There are several ways methods people use to hit a curve.
The first is to be able to recognize, as quickly as the pitch is thrown, whether a ball is a curve or not. One way to recognize is to look for it as it is leaving the pitcher’s hand. This is basically looking for a thin wrist or fat wrist as the ball is being released. A fastball is thrown with the palm facing the batter. The bottom of the wrist, or the fat look of the wrist, is exposed as the ball is being released. A curve is thrown with the palm facing the pitcher’s body. The wrist looks thinner in this position so a curve is recognized when wrist is thin.
Another way to recognize is to see the spin of the pitch. A fastball spins from top to bottom. A curve spins from top to bottom and sometimes you can see a little dot form on the ball when a curve is thrown.
A different method is to guess. Guessing gets a bad rap from some lower level amateur coaches. However, an educated guess can give the batter a great edge. Look, if a pitcher has thrown a curve when up 0-2 on the last 6 batters, what do you think he is throwing to the 7th batter? If he throws a fastball to everyone when he is down, what do you think he is throwing to you?
Still the last way to hit a curve if you can’t hit it is to LOOK for a curve on every pitch. I don’t recommend this in every situation but if you’ve played it straight in the first two at bats against a pitcher and you’ve looked foolish against the curve, what do you think he will throw you in the third at bat to get you out. A curve.
And reading through this, you pitchers ought to get a clue as to how to pitch.
1. A pitcher who can get three mediocre pitches over is superior to one who can only throw a good pitch over the plate. That’s assuming you don’t always throw the same pitches in the same count all the time.
2. If you can get your curve over, the way you pitch a team the first time through the order should be different than the way you pitch them the second time through. You got a good team out with a fastball and curves. How effective do you think if you could get a changeup over and can save it for the second time through the order?
3. Why do you think a good changeup is so effective? If coaches recommend the fat wrist/thin wrist method of recognizing a curve or the spin method of recognition, the batter has a hard time picking up a changeup because it spins like a fastball and is thrown with a fat wrist.
4. Even if a batter can recognize a curve easily, if you as a pitcher can throw it at two speeds you, in effect, have two different pitches. At higher levels, good hitters can sometimes sit on a curve if it always comes in at the same speed and the same break.
At each level the pitcher/hitter progresses in a career, the hitter/pitcher gets smarter and craftier. That’s why experts will tell you that the difference for some in making the jump to the majors is not a physical jump but more of a mental one.
Tags: ball, baseball, curve, curveball, hitting, how, pitching, tips, to
