I have five pitches. Fast ball, change, curve, slider, screwball. I don't know any hitters. Catcher, he tells me what to do. I can get any pitch I want over the plate.
I've got a fastball, change-up, forkball, curve, slider, knuckle-slider, knuckle-curve, I had about seven pitches I could have used at any time.
Got any pitches? I got five pitches-rise-ball, curveball, screwball, drop-ball and changeup.
I love the slider. I'll throw it anytime. It helps the curve. The last five feet, it dives toward the left-handed hitter's box. It's a pitch that looks like a fastball coming in. It's a pitch I throw when I need a ground ball with a man on base.
Baseball is a game where a curve is an optical illusion, a screwball can be a pitch or a person, stealing is legal and you can spit anywhere you like except in the umpire's eye or on the ball.
For me, that's the difference in good hitters and bad hitters. If you can stay in the zone and make them throw you pitches, you'll be able to drive the ball a little bit better.
The curve and the fast one are important; the change of pace and the other trick deliveries are great but they're not worth a plugged nickel unless you have control to go along with them. And by control I don't mean the ability to put the ball over the plate somewhere between the shoulders and knees. I mean the ability to hit a three-inch target nine times out of ten, the sort of control that lets you put the ball in the exact spot you want it, and to play a corner to the split fraction of an inch.
Believe me, I would much rather get three outs on three pitches than three outs on nine pitches, because that's going to make me that much stronger at the end of the game. My pitching philosophy is simpe. I believe in getting the ball over the plate and not walking a lot of men.
The pitch would normally be low, but my ball starts carrying and stays on a sustained plane. Everyone always complains - 'that ball is low' - but then you go back and look at the tape, and it's right there. My catchers tell me, and the hitters tell me, that the ball stays true flight the last five or six feet.
If I'm not going to make the pitch, then so be it. I'm not going to try to manipulate the ball or muscle the ball over the plate where I want it to go.
I consciously memorized the speed at which every pitcher in the league threw his fastball, curve, and slider. Then, I'd pick up the speed of the ball in the first 30 feet of its flight and knew how it would move once it has crossed the plate.
I was a baseball player. I played in high school and a little bit in college. I was a catcher. I don't know if I could have played any other position. As a catcher, you're always on the ball.
Everyone wants to talk about my slider, and how effective it is, but it really can't be without fastball command. It starts with my fastball, even if the slider is the pitch I want to get to.
I consciously memorized the speed at which every pitcher in the league threw his fastball, curve, and slider; then, I'd pick up the speed of the ball in the first thirty feet of its flight and knew how it would move once it had crossed the plate.
I'll get in that habit of throwing the ball over the plate too much. You want to keep it going, get those guys back into the dugout. But it's not a good thing when you're over more than a third of the plate.
Back in the day when I played, a pitcher had 3 pitches: a fastball, a curveball, a slider, a changeup and a good sinker pitch.
If I can execute pitches and keep the ball out of the middle of the plate, I know I can have success.