Examples of Pitches and Pitchers
Pitchers have many different styles of pitching, and within those styles are various different pitches that help them keep the batters on their toes and off the basepaths!
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Aroldis Chapman throws a 4 seam fastball, which is the pitch that you have to throw fast and accurately for it to be effective. He throws the fastest pitch ever on record. This is a straight pitch with no bend.
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Pedro Martinez is famous for his change up. A change up is a pitch that looks just like a fastball coming out of the hand of the pitcher, but it is between 5-15 mph slower than their fastball. It is a straight pitch, but the timing of the batter is off. The pitch in the video is able to be identified by the posture and swing of the batter. If it is a straight pitch and they are way early or have time to start, stop, and start the swing again-- it's probably a change up.
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Barry Zito throws a curveball, which is the pitch that is a big, slow arch. This pitch is difficult for the batter to judge where it is going because the angle it is traveling at. His hand supinates, or turns up, while he releases the ball to put a lot of spin on it.
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Randy Johnson is a 6' 10" left handed pitcher who is notorious for his slider. A slider is a pitch which moves downward and across the plate, away from the pitching arm of the thrower. Johnson's throwing angle is lower than that of the first two examples, which benefits this pitch's sideways movement.
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R.A. Dickey is a pitcher who has no ulnar collateral ligament, and because of this he had to develop a different way to pitch. What he came up with was to become a knuckleball pitcher. the knuckle ball is the opposite of most of the pitches, since it spins less than one rotation before it gets to the batter. This pitch requires a much straighter path to the plate, so it becomes more of a pushing motion rather than a torsional, rotating motion.
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