The Importance of Throwing the Right Pitch
When a pitcher is in the locker room tucking his jersey in and lacing his cleats up, he is preparing to go out and pitch a smart and successful game. In doing so, certain procedures have to be taken into consideration. To go out and dominate a game on the pitcher’s mound, a pitcher has to have the confidence in his coaches to call the most effective pitch and then be able to execute it.
The coach is pressured into deciding what pitch to throw based on his knowledge o each hitter. In this situation, the coaches should have previously watched each batter hit so they could best prepare the pitcher for the batters’ strengths and weaknesses. For example, a pull- hitter has a habit of hitting the ball to the same side of the field from which he hits. So therefore, a right-handed hitter mainly hits the ball to left field, and a left-handed hitter favors hitting the ball to right field. A successful pitcher is coached to throw a pull- hitter a change-up or something off speed to the outside of the plate to better his chances at getting the hitter out. If the hitter thinks he will be pitched outside the whole game, an aware hitter may make an adjustment and take the outside pitch away by moving up on the plate. Even though he is a pull-hitter, if he is looking for an outside pitch it is possible to pitch him inside with a fastball in order to get the hitter confused. A prepared coach and well disciplined pitcher should always have a good plan going into the game.
A smart pitcher should also consider the situation of the inning. Such as how many people are on base and how many outs are in the inning. If the opposing team, have no outs and no one on base, the ideal thing is to get ahead with a fastball. This now puts the hitter behind one strike to no balls in the count. An aggressive pitcher then should attempt to invite the hitter to chase a bad pitch out of the strike zone. If the pitcher is successful in his pitch...