The glorious game of baseball starts and ends in pitching. Pitching in baseball is like shooting in soccer but unlike most soccer games, shooting in baseball occurs hundreds of times a game. Pitching is not just about throwing the fastest ball much like how the offense of the game is not just about hitting the ball the hardest. There are various strategies used to deny the batters of any hits.
Location and Accuracy - there are locations in the strike zone that some batters simply can't work with. Soccer goalies probably know this all to well. "Painting the corner" is the phrase sometimes used to describe this process. Pitches thrown to the edges of the strike zone would likely make contact near the grip or the tip of the bat - these contacts are less likely to turn into hits. Some hitters have polished mechanics that allow them to use a greater length of the bat to turn these hard-to-hit pitches into hits. Accuracy in pitching is what gets strikes above all, and getting those strikes early is the key to striking out a batter. Getting "ahead in the count" puts more pressure on the batter because this allows more "waste pitches" to follow, to fool the batter by using more "room to play".
Movement - in similar ways to how soccer players put movement on the ball by the way they kick, pitchers in baseball use different types of grip and twisting of the throwing arm to give the ball a deceptive movement - "breaking balls". Pitching isn't always about throwing a straight strike. Pitchers steal strikes by making the batter swing at pitches outside of the zone or fooling the batter into thinking that the pitch will land outside the zone.
Some fans make the mistake of thinking that more types of pitches the player can throw, the better it is - that's not really the case. Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer of my generation, throws only two types of pitches, one of them being the nasty cutter - his cutter is one of those seemingly unreachable pitch that land on the edge of the strike zone.
The great Nolan Ryan, for example, relied heavily on his fastballs that consistently reached 100 miles per hour. Ryan is MLB's all time leader in strikeouts with 5714 career total in 5386 innings pitched, many batters could not move the bat fast enough to make contact with the ball. Of course, Ryan relied on breaking balls as well to "set-up" the batter. Ryan used curveballs and change-up - these slower "off speed" pitches he threw, if not fooling the batter by the movement, would disrupt the timing of the batter resulting in high success rate of his fastballs (vice versa).
A good pitcher gets "inside of the batter's head".
the fact that baseball has absolutely nothing happening for 95% of the time cos its all dead moments.
Ahh, but there is something happening. I cringe when NFL-heads say stuff like this. "Too slow" "Too many wasted time" haha. NFL, true American sport of speed and action! A game where TV networks determine the flow of the game based on advertisement time, commercials before, after and during halftime with excessive celebration by players after a seemingly routine play followed by flying yellow rags that disrupt the game. /bias
Moments with a purpose. Pitchers rubbing sweat into the ball. Batters digging for a footing in the box. Buying time by huddling on the mound. A batter tightening his batting gloves or tapping his cleats and the plate with his bat. Using bat control to foul off several pitches in attempt to get that pitch he can work with or taking pitches to raise the pitch count - they all have a mental and technical purpose. It's a mix of strategy, obsessive-compulsiveness and characteristic.
An average career of MLB pitcher is less than 5 years - Nolan Ryan played in the majors for 27 seasons. Less than 1 percent of MLB pitching careers last that long, so how did Nolan Ryan do it? Aside from being a beast and eating Wheaties every morning, I think it's because he relied on fastballs. Unlike breaking balls that require twisting of the throwing arm, fastballs put less pressure on the ligaments and muscles in the arm and shoulder.
When pitch speed is not the strength of the pitcher, he would manipulate the momentum and movement of the pitch to get weak ground ball outs (sometimes fly balls). This approach would result in less strikeouts but often less pitches thrown, putting less pressure on the arm.
The physical limitation of the human arm requires micro-management of pitchers used in the game. The type of pitches thrown, the total number of pitches, when to take out the pitcher, which relief pitcher to warm-up based on which batters are due next, etc. 100 pitches is the typical barrier for MLB starting pitchers, a manager that pushes his pitcher beyond that barrier could cause injury resulting in losing his valuable weapon - in some cases the pitcher's career is cut short.
I've seen some games where a pitcher has about 7 strikeouts in 3 innings pitched which is really good but he had to get there by throwing 70 pitches which is really bad. Taking out the starting pitcher after 4 or 5 innings would put extra strain on the bullpen and a tired bullpen will cause you to lose games.
Roy Halladay is a well balanced pitcher. He has decent speed fastballs with good movement and great accuracy that allows him to get first strikes and ground balls, disrupting change-up and curveball that get him strikeouts. On October 6th, 2010. Halladay threw 104 pitches, only 25 of them being balls. In the 28 at-bats he faced, he threw a first pitch strike 25 times, getting 8 total strikeouts. Not only did he throw a superbly efficient game, he did it in the playoffs.
“That is the best-pitched game I’ve seen since I’ve been going to the playoffs and the World Series” said Reds Manager Dusty Baker
There are many more fun aspects of the game both in fielding and hitting, but the glorious game of baseball starts and ends with a pitch. To see a no-hitter at a ballpark is a treat for any baseball fan, not only because it's rare but also because it's a very difficult thing to do. It's the most efficient game of baseball a team can play.
) still has its fair share of detractors in the States. It's too slow at times, etc.
