Baseball Pitches

[Bullaholic]

Name all the baseball pitches you know and their characteristics and when they are used most. Do softball pitchers have very many different types of pitches?

[crzyjournalist03]

Fastball - straight heat
Changeup - Pitch that resembles a fastball through delivery, but due to finger placement on the ball, comes in much slower
Slider - Pitch with some lateral movement toward the pitcher's glove hand
Screwball - Pitch with lateral and downward movement toward the pitcher's pitching hand
Curveball - Pitch with vertical drop, often with some lateral movement as well
Knuckleball - Pitch thrown with the fingertips that has no spin, causing it to "dance"
Spitball - now illegal pitch used nearly half a century ago that used a pitcher's saliva to alter the grip and/or weight of a ball to make it off-center, resulting in "unnatural" movement
Sinker - A fastball with natural drop in its movement
Cutter - A fastball that moves ever so slightly laterally near the plate, resulting in a quick "cut"
Ephus - A pitch thrown very high and slow into the air, resembling an underhanded slow pitch, that is supposed to take the batter by surprise and "drop" into the strike zone
Slurve - A fancy name for a pitch that has both the characteristics of a curveball and slider without the pronounced movement in either
Palmball - A pitch thrown from the palm rather than the fingertips, similarly slow like a changeup

[Old Tiger]

2 seam fastball
4 seam fastball
circle change up

[Bullaholic]

Originally posted by Old Tiger
2 seam fastball
4 seam fastball
circle change up

How do they differ from the regular fastball and change up?

[Old Tiger]

Originally posted by Bullaholic
How do they differ from the regular fastball and change up? Rotations are different i believe


idk i'm not much of a baseball player

[Txbroadcaster]

Originally posted by crzyjournalist03
Palmball - A pitch thrown from the palm rather than the fingertips, but with the similarly slow and unpredictable movement of the knuckleball

Palmball is a change up and not like a knucleball

[crzyjournalist03]

Originally posted by Bullaholic
How do they differ from the regular fastball and change up?

Fastballs are all either two-seam or four-seam. They're defined by their grips. The two-seam fastball has sinking action on it, while the four-seam fastball is traditionally straighter.

The circle change is just a variant of the grip used to throw a changeup. It behaves the same way. It gets its name because the pitcher's first finger and thumb form a circle on the side of the ball.

[CenTexSports]

Split Finger Fastball - Dives hard when aproaching the plate the ball is held between the middle two fingers (only some pitchers can do this)
Knuckle Curve - Self explanatory
Submarine - thrown while standing on your head (well sort of)

The above are thrown at various times depending on the pitchers ability and the situation (score, runners on base, etc.)

Batting Pratice fastball - usually thrown when the game is out of reach and a position player goes in to pitch.

[crzyjournalist03]

Originally posted by Txbroadcaster
Palmball is a change up and not like a knucleball

Thanks for the clarification...I've edited the original post to be accurate. It's a kind of rare pitch that I remember, but was obviously confused about its behavior.

[crzyjournalist03]

Originally posted by CenTexSports
Split Finger Fastball - Dives hard when aproaching the plate
Knuckle Curve - Self explanatory
Submarine - thrown while standing on your head (well sort of)

The above are thrown at various times depending on the pitchers ability and the situation (score, runners on base, etc.)

Batting Pratice fastball - usually thrown when the game is out of reach and a position player goes in to pitch.

Is the knuckle curve used in pro baseball? I've seen it a lot in little league/high-school level, but I don't know that I ever recall seeing it in the majors. I figure that it's the pitch that the legendary "gyroball" really is.

[CenTexSports]

I think Burt Hooten was famous for the knuckle curve. There have probably been only four or five pitchers that have thrown it that I know of.

[Spread It Out]

Originally posted by Old Tiger
2 seam fastball
4 seam fastball
circle change up

2 seam fastballs are generally 2-3 MPH slower than a 4 seam fastball and usually has a sink action to it or movement away from the pitcher's glove hand (i.e. right hand pitchers 2 seam would move towards a right handed batter and vice versa for lefties)

4 seam fastballs are generally faster and straighter, thrown more often when a pitcher is down in the count and when the pitcher wants to have a little more control of the pitch.

circle change up is a pitch that closely resembles a fastball but is typically 10-12 MPH slower (from a good pitcher) and will sometimes have a sinking action at the end of it.

[crzyjournalist03]

Forkball - a changeup version of the split fingered fastball; it has late, hard dropping action like a curve