I’m sure you’ve heard before about the best pitch a pitcher can throw. You know, the pitch that all coaches love to see from their starters and relievers.
A strike.
I’m sure I don’t need to explain all the advantages of throwing strikes. But I’d like to help clarify the difference between a pitcher and a caster, as I see too many of the latter.
A pitcher is an athlete who masters his pitches to a great extent. In the younger age groups, there may be some slack in the command of the pitches, but as you get closer to middle school and high school, there are some requirements.
MUST #1 – To call yourself a pitcher, you must be able to throw all your pitches for a strike (on any count) 50% of the time or more. In college, 60%. Why? For two main reasons. Get ahead and stay ahead of hitters, and store your valuable “bullets” in your arm. You don’t want to end up in the fourth inning (as a starter) and have used up 80% of your pitch count.
MUST #2 – As a pitcher you must, you must, you must learn to change speed. I don’t care if your only pitch is a fastball, you can win games. Keeping the same arm speed and shortening the landing stride by six inches would help with that. Throwing hard is nice, but if that’s all you do, hitters will take notice.
So what is the difference between a pitcher and a pitcher? You are a caster until you become proficient with the above. Keep working on it.
