No current MLB pitchers throw it today. It has a cool history.

Much respect for trying to learn a foreign sport! You guys are awesome!

One of the fastest and hardest throwing pitchers of all time was Nolan Ryan. He not only threw hard, he did it consistently over a long career, much longer than most pitchers - 27 years. If you want to give yourselves a treat, find and watch a documentary called "Facing Nolan" - it came out about a year or so ago, and it is really really good. Show a lot of how he pitched and the 50 or so records he set, it's truly amazing.

Even as a lifelong baseball fan, I learned a lot from this video. My team is the San Diego Padres, we have a veteran pitcher Yu Darvish that has 11 different pitches in his arsenal, and is even working on a 12th. I believe that's the most of active pitchers.

If I'm not mistaken, the commentator who called the pitch a slider instead of a cutter wasn't just any old commentator. It sounded like Hall of Famer John Smoltz, who was an amazing pitcher and often calls games for Fox Sports nowadays. That tells you how difficult it can be to call a pitch in some cases, when even a guy who is an absolute master at throwing pitches for a Hall of Fame career doesn't call it the same thing as the scorers.

A foul ball is when a batter hits the ball, but it is hit out of play, such as in the crowd.

Right versus left handed pitching is a HUGE deal! Teams usually have a balance of right and left handed pitchers so they can align against certain batters. This is really common late in games when teams take their starting pitcher out and start using their reserve pitchers.

Trevor May is a pro pitcher with a youtube channel who talks about what the grips look like on the various pitches if you wanted to see that in more detail. I think those videos also talk about about when those pitches are used so you can have a better idea of why there's those variations exist. This was fun to watch and I hope you enjoy your baseball journey!

The strike zone is supposed to be from the batter's jersey letters to his knees. But each umpire has a slightly different strike zone. Some give strikes up to one ball off the plate. The box is just a guide for the fans. For a 95 mph fastball a batter has four tenths of a second to recognize the pitch and swing. So the batter strategy would be to wait for a certain pitch or location depending on the game situation.

By the way guys - this video is really an intermediate / advanced video. Some basics i'm not sure you have heard yet - the umpire standing behind the catcher is determining whether each pitch is a ball or strike. If a hitter gets 4 balls - he gets a free walk to first base. If he gets 3 strikes - he out. That box you see next to the hitter is the computer-generated strike-zone based on the hitter's height. In a perfect world - the umpire would call the balls / strikes according to that zone. But human error is such that each umpire has his own strike-zone and part of the game is the hitter & pitcher have to figure out where the umpire's strike zone is. Players become frustrated when the umpire is not consistent. You asked what a 'foul-ball' is - a foul ball is when the hitter hits the ball but it goes outside those two lines that define the diamond - or it goes up into the air and behind the batter. Those are all foul balls. If a foul ball is caught - then the hitter is out. Foul balls that are not caught by the opposing team count as a strike - except - they don't count as a strike 3 - unless of course - it is caught by the opposing team.

One breaking pitch they didn't cover in the video is a "screwball." It pretty much disappeared from the MLB because of the stigma that it was "harder on your arm" than a curveball--which has been disproven to be the case. It has slowly started making its return into some pitchers' pitching arsenals. A *screwball* is when the ball is spinning in the _opposite_ direction of a curveball, and thus it breaks toward the pitcher's throwing arm instead of the glove side. As someone who has thrown screwballs in the past, it's really neat seeing the way it breaks on the way to the catcher. 🙃

I played baseball through college. It's a tough sport. There is so much going on that the casual fan won't notice. Every single pitch is carefully orchestrated to induce a desired outcome. With a runner on first, that's when you'll see the sinkers and two seam fastballs low in the strike zone in an effort to induce a ground ball double play.

12:04 Excellent observation! You are absolutely correct: the handedness of the pitcher is important. The breaking direction of right- and left-handed pitchers mirror each other. In general, a pitcher with the same handedness as the batter has an advantage over an oppositely handed pitch. In the former situation, the break on most pitches will be down and away from the batter which are typically more difficult to hit than those breaking inward toward the batter. Teams used to employ "left-handed specialists" whose job it was to face a single dangerous left-handed batter in critical late-game situations. Although, these specialists are less common now after the 2020 rule change that placed resteictions on how often a manager could change pitchers in an inning.

The fastest pitch in a major league game was thrown by Aroldis Chapman at 105.7 mph. That said, pitches thrown at that speed can be REALLY taxing on your arm, so you'll usually only see relievers (guys who come in at the end to take over from the starting pitcher) throw those pitches, as they throw less pitches in general. That said, any pitcher throwing 100mph or above is really impressive and generates hype.

Yo! Thanks for reacting to my video! Seems like all of your questions have been answered already. Cheers 🥳

3:38 = Greg Maddux has the best 2SM/SNKR pitch in history IMO. The movement on his pitches was incredible. And to have a HOF career with low-mid fastball velocity makes it even more impressive.

As a lifelong pitcher, the best advantage you have over any lineup is being able to tweak or change grips very slightly between games. It really allows a level of creativity because even in-game, you can change the grip situationally to make a ball move a certain way.

It's fun watching you two learning about the sports we love in the US. As already stated, several of the pitches are named for how the ball is gripped: 4-seam, 2-seam, knuckleball. Typically, when a batter is able to effectively hit from both sides of the plate (switch hit), they will bat on the side opposite, from the pitcher's perspective, of the pitcher's throwing arm. This makes the pitcher's breaking balls break in towards them and easier to hit.

I really enjoyed how honest your approach is. Many kids like myself learned to play baseball growing up and when I started coaching kids myself I realized the sport was more complex than I imagined. I enjoy watching and learning sports that aren't so popular in the US, as well, so I really took to heart how open and honest you were and unafraid to speculate and let the comments sort it for you. I hope you enjoy baseball.

Never realized fully how intricate the game was until I tried to explain it to a coworker from Asia (not Japan obviously). We all grow up playing baseball in the States, so it’s just part of summer life. It is a very nuanced and strategic game when you get down to it, analytics have made it nearly scientific- but in out hearts, it’ll always be “just a kids game”.

The right handed vs left handed pitcher or batter definitely matters. Sometimes an entirely new pitcher will be subbed into the game if he matches up better with the batter based on left hand/right hand. There’s also some players who are extremely talented and can competently bat from either side of the plate. They’re known as ‘switch hitters’

Pitch tunneling (choosing pitches that look the same until the last moment so the batter can't identify the pitch in time) is pretty cool to see too. I know pitcher Trevor May did a video talking about it a while back.

Baseball gets so much better when you start paying attention to the managing of putting certain pitchers against certain batters and stuff like that. When you understand the individual players of a team, it gets really interesting to see how they are used. Baseball is more about strategy and management than most people realize. I'd recommend watching a few full games, especially in the playoffs.

It's good that you guys are open to this. It can be difficult to get the full breadth of baseball as you didn't grow up with the history, icons, and rivalries. With more context however, it's something you can grow to appreciate.

I’m so glad you guys are doing more baseball! Baseball is a complicated game. The 4 seam and 2 seam remarks have to do with the red stitches on the baseball and how the pitcher grips the ball. Each pitch has its own grip. The square they show on the screen is called the strike zone. This is where the pitcher has to throw the ball in order to throw a strike. Any ball that lands outside the strike zone is a ball. Four balls and the batter gets to walk to first base. Three strikes and the batter is out. I kinda wish you guys had watched the “MLB Quick Question, different Pitch types” video. It’s more interesting than this one, but this one is good too. You’ll rarely see an eephus pitch or a knuckleball. I don’t even know if there’s a knuckleballer in the MLB right now. Only someone who can throw a knuckleball can teach another pitcher to throw one. So there’s always this theory out there that one day the knuckleball will disappear. Be sure to watch “Ninh explains the Unwritten Rules of Baseball”. It’s hilarious.

As someone said earlier, you were exactly right at the end about left handed pitchers having an advantage versus left handed batters (and the same for right handed pitchers vs right handed batters). This is why handedness is so important in baseball. As a result, left handed pitchers especially are in very high demand. A lot of kids will grow up playing football and baseball but most of left handed ones will end up in baseball for this reason.

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3:04 "Two-seam" and "four-seam" refer to the red stitching on the ball which is also called the seam. It forms a saddle shape on the ball allowing one's fingers to cross it at multiple points. A fastball is usually thrown with the index and middle finger gripping the top of the ball in a V shape. If those fingers cross the seam at four points, it's a four-seam fast ball. If they cross at only two points, or more commonly, straddle two lengths of the seam, then it's a two-seam fastball.

Cheers for trying to learn a new sport. Baseball is such a difficult one to come into because there is simply so much terminology and verbiage that is used with it but it is such a beautiful game. The skill needed to play it at the highest level is incredible but something I love about it is how much talent comes from all over the world. Korea, Japan, US, Canada, all of Central and South America. It's such a unifying game and I hope that it can spread to Europe one day too.

Man, it's always funny to see people who aren't familiar with something see that something for the first time and try to make heads or tails of it. Keep up the fun videos!

I love that you guys are learning about baseball! It is one of the hardest games to learn in my experience because of the how many rules there are along with a wide variety of player skill sets and strategies. I hope you get the chance to go to a game in the States sometime. I'm sure many of your subscribers would enjoy taking you to one.

The "square" you referred to is only there for the viewers of the game. It represents the strike zone that can determine if a pitch is a strike or a ball. The umpire makes all decisions on balls and strikes, and there is no VAR or video review on these calls.

You guys need to check out the biggest curse ending moment in baseball history by secret base , since you guys don't know the ending would be a great watch in my opinion it was the craziest game 7 I've ever seen, keep up the great content.

This is awesome!! Excited to watch more, very fun to see new people picking up baseball

my catcher in high school would give me 5 signals on what pitch he wanted me to throw: #1 type of pitch, #2 speed of pitch. #3 arm angle of release. #4 if curve/cutter/screw/sinker how much he wanted it to break #5 where he wanted the pitch to end (inside/outside/low/high or any combination of two of them). We would also change our signals every 2-3 innings to make sure the opposing team was not stealing our signals (which is against the rules but everyone still does it) Everything the entire team does is because the catcher calls it including positioning of all other 7 field players depending on the batter and what pitches he is calling from the pitcher. In baseball the catcher is the quarterback and one who spends endless hours watching oposing hitters to learn how to best call pitches against them.

It would've been nice to show the various grip types that determine how the pitch is thrown. Great channel, guys. Love the US Football vids!

I love splitters! I threw one in high school and it served me well. They tend to be pretty difficult on your arm though, so they are uncommon. That is one reason they are much more common in Japan, where pitchers pitch once a week instead of once every 5 games. Japanese pitchers like Shohei Ohtani, Masahiro Tanaka, and Kenta Maeda all throw a pretty good splitter.

12:03 That's a very good observation. Most breaking balls move away from batters of the same handedness as the pitcher making them harder to hit. Typically lefty batters will have more success against right handed pitching and vice versa. Coaches used to use a pitcher in tense situations to face just one batter because they wanted to create a favorable matchup (righty v righty, etc.), but there's a new rule that a pitcher must face three batters before they can be substituted.

Thank you for the respect and genuine inquiry you showed for the game I love so much! I look forward to watching more of your videos and eventually learning the rules of Cricket. I’ve tried watching that sport many times throughout the years and have no earthly idea as to what’s happening 😂. It looks like a game that would interest me very much though. Cheers

A foul ball is out of play . The strike zone - an area over home plate and from the batters knees to his armpits. If a batter swings at any pitch and misses its a strike . If the pitcher throws in the "strike zone" its a strike even if the bater never swings at it . 3 strikes and your out . But 4 balls (pitches outside the strike zone) and you get walked. You get to take 1st base .

"What is the difference between pitches? And why are there so many? | Quick Question (MLB Originals)" is a much better video. Gives you much details, history, explanations from Pitchers and graphics illustrations. It's about 10 mins. If don't want to react to it, you might want to watch it on your own time. It's quite entertaining too.

This is awesome. Watching two guys, with a different upbringing than mine, actually being interested and exploring the game that i grew up playing and obsessing about is amazing!

I was going to answer some of the questions, but they appear well covered. I will say I was impressed with the questions you did ask and your willingness to ask them! Hope you find yourself enjoying baseball because it can be a fascinating game.

Love seeing this. Great intuition at 12:05 as well. When a pitcher and batter pitch or bat with the same hand, the pitcher usually has the advantage because it's harder to see the ball coming from the same side, so managers will sometimes send a "pinch hitter", or substitute hitter to come hit on the opposite side if it's a critical time in the game, say if the bases are loaded and the score is tight. Great job, boys! GO GIANTS!

Good stuff Dawgs! You'll see other comments explaining the difference in seam gripping, all these pitches depend on how you hold onto the ball. As long as you guys keep checking out rules and explanations you'll be okay. Yall are really good at learning and taking in the information given!

Love that you guys are less than half way though and already shocked by the number of pitches when you just finished with the fastballs are are just starting all the off speed stuff.

This video was so fun to watch as a lifelong baseball fan. Awesome video guys!😂😂😂

Love your baseball content. Gotta know what a foul ball is before you try and learn what a slider is lol. Thanks guys love your content

Hitting a major league baseball is the hardest skill in sports. The batters has a fraction of a second to recognize the pitch and react. Also, the pitchers change speed to throw off the timing of the batters. Also fast balls can go over 100 miles an hour, then the next pitch could be as slow as 80 miles per hour. Also the movement like a breaking balls.

Very cool that you picked up on the righty / lefty split. In general, batters can see better when the pitcher is delivering in an open state (so a righty pitcher to lefty batter or vice versa). Of course, that’s not always true, but many managers try to take advantage of this by platooning players so they face the side against which they have an advantage.

Some fun videos to check out might be a catchers view of professional MLB pitchers. It is truly incredible to see just how fast and quick a batter must be to determine to swing and how to swing on a 100mph ball coming at ya. Some videos have audio good enough to catch the air whistle on the seams on the ball coming in. I am a new subscriber, and with MLB spring training just starting, these videos just pump me up. Cheers gents, and Go Cubbies!

A pitch outside the box should be called a "ball" vs a "strike" when it passes through the box. If the batter swings at any pitch and misses it is a strike. A foul ball is when you hit it out of play. A foul ball will count as a 1st or 2nd strike but not the 3rd. So a batter can keep hitting foul balls and the at-bat will continue.

A 4 seam, 2 seam has to do with the grip .

loving this - it shows the continuity between all the bat and ball sports and how they are related. you get the gist and know some terminology just from cricket. I think british people would love baseball. in terms of experience-wise, it similar to non-league football. its a great thing to go to (for cheap) and have a beer and have fun with some friends.

Great video! Really enjoy seeing Brits take the time to understand the this game.

I appreciate your content as well! Please keep it up

The knuckleball is a fascinating pitch. Check out videos of Tim Wakefield, Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough, and others. These pitches are nightmares for catchers and often the pitchers have designated catchers that are able to corral the pitches. The best way to describe a knuckleball is a pitch thrown without the stabilizing effect of rotation on the ball. The ball literally floats and meanders its way across the plate.

Seeing these guys channel now its so amazing how much they have learned

I have been a baseball fan for 30 years, and i cant believe how entertaining this video was.

i'm late to the party, but i loved the reaction to the eephus. y'all were talking about the source video's previous content and then the pitcher threw one at like 45 miles an hour, like ten feet up in the air, and you both got this wild-eyed "omg what was that" look. that is the proper reaction to a good eephus hahaha.

This is a great idea for a YT channel. I wish you guys much success. ... and now I feel like I need to learn the rules of cricket. lol

The simultaneous chuckle at “breaking balls” got me.

I played baseball for over 10 years and really enjoyed, things you asked about: in baseball the strike zone is typically the letters on your jersey to your knees, its 3 strikes for an out, 4 balls out of the strike zone and you go to first but if you swing at one its a strike. If you hit a ball and it doesnt go into the game of play; there are lines running from home plate through first and third base that go straight to the back of the field, if it falls out of these lines and isnt caught for an out its a foul and will be counted as a strike. However, if youre on 2 strikes and hit a foul it isnt counted for a third strike and you can do this continuously. I saw others mention the seams that stick lut of the ball, but typically a big difference is also arm and hand movement. A fastball for me was 2 fingers straight a cross the ball thrown straight towards my target, the bread and butter of throws. Curves and others can usually be seen easier by batters due to arm movement and its diagonal motion when throwing in order to get the spin on the ball.

I remembering having this same type of conversation fifty years ago when an Aussie I met in Europe stayed for a couple of weeks. Some of he questions are hilarious and in some instances not easily explainable in logical terms.

would be great if part 2 of this would be on how pitchers grip the baseball for certain pitches!!! that would be wild as well. Oh and have them try it out!!!

Man... so much fun going on the journey of getting into the intricacies of Baseball... there's a lot of nuance to it that makes it more exciting to watch once you understand it! I'd also recommend the Jomboy Media channel as he'll pick interesting situations and go over them in detail, and explain these kinds of intricacies. Check out when he goes over specific pitcher / batter matchups and how they turned out. (he's also highly entertaining and will go into the backstory behind rivalries and situations that make it more interesting). And you're right in that right hand vs. left hand match ups are a big deal! They track the stats for each player on how well they do vs. each type. Managers will switch out players later in the game based on the type of pitcher that comes in (i.e. they want a lefty / lefty matchup for example). Then you have what are called switch-hitters, which are hitters that can hit from both sides of the plate (they get to pick how they want to face the pitcher). They seem to be much rarer these days, but they still exist. And then there's the rarest of unicorns, switch-pitchers that can throw right or left handed (I think there's only been a handful throughout the history of the sport). When you start breaking down at-bats and see the types of deception pitchers go through, it's very interesting. For example, some pitchers throw multiple types of pitches from the same release point, with the purpose of trying to fool the batter into not knowing which pitch is coming. Then there's the concept of the setup pitch, where a pitcher throws a specific type of pitch to get the batter thinking in a certain way, but the real goal was the next pitch in the sequence that will be counter to how they just got the batter thinking. And THEN there's the whole same set of tactics from the batters side and how some try to fool the pitcher into throwing the type of pitch they really want (Manny Ramirez was a master of this in his time). :)

As a dual citizen Brit-American who grew up in London but has lived in New York in the US for years, my first thought with baseball is always rounders!!!! When we weren't playing cricket or football, we got rounders and it's hilariously similar without all of the pitches and quality gameplay and all.

i really dig this. two intelligent sports fans figuring out a game. the joy of discovery! cant wait to watch an explanation of cricket

Youse guys are so awesome. I love your honesty. You both quickly develop insights on things that you may not have had any prior experience with. I look forward to future videos. The "box" that is superimposed on a batter is supposed to emulate the strike zone. This however is very subjective and can be affected by many things. Umpires may differ in how they generally call balls and strikes. Some will call "high" strikes, which pisses of batters to no end and pleases pitchers. Some call very low strikes, which pisses of batters to no end and pleases pitchers. Generally speaking, the strike "zone" is supposed to be from the knees to the letters (on the shirt) vertically, and the width of the plate horizontally. The vertical part is supposed to change, depending on the height of the batter, but this is rarely the case. It really depends on the umpire as to where the true zone is per batter. It's part of what makes this game so human and so interesting. Keep up the great work.

Oh man, I could sit with you fellas and talk baseball for HOURS lol.

I'm sure a lot of people have touched on these already, but a few things from the video and your reaction: 1) A foul ball is when you as a batter make contact with the ball but it lands out of play (outside the baselines that run from home plate to 1st base, and 3rd base to home which extend all the way out to the walls in the outfield). 2) The one pitch the video misses is a screw ball. This is like a reverse curveball. When you throw a curveball, its like you're just dropping your hand down to the front of your body, but snapping your wrist down faster than your arm when you release the ball with your thumb starting close to you and going over the top of the ball. A screw ball is thrown almost like a fastball, but as you come over the top, you snap your wrist away from your body with your thumb starting close to you and going under the ball as you release it. Screw balls can really mess up your arm if you over do them, so not many pitchers ever throw them anymore. 3) As a batter, you want as much time as you possibly can get against a pitcher to be able to identify and react to the pitch, so you NEVER want a left-handed pitcher when you are a left-handed batter. Thankfully for LH batters, a vast majority of pitchers are RH, so it's not a big deal. Then again, most batters are RH, too, though many have been taught to switch hit, meaning to be able to hit from either side of the plate to take away the pitcher's advantage of time, even if it's miniscule. Always interesting to see folks from other countries who aren't used to baseball attempt to get to know it. So many random and weird rules and ways of throwing a ball, it isn't easy unless you grew up with it.

That's the best part of having so many pitches and ways to throw the same pitch. It's as game of chess, watching a great pitcher set up a batter and keep em guessing. Some of the best baseball games are pitcher's duels!

this was great! subscribed

The long and short of this is that each pitch is a guessing game between the batter and pitcher. If a pitch comes it at 95 your brain says it should drop. So it appears to rise. If the next pitch comes in at 80 and it’s tailing away and you were guessing fastball again, you will swing early. It’s all about speed and location

"If has to make a big difference when you pitching either left or right handed." You're very right my good man.

I'm sure others have mentioned this but most American sports fans, even baseball fans can't identify pitches in the moment. It's much more like boxing than cricket in the pitch sequence, you might throw a jab to keep them at a distance so you can land the over. Pitches can often be done backwards to be sneaky in the same way, 160 years of evolution of the game to get to this point. The game has seen many more pitch types and styles than what is listed here and I recommend you watch a video showing the pitchers hands and grip or "mechanics" if you want to keep learning and going down the rabbit hole.

Knuckleballs are the wildest pitches ever. Especially in replay when you can see that the ball is basically not spinning and just wiggling back n forth on the way to the plate.

So many different pitches and so many different pitchers. Different pitching motion for each so different movement for each.

Love how y'all realized the importance of handedness in batting matchups, very clever!

For some familiar reference points, a curveball is like a hard thrown offspinner, sliders and cutters are more like offcutters. They haven't mentioned screwballs as they're rarely thrown but they're something like a faster legspinner/legcutter type thing

I know for a lot of people it doesnt make a lot of sense. But, when you either play it and see the intricacies up close or you follow it closely, the minute differentiators between play and pitches and hitting make it really fascinating. I have been a catcher at various amateur levels since I was 10 years old and have caught pitchers throwing 100mph and pitchers who could twist the ball up to the plate at very slow speeds so cleverly most could not hit it. You guys look interested and are giving it a chance and at least encouraging others to do so, as well.thats pretty cool

You 2 have SOOOOOOO much to learn.

Some terms in regards to pitching: -when you have a pitcher with good pitching, his pitching is called "filthy" or "nasty". -when a pitcher is putting the pitches on the edges of the strike zone, he's sometimes called a "Rembrandt".

You guys have a heck of a journey ahead of you.

Some of the prettiest pitches are breaking balls that spin a batter around but drop into the zone for a strike. Batter thinks a fastball is headed for his skull and turns away only for the ball to curve back into the zone and called for strike 3. It’s great.

Look for more videos on knuckleball pitchers. That ball is the most difficult to hit, as its movement is almost completely random. It floats all over and breaks at unexpected points in its trajectory.

Good stuff guys. I played a long time. Few things that can help you anticipate what pitches are coming. 1) The count. Meaning how many balls and strikes are on the hitter. The fastball is usually the easiest pitch to throw for a strike. So if a pitcher “falls behind” the hitter, say 1 ball 0 strikes (1-0), 2-0, 3-1, 3-0….the pitcher will most often throw a fastball to try to even the count. This is also known by the hitter, and knowing the fastball is the easiest pitch to hit, he will anticipate or “look for” a fastball to hit in those counts. When a pitcher “gets ahead” 0-1, 0-2, 1-2…the hitter is now in a defensive position and just trying to make contact. That usually calls for deceptive pitches. Curves, Sliders and Change ups. These are harder to time and to hit, but also harder to throw for strikes. 2) The change up. While curveballs and sliders are thrown hard, because of the angles of release and paths to the plate, the hitter can identify them easily. A “straight” changeup when thrown correctly is very hard to distinguish from a fastball when hitting. They usually share the same pitching motion and arm action. And when perfectly thrown they are undetectable until the hitter starts swinging…which is too late and it feels like your arms come out of their sockets. 3) Location. Where a pitch crosses the plate, up in the strike or down is how one identifies pitch location. Pitches crossing the middle of the plate above the knees will get hit hard. So good pitchers (in concert with their catchers) will aim for the outer or inner third of the plate ideally. Oddly, these are called “corners”. (The plate is an upside down hexagon like a house, so there are corners. The very outside of the plate is trimmed with black rubber. So you’ll hear announcers say close pitches called strikes that could called a ball was “on the black”. The extreme fringe of the plate.) Pitchers are taught to aim for where the catcher puts his mitt before the pitch, but as they get better they often aim for a catcher’s knees as one is inside on the hitter and the other is outside. It’s also good to know that even the best pitchers make mistakes every game and put balls in the middle of the strike zone. That is offset by hitters who make mistakes as well, and miss those easy to hit pitches! 😃 P.S. If you want to know more about how pitcher’s hold and throw each pitch, just RU-vid “pitch grips”. P.S.S. A foul ball is when a hitter makes contact, however hard or just “tipped” that isn’t put into fair play between the first and third baselines. It takes a while to learn most of these things but you guys are on the right track! Good job.

The box you see on TV is called the strike zone. If a batter does not swing at a pitch, it is either called strike or a ball, depending on where the umpire behind the plate sees it. If it is in the strike zone, it is a strike. If the umpire thinks it is outside the strike zone, it is a ball. After throwing 4 balls to a batter, that batter is automatically sent to first base and the next batter is up. If he gets 3 strikes, he is out and the next batter is up. After 3 outs, the teams switch sides and the other team is up to bat.

Nice catch on the left- vs right-handed thing. A right-handed pitcher always has the edge on a right-handed batter, while a left-handed batter always has an edge on a right-handed pitcher. Most or all teams have LH relief pitchers (since, if the starting pitcher is RH, the other team will often load their starting lineup with LH hitters). But the majority of pitchers are RH. This explains, at least in part, why so many power hitters and home run leaders are left-handed. They have a built-in edge on RH pitchers. This is part of baseball strategy. The manager has to juggle his lineup so that, if a relief pitcher has to be brought in, whether that pitcher is RH or LH will in large part be dependent on the next batter or few batters he will face, and whether they are RH or LH.

The camera misses two things: First, just how fast a pitch like that comes in. You have to pick up the pitchers arm movement guess the pitch, and track the ball coming in, and you generally start your swing at the same time. Secondly, just how much a breaking pitch can move. Some guys can throw a curveball that we used to say "Fell off the table". Its only in the last 10ft of travel that it breaks.

I like these guys. They catch on to baseball pretty quickly!