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July 2008  The "fastball" is pretty straightforward, but what separates a splitter and a slider? Two-seam... four-seam? Let's look at the changeup, the curve, and the knuckleball for a lesson in baseball and physics, seen through the eyes of a hitter as the pitch approaches the plate. And before the hard-core Pitch-f/x fans put pen to paper in protest of it's simplification, remember this is a BASIC lesson, and yes there is more nuance and detail to be shared... feel free.
The main components of a pitch consist of the hold (how the pitcher holds the ball), the rotation and release (how his wrist spins it and where in the throw he lets go), the speed, and the way the ball "breaks" or how it moves during it's trip to the plate.
The most common pitches are the several versions of the fastball. The speed is consistently, well...fast, but the hold, rotation and movement are all a little different.
The 4-seam fastball is the traditional, straight on pitch with a hold across the seams of the baseball, thrown hard and fast (Jonathan Papelbon). The 2-seam fastball is not quite as fast, held along the seams, and carries a little bit of downward motion, you'll also hear it called the "sinker" for that reason (Josh Beckett).
A devastating "change up" pitch is huge in any arsenal because it LOOKS like a fastball (delivered the same way) but is just slower, fooling the batter into swinging early and missing, typically held with 3 fingers instead of two (Keith Foulke).
With the "splitter" or "split-fingered fastball," the hold is two fingers, wide along the stitching, with a particular pressure that causes the pitch to come at you straight, and then suddenly loose velocity like it just rolled off a table (Curt Schilling).
The "slider" is sort of the combination of the fastball and the "curve." It has the motion of cutting away from the batter (right-handed) and also drops toward the strike zone on an arch - or the "break" (Craig Hansen).
It's that breaking motion toward the plate that defines the curveball, it will come at the hitter and then curve both vertically and on a slant... There are several versions of that one too, but the basic one is what's known as the "12 to 6" refering to the positions on a clock (Manny Delcarmen).
Finally, Red Sox fans have the great gift of the best knuckleball pitcher in baseball - Tim Wakefield. The knuckleball is held softly with a grip between the thumb and knuckles so that it doesn't actually spin at all, which makes it "dance" and move with random wind and humidity changes. No lie. The speed is so slow it drives hitters crazy and is very hard to manage which is why so few pitchers bother to master it. Thankfully, Tim Wakefield has!
by Girlsox Staff
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