This past season was my first season pitching and i was the ace of my JV team. I did decent against most of the teams. I just had shotty defense thats usually y i would lose. I did find that i had a accuracy problem i had trouble locating everything. My most consistent pitch was my 2 seam. I couldnt throw 4 seams to save my life. My curve was hit or miss when i pitched. Im on the varsity summer team and i want to do good any advice?
16 y.o. 6’ 1" about 185
mediocre velocity
All right, let’s take it one thing at a time.
When Jim Brosnan was pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals he was having trouble with both his two-seam and his four-seam fast ball, and he complained to pitching coach Clyde King about it. King called in a catcher, and he had Brosnan throw for about ten minutes. Then he told him to stick with the two-seamer, because it was working better for him, he had better control of that pitch. So at least for the time being you might do the same thing—stay with the two-seamer, and maybe try to develop a sink on that pitch.
As far as control goes—I remember when I was a little snip of 12 or 13, I would get hold of a catcher and we’d play a game we called “ball and strike”. The whole idea was to work on location, on hitting various spots, and I had the catcher position his glove in one spot or another and move to various corners, and I would practice throwing to those spots—a terrific way to sharpen up control.
And you might want to think about working up a new pitch, as you indicated. I didn’t have anything resembling a fast ball, so I had to go to the “snake jazz”—breaking pitches of various kinds. You might experiment there—try working up a knuckle-curve, a palm ball or some other pitch that is easy to throw and control and very, very hard to hit…And ever think of something like a splitter? There are possibilities galore—you should consider a couple of them. Let me know how you make out with this. I’m interested. 
If you are interested in the knuckleball you can PM me or I can talk to you in the chat room. I would try to tell you more here but I’m afraid I could get flamed (I often do bye talking knuckleball).
Main thing if you want to learn a knuckleball is that you have to work at it a lot, if that’s not what you want maybe it’s not the right pitch for ya, but hey use what you want.
In you situation a change-up is actually the best thing for you right now, easy to learn and easy to control.
learn the change and if you have the time learn the knuckle but dont throw it in a game until its perfected
i talked with our pitching coach and he said im not looking at my target.
i worked on locking in on my target and it helped a ton
ill start working the change this summer and hopefully have full command of it for next season
A word to “Pustulio”:
Now what makes you think you might get “flamed”, or whatever they call it, if you want to discuss the knuckleball?
I never could get the hang of it, because I had that sharp wrist snap from my curve ball, but early on I discovered there was such a thing as a knuckle-curve, so I worked on it and experimented with different knuckleball grips and in a short time picked up on it. (I think Mike Mussina picked his up the same way I did.) But it’s no crime to talk about a pitch like that, and there are many people who are willing to listen and learn and maybe try it out for themselves.
So if you want to talk knuckleball, you have in me a willing listener. Maybe I never threw it, but I certainly am interested in learning more about it. 8)
Well I’ve gotten flamed in the past for it and so it actually had kept me from posting here for a while.
Anyways, main thing about the knuckleball is that you need to keep a stiff wrist. Next is that you still need to throw it relatively hard, not 100% but it needs to be going about 55 or so to get moving. Fire and follow, do not push. Different things work for different people so experiment a whole bunch to learn things for you. Even though it’s tempting try to focus on your target more than the ball’s rotation it’ll help you throw strikes with it.
That’s some of the basics of it if you wish to discuss more PM me or catch me in the chat room sometime.
Hi Pustulio,
I dont see why you would get flamed. The knuckleball has a long honored tradition in baseball.
I do believe that knuckleballers are best as knuckleball specialists or close to it, but maybe that’s a new thread? Ian.