different pitches

[leftypitcher934]

im 15 i throw a fastball, change, curve, and im trying to throw a slurve cutter or sinker just for another pitch to use, which one should i use and why??

[leftypitcher934]

someone help me out here

[iamdiesel18]

im 15 i throw a fastball, change, curve, and im trying to throw a slurve cutter or sinker just for another pitch to use, which one should i use and why??

You should stick to throwing the three pitches that you throw right now. The reason being that you are 15 yrs old. Why do you need more pitches? I don't know where the obsession of throwing 10 different pitches has come from. You don't see too many major leaguers that have more than 3 solid pitches. For some reason, youth pitchers think that they need at least 5 pitches to be successful. To be successful in high school, you should have two good pitches. To be successful in college, you should have three good pitches. Here's a good quote for you:

"The samurai did not fear the man that had 10,000 moves. They feared the man that had 1 move but practiced it 10,000 times."

Work on what you have. Perfect the pitches that you have. Be able to throw any of the three pitches in any count and have confidence that you can throw them for a strike. When you complete that, do it some more.

[Go Cardinals]

i think that you should learn to throw every pitch, here's why. lets be realistic, some people just can't learn to throw some pitches, but what if you find a pitch like trevor hoffman did? Also, when you are young you want to learn to throw alot of pitches. the more pitches you can throw for strikes at any point in the count the better. look at dice-k.

[TG Coach]

i think that you should learn to throw every pitch, here's why. lets be realistic, some people just can't learn to throw some pitches, but what if you find a pitch like trevor hoffman did? Also, when you are young you want to learn to throw alot of pitches. the more pitches you can throw for strikes at any point in the count the better. look at dice-k.

You compared young pitchers and a professional pitcher. If you're smart you will learn how to master two or three pitches. It's what most pitchers do.

You can be a jack of all trades and a master of none, or you can master two or three. From being involved in baseball as a player and a coach for 40+ years I've never seen the former work. I've seen the latter work repeatedly. I'll bet all the experienced players and coaches will agree with me.

But you can it your way. No one is going to force you to listen to years of experience and success.

[AcidLake]

It would be good to have multiple pitches, but it's difficult for people to practice all of them for strikes. I think Miguel Batista throws about a lot of pitches but he cannot get some of them consistently.

[Go Cardinals]

You compared young pitchers and a professional pitcher. If you're smart you will learn how to master two or three pitches. It's what most pitchers do.

You can be a jack of all trades and a master of none, or you can master two or three. From being involved in baseball as a player and a coach for 40+ years I've never seen the former work. I've seen the latter work repeatedly. I'll bet all the experienced players and coaches will agree with me.

But you can it your way. No one is going to force you to listen to years of experience and success.

hey, don't say that, i am listening to people. i will listen to you, but i think that a good fastball, a good curveball, and a good changeup, would be better with 1 more good pitch. assuming you have 3 great pitches. what i ment by learning all of those pitches is that you might come across some pitch that you were just bron to pitch. i would never say that you should have 10 pitches, that would be retarded.

[kylebee]

im 15 i throw a fastball, change, curve, and im trying to throw a slurve cutter or sinker just for another pitch to use, which one should i use and why??

If you can master one pitch, you will compete.
If you can master two pitches, you will win.
If you can master three pitches, you will dominate.

There's not much more to it. You don't need a regular fourth pitch except to throw it occasionally as a show-me pitch to get the batters thinking. Oftentimes the best pitchers will go through the entire lineup throwing only two pitches - fastball and breaking ball, and save their changeup for the second time through to spring it on hitters who have already seen the pitcher on the hill.

[Go Cardinals]

If you can master one pitch, you will compete.
If you can master two pitches, you will win.
If you can master three pitches, you will dominate.

There's not much more to it. You don't need a regular fourth pitch except to throw it occasionally as a show-me pitch to get the batters thinking. Oftentimes the best pitchers will go through the entire lineup throwing only two pitches - fastball and breaking ball, and save their changeup for the second time through to spring it on hitters who have already seen the pitcher on the hill.

thats why i said he would be amazing with one more pitch (assuming he has 3 dominate pitches).

[kylebee]

thats why i said he would be amazing with one more pitch (assuming he has 3 dominate pitches).

If he has three dominant pitches, then scouts will be showing up in droves to see him and he doesn't need our advice.

[TG Coach]

If he has three dominant pitches, then scouts will be showing up in droves to see him and he doesn't need our advice.

Scouts aren't looking for three or four amazing pitches. They look for velocity and physical size. Anything else is gravy the pitcher can be taught at the next level. Your amazing pitches at the high school level very well could be meat at the college or minor league level.

[Postblank]

hey, don't say that, i am listening to people. i will listen to you, but i think that a good fastball, a good curveball, and a good changeup, would be better with 1 more good pitch. assuming you have 3 great pitches. what i ment by learning all of those pitches is that you might come across some pitch that you were just bron to pitch. i would never say that you should have 10 pitches, that would be retarded.

So on top of already throwing a good deal of fastballs, changeups and curves, you want a 15 year old to also work on another kind of pitch? Frankly, I think he's already working with one pitch too many. He's throwing a curve before the growth plates in his elbow have likely closed.

If you get your changeup working well enough, you can get away with fastball/changeup for a good deal of time yet. You're not facing remotely tough hitters on a regular basis. What's the movement on your fastball like?

[Go Cardinals]

yes, but just for fun, imagine if he had a joel zumaya fastball, a trevor hoffman changeup, a barry zito curveball, and a brandon webb sinker. just imagine how good of a pitcher that would be. wouldn't that be cool.

[kylebee]

Scouts aren't looking for three or four amazing pitches. They look for velocity and physical size. Anything else is gravy the pitcher can be taught at the next level. Your amazing pitches at the high school level very well could be meat at the college or minor league level.

TG Coach,

That's what I mean - if his fastball is dominant and crazy fast, and he has some arsenal of secondary pitches, then he doesn't really need our advice. Sorry if I was unclear. :)

[Go Cardinals]

So on top of already throwing a good deal of fastballs, changeups and curves, you want a 15 year old to also work on another kind of pitch? Frankly, I think he's already working with one pitch too many. He's throwing a curve before the growth plates in his elbow have likely closed.

If you get your changeup working well enough, you can get away with fastball/changeup for a good deal of time yet. You're not facing remotely tough hitters on a regular basis. What's the movement on your fastball like?

yes, i would agree with you on the curve ball thing

[leftypitcher934]

k thanks guys i pitched today

2 innings pitched, 2 R, no ER, 4 K, 23 pitches

I did good with my change today

[AcidLake]

Mixing changeup smartly with just fastball and curve is deadly enough. There is this Yankees reliever prospect named Edwar Ramirez, he throws between only 89~91mph range, but his mix of changeup really makes the batter foolish. You can check his stats out in the below link.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Edwar%2520Ramirez&pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=469735

[Jake Patterson]

Scouts aren't looking for three or four amazing pitches. They look for velocity and physical size. Anything else is gravy the pitcher can be taught at the next level. Your amazing pitches at the high school level very well could be meat at the college or minor league level.


The only thing I would add is control...

[leftypitcher934]

shoudl i throw a circle change or just a change i find it easier to throw a regular change when i throw a circle it goes into the dirt to much because the grip is odd for me

[Go Cardinals]

shoudl i throw a circle change or just a change i find it easier to throw a regular change when i throw a circle it goes into the dirt to much because the grip is odd for me

try both, learn to throw them both in a game, whichever one works better, master it.

[AcidLake]

shoudl i throw a circle change or just a change i find it easier to throw a regular change when i throw a circle it goes into the dirt to much because the grip is odd for me
If you can't throw change for strikes, there's no meaning to it. If you look at hoffman (I doubt he throws circle change), he fools the batter by throwing alot of them for strikes. I'd say, go for the easier one to control with.

[Postblank]

Mixing changeup smartly with just fastball and curve is deadly enough. There is this Yankees reliever prospect named Edwar Ramirez, he throws between only 89~91mph range, but his mix of changeup really makes the batter foolish. You can check his stats out in the below link.

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Edwar%2520Ramirez&pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=469735
Or for a more accessable example: Cole Hamels

His rookie year, he worked 95% fastballs and changes because his curve was primitive and couldn't get called for strikes. Despite only having two useable pitches, he established himself as one of the top K/9 guys in the NL. Since then, he's improved his curve a lot. It helped him greatly in his 15K complete game outing against the Reds earlier this season. The better his curve works, the better his pitch count efficiency is as a result.

I'd have to second the notion of throwing what is comfortable. The circle change is an adjustment, and right now you want your focus on the mitt, not split between the mitt and your throwing hand.

[leftypitcher934]

The fastball and curve i throw have a lot of control but sometimes i cannot control my change

[Postblank]

The fastball and curve i throw have a lot of control but sometimes i cannot control my change

Decrease your reps with fastball and curve and increase your changeup reps when you're practicing. It is a feel pitch, but it's also supposed to be thrown like a fastball so there's no reinventing the wheel.