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Hey not sure if anyone answered your Foul ball question but a Foul is Simply a Ball that is not Hit within the lines of Play and the ball isn't Caught by a Player on the Field in that case it's a Foul ball and the at Bat will continue
Greetings gentlemen. Might I suggest the two of you binge watch the Ken Burns series: "BASEBALL" the first chance you get. I'm sure you'll find it both entertaining and educational. It tells the viewer EVERYTHING about the American pastime. The good, the bad & the ugly. Enjoy. By the way, the N.Y. Mets & the Philadelphia Phillies will play a two game series in London next month. Hope you both to see it either in person or on the Telly.
I don't think they know about the seams to begin with. The ball has stiches on it which make up the seams. Certain pitches are done by the pitcher holding his fingers across the seams in a certain way.
...and the seams, which are raised, catch air as the ball spins affecting the path of the ball. If a baseball were perfectly smooth, pitchers wouldn't be able to throw so many pitches with different movement.
Some definitions: Strike Zone -- The box you see on TV broadcasts above home plate. It is 17 inches (a little less than half a meter) wide horizontally, goes from the chest of the batter to the bottom of the knees of the batter in their stance vertically, and depth-wise is also about 17 inches (it only exists just above home plate) Strike -- A pitch that either: is hit by the batter into foul territory ("foul ball") that isn't caught, swung at and missed by the batter, or thrown through the strike zone. Ball -- A pitch that isn't swung at by the batter and does not pass through the strike zone Foul Ball -- A pitch that is hit by the batter, but not into the field of play. This is marked by the white chalk lines going from home plate out to first base and third base and also by the big yellow poles at the corners of the outfield. Walk -- The batter is awarded first base. Out -- The batter or runner is retired (leaves the basepaths). Three outs ends a team's turn at bat. So with those definitions in mind, here are the ways an at-bat can end: -- if the batter receives four "ball"s, they are awarded a "walk", and get to go to first base. -- if the batter receives three "strikes", they are "out" unless the third strike was a "foul ball" that wasn't caught. In this case the batter remains on two strikes. -- if the batter hits the ball into play -- if the batter hits a "foul ball" that is caught, they are "out". -- if the batter is hit by the pitch, they are awarded first base in the same way as if getting a "walk".
Also worth noting that the box seen in broadcasts is only visible to the TV audience and not to the umpires or players. It's just a tool to give fans an idea of where the pitches are but not actually used to determine balls and strikes. Since you're new to the game and probably the way they're broadcast I didn't want to assume you knew that.
growing up watching baseball, I kinda forget there's so many intricacies of the sport it can be hard for new fans to understand/appreciate. hope you guys keep watching
I think because coaches discourage it or don't teach it because nobody knows how. I saw one in the minors (AAA) and I was sitting along the third base line so had a great view of it. That ball danced every which way. I even as a teenager fooled around in the backyard trying to throw one, with a softball. I managed to throw one and that ball had a crazy path, I couldn't believe it. Couldn't replicate it.
The knuckleball is so rare because it is usually only developed by pitchers who don't have the arm strength anymore to throw the faster balls. Take a good pitcher with a good arm, they are throwing fast balls, curves, etc the basic list of pitchers. If a pitcher gets old, or has arm injuries, of course they cannot throw those faster pitches anymore. A few pitchers instead of retiring, quitting, develop a different type of throwing, knuckleballs. These are much slower pitches 20+ mph slower than regular pitches, but are widely unpredictable. A professional hitter can easily hit knuckleballs normally due to the low speed even if they change direction, but take a professional knuckleball pitcher can pitch with the best. watch a few videos of the best and you'll see. Very rare though most pitchers simply retire or quit when they can't throw anymore.
I was always fascinated by knuckball pitches (and pitchers who threw them were kind of nonconformist) and was a bit disappointed they didn't get into more details about it along with the unique physics of different pitches in general.
One of the fastest and hardest throwing pitchers of all time was Nolan Ryan. He not only threw hard, he did it consistently over a long career, much longer than most pitchers - 27 years. If you want to give yourselves a treat, find and watch a documentary called "Facing Nolan" - it came out about a year or so ago, and it is really really good. Show a lot of how he pitched and the 50 or so records he set, it's truly amazing.
The MLB's official TH-cam channel has a surprisingly entertaining vid named "What is the difference between pitches? And why are there so many?" It breaks down and explains more of the history of all these terms and pitches. Great place to start
Even as a lifelong baseball fan, I learned a lot from this video. My team is the San Diego Padres, we have a veteran pitcher Yu Darvish that has 11 different pitches in his arsenal, and is even working on a 12th. I believe that's the most of active pitchers.
Some of those pitches can be reasonably paired together as small variations but it’s still not technically an exaggeration to say he throws 11 different pitches. Most starters utilize 5 pitches, most relievers 3 or 4, and many closers only use 2 or 3 pitches.
I saw Darvish many times when he was with Texas. He can also throw left-handed. You'll only see him pitch lefty in the pen, but he long-tosses lefty all the time in warm up. Dude is a freak of nature.
Typically the pitchers who can master three, four or five pitches will be “starters” because they can face hitters more than once and show them a different look each time. The ones that can go only a couple of innings or even just a few batters will typically have mastered only one or two pitches and thus are more predictable.
Right versus left handed pitching is a HUGE deal! Teams usually have a balance of right and left handed pitchers so they can align against certain batters. This is really common late in games when teams take their starting pitcher out and start using their reserve pitchers.
I ended up playing college level ball as a dual threat pitcher because I could pitch with both hands at a competitive level. Had a really good chance of making it past college level but ended up getting into a car accident with a drunk driver in my 1st year of college about halfway through the season and it ended up breaking my back and leaving me partially paralyzed. It's been almost a decade since my accident and I can walk now but I have no sense of feeling in my hands.
If I'm not mistaken, the commentator who called the pitch a slider instead of a cutter wasn't just any old commentator. It sounded like Hall of Famer John Smoltz, who was an amazing pitcher and often calls games for Fox Sports nowadays. That tells you how difficult it can be to call a pitch in some cases, when even a guy who is an absolute master at throwing pitches for a Hall of Fame career doesn't call it the same thing as the scorers.
It sounded like Hall of Famer John Smoltz and amazing pitcher who played alongside a handful of the best pitchers in living memory. Smoltz has really emerged in the last few seasons as a top notch linguistic and teacher to the public of what is happening while watching the game unfold, I credit him with a lot of my new understandings.
And these guys are watching the game at the stadium, in a booth, looking down towards the (out)field (not as close as, say, spectators seating behind home plate), while the camera angle the viewer gets to see the pitch is from the outfield towards the plate.
@@morry32 I haven't gone to many MLB games over the years (5-6 at 4 venues), and never had the same kind of tickets each time (nosebleeds in the outfield in NY, standing room in Boston, near the right field foul line in Montreal). However, I attended lower level games in smaller stadiums. I like the feeling of being close to the game, between first and third--that area would translate into a costly seat in The Show (a nickname for Major League Baseball)--but I can see teenagers play at our local stadium for free on nice summer evenings, a cool reward for a 5-minute walk. Knowing some of the players' mothers adds to the social lightness and overall laid-back fun. At those distances (roughly ten rows of seating), you can appreciate pitch location, arm slot and action (even the whip resounding through the air), even breaking effect. Otherwise... I enjoy the TV show of MLB, even though I think they should really make more research for their replays as far as camera location, their number and resolution (FPS) to resolve some contentious appeals.
One breaking pitch they didn't cover in the video is a "screwball." It pretty much disappeared from the MLB because of the stigma that it was "harder on your arm" than a curveball--which has been disproven to be the case. It has slowly started making its return into some pitchers' pitching arsenals. A *screwball* is when the ball is spinning in the _opposite_ direction of a curveball, and thus it breaks toward the pitcher's throwing arm instead of the glove side. As someone who has thrown screwballs in the past, it's really neat seeing the way it breaks on the way to the catcher. 🙃
Although I know what a screwball is, I've never seen it explained how it's accomplilshed. the ability to throw it seems counter-intuitive to the physics of throwing a baseball.However, I know that it's possible because I grew up watching Fernando Valenzuela throw them with regularity.
@Jim Book That's kind of how I never developed a curveball--(I'm a right-hander) I could never get the release correct and it would almost always go wild/in the dirt. The screwball, however, was easier for me to release consistently and get it in the vicinity of the strike zone. Unfortunately, non-softball baseball died out in my town before I could work on it more, and the few times I _have_ had to try it out were with my cousin whom still played baseball, and we'd play catch every so often that he came up to visit.
I couldn’t throw anything off speed or breaking, any style of fastball (2, 4, cutter, and splitter) is all that I and, probably why I spent 90%+ of my time in the outfield. (Not that there aren’t a handful of major leaguers who’ve got fastball only arsenals, it’s just tough, requires amazing velocity and accuracy or an absolutely insane cutter to make it work).
I just visited his channel after being away from it for so long and it has changed so much. Hardly does any baseball videos and his breakdowns aren’t the same as they used to be that got me into him.
@@locomojoboy2 he's got 2 different channels. One that's just random stuff, and another that does breakdowns of funny moments or immaculate moments. his breakdown channel normally isn't doing much baseball stuff when the baseball season isn't going on.
I played baseball through college. It's a tough sport. There is so much going on that the casual fan won't notice. Every single pitch is carefully orchestrated to induce a desired outcome. With a runner on first, that's when you'll see the sinkers and two seam fastballs low in the strike zone in an effort to induce a ground ball double play.
By the way guys - this video is really an intermediate / advanced video. Some basics i'm not sure you have heard yet - the umpire standing behind the catcher is determining whether each pitch is a ball or strike. If a hitter gets 4 balls - he gets a free walk to first base. If he gets 3 strikes - he out. That box you see next to the hitter is the computer-generated strike-zone based on the hitter's height. In a perfect world - the umpire would call the balls / strikes according to that zone. But human error is such that each umpire has his own strike-zone and part of the game is the hitter & pitcher have to figure out where the umpire's strike zone is. Players become frustrated when the umpire is not consistent. You asked what a 'foul-ball' is - a foul ball is when the hitter hits the ball but it goes outside those two lines that define the diamond - or it goes up into the air and behind the batter. Those are all foul balls. If a foul ball is caught - then the hitter is out. Foul balls that are not caught by the opposing team count as a strike - except - they don't count as a strike 3 - unless of course - it is caught by the opposing team.
@@edwardkuenzi5751 if he swings and _misses_ it is a strike, yes, whether the pitch is in the strike zone or not. Can’t assume that’s obvious to folks completely new to baseball!
@@edwardkuenzi5751 no worries, it can be super hard to know what you take for granted! There’s no way I could explain baseball on first try without circling back to details I glossed over.
Trevor May is a pro pitcher with a youtube channel who talks about what the grips look like on the various pitches if you wanted to see that in more detail. I think those videos also talk about about when those pitches are used so you can have a better idea of why there's those variations exist. This was fun to watch and I hope you enjoy your baseball journey!
12:04 Excellent observation! You are absolutely correct: the handedness of the pitcher is important. The breaking direction of right- and left-handed pitchers mirror each other. In general, a pitcher with the same handedness as the batter has an advantage over an oppositely handed pitch. In the former situation, the break on most pitches will be down and away from the batter which are typically more difficult to hit than those breaking inward toward the batter. Teams used to employ "left-handed specialists" whose job it was to face a single dangerous left-handed batter in critical late-game situations. Although, these specialists are less common now after the 2020 rule change that placed resteictions on how often a manager could change pitchers in an inning.
@Cricket Explained Yes, for pitches with horizontal break such as sliders, the breaks will mirror one another with the same grip and release for oppositely handed pitchers. Even if the grip and release are the same, the direction of rotation of the ball is not. In both cases, the pitcher applies rotation by pushing on the top of the ball in the direction away from their body. The result is a clockwise-spinning ball (from the pitcher's perspective) for a right-handed pitcher and a counterclockwise-spinning ball for a left-handed pitcher. The result is a break towards the pitcher's body via the Magnus Effect, which corresponds to a ball breaking away from a batter of the same handedness. The opposite of a slider is a screwball which rotates the ball in the direction opposite of the slider resulting in opposite break. However, this pitch is rare since it's believed to cause injury and it's difficult to hide its delivery without complete mastery.
The fastest pitch in a major league game was thrown by Aroldis Chapman at 105.7 mph. That said, pitches thrown at that speed can be REALLY taxing on your arm, so you'll usually only see relievers (guys who come in at the end to take over from the starting pitcher) throw those pitches, as they throw less pitches in general. That said, any pitcher throwing 100mph or above is really impressive and generates hype.
@@RobertMJohnson allegedly. The Nolan Ryan at 108mph pitch is based on an older radar reading combined with a calculation of what it "would" have been on a modern reading. There's no world where you can count that as official. I find it more than a little dubious that Nolan Ryan beat the best known official pitch velocity by that much. It's possible, sure, but it smells funky as heck when you consider how much more of an outlier that velocity would make him (and he's already an extreme outlier in most ways).
@@jawbone78 i understand that we don’t have the tech to really know, however, it’s not odd in the least to think that thee undisputed greatest power pitcher in history threw the hardest. 383 K’s in a season in the modern era against some of the most talented batsman in history. 7 no-hitters. 5700+ K’s, probably the most unbreakable record in the game.
Just for reference the guy you commented on who threw 102 was Aroldis Chapman. He is a divisive character for many reasons and is not well liked even on the teams he plays for. That said he was, at his peak, jaw droppingly fast. To put this in perspective, on baseball statistics websites when you looked up the fastest pitches recorded the sites would have an "Aroldis Chapman" checkbox you could tick. If you did that it would filter out all of Chapmans pitches. This was necessary because you'd otherwise only see his name repeated 20 times.
@@RobertJohnson-lh6dg Always loved that Ryan Struck out Ricky "Three true outcomes are for chumps" Henderson for his 5000th K. As far as the most unbreakable record, that has to be Cy Young, 511 wins, Walter Johnson is in second place with 417 and Pet Alexander had 373. The Hits record is pretty unbelievable as well, but the record is kinda hazy because well, Ichiro, I doubt we'll see another member of the 4,000 club any time soon though, with Miggy and Cano being 41 and 40 this season and still quite far away.
3:38 = Greg Maddux has the best 2SM/SNKR pitch in history IMO. The movement on his pitches was incredible. And to have a HOF career with low-mid fastball velocity makes it even more impressive.
That sinker made all the hitters beat the ball into the ground. And Maddux was a terrific fielder so there was no way to get the ball out of the infield.
Thank you for the comment and the suggestion, we really appreciate it 🤝 We’ve currently got Greg Maddux in a live Discord Poll. We run regular polls on our Discord for all members to have a say in what videos we do next if you’re not already on there 🙏
Additionally, if it hits the ground in fair territory but then enters foul territory (without being touched by a fielder) BEFORE passing first or third base, it is a foul ball. If it bounces/rolls into foul territory after passing first or third base, assuming it touched the ground in fair territory first, it is still a fair ball. Also, in any case, a ball caught in foul territory before touching the ground is an 'out' just as if it had been caught in fair territory. You will see a lot of batters pop the ball up behind home plate and the catcher or first/third baseman will catch it for the out. Once a fair ball has been touched by a fielder it can no longer become a foul ball. However, if a fielder attempting to catch a foul ball misses/drops the catch but still makes contact with the ball, it remains a foul ball even if the fielder is standing in fair territory (ball position, not fielder position, determines fair/foul). A foul ball also counts as a strike, but cannot count as the third strike (3 strikes = out). This means that if you foul two pitches and you swing and miss the third, you are called out on strikes. However, you can hit 10 foul balls and not be called out. There are two exceptions to this that I can think of. First, if you bunt (which is where you hold the bat parallel to home plate in an attempt to tap the ball lightly so infielders have to rush in to get the ball) and you already have two strikes and the ball lands in foul territory you will be out. This is why you will see someone attempt to bunt once or twice and then switch to swinging again if they were unsuccessful. Second, if you hit a 'foul tip' (where the ball glances off of the bat) and it goes directly into the catcher's glove and you already have two strikes you will be out. A foul tip, while the ball does technically make contact with the bat, is not treated the same as a foul ball when caught, as you will not be called out unless you already have two strikes. Baseball is full of crazy rules and exceptions to those rules. Like with most sports, you really can't get a good grasp of the rules until you start watching games and seeing them applied in context.
A foul ball is either right of the first base line, or left of the third base line. These lines are extended down each side of the outfield to the foul pole at the left and right walls/fence. A ball hit backwards from home plate, is also a foul ball. Interesting to see you guys watching and learning a game that I began to understand and learn when I was 6 to 8 years old.
@@williamdemerchant7295 confusingly, a ball that hits the foul pole is a fair ball (and a home run). Similarly a ball that lands on the line or hits the base is a fair ball.
@@ericfisher4736 It's easy to forget the numerous details that must be learned to fully understand every instant of a game, but on the other hand you can still enjoy watching without being an expert, and you pick up a few things during every game.
Never realized fully how intricate the game was until I tried to explain it to a coworker from Asia (not Japan obviously). We all grow up playing baseball in the States, so it’s just part of summer life. It is a very nuanced and strategic game when you get down to it, analytics have made it nearly scientific- but in out hearts, it’ll always be “just a kids game”.
The strike zone is supposed to be from the batter's jersey letters to his knees. But each umpire has a slightly different strike zone. Some give strikes up to one ball off the plate. The box is just a guide for the fans. For a 95 mph fastball a batter has four tenths of a second to recognize the pitch and swing. So the batter strategy would be to wait for a certain pitch or location depending on the game situation.
To add though, a pitcher can work an umpire and the batter, much like Greg Maddux did. If you consistently hit your spots early in the game and show you have control, you may be able to get some calls from an ump you may not have, i.e. start pushing the black and maybe a bit off of it. Call it opening up the strike zone if you will. If you are wild from the start, going to many full counts and don't exhibit control, you may not get what should be a called strike called a strike, simply by the lack of confidence the ump has for you to put the ball over the plate. Good pitchers not only work the batter, but the umpire. Another thing to add, the ball can pass over any part of the plate to be a strike, it does not have to pass through just the front of the plate like these strike zones they throw up on TV imply.
@@Cheddarextremist They say that, and it may be in little league still. It's been basically knees to a bit above the waist for a long time now in the pros. No one's swinging at pitches chest high unless you want to wiff.
Baseball gets so much better when you start paying attention to the managing of putting certain pitchers against certain batters and stuff like that. When you understand the individual players of a team, it gets really interesting to see how they are used. Baseball is more about strategy and management than most people realize. I'd recommend watching a few full games, especially in the playoffs.
A foul ball is out of play . The strike zone - an area over home plate and from the batters knees to his armpits. If a batter swings at any pitch and misses its a strike . If the pitcher throws in the "strike zone" its a strike even if the bater never swings at it . 3 strikes and your out . But 4 balls (pitches outside the strike zone) and you get walked. You get to take 1st base .
I really enjoyed how honest your approach is. Many kids like myself learned to play baseball growing up and when I started coaching kids myself I realized the sport was more complex than I imagined. I enjoy watching and learning sports that aren't so popular in the US, as well, so I really took to heart how open and honest you were and unafraid to speculate and let the comments sort it for you. I hope you enjoy baseball.
Thanks Chris! We always wanted to come with an honest and genuine approach. Everyone has been great in the comments and have helped us a lot! Appreciate your comment!
As a lifelong pitcher, the best advantage you have over any lineup is being able to tweak or change grips very slightly between games. It really allows a level of creativity because even in-game, you can change the grip situationally to make a ball move a certain way.
Also, everyone just kinda follows the "basics" of pitches and how they're supposed to move. No two pitchers throw the exact same pitch the exact same way.
Much respect. I just commented this above and want to repeat it here. You can't appreciate the movement on a ball until it's been pitched to you and it literally changes speed or direction on it's way. I dated a guy who'd been a pitcher in high school and college, nowhere near any kind of pro-level, but he had a decent line-up of pitches. We were both on a summer co-ed softball team and sometimes we'd pull out a baseball and mess around with that. Don't tell anyone but, whenever I actually connected the bat to the ball it was pure luck, lol. It earned these guys major respect in my eyes. I still marvel that they hit these damn things.
It's good that you guys are open to this. It can be difficult to get the full breadth of baseball as you didn't grow up with the history, icons, and rivalries. With more context however, it's something you can grow to appreciate.
The right handed vs left handed pitcher or batter definitely matters. Sometimes an entirely new pitcher will be subbed into the game if he matches up better with the batter based on left hand/right hand. There’s also some players who are extremely talented and can competently bat from either side of the plate. They’re known as ‘switch hitters’
To go along with this, and they kind of talk about it toward the end, left handed batters tend to do better against right handed pitchers and vice versa.
Yeah look this up on TH-cam right now, ""The Big Unit" Randy Johnson strikes FEAR into the heart of John Kruk!". Perfect example of someone wishing they were hitting from the other side of the plate.
There is also a pitcher named Pat Venditte who's the only ever Switch Pitcher who can pitch with either hand. He has a specially made glove that has 4 fingers with 2 thumb holes with one on each side of the glove.
Something to note about left handed pitchers: Lefties, because of their perspective facing 1st base, are better at "holding" runners on base. They're quicker at throwing over to 1st base if there's a runner "leading off." In youth baseball, if you're a lefty with a strong arm you are in high demand for this reason.
Cheers for trying to learn a new sport. Baseball is such a difficult one to come into because there is simply so much terminology and verbiage that is used with it but it is such a beautiful game. The skill needed to play it at the highest level is incredible but something I love about it is how much talent comes from all over the world. Korea, Japan, US, Canada, all of Central and South America. It's such a unifying game and I hope that it can spread to Europe one day too.
It's fun watching you two learning about the sports we love in the US. As already stated, several of the pitches are named for how the ball is gripped: 4-seam, 2-seam, knuckleball. Typically, when a batter is able to effectively hit from both sides of the plate (switch hit), they will bat on the side opposite, from the pitcher's perspective, of the pitcher's throwing arm. This makes the pitcher's breaking balls break in towards them and easier to hit.
This is why Baseball is sublime. It is FAR more than the sum of its parts. Modern audiences want things to be so fast paced and constantly stimulating that the game has become almost incomprehensible to younger people. But it is art.
3:04 "Two-seam" and "four-seam" refer to the red stitching on the ball which is also called the seam. It forms a saddle shape on the ball allowing one's fingers to cross it at multiple points. A fastball is usually thrown with the index and middle finger gripping the top of the ball in a V shape. If those fingers cross the seam at four points, it's a four-seam fast ball. If they cross at only two points, or more commonly, straddle two lengths of the seam, then it's a two-seam fastball.
12:03 That's a very good observation. Most breaking balls move away from batters of the same handedness as the pitcher making them harder to hit. Typically lefty batters will have more success against right handed pitching and vice versa. Coaches used to use a pitcher in tense situations to face just one batter because they wanted to create a favorable matchup (righty v righty, etc.), but there's a new rule that a pitcher must face three batters before they can be substituted.
I’m so glad you guys are doing more baseball! Baseball is a complicated game. The 4 seam and 2 seam remarks have to do with the red stitches on the baseball and how the pitcher grips the ball. Each pitch has its own grip. The square they show on the screen is called the strike zone. This is where the pitcher has to throw the ball in order to throw a strike. Any ball that lands outside the strike zone is a ball. Four balls and the batter gets to walk to first base. Three strikes and the batter is out. I kinda wish you guys had watched the “MLB Quick Question, different Pitch types” video. It’s more interesting than this one, but this one is good too. You’ll rarely see an eephus pitch or a knuckleball. I don’t even know if there’s a knuckleballer in the MLB right now. Only someone who can throw a knuckleball can teach another pitcher to throw one. So there’s always this theory out there that one day the knuckleball will disappear. Be sure to watch “Ninh explains the Unwritten Rules of Baseball”. It’s hilarious.
Pitch tunneling (choosing pitches that look the same until the last moment so the batter can't identify the pitch in time) is pretty cool to see too. I know pitcher Trevor May did a video talking about it a while back.
Not just that but also the mechanics in how they appear when being thrown (even before they leave the hand) to reduce the ability of the batter to identify them, or the pitcher to tip them early.
my catcher in high school would give me 5 signals on what pitch he wanted me to throw: #1 type of pitch, #2 speed of pitch. #3 arm angle of release. #4 if curve/cutter/screw/sinker how much he wanted it to break #5 where he wanted the pitch to end (inside/outside/low/high or any combination of two of them). We would also change our signals every 2-3 innings to make sure the opposing team was not stealing our signals (which is against the rules but everyone still does it) Everything the entire team does is because the catcher calls it including positioning of all other 7 field players depending on the batter and what pitches he is calling from the pitcher. In baseball the catcher is the quarterback and one who spends endless hours watching oposing hitters to learn how to best call pitches against them.
As someone said earlier, you were exactly right at the end about left handed pitchers having an advantage versus left handed batters (and the same for right handed pitchers vs right handed batters). This is why handedness is so important in baseball. As a result, left handed pitchers especially are in very high demand. A lot of kids will grow up playing football and baseball but most of left handed ones will end up in baseball for this reason.
It can also be a problem for bullpen management however since there would be cases where managers (looking at you Girardi) would send out mediocre to crap left handed reliever just because a particular batter has lower numbers against left handers. Admittingly Torre fall for the same trap as well considering the amount of times he would send out Felix El Horridia to blow games.
Man, it's always funny to see people who aren't familiar with something see that something for the first time and try to make heads or tails of it. Keep up the fun videos!
"What is the difference between pitches? And why are there so many? | Quick Question (MLB Originals)" is a much better video. Gives you much details, history, explanations from Pitchers and graphics illustrations. It's about 10 mins. If don't want to react to it, you might want to watch it on your own time. It's quite entertaining too.
I agree. Thanks for posting the actual title because it seems these guys are usually reacting the the "wrong" video (i.e. the one very different from what most reactors do, and far from the most popular) so they need more details to get better information. Off the top of my head, this happened with the NFL flyover one too - it was some random video, not the official NFL one.
I'm sure a lot of people have touched on these already, but a few things from the video and your reaction: 1) A foul ball is when you as a batter make contact with the ball but it lands out of play (outside the baselines that run from home plate to 1st base, and 3rd base to home which extend all the way out to the walls in the outfield). 2) The one pitch the video misses is a screw ball. This is like a reverse curveball. When you throw a curveball, its like you're just dropping your hand down to the front of your body, but snapping your wrist down faster than your arm when you release the ball with your thumb starting close to you and going over the top of the ball. A screw ball is thrown almost like a fastball, but as you come over the top, you snap your wrist away from your body with your thumb starting close to you and going under the ball as you release it. Screw balls can really mess up your arm if you over do them, so not many pitchers ever throw them anymore. 3) As a batter, you want as much time as you possibly can get against a pitcher to be able to identify and react to the pitch, so you NEVER want a left-handed pitcher when you are a left-handed batter. Thankfully for LH batters, a vast majority of pitchers are RH, so it's not a big deal. Then again, most batters are RH, too, though many have been taught to switch hit, meaning to be able to hit from either side of the plate to take away the pitcher's advantage of time, even if it's miniscule. Always interesting to see folks from other countries who aren't used to baseball attempt to get to know it. So many random and weird rules and ways of throwing a ball, it isn't easy unless you grew up with it.
You can't appreciate the movement on a ball until it's been pitched to you and it literally changes speed or direction on it's way. I dated a guy who'd been a pitcher in high school and college, nowhere near any kind of pro-level, but he had a decent line-up of pitches. We were both on summer co-ed softball team and sometimes we'd pull out a baseball and mess around with that. Don't tell anyone but, whenever I actually connected the bat to the ball it was pure luck, lol. It earned these guys major respect in my eyes. I still marvel that they hit these damn things.
Love seeing this. Great intuition at 12:05 as well. When a pitcher and batter pitch or bat with the same hand, the pitcher usually has the advantage because it's harder to see the ball coming from the same side, so managers will sometimes send a "pinch hitter", or substitute hitter to come hit on the opposite side if it's a critical time in the game, say if the bases are loaded and the score is tight. Great job, boys! GO GIANTS!
Yup that was really great observation by them. And yes Managers will line-up left or right handed pitchers based on how many right or left handed batters are on an opposing team. Its one of the reasons why being a switch hitter is so desirable because no matter which way the pitcher pitches a switch batter can just turn around. Also you have to take into consideration that baseball stadiums are built differently, so for example a batter may be right handed and you have left handed pitcher pitching you might not see that as a disadvantage if the battter always pulls to the left where the field border is the furthest for a given stadium. Lots of variables to consider. Oh and here is something to ponder...the rules still allow the possibility of a switch pitcher. I think its only happened a few times in baseball, but it is possible to have a pitcher that can pitch left or right handed. In 2008 they had to put in a new rule that a pitcher has to declare which hand they are using to pitch for each at bat if they are a switch pitcher, this was done to avoid the problem of a switch hitter coming in and having the two combatants switching over and over again to each other forcing the game to stop lol.
I love that you guys are learning about baseball! It is one of the hardest games to learn in my experience because of the how many rules there are along with a wide variety of player skill sets and strategies. I hope you get the chance to go to a game in the States sometime. I'm sure many of your subscribers would enjoy taking you to one.
Really enjoying it Chris. We’re hoping to catch a game in the UK this year at the Olympic Stadium. The dream would be to come to the US to watch some Baseball, American football and others live. Maybe one day if this channel really became something 🤞
I’m looking at a trip to the UK toward the end of 2024, I’m a lover of all sports and will be visiting Tottenham during my travels. I’d absolutely be willing to take you to an Astros game in Houston, Texas, if you ever made the trip. Cheers
@@DNReacts It means the number of seams of the ball that your fingers are crossing. If you look at a baseball there are red seams holding the white outer covering of the ball together. The 2 and 4 seam thing refers to how many of those red seams your fingers cross while gripping and throwing the ball.
Some terms in regards to pitching: -when you have a pitcher with good pitching, his pitching is called "filthy" or "nasty". -when a pitcher is putting the pitches on the edges of the strike zone, he's sometimes called a "Rembrandt".
I played baseball for over 10 years and really enjoyed, things you asked about: in baseball the strike zone is typically the letters on your jersey to your knees, its 3 strikes for an out, 4 balls out of the strike zone and you go to first but if you swing at one its a strike. If you hit a ball and it doesnt go into the game of play; there are lines running from home plate through first and third base that go straight to the back of the field, if it falls out of these lines and isnt caught for an out its a foul and will be counted as a strike. However, if youre on 2 strikes and hit a foul it isnt counted for a third strike and you can do this continuously. I saw others mention the seams that stick lut of the ball, but typically a big difference is also arm and hand movement. A fastball for me was 2 fingers straight a cross the ball thrown straight towards my target, the bread and butter of throws. Curves and others can usually be seen easier by batters due to arm movement and its diagonal motion when throwing in order to get the spin on the ball.
The long and short of this is that each pitch is a guessing game between the batter and pitcher. If a pitch comes it at 95 your brain says it should drop. So it appears to rise. If the next pitch comes in at 80 and it’s tailing away and you were guessing fastball again, you will swing early. It’s all about speed and location
The box you see on TV is called the strike zone. If a batter does not swing at a pitch, it is either called strike or a ball, depending on where the umpire behind the plate sees it. If it is in the strike zone, it is a strike. If the umpire thinks it is outside the strike zone, it is a ball. After throwing 4 balls to a batter, that batter is automatically sent to first base and the next batter is up. If he gets 3 strikes, he is out and the next batter is up. After 3 outs, the teams switch sides and the other team is up to bat.
The camera misses two things: First, just how fast a pitch like that comes in. You have to pick up the pitchers arm movement guess the pitch, and track the ball coming in, and you generally start your swing at the same time. Secondly, just how much a breaking pitch can move. Some guys can throw a curveball that we used to say "Fell off the table". Its only in the last 10ft of travel that it breaks.
I'm sure someone got to it by now, but if not, the fastest pitch ever was thrown by Aroldis Chapman for the Cincinnati Reds, at almost 106 miles per hour. I found this on it, "On Sept. 24, 2010, Chapman made MLB history. Then a rookie relief pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, the fireballer unleashed a fastball clocked at 105.1 mph by PITCH/fx. MLB later bumped that up to 105.8 mph."
As a dual citizen Brit-American who grew up in London but has lived in New York in the US for years, my first thought with baseball is always rounders!!!! When we weren't playing cricket or football, we got rounders and it's hilariously similar without all of the pitches and quality gameplay and all.
I know for a lot of people it doesnt make a lot of sense. But, when you either play it and see the intricacies up close or you follow it closely, the minute differentiators between play and pitches and hitting make it really fascinating. I have been a catcher at various amateur levels since I was 10 years old and have caught pitchers throwing 100mph and pitchers who could twist the ball up to the plate at very slow speeds so cleverly most could not hit it. You guys look interested and are giving it a chance and at least encouraging others to do so, as well.thats pretty cool
That's the best part of having so many pitches and ways to throw the same pitch. It's as game of chess, watching a great pitcher set up a batter and keep em guessing. Some of the best baseball games are pitcher's duels!
Love that you guys are less than half way though and already shocked by the number of pitches when you just finished with the fastballs are are just starting all the off speed stuff.
Knuckleballs are the wildest pitches ever. Especially in replay when you can see that the ball is basically not spinning and just wiggling back n forth on the way to the plate.
Here's some notes about the rectangle above the base and the nature of foul balls since you guys were curious: The rectangle shown to viewers is called the strike zone or the box. It is a visual representation of how an umpire (the referee behind home plate) will determine if a pitch is a "strike" or a "ball". If the batter didn't swing at the pitch and it was inside the zone by the time the ball was above home plate, that's a strike - good for the pitcher! Three strikes and the batter is out. However, if the batter didn't swing and it was OUTSIDE the zone by the time the ball was above home, that's a ball - good for the batter! If a pitcher throws four balls, the batter gets to advance to first base. Obviously there isn't an actual floating rectangle in real life above the base, so the umpires have to imagine it. Usually the guideline is that it spans vertically from the batter's knees to their chest. But to err is human of course, so often times you'll see a pitch that was outside/inside the zone as shown on TV but the umpire will call it the other way. For now, it's just a part of the game that umpires are prone to errors; there are no digital umpires in place to perfectly gauge the strike zone every time. The pitchers are very aware of certain umps' tendencies to misrule particular areas of the box (high, low, inside, or outside) and will oftentimes play into those tendencies to gain an advantage. If the batter hits the ball but it goes behind them or way off to the side (as denoted by the white chalk lines running the left and right sides of the field; the foul lines), that's a foul ball. So a foul ball is not a type of pitch, but rather something that will happen if the batter doesn't make sufficient "contact" with the ball. If I'm not mistaken (I'm not a huge baseball guy myself), foul balls can count as the first or second strike, but cannot be the third strike. The third strike must result from a missed swing (or pitch clock violations, etc... but generally it will be from a missed swing). Hope this helps!
I was going to answer some of the questions, but they appear well covered. I will say I was impressed with the questions you did ask and your willingness to ask them! Hope you find yourself enjoying baseball because it can be a fascinating game.
i'm late to the party, but i loved the reaction to the eephus. y'all were talking about the source video's previous content and then the pitcher threw one at like 45 miles an hour, like ten feet up in the air, and you both got this wild-eyed "omg what was that" look. that is the proper reaction to a good eephus hahaha.
Very cool that you picked up on the righty / lefty split. In general, batters can see better when the pitcher is delivering in an open state (so a righty pitcher to lefty batter or vice versa). Of course, that’s not always true, but many managers try to take advantage of this by platooning players so they face the side against which they have an advantage.
Kudos on actually learning the sport, really cool! Getting in the batter's box is a completely different experience! Wow! When you see a ball coming at your head from a guy you know can throw 90+, and it drops down on the curve...you're thinking "I'm glad I'm not dead", not "I misread that pitch." The original video was very good. It could have shown details of the pitcher's grip, the seams of the ball, and wrist motion. Or what a batter tries to spot in their motion and wind-up, and any last-second (literally) clue in their wrist action. Not to mention pitch count, situation in the game, It's complicated, and if I knew everything, I'd be in the hall of fame. That's why we watch!
The guy forgot a couple of pitches. The screwball, which they don't teach anymore because it got the reputation as a ruiner of arm. The screwball works like a reverse slider movement wise, meaning it breaks to the arm side instead of the glove side. Then there's the palm ball, which was basically like a change up, thrown with the ball buried in the palm of your hand. I haven't really hears either of these 2 pitches referenced since the early 2000's. It's because the cutter and circle change up have taken over as pitches that are taught by coaches.
Because of things like velocity and all the different types of pitches shown here, hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in all of sports. At the major league level it practically requires precognition. Even hitting a 70mph straight fastball in a batting cage can be incredibly difficult. Add 25-30 mph onto that and get it moving up/down or laterally, and factor in that you have about a third of a second to swing the bat (let alone decide whether you're even going to), then consider the diameter of the bat barrel is not much bigger than the diameter of the ball, and you can see why it's so hard. These guys are practically super heroes.
I'm sure others have mentioned this but most American sports fans, even baseball fans can't identify pitches in the moment. It's much more like boxing than cricket in the pitch sequence, you might throw a jab to keep them at a distance so you can land the over. Pitches can often be done backwards to be sneaky in the same way, 160 years of evolution of the game to get to this point. The game has seen many more pitch types and styles than what is listed here and I recommend you watch a video showing the pitchers hands and grip or "mechanics" if you want to keep learning and going down the rabbit hole.
Good stuff guys. I played a long time. Few things that can help you anticipate what pitches are coming. 1) The count. Meaning how many balls and strikes are on the hitter. The fastball is usually the easiest pitch to throw for a strike. So if a pitcher “falls behind” the hitter, say 1 ball 0 strikes (1-0), 2-0, 3-1, 3-0….the pitcher will most often throw a fastball to try to even the count. This is also known by the hitter, and knowing the fastball is the easiest pitch to hit, he will anticipate or “look for” a fastball to hit in those counts. When a pitcher “gets ahead” 0-1, 0-2, 1-2…the hitter is now in a defensive position and just trying to make contact. That usually calls for deceptive pitches. Curves, Sliders and Change ups. These are harder to time and to hit, but also harder to throw for strikes. 2) The change up. While curveballs and sliders are thrown hard, because of the angles of release and paths to the plate, the hitter can identify them easily. A “straight” changeup when thrown correctly is very hard to distinguish from a fastball when hitting. They usually share the same pitching motion and arm action. And when perfectly thrown they are undetectable until the hitter starts swinging…which is too late and it feels like your arms come out of their sockets. 3) Location. Where a pitch crosses the plate, up in the strike or down is how one identifies pitch location. Pitches crossing the middle of the plate above the knees will get hit hard. So good pitchers (in concert with their catchers) will aim for the outer or inner third of the plate ideally. Oddly, these are called “corners”. (The plate is an upside down hexagon like a house, so there are corners. The very outside of the plate is trimmed with black rubber. So you’ll hear announcers say close pitches called strikes that could called a ball was “on the black”. The extreme fringe of the plate.) Pitchers are taught to aim for where the catcher puts his mitt before the pitch, but as they get better they often aim for a catcher’s knees as one is inside on the hitter and the other is outside. It’s also good to know that even the best pitchers make mistakes every game and put balls in the middle of the strike zone. That is offset by hitters who make mistakes as well, and miss those easy to hit pitches! 😃 P.S. If you want to know more about how pitcher’s hold and throw each pitch, just TH-cam “pitch grips”. P.S.S. A foul ball is when a hitter makes contact, however hard or just “tipped” that isn’t put into fair play between the first and third baselines. It takes a while to learn most of these things but you guys are on the right track! Good job.
The knuckleball is a fascinating pitch. Check out videos of Tim Wakefield, Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough, and others. These pitches are nightmares for catchers and often the pitchers have designated catchers that are able to corral the pitches. The best way to describe a knuckleball is a pitch thrown without the stabilizing effect of rotation on the ball. The ball literally floats and meanders its way across the plate.
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet, regarding pitching matchups (lefties vs lefties, righties vs righties) is that, unlike Cricket, in baseball, you only have the one pitcher on the field at a time. If the team wants to change their pitcher, they can, but once a pitcher is taken out, they can't pitch again in that game. So you'll generally accept having a less favourable matchup (righty vs lefty) for a few batters, rather than take your pitcher out, especially in the early game. (for non-Cricket fans: in cricket you can switch your bowler (pitcher) after each over (six throws), and you just switch them with another player on the field, so they can go back and forth as needed)
If you look at a baseball, the red seams roll around the ball and when the pitcher grips the ball, they can either grip it with two or three fingers crossing two seams or the grip will include 4 seams, thus the 2 seam or 4 seam. With the curve ball, a lot of people think the pitcher can't hit the strike zone, however they are using the curve ball and the 'ball in the dirt' concept, trying to get the batter to swing at an unhittable pitch. A strike is the area from the knees to the shoulders of the batter and the width of the home plate (the black lines of the outline). The one thing to remember is the pitcher is trying to deceive the batter with the pitch. Batters often have an Achilles heel, meaning they can't hit a curve ball or a change up, so they watch for a fast ball or off-speed. The fastest pitch I've seen was 107 MPH, which was astonishing, and pitchers who pitch this fast don't last long in the game because they put so much pressure on their shoulder or elbow.
I can't even imagine trying explain baseball to someone who doesn't know it. Most of us begin learning it at 5 or 6 years old and the learning never stops.
I remembering having this same type of conversation fifty years ago when an Aussie I met in Europe stayed for a couple of weeks. Some of he questions are hilarious and in some instances not easily explainable in logical terms.
Fellas, the REALLY fun part is the how and why all of these pitches are used to set up and confuse hitters. One could write for hours on it. Baseball has a million beautiful aspects to it, but at it's core, it is the pitcher vs the hitter.
The knuckleball has always fascinated me. The lack of spin on the ball makes it move very unpredictably. You should see videos on knukcleballers. Very often a pitcher will lose speed as they age and some of them transition to become knuckleballers. They can extend their careers that way. I find it fascinating when a good knuckleballer is on the mound because if their game is on they are practically unhittable. So you see guys striking out with 60-70 mph throws.
Yes, totally agree. I've tried throwing it and maybe get 40% success rate. For a hitter, it just looks soooo juicy, it's sooo slow compared to a regular pitch (you could see the stitching of the baseball not moving at all) but more often than not, get humiliated by it as you misses it by inches. I definitely recommend watching more videos of a knuckleball. A regular baseball "curves/moves" because of the spin of the ball and how it's thrown, but what's fascinating about the knuckleball is it's more of a pushed action of the arm instead of a throwing action.
loving this - it shows the continuity between all the bat and ball sports and how they are related. you get the gist and know some terminology just from cricket. I think british people would love baseball. in terms of experience-wise, it similar to non-league football. its a great thing to go to (for cheap) and have a beer and have fun with some friends.
Some fun videos to check out might be a catchers view of professional MLB pitchers. It is truly incredible to see just how fast and quick a batter must be to determine to swing and how to swing on a 100mph ball coming at ya. Some videos have audio good enough to catch the air whistle on the seams on the ball coming in. I am a new subscriber, and with MLB spring training just starting, these videos just pump me up. Cheers gents, and Go Cubbies!
I'm always impressed that the pitchers can even hit the strike zone consistently, and put it on one of the corners . It's around 18 and half meters away.
Baseball is like a game of tactics. For a pitcher, if he gets a 0-2 count on the batter (No balls and two strikes), the pitcher will start pitching just outside of the strike zone in hopes the batter we swing for it. If the batter is smart, he will know this and be watching for this. Eventually, the count will become a 3-2 count. (Three balls and two strikes) the next pitch is very important. The pitcher must throw a pitch in the strike zone and the batter knows this also. Sometimes the pitcher has set the batter up with something down low and the 3-2 pitch will be a fastball up at the top of the strike zone.
would be great if part 2 of this would be on how pitchers grip the baseball for certain pitches!!! that would be wild as well. Oh and have them try it out!!!
Nice catch on the left- vs right-handed thing. A right-handed pitcher always has the edge on a right-handed batter, while a left-handed batter always has an edge on a right-handed pitcher. Most or all teams have LH relief pitchers (since, if the starting pitcher is RH, the other team will often load their starting lineup with LH hitters). But the majority of pitchers are RH. This explains, at least in part, why so many power hitters and home run leaders are left-handed. They have a built-in edge on RH pitchers. This is part of baseball strategy. The manager has to juggle his lineup so that, if a relief pitcher has to be brought in, whether that pitcher is RH or LH will in large part be dependent on the next batter or few batters he will face, and whether they are RH or LH.
This is awesome. Watching two guys, with a different upbringing than mine, actually being interested and exploring the game that i grew up playing and obsessing about is amazing!
Hey guys, enjoyed the video. I know people have probably already commented but I wanted to add my 2 cents. The terms 4-seam and 2-seam are based on how many times the index and middle finger cross the red seams when throwing the ball. The seams help with the spin (or lack of) when throwing the ball. Also, a foul ball is based on where the ball lands after it's hit. The angled lines that start at home plate and extend all the way to the back wall are the foul lines. If the ball lands outside of those lines after it's hit it's a foul ball. Also, if the ball rolls out of those lines before the first or third base respectively it is foul.
To cover your last question - generally it does matter what hand the pitcher throws with and what side the batter bats on. Right-handed batters generally hit better against left-handed pitchers, and left-handed batters generally hit better against right-handed pitchers. This is often referred to as a "platoon split". It is not a hard and fast rule - some batters and pitchers are exceptions, but it is true most of the time. This comes up most often in relief pitching situations in which (for example) a left-handed batter is due up and the opposing team's manager brings a left-handed pitcher in from the bullpen to pitch to them. The platoon split is also why switch hitters exist - batters who bat from either side of the plate depending on whether they are facing a right-handed or left-handed pitcher.
For some familiar reference points, a curveball is like a hard thrown offspinner, sliders and cutters are more like offcutters. They haven't mentioned screwballs as they're rarely thrown but they're something like a faster legspinner/legcutter type thing
The "yellow box" is the "strike zone"... basically chest to knees and the width of the plate(so changes based on batter height). If the ball is within it's a strike, and 3 gets the batter out. Outside the box is a "ball", four of those and the batter "walks"(goes to 1st)...a foul is if the batter swings, hits the ball, but it doesn't land in "fair territory "+within the field of play, denoted by the white lines down 1st and 3rd base)
The main trick to pitching is to keep the batter confused. Almost every battery can slam any strike you throw, so the tactics are very deep. Playing a good online baseball match will highlight how fun amd deep the strategy is.
I believe the fastest pitch by a current player is from Minnesota Twins reliever Jhoan Duran, who threw a 4-seam fastball at 104mph (103.8) in late September of 2022. His "Splinker" (a splitter/sinker) has been clocked in at 100mph, and his curveball at 90mph. The thing is all of these pitches have movement. The nice thing for the Twins is that he is only 25 years old.
To answer your question about why the fastballs are called 2 seam and 4 seam, a 2 seam is where you grip the ball with your index finger and middle finger riding along the seams of the ball parallel (fingers covering 2 seams). A 4 seam is where you grip the ball with your index finger and middle finger riding perpendicular to the seams on the ball. Since each finger crossed the seams twice, it's a 4 seam fastball. Also, your fingers pushing off the seams of the ball perpendicular is the reason for the increased back spin, henceforth the ball stays straighter longer.
Something that is interesting about the different pitches is the importance of each pitcher’s range of speed in their pitches. Some pitchers can throw a fastball at 100mph, some can barely reach 90. But if that 90mph pitcher also has a good curveball that they throw at 72mph, they can keep the hitter off balance. Having to be ready for two pitches that have a nearly 20mph difference in speed is what limits a hitters ability to make solid contact, especially if their “arm action” when they throw these different pitches is very similar, so it is hard for the hitter to determine which pitch is coming.
You guys were asking great questions. 4-seam and 2-seam fastballs. Hold a baseball in your hand and you'll see the seam sewn up in thick red thread. That seam sort of winds back and forth on the baseball and if you situate the ball right in your hand, you can throw it so that the back spin is over all four seams or just two. 4-seams creates more turbulence as the ball spins which results in less drag. 2-seamers have more flat even surface between the two seams and so there is more drag--and movement.
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Hey not sure if anyone answered your Foul ball question but a Foul is Simply a Ball that is not Hit within the lines of Play and the ball isn't Caught by a Player on the Field in that case it's a Foul ball and the at Bat will continue
Chapman threw a 105.8 mph fastball in 2010… *fastest ever * nowadays tho there are a lot of different pitchers that can get into the 100s
Greetings gentlemen. Might I suggest the two of you binge watch the Ken Burns series: "BASEBALL" the first chance you get. I'm sure you'll find it both entertaining and educational. It tells the viewer EVERYTHING about the American pastime. The good, the bad & the ugly. Enjoy. By the way, the N.Y. Mets & the Philadelphia Phillies will play a two game series in London next month. Hope you both to see it either in person or on the Telly.
The four seam and two seam fastball are determined by where you grip the ball across the seams
I don't think they know about the seams to begin with. The ball has stiches on it which make up the seams. Certain pitches are done by the pitcher holding his fingers across the seams in a certain way.
@@herecometherats4634 even further so the spin on the ball causes the laces to have friction with the air causing pressure against surface of the ball
...and the seams, which are raised, catch air as the ball spins affecting the path of the ball. If a baseball were perfectly smooth, pitchers wouldn't be able to throw so many pitches with different movement.
@@victorsixtythree boys let’s not kill em 😂
And you want to have your fingertips on the raised fabric seams because most of the ball is made from slippery leather.
I can't explain why this so enjoyable to me as a die hard baseball fanatic, but I love the open curiosity they approach baseball with
Thanks Peter, hope you stay with us on this journey, be glad to have you with us
I agree,and wish I could approach a sport that the Brits love,say like cricket,with the same curiosity.
would have been better if they included an illustration on how the pitcher grips the ball , especially for people not familiar with the baseball
Some definitions:
Strike Zone -- The box you see on TV broadcasts above home plate. It is 17 inches (a little less than half a meter) wide horizontally, goes from the chest of the batter to the bottom of the knees of the batter in their stance vertically, and depth-wise is also about 17 inches (it only exists just above home plate)
Strike -- A pitch that either: is hit by the batter into foul territory ("foul ball") that isn't caught, swung at and missed by the batter, or thrown through the strike zone.
Ball -- A pitch that isn't swung at by the batter and does not pass through the strike zone
Foul Ball -- A pitch that is hit by the batter, but not into the field of play. This is marked by the white chalk lines going from home plate out to first base and third base and also by the big yellow poles at the corners of the outfield.
Walk -- The batter is awarded first base.
Out -- The batter or runner is retired (leaves the basepaths). Three outs ends a team's turn at bat.
So with those definitions in mind, here are the ways an at-bat can end:
-- if the batter receives four "ball"s, they are awarded a "walk", and get to go to first base.
-- if the batter receives three "strikes", they are "out" unless the third strike was a "foul ball" that wasn't caught. In this case the batter remains on two strikes.
-- if the batter hits the ball into play
-- if the batter hits a "foul ball" that is caught, they are "out".
-- if the batter is hit by the pitch, they are awarded first base in the same way as if getting a "walk".
Legend. Hope they see this comment.
Also worth noting that the box seen in broadcasts is only visible to the TV audience and not to the umpires or players. It's just a tool to give fans an idea of where the pitches are but not actually used to determine balls and strikes. Since you're new to the game and probably the way they're broadcast I didn't want to assume you knew that.
@@SonniesPlace Wait, so that white floating box is only seen on TV and isn't in reality floating there in thin air for everyone to see.
@@hanch3664 Exactly! You're so smart. Go get a cookie.
@@hanch3664 Only if you're wearing the correct goggles.
I absolutely love the fact that you guys aren't trying to present that you know what is going on, but are genuinely learning as you go.
I’m glad you’re enjoying that! We are enjoying the learning journey as well 😀
I agree, with all the phonies in American media today it’s refreshing to see a genuine reaction
I got a good smile out of hearing you refer to the batter swinging as "having a go at it" Thanks for learning our sport!
I’m glad! 😀 thank you! We are having fun!
LOL
growing up watching baseball, I kinda forget there's so many intricacies of the sport it can be hard for new fans to understand/appreciate. hope you guys keep watching
We do plan to keep watching 😊
We do plan to keep watching 😊
The knuckleball is a wild phenomenon. No current MLB pitchers throw it today. It has a cool history.
Wakefield was the last true knuckler that consistently was effective.
I think because coaches discourage it or don't teach it because nobody knows how. I saw one in the minors (AAA) and I was sitting along the third base line so had a great view of it. That ball danced every which way. I even as a teenager fooled around in the backyard trying to throw one, with a softball. I managed to throw one and that ball had a crazy path, I couldn't believe it. Couldn't replicate it.
The knuckleball is so rare because it is usually only developed by pitchers who don't have the arm strength anymore to throw the faster balls. Take a good pitcher with a good arm, they are throwing fast balls, curves, etc the basic list of pitchers. If a pitcher gets old, or has arm injuries, of course they cannot throw those faster pitches anymore. A few pitchers instead of retiring, quitting, develop a different type of throwing, knuckleballs. These are much slower pitches 20+ mph slower than regular pitches, but are widely unpredictable. A professional hitter can easily hit knuckleballs normally due to the low speed even if they change direction, but take a professional knuckleball pitcher can pitch with the best. watch a few videos of the best and you'll see. Very rare though most pitchers simply retire or quit when they can't throw anymore.
@@eolsunder Mike Mussina threw a knuckle curve and he had velocity
I was always fascinated by knuckball pitches (and pitchers who threw them were kind of nonconformist) and was a bit disappointed they didn't get into more details about it along with the unique physics of different pitches in general.
One of the fastest and hardest throwing pitchers of all time was Nolan Ryan. He not only threw hard, he did it consistently over a long career, much longer than most pitchers - 27 years. If you want to give yourselves a treat, find and watch a documentary called "Facing Nolan" - it came out about a year or so ago, and it is really really good. Show a lot of how he pitched and the 50 or so records he set, it's truly amazing.
The MLB's official TH-cam channel has a surprisingly entertaining vid named "What is the difference between pitches? And why are there so many?" It breaks down and explains more of the history of all these terms and pitches. Great place to start
Even as a lifelong baseball fan, I learned a lot from this video. My team is the San Diego Padres, we have a veteran pitcher Yu Darvish that has 11 different pitches in his arsenal, and is even working on a 12th. I believe that's the most of active pitchers.
Wow, 12!! Saw other comments about mastering 3 or 4.
Some of those pitches can be reasonably paired together as small variations but it’s still not technically an exaggeration to say he throws 11 different pitches. Most starters utilize 5 pitches, most relievers 3 or 4, and many closers only use 2 or 3 pitches.
I saw Darvish many times when he was with Texas. He can also throw left-handed. You'll only see him pitch lefty in the pen, but he long-tosses lefty all the time in warm up. Dude is a freak of nature.
Yu is in the video as well!
Typically the pitchers who can master three, four or five pitches will be “starters” because they can face hitters more than once and show them a different look each time. The ones that can go only a couple of innings or even just a few batters will typically have mastered only one or two pitches and thus are more predictable.
Much respect for trying to learn a foreign sport! You guys are awesome!
Thank you for the support Corey, appreciate it! 🤝
Yeah, baseball has a ton of rules regarding play but it’s worth it. It is a true American pastime
Right versus left handed pitching is a HUGE deal! Teams usually have a balance of right and left handed pitchers so they can align against certain batters. This is really common late in games when teams take their starting pitcher out and start using their reserve pitchers.
I ended up playing college level ball as a dual threat pitcher because I could pitch with both hands at a competitive level. Had a really good chance of making it past college level but ended up getting into a car accident with a drunk driver in my 1st year of college about halfway through the season and it ended up breaking my back and leaving me partially paralyzed. It's been almost a decade since my accident and I can walk now but I have no sense of feeling in my hands.
If I'm not mistaken, the commentator who called the pitch a slider instead of a cutter wasn't just any old commentator. It sounded like Hall of Famer John Smoltz, who was an amazing pitcher and often calls games for Fox Sports nowadays. That tells you how difficult it can be to call a pitch in some cases, when even a guy who is an absolute master at throwing pitches for a Hall of Fame career doesn't call it the same thing as the scorers.
It sounded like Hall of Famer John Smoltz and amazing pitcher who played alongside a handful of the best pitchers in living memory. Smoltz has really emerged in the last few seasons as a top notch linguistic and teacher to the public of what is happening while watching the game unfold, I credit him with a lot of my new understandings.
Nope, that's my home team broadcast and that was Jack Morris. But he's still a hall of fame pitcher too.
And these guys are watching the game at the stadium, in a booth, looking down towards the (out)field (not as close as, say, spectators seating behind home plate), while the camera angle the viewer gets to see the pitch is from the outfield towards the plate.
@@thenachofan7677 What view do you prefer at the ballpark?
@@morry32 I haven't gone to many MLB games over the years (5-6 at 4 venues), and never had the same kind of tickets each time (nosebleeds in the outfield in NY, standing room in Boston, near the right field foul line in Montreal). However, I attended lower level games in smaller stadiums. I like the feeling of being close to the game, between first and third--that area would translate into a costly seat in The Show (a nickname for Major League Baseball)--but I can see teenagers play at our local stadium for free on nice summer evenings, a cool reward for a 5-minute walk. Knowing some of the players' mothers adds to the social lightness and overall laid-back fun. At those distances (roughly ten rows of seating), you can appreciate pitch location, arm slot and action (even the whip resounding through the air), even breaking effect. Otherwise... I enjoy the TV show of MLB, even though I think they should really make more research for their replays as far as camera location, their number and resolution (FPS) to resolve some contentious appeals.
One breaking pitch they didn't cover in the video is a "screwball." It pretty much disappeared from the MLB because of the stigma that it was "harder on your arm" than a curveball--which has been disproven to be the case. It has slowly started making its return into some pitchers' pitching arsenals.
A *screwball* is when the ball is spinning in the _opposite_ direction of a curveball, and thus it breaks toward the pitcher's throwing arm instead of the glove side. As someone who has thrown screwballs in the past, it's really neat seeing the way it breaks on the way to the catcher. 🙃
Although I know what a screwball is, I've never seen it explained how it's accomplilshed. the ability to throw it seems counter-intuitive to the physics of throwing a baseball.However, I know that it's possible because I grew up watching Fernando Valenzuela throw them with regularity.
@Jim Book That's kind of how I never developed a curveball--(I'm a right-hander) I could never get the release correct and it would almost always go wild/in the dirt. The screwball, however, was easier for me to release consistently and get it in the vicinity of the strike zone. Unfortunately, non-softball baseball died out in my town before I could work on it more, and the few times I _have_ had to try it out were with my cousin whom still played baseball, and we'd play catch every so often that he came up to visit.
The cricket equivalent is perhaps the "googly."
I couldn’t throw anything off speed or breaking, any style of fastball (2, 4, cutter, and splitter) is all that I and, probably why I spent 90%+ of my time in the outfield. (Not that there aren’t a handful of major leaguers who’ve got fastball only arsenals, it’s just tough, requires amazing velocity and accuracy or an absolutely insane cutter to make it work).
All baseball is non softball
I VERY strongly suggest watching Jomboy breakdowns. Just start anywhere. His videos are so informative to experts and novices alike. 🤗
Hell yeah. Funny AF too. Good call
I just visited his channel after being away from it for so long and it has changed so much. Hardly does any baseball videos and his breakdowns aren’t the same as they used to be that got me into him.
Haha Jomboy is a riot
Great point. Everybody should watch Jomboy baseball videos. For the humor alone, if you're not a baseball fan.
@@locomojoboy2 he's got 2 different channels. One that's just random stuff, and another that does breakdowns of funny moments or immaculate moments. his breakdown channel normally isn't doing much baseball stuff when the baseball season isn't going on.
I played baseball through college. It's a tough sport. There is so much going on that the casual fan won't notice.
Every single pitch is carefully orchestrated to induce a desired outcome. With a runner on first, that's when you'll see the sinkers and two seam fastballs low in the strike zone in an effort to induce a ground ball double play.
By the way guys - this video is really an intermediate / advanced video. Some basics i'm not sure you have heard yet - the umpire standing behind the catcher is determining whether each pitch is a ball or strike. If a hitter gets 4 balls - he gets a free walk to first base. If he gets 3 strikes - he out. That box you see next to the hitter is the computer-generated strike-zone based on the hitter's height. In a perfect world - the umpire would call the balls / strikes according to that zone. But human error is such that each umpire has his own strike-zone and part of the game is the hitter & pitcher have to figure out where the umpire's strike zone is. Players become frustrated when the umpire is not consistent. You asked what a 'foul-ball' is - a foul ball is when the hitter hits the ball but it goes outside those two lines that define the diamond - or it goes up into the air and behind the batter. Those are all foul balls. If a foul ball is caught - then the hitter is out. Foul balls that are not caught by the opposing team count as a strike - except - they don't count as a strike 3 - unless of course - it is caught by the opposing team.
Yes this is some relatively advanced material for very new baseball viewers.
One important thing you left out. If the batter swings, its a strike regardless of location.
@@edwardkuenzi5751 if he swings and _misses_ it is a strike, yes, whether the pitch is in the strike zone or not. Can’t assume that’s obvious to folks completely new to baseball!
@@MrOffTrail I stand corrected
@@edwardkuenzi5751 no worries, it can be super hard to know what you take for granted! There’s no way I could explain baseball on first try without circling back to details I glossed over.
Trevor May is a pro pitcher with a youtube channel who talks about what the grips look like on the various pitches if you wanted to see that in more detail. I think those videos also talk about about when those pitches are used so you can have a better idea of why there's those variations exist. This was fun to watch and I hope you enjoy your baseball journey!
12:04 Excellent observation! You are absolutely correct: the handedness of the pitcher is important. The breaking direction of right- and left-handed pitchers mirror each other. In general, a pitcher with the same handedness as the batter has an advantage over an oppositely handed pitch. In the former situation, the break on most pitches will be down and away from the batter which are typically more difficult to hit than those breaking inward toward the batter. Teams used to employ "left-handed specialists" whose job it was to face a single dangerous left-handed batter in critical late-game situations. Although, these specialists are less common now after the 2020 rule change that placed resteictions on how often a manager could change pitchers in an inning.
Thank you CosmoNautica. Reading some of the comments re that I’m almost a little proud of myself 😅 Thank you for the added context! Appreciate it
@Cricket Explained Yes, for pitches with horizontal break such as sliders, the breaks will mirror one another with the same grip and release for oppositely handed pitchers. Even if the grip and release are the same, the direction of rotation of the ball is not. In both cases, the pitcher applies rotation by pushing on the top of the ball in the direction away from their body. The result is a clockwise-spinning ball (from the pitcher's perspective) for a right-handed pitcher and a counterclockwise-spinning ball for a left-handed pitcher. The result is a break towards the pitcher's body via the Magnus Effect, which corresponds to a ball breaking away from a batter of the same handedness. The opposite of a slider is a screwball which rotates the ball in the direction opposite of the slider resulting in opposite break. However, this pitch is rare since it's believed to cause injury and it's difficult to hide its delivery without complete mastery.
I really don't follow current professional sports anymore so thanks for mentioning that rule change.
Yo! Thanks for reacting to my video! Seems like all of your questions have been answered already.
Cheers 🥳
Yeah everyone has been great with the questions! It was a great video to react to 😀
You’re welcome 🤝🏻
The fastest pitch in a major league game was thrown by Aroldis Chapman at 105.7 mph. That said, pitches thrown at that speed can be REALLY taxing on your arm, so you'll usually only see relievers (guys who come in at the end to take over from the starting pitcher) throw those pitches, as they throw less pitches in general. That said, any pitcher throwing 100mph or above is really impressive and generates hype.
it's Nolan Ryan, at 108 mph, yes?
@@RobertMJohnson allegedly. The Nolan Ryan at 108mph pitch is based on an older radar reading combined with a calculation of what it "would" have been on a modern reading. There's no world where you can count that as official. I find it more than a little dubious that Nolan Ryan beat the best known official pitch velocity by that much. It's possible, sure, but it smells funky as heck when you consider how much more of an outlier that velocity would make him (and he's already an extreme outlier in most ways).
@@jawbone78 i understand that we don’t have the tech to really know, however, it’s not odd in the least to think that thee undisputed greatest power pitcher in history threw the hardest. 383 K’s in a season in the modern era against some of the most talented batsman in history. 7 no-hitters. 5700+ K’s, probably the most unbreakable record in the game.
Just for reference the guy you commented on who threw 102 was Aroldis Chapman. He is a divisive character for many reasons and is not well liked even on the teams he plays for.
That said he was, at his peak, jaw droppingly fast. To put this in perspective, on baseball statistics websites when you looked up the fastest pitches recorded the sites would have an "Aroldis Chapman" checkbox you could tick. If you did that it would filter out all of Chapmans pitches. This was necessary because you'd otherwise only see his name repeated 20 times.
@@RobertJohnson-lh6dg Always loved that Ryan Struck out Ricky "Three true outcomes are for chumps" Henderson for his 5000th K. As far as the most unbreakable record, that has to be Cy Young, 511 wins, Walter Johnson is in second place with 417 and Pet Alexander had 373. The Hits record is pretty unbelievable as well, but the record is kinda hazy because well, Ichiro, I doubt we'll see another member of the 4,000 club any time soon though, with Miggy and Cano being 41 and 40 this season and still quite far away.
3:38 = Greg Maddux has the best 2SM/SNKR pitch in history IMO. The movement on his pitches was incredible. And to have a HOF career with low-mid fastball velocity makes it even more impressive.
That sinker made all the hitters beat the ball into the ground. And Maddux was a terrific fielder so there was no way to get the ball out of the infield.
I was gonna say Maddux for 2S/sinker and Mariano Rivera for cutter.
Randy Johnson had a VERY filthy slider😈.
Thank you for the comment and the suggestion, we really appreciate it 🤝 We’ve currently got Greg Maddux in a live Discord Poll. We run regular polls on our Discord for all members to have a say in what videos we do next if you’re not already on there 🙏
A foul ball is when a batter hits the ball, but it is hit out of play, such as in the crowd.
Along the base lines. As compared to the fence behind the outfielders, in which case it's a home run.
Additionally, if it hits the ground in fair territory but then enters foul territory (without being touched by a fielder) BEFORE passing first or third base, it is a foul ball. If it bounces/rolls into foul territory after passing first or third base, assuming it touched the ground in fair territory first, it is still a fair ball. Also, in any case, a ball caught in foul territory before touching the ground is an 'out' just as if it had been caught in fair territory. You will see a lot of batters pop the ball up behind home plate and the catcher or first/third baseman will catch it for the out. Once a fair ball has been touched by a fielder it can no longer become a foul ball. However, if a fielder attempting to catch a foul ball misses/drops the catch but still makes contact with the ball, it remains a foul ball even if the fielder is standing in fair territory (ball position, not fielder position, determines fair/foul).
A foul ball also counts as a strike, but cannot count as the third strike (3 strikes = out). This means that if you foul two pitches and you swing and miss the third, you are called out on strikes. However, you can hit 10 foul balls and not be called out. There are two exceptions to this that I can think of. First, if you bunt (which is where you hold the bat parallel to home plate in an attempt to tap the ball lightly so infielders have to rush in to get the ball) and you already have two strikes and the ball lands in foul territory you will be out. This is why you will see someone attempt to bunt once or twice and then switch to swinging again if they were unsuccessful. Second, if you hit a 'foul tip' (where the ball glances off of the bat) and it goes directly into the catcher's glove and you already have two strikes you will be out. A foul tip, while the ball does technically make contact with the bat, is not treated the same as a foul ball when caught, as you will not be called out unless you already have two strikes.
Baseball is full of crazy rules and exceptions to those rules. Like with most sports, you really can't get a good grasp of the rules until you start watching games and seeing them applied in context.
A foul ball is either right of the first base line, or left of the third base line. These lines are extended down each side of the outfield to the foul pole at the left and right walls/fence. A ball hit backwards from home plate, is also a foul ball.
Interesting to see you guys watching and learning a game that I began to understand and learn when I was 6 to 8 years old.
@@williamdemerchant7295 confusingly, a ball that hits the foul pole is a fair ball (and a home run). Similarly a ball that lands on the line or hits the base is a fair ball.
@@ericfisher4736 It's easy to forget the numerous details that must be learned to fully understand every instant of a game, but on the other hand you can still enjoy watching without being an expert, and you pick up a few things during every game.
Never realized fully how intricate the game was until I tried to explain it to a coworker from Asia (not Japan obviously). We all grow up playing baseball in the States, so it’s just part of summer life. It is a very nuanced and strategic game when you get down to it, analytics have made it nearly scientific- but in out hearts, it’ll always be “just a kids game”.
The strike zone is supposed to be from the batter's jersey letters to his knees. But each umpire has a slightly different strike zone. Some give strikes up to one ball off the plate. The box is just a guide for the fans. For a 95 mph fastball a batter has four tenths of a second to recognize the pitch and swing. So the batter strategy would be to wait for a certain pitch or location depending on the game situation.
Unless you're Aaron Judge, then your strike zone goes down to your ankles
the top of the zone is actually a little above the belt to the knees
To add though, a pitcher can work an umpire and the batter, much like Greg Maddux did. If you consistently hit your spots early in the game and show you have control, you may be able to get some calls from an ump you may not have, i.e. start pushing the black and maybe a bit off of it. Call it opening up the strike zone if you will.
If you are wild from the start, going to many full counts and don't exhibit control, you may not get what should be a called strike called a strike, simply by the lack of confidence the ump has for you to put the ball over the plate.
Good pitchers not only work the batter, but the umpire.
Another thing to add, the ball can pass over any part of the plate to be a strike, it does not have to pass through just the front of the plate like these strike zones they throw up on TV imply.
@@DoritosClipz Knees to nips my friend, knees to nips.
@@Cheddarextremist They say that, and it may be in little league still. It's been basically knees to a bit above the waist for a long time now in the pros.
No one's swinging at pitches chest high unless you want to wiff.
Baseball gets so much better when you start paying attention to the managing of putting certain pitchers against certain batters and stuff like that. When you understand the individual players of a team, it gets really interesting to see how they are used. Baseball is more about strategy and management than most people realize. I'd recommend watching a few full games, especially in the playoffs.
A foul ball is out of play .
The strike zone - an area over home plate and from the batters knees to his armpits.
If a batter swings at any pitch and misses its a strike . If the pitcher throws in the "strike zone" its a strike even if the bater never swings at it .
3 strikes and your out . But 4 balls (pitches outside the strike zone) and you get walked. You get to take 1st base .
Over the yellow sidelines, but can be caught and called an out. Ball caught without touching the ground is an out.
Oh the square you are seeing is not real just broadcast magic
I really enjoyed how honest your approach is. Many kids like myself learned to play baseball growing up and when I started coaching kids myself I realized the sport was more complex than I imagined. I enjoy watching and learning sports that aren't so popular in the US, as well, so I really took to heart how open and honest you were and unafraid to speculate and let the comments sort it for you. I hope you enjoy baseball.
Thanks Chris! We always wanted to come with an honest and genuine approach. Everyone has been great in the comments and have helped us a lot! Appreciate your comment!
As a lifelong pitcher, the best advantage you have over any lineup is being able to tweak or change grips very slightly between games. It really allows a level of creativity because even in-game, you can change the grip situationally to make a ball move a certain way.
Also, everyone just kinda follows the "basics" of pitches and how they're supposed to move. No two pitchers throw the exact same pitch the exact same way.
Fastest pitch ever recorded was Aroldis Chapman when he was on the Reds. It registered at 105.1 MPH!
Thank you for these KingGat, appreciate it! I did wonder also what the fastest on record was. Insane speed!
Much respect. I just commented this above and want to repeat it here.
You can't appreciate the movement on a ball until it's been pitched to you and it literally changes speed or direction on it's way. I dated a guy who'd been a pitcher in high school and college, nowhere near any kind of pro-level, but he had a decent line-up of pitches. We were both on a summer co-ed softball team and sometimes we'd pull out a baseball and mess around with that. Don't tell anyone but, whenever I actually connected the bat to the ball it was pure luck, lol. It earned these guys major respect in my eyes. I still marvel that they hit these damn things.
@@Velbar_ That's actually number 4, That Chapman pitch is behind himself at 106, Bob Feller at 107.6 in 1946 and Nolan Ryan at 108.1 in 1974.
It's good that you guys are open to this. It can be difficult to get the full breadth of baseball as you didn't grow up with the history, icons, and rivalries. With more context however, it's something you can grow to appreciate.
Definitely really enjoying Baseball so far Jason. Now we’ve seen our first highlights we’re getting closer to being ready for the new season
The right handed vs left handed pitcher or batter definitely matters. Sometimes an entirely new pitcher will be subbed into the game if he matches up better with the batter based on left hand/right hand. There’s also some players who are extremely talented and can competently bat from either side of the plate. They’re known as ‘switch hitters’
To go along with this, and they kind of talk about it toward the end, left handed batters tend to do better against right handed pitchers and vice versa.
Yeah look this up on TH-cam right now, ""The Big Unit" Randy Johnson strikes FEAR into the heart of John Kruk!". Perfect example of someone wishing they were hitting from the other side of the plate.
There is also a pitcher named Pat Venditte who's the only ever Switch Pitcher who can pitch with either hand. He has a specially made glove that has 4 fingers with 2 thumb holes with one on each side of the glove.
@@joemckim1183 And that caused the most hilarious at-bat in minors history when he faced a switch hitter
Something to note about left handed pitchers: Lefties, because of their perspective facing 1st base, are better at "holding" runners on base. They're quicker at throwing over to 1st base if there's a runner "leading off." In youth baseball, if you're a lefty with a strong arm you are in high demand for this reason.
Cheers for trying to learn a new sport. Baseball is such a difficult one to come into because there is simply so much terminology and verbiage that is used with it but it is such a beautiful game. The skill needed to play it at the highest level is incredible but something I love about it is how much talent comes from all over the world. Korea, Japan, US, Canada, all of Central and South America. It's such a unifying game and I hope that it can spread to Europe one day too.
It's fun watching you two learning about the sports we love in the US.
As already stated, several of the pitches are named for how the ball is gripped: 4-seam, 2-seam, knuckleball. Typically, when a batter is able to effectively hit from both sides of the plate (switch hit), they will bat on the side opposite, from the pitcher's perspective, of the pitcher's throwing arm. This makes the pitcher's breaking balls break in towards them and easier to hit.
This is why Baseball is sublime. It is FAR more than the sum of its parts. Modern audiences want things to be so fast paced and constantly stimulating that the game has become almost incomprehensible to younger people. But it is art.
3:04 "Two-seam" and "four-seam" refer to the red stitching on the ball which is also called the seam. It forms a saddle shape on the ball allowing one's fingers to cross it at multiple points. A fastball is usually thrown with the index and middle finger gripping the top of the ball in a V shape. If those fingers cross the seam at four points, it's a four-seam fast ball. If they cross at only two points, or more commonly, straddle two lengths of the seam, then it's a two-seam fastball.
12:03 That's a very good observation. Most breaking balls move away from batters of the same handedness as the pitcher making them harder to hit. Typically lefty batters will have more success against right handed pitching and vice versa.
Coaches used to use a pitcher in tense situations to face just one batter because they wanted to create a favorable matchup (righty v righty, etc.), but there's a new rule that a pitcher must face three batters before they can be substituted.
I’m so glad you guys are doing more baseball! Baseball is a complicated game. The 4 seam and 2 seam remarks have to do with the red stitches on the baseball and how the pitcher grips the ball. Each pitch has its own grip. The square they show on the screen is called the strike zone. This is where the pitcher has to throw the ball in order to throw a strike. Any ball that lands outside the strike zone is a ball. Four balls and the batter gets to walk to first base. Three strikes and the batter is out. I kinda wish you guys had watched the “MLB Quick Question, different Pitch types” video. It’s more interesting than this one, but this one is good too. You’ll rarely see an eephus pitch or a knuckleball. I don’t even know if there’s a knuckleballer in the MLB right now. Only someone who can throw a knuckleball can teach another pitcher to throw one. So there’s always this theory out there that one day the knuckleball will disappear. Be sure to watch “Ninh explains the Unwritten Rules of Baseball”. It’s hilarious.
Thank you Johanna, we hope you’re enjoying! Thanks for this, I’ve added to the suggestions list 😀
@@DNReacts The Cardinals and Cubs are playing a few games in London this year, I hope to see you guys there.
I have been a baseball fan for 30 years, and i cant believe how entertaining this video was.
Pitch tunneling (choosing pitches that look the same until the last moment so the batter can't identify the pitch in time) is pretty cool to see too. I know pitcher Trevor May did a video talking about it a while back.
Not just that but also the mechanics in how they appear when being thrown (even before they leave the hand) to reduce the ability of the batter to identify them, or the pitcher to tip them early.
my catcher in high school would give me 5 signals on what pitch he wanted me to throw: #1 type of pitch, #2 speed of pitch. #3 arm angle of release. #4 if curve/cutter/screw/sinker how much he wanted it to break #5 where he wanted the pitch to end (inside/outside/low/high or any combination of two of them). We would also change our signals every 2-3 innings to make sure the opposing team was not stealing our signals (which is against the rules but everyone still does it) Everything the entire team does is because the catcher calls it including positioning of all other 7 field players depending on the batter and what pitches he is calling from the pitcher. In baseball the catcher is the quarterback and one who spends endless hours watching oposing hitters to learn how to best call pitches against them.
As someone said earlier, you were exactly right at the end about left handed pitchers having an advantage versus left handed batters (and the same for right handed pitchers vs right handed batters). This is why handedness is so important in baseball. As a result, left handed pitchers especially are in very high demand. A lot of kids will grow up playing football and baseball but most of left handed ones will end up in baseball for this reason.
It can also be a problem for bullpen management however since there would be cases where managers (looking at you Girardi) would send out mediocre to crap left handed reliever just because a particular batter has lower numbers against left handers. Admittingly Torre fall for the same trap as well considering the amount of times he would send out Felix El Horridia to blow games.
Man, it's always funny to see people who aren't familiar with something see that something for the first time and try to make heads or tails of it. Keep up the fun videos!
"What is the difference between pitches? And why are there so many? | Quick Question (MLB Originals)" is a much better video. Gives you much details, history, explanations from Pitchers and graphics illustrations. It's about 10 mins. If don't want to react to it, you might want to watch it on your own time. It's quite entertaining too.
I agree 👍
I agree. Thanks for posting the actual title because it seems these guys are usually reacting the the "wrong" video (i.e. the one very different from what most reactors do, and far from the most popular) so they need more details to get better information. Off the top of my head, this happened with the NFL flyover one too - it was some random video, not the official NFL one.
Thank you pushpak. Added to the watch list!
I'm sure a lot of people have touched on these already, but a few things from the video and your reaction:
1) A foul ball is when you as a batter make contact with the ball but it lands out of play (outside the baselines that run from home plate to 1st base, and 3rd base to home which extend all the way out to the walls in the outfield).
2) The one pitch the video misses is a screw ball. This is like a reverse curveball. When you throw a curveball, its like you're just dropping your hand down to the front of your body, but snapping your wrist down faster than your arm when you release the ball with your thumb starting close to you and going over the top of the ball. A screw ball is thrown almost like a fastball, but as you come over the top, you snap your wrist away from your body with your thumb starting close to you and going under the ball as you release it. Screw balls can really mess up your arm if you over do them, so not many pitchers ever throw them anymore.
3) As a batter, you want as much time as you possibly can get against a pitcher to be able to identify and react to the pitch, so you NEVER want a left-handed pitcher when you are a left-handed batter. Thankfully for LH batters, a vast majority of pitchers are RH, so it's not a big deal. Then again, most batters are RH, too, though many have been taught to switch hit, meaning to be able to hit from either side of the plate to take away the pitcher's advantage of time, even if it's miniscule.
Always interesting to see folks from other countries who aren't used to baseball attempt to get to know it. So many random and weird rules and ways of throwing a ball, it isn't easy unless you grew up with it.
The simultaneous chuckle at “breaking balls” got me.
It would've been nice to show the various grip types that determine how the pitch is thrown. Great channel, guys. Love the US Football vids!
Thank you so much! Appreciate the support!
"If has to make a big difference when you pitching either left or right handed."
You're very right my good man.
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You can't appreciate the movement on a ball until it's been pitched to you and it literally changes speed or direction on it's way. I dated a guy who'd been a pitcher in high school and college, nowhere near any kind of pro-level, but he had a decent line-up of pitches. We were both on summer co-ed softball team and sometimes we'd pull out a baseball and mess around with that. Don't tell anyone but, whenever I actually connected the bat to the ball it was pure luck, lol. It earned these guys major respect in my eyes. I still marvel that they hit these damn things.
Such a true statement
Love seeing this. Great intuition at 12:05 as well. When a pitcher and batter pitch or bat with the same hand, the pitcher usually has the advantage because it's harder to see the ball coming from the same side, so managers will sometimes send a "pinch hitter", or substitute hitter to come hit on the opposite side if it's a critical time in the game, say if the bases are loaded and the score is tight. Great job, boys! GO GIANTS!
Thank you for the context and support! Really appreciate it
Yup that was really great observation by them. And yes Managers will line-up left or right handed pitchers based on how many right or left handed batters are on an opposing team. Its one of the reasons why being a switch hitter is so desirable because no matter which way the pitcher pitches a switch batter can just turn around. Also you have to take into consideration that baseball stadiums are built differently, so for example a batter may be right handed and you have left handed pitcher pitching you might not see that as a disadvantage if the battter always pulls to the left where the field border is the furthest for a given stadium. Lots of variables to consider.
Oh and here is something to ponder...the rules still allow the possibility of a switch pitcher. I think its only happened a few times in baseball, but it is possible to have a pitcher that can pitch left or right handed. In 2008 they had to put in a new rule that a pitcher has to declare which hand they are using to pitch for each at bat if they are a switch pitcher, this was done to avoid the problem of a switch hitter coming in and having the two combatants switching over and over again to each other forcing the game to stop lol.
I love that you guys are learning about baseball! It is one of the hardest games to learn in my experience because of the how many rules there are along with a wide variety of player skill sets and strategies. I hope you get the chance to go to a game in the States sometime. I'm sure many of your subscribers would enjoy taking you to one.
Really enjoying it Chris. We’re hoping to catch a game in the UK this year at the Olympic Stadium. The dream would be to come to the US to watch some Baseball, American football and others live. Maybe one day if this channel really became something 🤞
I’m looking at a trip to the UK toward the end of 2024, I’m a lover of all sports and will be visiting Tottenham during my travels. I’d absolutely be willing to take you to an Astros game in Houston, Texas, if you ever made the trip. Cheers
A 4 seam, 2 seam has to do with the grip .
Makes sense, thank you!
@@DNReacts It means the number of seams of the ball that your fingers are crossing. If you look at a baseball there are red seams holding the white outer covering of the ball together. The 2 and 4 seam thing refers to how many of those red seams your fingers cross while gripping and throwing the ball.
Some terms in regards to pitching:
-when you have a pitcher with good pitching, his pitching is called "filthy" or "nasty".
-when a pitcher is putting the pitches on the edges of the strike zone, he's sometimes called a "Rembrandt".
Love your baseball content. Gotta know what a foul ball is before you try and learn what a slider is lol. Thanks guys love your content
Thank you, appreciate the support!
I played baseball for over 10 years and really enjoyed, things you asked about: in baseball the strike zone is typically the letters on your jersey to your knees, its 3 strikes for an out, 4 balls out of the strike zone and you go to first but if you swing at one its a strike. If you hit a ball and it doesnt go into the game of play; there are lines running from home plate through first and third base that go straight to the back of the field, if it falls out of these lines and isnt caught for an out its a foul and will be counted as a strike. However, if youre on 2 strikes and hit a foul it isnt counted for a third strike and you can do this continuously. I saw others mention the seams that stick lut of the ball, but typically a big difference is also arm and hand movement. A fastball for me was 2 fingers straight a cross the ball thrown straight towards my target, the bread and butter of throws. Curves and others can usually be seen easier by batters due to arm movement and its diagonal motion when throwing in order to get the spin on the ball.
The long and short of this is that each pitch is a guessing game between the batter and pitcher. If a pitch comes it at 95 your brain says it should drop. So it appears to rise. If the next pitch comes in at 80 and it’s tailing away and you were guessing fastball again, you will swing early. It’s all about speed and location
The box you see on TV is called the strike zone. If a batter does not swing at a pitch, it is either called strike or a ball, depending on where the umpire behind the plate sees it. If it is in the strike zone, it is a strike. If the umpire thinks it is outside the strike zone, it is a ball. After throwing 4 balls to a batter, that batter is automatically sent to first base and the next batter is up. If he gets 3 strikes, he is out and the next batter is up. After 3 outs, the teams switch sides and the other team is up to bat.
The camera misses two things: First, just how fast a pitch like that comes in. You have to pick up the pitchers arm movement guess the pitch, and track the ball coming in, and you generally start your swing at the same time. Secondly, just how much a breaking pitch can move. Some guys can throw a curveball that we used to say "Fell off the table". Its only in the last 10ft of travel that it breaks.
I'm sure someone got to it by now, but if not, the fastest pitch ever was thrown by Aroldis Chapman for the Cincinnati Reds, at almost 106 miles per hour. I found this on it, "On Sept. 24, 2010, Chapman made MLB history. Then a rookie relief pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, the fireballer unleashed a fastball clocked at 105.1 mph by PITCH/fx. MLB later bumped that up to 105.8 mph."
As a dual citizen Brit-American who grew up in London but has lived in New York in the US for years, my first thought with baseball is always rounders!!!! When we weren't playing cricket or football, we got rounders and it's hilariously similar without all of the pitches and quality gameplay and all.
I know for a lot of people it doesnt make a lot of sense. But, when you either play it and see the intricacies up close or you follow it closely, the minute differentiators between play and pitches and hitting make it really fascinating. I have been a catcher at various amateur levels since I was 10 years old and have caught pitchers throwing 100mph and pitchers who could twist the ball up to the plate at very slow speeds so cleverly most could not hit it. You guys look interested and are giving it a chance and at least encouraging others to do so, as well.thats pretty cool
That's the best part of having so many pitches and ways to throw the same pitch. It's as game of chess, watching a great pitcher set up a batter and keep em guessing. Some of the best baseball games are pitcher's duels!
i really dig this. two intelligent sports fans figuring out a game. the joy of discovery! cant wait to watch an explanation of cricket
Love that you guys are less than half way though and already shocked by the number of pitches when you just finished with the fastballs are are just starting all the off speed stuff.
Knuckleballs are the wildest pitches ever.
Especially in replay when you can see that the ball is basically not spinning and just wiggling back n forth on the way to the plate.
Here's some notes about the rectangle above the base and the nature of foul balls since you guys were curious:
The rectangle shown to viewers is called the strike zone or the box. It is a visual representation of how an umpire (the referee behind home plate) will determine if a pitch is a "strike" or a "ball". If the batter didn't swing at the pitch and it was inside the zone by the time the ball was above home plate, that's a strike - good for the pitcher! Three strikes and the batter is out. However, if the batter didn't swing and it was OUTSIDE the zone by the time the ball was above home, that's a ball - good for the batter! If a pitcher throws four balls, the batter gets to advance to first base.
Obviously there isn't an actual floating rectangle in real life above the base, so the umpires have to imagine it. Usually the guideline is that it spans vertically from the batter's knees to their chest. But to err is human of course, so often times you'll see a pitch that was outside/inside the zone as shown on TV but the umpire will call it the other way. For now, it's just a part of the game that umpires are prone to errors; there are no digital umpires in place to perfectly gauge the strike zone every time. The pitchers are very aware of certain umps' tendencies to misrule particular areas of the box (high, low, inside, or outside) and will oftentimes play into those tendencies to gain an advantage.
If the batter hits the ball but it goes behind them or way off to the side (as denoted by the white chalk lines running the left and right sides of the field; the foul lines), that's a foul ball. So a foul ball is not a type of pitch, but rather something that will happen if the batter doesn't make sufficient "contact" with the ball. If I'm not mistaken (I'm not a huge baseball guy myself), foul balls can count as the first or second strike, but cannot be the third strike. The third strike must result from a missed swing (or pitch clock violations, etc... but generally it will be from a missed swing).
Hope this helps!
I was going to answer some of the questions, but they appear well covered. I will say I was impressed with the questions you did ask and your willingness to ask them! Hope you find yourself enjoying baseball because it can be a fascinating game.
i'm late to the party, but i loved the reaction to the eephus. y'all were talking about the source video's previous content and then the pitcher threw one at like 45 miles an hour, like ten feet up in the air, and you both got this wild-eyed "omg what was that" look. that is the proper reaction to a good eephus hahaha.
Thank you so much, we really appreciate this 🙏
Very cool that you picked up on the righty / lefty split. In general, batters can see better when the pitcher is delivering in an open state (so a righty pitcher to lefty batter or vice versa). Of course, that’s not always true, but many managers try to take advantage of this by platooning players so they face the side against which they have an advantage.
Kudos on actually learning the sport, really cool!
Getting in the batter's box is a completely different experience! Wow! When you see a ball coming at your head from a guy you know can throw 90+, and it drops down on the curve...you're thinking "I'm glad I'm not dead", not "I misread that pitch."
The original video was very good. It could have shown details of the pitcher's grip, the seams of the ball, and wrist motion. Or what a batter tries to spot in their motion and wind-up, and any last-second (literally) clue in their wrist action. Not to mention pitch count, situation in the game, It's complicated, and if I knew everything, I'd be in the hall of fame.
That's why we watch!
The guy forgot a couple of pitches. The screwball, which they don't teach anymore because it got the reputation as a ruiner of arm. The screwball works like a reverse slider movement wise, meaning it breaks to the arm side instead of the glove side. Then there's the palm ball, which was basically like a change up, thrown with the ball buried in the palm of your hand. I haven't really hears either of these 2 pitches referenced since the early 2000's. It's because the cutter and circle change up have taken over as pitches that are taught by coaches.
Love how y'all realized the importance of handedness in batting matchups, very clever!
Thank you so much William, really appreciate the comment 🙏
Because of things like velocity and all the different types of pitches shown here, hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in all of sports. At the major league level it practically requires precognition. Even hitting a 70mph straight fastball in a batting cage can be incredibly difficult. Add 25-30 mph onto that and get it moving up/down or laterally, and factor in that you have about a third of a second to swing the bat (let alone decide whether you're even going to), then consider the diameter of the bat barrel is not much bigger than the diameter of the ball, and you can see why it's so hard. These guys are practically super heroes.
I'm sure others have mentioned this but most American sports fans, even baseball fans can't identify pitches in the moment. It's much more like boxing than cricket in the pitch sequence, you might throw a jab to keep them at a distance so you can land the over. Pitches can often be done backwards to be sneaky in the same way, 160 years of evolution of the game to get to this point. The game has seen many more pitch types and styles than what is listed here and I recommend you watch a video showing the pitchers hands and grip or "mechanics" if you want to keep learning and going down the rabbit hole.
Good stuff guys. I played a long time. Few things that can help you anticipate what pitches are coming. 1) The count. Meaning how many balls and strikes are on the hitter. The fastball is usually the easiest pitch to throw for a strike. So if a pitcher “falls behind” the hitter, say 1 ball 0 strikes (1-0), 2-0, 3-1, 3-0….the pitcher will most often throw a fastball to try to even the count. This is also known by the hitter, and knowing the fastball is the easiest pitch to hit, he will anticipate or “look for” a fastball to hit in those counts. When a pitcher “gets ahead” 0-1, 0-2, 1-2…the hitter is now in a defensive position and just trying to make contact. That usually calls for deceptive pitches. Curves, Sliders and Change ups. These are harder to time and to hit, but also harder to throw for strikes.
2) The change up. While curveballs and sliders are thrown hard, because of the angles of release and paths to the plate, the hitter can identify them easily. A “straight” changeup when thrown correctly is very hard to distinguish from a fastball when hitting. They usually share the same pitching motion and arm action. And when perfectly thrown they are undetectable until the hitter starts swinging…which is too late and it feels like your arms come out of their sockets.
3) Location. Where a pitch crosses the plate, up in the strike or down is how one identifies pitch location. Pitches crossing the middle of the plate above the knees will get hit hard. So good pitchers (in concert with their catchers) will aim for the outer or inner third of the plate ideally. Oddly, these are called “corners”. (The plate is an upside down hexagon like a house, so there are corners. The very outside of the plate is trimmed with black rubber. So you’ll hear announcers say close pitches called strikes that could called a ball was “on the black”. The extreme fringe of the plate.) Pitchers are taught to aim for where the catcher puts his mitt before the pitch, but as they get better they often aim for a catcher’s knees as one is inside on the hitter and the other is outside.
It’s also good to know that even the best pitchers make mistakes every game and put balls in the middle of the strike zone. That is offset by hitters who make mistakes as well, and miss those easy to hit pitches! 😃
P.S. If you want to know more about how pitcher’s hold and throw each pitch, just TH-cam “pitch grips”.
P.S.S. A foul ball is when a hitter makes contact, however hard or just “tipped” that isn’t put into fair play between the first and third baselines.
It takes a while to learn most of these things but you guys are on the right track! Good job.
The knuckleball is a fascinating pitch. Check out videos of Tim Wakefield, Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough, and others. These pitches are nightmares for catchers and often the pitchers have designated catchers that are able to corral the pitches. The best way to describe a knuckleball is a pitch thrown without the stabilizing effect of rotation on the ball. The ball literally floats and meanders its way across the plate.
Great video! Really enjoy seeing Brits take the time to understand the this game.
Thank you Brian! We enjoyed this one!
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned yet, regarding pitching matchups (lefties vs lefties, righties vs righties) is that, unlike Cricket, in baseball, you only have the one pitcher on the field at a time. If the team wants to change their pitcher, they can, but once a pitcher is taken out, they can't pitch again in that game. So you'll generally accept having a less favourable matchup (righty vs lefty) for a few batters, rather than take your pitcher out, especially in the early game.
(for non-Cricket fans: in cricket you can switch your bowler (pitcher) after each over (six throws), and you just switch them with another player on the field, so they can go back and forth as needed)
If you look at a baseball, the red seams roll around the ball and when the pitcher grips the ball, they can either grip it with two or three fingers crossing two seams or the grip will include 4 seams, thus the 2 seam or 4 seam. With the curve ball, a lot of people think the pitcher can't hit the strike zone, however they are using the curve ball and the 'ball in the dirt' concept, trying to get the batter to swing at an unhittable pitch. A strike is the area from the knees to the shoulders of the batter and the width of the home plate (the black lines of the outline). The one thing to remember is the pitcher is trying to deceive the batter with the pitch. Batters often have an Achilles heel, meaning they can't hit a curve ball or a change up, so they watch for a fast ball or off-speed. The fastest pitch I've seen was 107 MPH, which was astonishing, and pitchers who pitch this fast don't last long in the game because they put so much pressure on their shoulder or elbow.
I can't even imagine trying explain baseball to someone who doesn't know it. Most of us begin learning it at 5 or 6 years old and the learning never stops.
I remembering having this same type of conversation fifty years ago when an Aussie I met in Europe stayed for a couple of weeks. Some of he questions are hilarious and in some instances not easily explainable in logical terms.
Fellas, the REALLY fun part is the how and why all of these pitches are used to set up and confuse hitters. One could write for hours on it. Baseball has a million beautiful aspects to it, but at it's core, it is the pitcher vs the hitter.
The knuckleball has always fascinated me. The lack of spin on the ball makes it move very unpredictably. You should see videos on knukcleballers. Very often a pitcher will lose speed as they age and some of them transition to become knuckleballers. They can extend their careers that way. I find it fascinating when a good knuckleballer is on the mound because if their game is on they are practically unhittable. So you see guys striking out with 60-70 mph throws.
Yes, totally agree. I've tried throwing it and maybe get 40% success rate. For a hitter, it just looks soooo juicy, it's sooo slow compared to a regular pitch (you could see the stitching of the baseball not moving at all) but more often than not, get humiliated by it as you misses it by inches. I definitely recommend watching more videos of a knuckleball. A regular baseball "curves/moves" because of the spin of the ball and how it's thrown, but what's fascinating about the knuckleball is it's more of a pushed action of the arm instead of a throwing action.
You want to see unpredictable? Try catching a knuckleball with a stiff wind at your back. Ouch!
loving this - it shows the continuity between all the bat and ball sports and how they are related. you get the gist and know some terminology just from cricket. I think british people would love baseball. in terms of experience-wise, it similar to non-league football. its a great thing to go to (for cheap) and have a beer and have fun with some friends.
Some fun videos to check out might be a catchers view of professional MLB pitchers. It is truly incredible to see just how fast and quick a batter must be to determine to swing and how to swing on a 100mph ball coming at ya. Some videos have audio good enough to catch the air whistle on the seams on the ball coming in. I am a new subscriber, and with MLB spring training just starting, these videos just pump me up. Cheers gents, and Go Cubbies!
I'm always impressed that the pitchers can even hit the strike zone consistently, and put it on one of the corners . It's around 18 and half meters away.
Baseball is like a game of tactics. For a pitcher, if he gets a 0-2 count on the batter (No balls and two strikes), the pitcher will start pitching just outside of the strike zone in hopes the batter we swing for it. If the batter is smart, he will know this and be watching for this. Eventually, the count will become a 3-2 count. (Three balls and two strikes) the next pitch is very important. The pitcher must throw a pitch in the strike zone and the batter knows this also. Sometimes the pitcher has set the batter up with something down low and the 3-2 pitch will be a fastball up at the top of the strike zone.
would be great if part 2 of this would be on how pitchers grip the baseball for certain pitches!!! that would be wild as well. Oh and have them try it out!!!
Nice catch on the left- vs right-handed thing. A right-handed pitcher always has the edge on a right-handed batter, while a left-handed batter always has an edge on a right-handed pitcher. Most or all teams have LH relief pitchers (since, if the starting pitcher is RH, the other team will often load their starting lineup with LH hitters). But the majority of pitchers are RH. This explains, at least in part, why so many power hitters and home run leaders are left-handed. They have a built-in edge on RH pitchers.
This is part of baseball strategy. The manager has to juggle his lineup so that, if a relief pitcher has to be brought in, whether that pitcher is RH or LH will in large part be dependent on the next batter or few batters he will face, and whether they are RH or LH.
This is awesome. Watching two guys, with a different upbringing than mine, actually being interested and exploring the game that i grew up playing and obsessing about is amazing!
Hey guys, enjoyed the video. I know people have probably already commented but I wanted to add my 2 cents. The terms 4-seam and 2-seam are based on how many times the index and middle finger cross the red seams when throwing the ball. The seams help with the spin (or lack of) when throwing the ball. Also, a foul ball is based on where the ball lands after it's hit. The angled lines that start at home plate and extend all the way to the back wall are the foul lines. If the ball lands outside of those lines after it's hit it's a foul ball. Also, if the ball rolls out of those lines before the first or third base respectively it is foul.
Thank you Lee, really appreciate it!
To cover your last question - generally it does matter what hand the pitcher throws with and what side the batter bats on. Right-handed batters generally hit better against left-handed pitchers, and left-handed batters generally hit better against right-handed pitchers. This is often referred to as a "platoon split". It is not a hard and fast rule - some batters and pitchers are exceptions, but it is true most of the time. This comes up most often in relief pitching situations in which (for example) a left-handed batter is due up and the opposing team's manager brings a left-handed pitcher in from the bullpen to pitch to them. The platoon split is also why switch hitters exist - batters who bat from either side of the plate depending on whether they are facing a right-handed or left-handed pitcher.
For some familiar reference points, a curveball is like a hard thrown offspinner, sliders and cutters are more like offcutters. They haven't mentioned screwballs as they're rarely thrown but they're something like a faster legspinner/legcutter type thing
The "yellow box" is the "strike zone"... basically chest to knees and the width of the plate(so changes based on batter height). If the ball is within it's a strike, and 3 gets the batter out. Outside the box is a "ball", four of those and the batter "walks"(goes to 1st)...a foul is if the batter swings, hits the ball, but it doesn't land in "fair territory "+within the field of play, denoted by the white lines down 1st and 3rd base)
The main trick to pitching is to keep the batter confused. Almost every battery can slam any strike you throw, so the tactics are very deep. Playing a good online baseball match will highlight how fun amd deep the strategy is.
I believe the fastest pitch by a current player is from Minnesota Twins reliever Jhoan Duran, who threw a 4-seam fastball at 104mph (103.8) in late September of 2022. His "Splinker" (a splitter/sinker) has been clocked in at 100mph, and his curveball at 90mph. The thing is all of these pitches have movement. The nice thing for the Twins is that he is only 25 years old.
To answer your question about why the fastballs are called 2 seam and 4 seam, a 2 seam is where you grip the ball with your index finger and middle finger riding along the seams of the ball parallel (fingers covering 2 seams). A 4 seam is where you grip the ball with your index finger and middle finger riding perpendicular to the seams on the ball. Since each finger crossed the seams twice, it's a 4 seam fastball. Also, your fingers pushing off the seams of the ball perpendicular is the reason for the increased back spin, henceforth the ball stays straighter longer.
Something that is interesting about the different pitches is the importance of each pitcher’s range of speed in their pitches. Some pitchers can throw a fastball at 100mph, some can barely reach 90. But if that 90mph pitcher also has a good curveball that they throw at 72mph, they can keep the hitter off balance. Having to be ready for two pitches that have a nearly 20mph difference in speed is what limits a hitters ability to make solid contact, especially if their “arm action” when they throw these different pitches is very similar, so it is hard for the hitter to determine which pitch is coming.
You guys were asking great questions. 4-seam and 2-seam fastballs. Hold a baseball in your hand and you'll see the seam sewn up in thick red thread. That seam sort of winds back and forth on the baseball and if you situate the ball right in your hand, you can throw it so that the back spin is over all four seams or just two. 4-seams creates more turbulence as the ball spins which results in less drag. 2-seamers have more flat even surface between the two seams and so there is more drag--and movement.