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For the American band of the same name, see Fastball (band).:For the game also known as fast-pitch softball, see Softball. The fastball is the most common type of pitch in baseball. Some "power" pitchers, like Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson, can throw it 95-100 mph (150-160 km/h), and rely on this speed to prevent the ball from being hit. Others throw more slowly but put movement on the ball or throw it on the outside of the plate where the batter cannot easily reach it. The appearance of a faster pitch to the batter can sometimes be achieved by minimizing the batter's vision of the ball before its release. The result is known as an "exploding fastball": a pitch that seems to arrive at the plate quickly despite its low velocity. Fastballs are usually thrown with backspin, so that the Magnus effect creates an upward force on the ball, causing it to fall less rapidly than might be expected. A pitch on which this effect is most marked is often called a "rising fastball", as the ball appears to rise to the batter. Colloquially, use of the fastball is called throwing heat or putting steam on it, among many other variants. Gripping the ball with the fingers across the wide part of the seam ("four-seam fastball") produces a straight pitch, gripping it across the narrow part ("two-seam fastball") produces a sinking fastball, and holding a two-seam fastball off-center ("cut fastball") imparts lateral movement to the fastball. A variation on the fastball is the forkball and the similar split-finger fastball.
Four-seam fastball
Two-seam fastball A two-seam fastball, sometimes called a two-seamer, or a sinker is another variant of the straight fastball. The two-seam fastball is designed to have more movement than a four-seam fastball so that the batter cannot hit hard, but can be more difficult to master and control. Because of the deviation from the straight trajectory, sometimes it's called a moving fastball. The pitcher grabs a baseball and finds the area on it where the seams are the closest together. Then, the baseball is rotated so that those seams are perpendicular to his body, with the index and middle fingers on each of those seams respectively. Each finger should be touching the seam from the pads or tips to almost the ball of each finger. The thumb should rest underneath the ball in the middle of those two fingers, finding the apex of the horseshoe part of the seam. The thumb needs to rest on that seam from the side to the middle of its pad. This ball will tend to move for the pitcher a little bit depending on velocity, arm slot angle and pressure points of the fingers. Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez are known for their particularly effective two-seam fastballs. ---- Rising fastball The rising fastball is an effect perceived by batters, but is known to be a baseball myth. Some batters claim to have seen a "rising" fastball, which starts as a normal fastball, but as it approaches the plate it rises several inches and gains a burst of speed. Tom Seaver was often described as the paramount pitcher with this kind of ball action. Such a pitch is known to be physically impossible, due to restrictions of gravity, conservation of momentum, and air density. It has been explained as an optical illusion. What is really happening is that the pitcher first throws a fastball at one speed, and then, using an identical arm motion, is able to throw another fastball at a higher speed. The higher speed fastball both arrives faster, and sinks less due to its high speed. In fact, the added back-spin from the higher speed further decreases the amount of sink. Thus, as the pitch is thrown the batter expects a fastball at the same speed, yet it arrives more quickly and at a higher level. The batter's eyes and brain perceive it as a fastball which has risen and increased in speed. A switch from a two-seam to a four-seam fastball can further enhance this effect. This perception is also created by the fact that a hard-throwing pitcher, usually at least six feet tall, is throwing the ball from a higher release point on an elevated mound (the pitcher's rubber is ten inches above the field level). Factoring in the element of depth perception when the hitter watches the pitcher from sixty feet away from the pitcher's mound, and the hitter perceives the pitcher's size and positioning on the mound to be much less elevated than it actually is. Hence, to the hitter an overhand pitch will appear to be thrown at a hitter's shoulder level (or even belt level), as opposed to several inches above the hitter's head, from where the pitch is actually released from the pitcher's hand. This perception enhances the apparent "rising" motion of the fastball when the pitch passes by the hitter at a higher level than where the hitter perceived the pitch to have left the pitcher's hand. It is possible for a rising fastball to be thrown by a submarine pitcher because of the awkward technique with which they throw the ball. Because they throw almost underhand, with their knuckles near the dirt, the batter perceives the sensation like the ball going upward because of its rarely experienced trajectory. However, this is not the traditional rising fastball batters believe they see. Cutter A cutter, or cut fastball, is a type of fastball which breaks slightly as it reaches home plate. This pitch is somewhere between a slider and a fastball, as it is usually thrown faster than a slider but with more motion than a typical fastball. A common technique used to throw a cutter is to release a fastball with slight pressure from the tip of the middle finger. The cut fastball is famously associated with Mariano Rivera, a relief pitcher for the New York Yankees. Rivera has become one of the best closers in Major League Baseball history by relying heavily on this pitch. Rivera's cutter is particularly effective because of the significant amount of movement (away from right handed batters and in on the hands of left handed batters) that he is able to achieve while still throwing the ball around 95 mph. Al Leiter rode his cutter to 162 career wins and a no-hitter. Esteban Loaiza effectively used a cutter to help him win 21 games in 2003. Split-finger fastball and forkball A split-finger fastball or splitter is named after the technique of putting the index and middle finger on different sides of the ball, or "splitting" them. This pitch is somewhat a misnomer since it is really an off-speed pitch. The split in the pitcher's fingers allows the use of the same arm speed in a regular fastball without generating the same velocity. The reason the pitch does not travel as fast is because the two "power fingers", the index and middle finger, which are typically on top of the ball at release, are now on the side of the ball, causing a degree of slippage and thus depriving the ball of, on average, 4-9 mph in velocity. The movement caused by using the split-finger grip is often described as the ball "dropping off the table", which can mostly be attributed to the more pronounced effect of gravity as pitch speed decreases, but is also aided by the degree of slippage upon release, which robs the ball of the tight, stabilizing spin characteristic of a fastball. This "sloppiness" of spin causes the ball to move somewhat erratically, in a similar fashion as a knuckleball, but not nearly to the same degree. Imagine throwing a frisbee without spinning it. Its movement would be erratic and somewhat unpredictable. A splitter, technically, is neither a breaking pitch, where movement is caused via the magnus effect by placing a tight spin on the ball, nor a fastball. It is actually a changeup, and its movement often resembles other varieties of changeups, like the "Vulcan Change" made famous by closer, Éric Gagné. A pitcher who throws a 95 mph fastball will probably have a splitter around 86-90 mph. A true change-up would be slower yet. The splitter was made famous by Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame closer Bruce Sutter, who would be the first of many pitchers to make it the so-called "bread-and butter" pitch of his repertoire. Sutter claims that while he was in the Cubs' farm system, a minor-league pitching instructor named Fred Martin saw Sutter favouring his elbow. As Sutter was recovering from recent arm surgery, Martin encouraged Sutter to try throwing the split-finger pitch, reasoning it would place less duress on his arm. It is thrown today by many pitchers, including Roger Clemens, John Smoltz, Curt Schilling, and Jose Contreras, a reflection of its popularity amongst power pitchers; Clemens's splitter, one of the tougher pitches in the history of baseball, has been a key reason for his continued success into his early to mid forties. This pitch also helped Jack McDowell (a/k/a "Black Jack") to the Cy Young Award in 1993, as he was one of baseball's most dominant pitcher in that era (the early nineties). The motion of a split-finger pitch is similar to the outlawed spitball, and at one time the pitch was known as the "dry spitter". Oakland Athletics right-hander Rich Harden has gained notoriety for his splitter, which features a bizarre knuckling action in midflight. It has been occasionally referred to as the "ghost pitch" and the "spluckle" (a portmanteau of splitter and knuckleball, coined by Harden teammate Adam Melhuse). A related pitch is the forkball, which has even more of a tumbling action, because the ball is placed even deeper between the middle and index fingers. | ||||||||||
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