03-26-2012, 09:24 PM
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#2
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Rookie
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Re: Pitching Advice?
Its ok to use the catchers suggestion.. they're usually pretty good calls.. I find myself thinking after a certain pitch about my next pitch, and the catchers next call is exactly where and what I was thinking of doing...
However, I do go my own route sometimes too... my best advice for pitching would be the exact same advice I have for hitting : watch each pitch's confidence meter... if its low confidence, don't hang it, and if its high confidence, even if its down the middle, there's a better chance for that pitch to get whiffed or get hit right to someone..
The batter seems to look for the low confidence stuff, and even painting the corners with them can end up with an easy hit for them. Although, I can sometimes get out of jams by throwing the low confidence stuff out of the zone and getting a swingthrough
My last game : Cards vs Indians... Wainwright went 9.0 innings, only gave up 3 hits, 0 walks, and only needed 68 pitches to get the complete game shutout... but another intersting thing was I had 0 strikeouts. The first inning was a 3 pitch inning, all groundouts with the fastball, so the next inning begins with my fastball maxed in confidence, and I slowly worked other pitches in between fastballs and got those meters up too. They were connecting well with the pitches, but I wasn't trying too much to dance around the corners, but wasn't hanging them dead center either.
Each of the 3 hits I gave up also ended up double plays the next batter as well. If a batter gets a hit off of, let's say the fastball, like these were, that pitch's confidence goes down a little, and the next batter will be also looking for that pitch again.. so those next batters saw some curves and changeups, a couple waste pitches, and then I gave them fastball low and away, slightly outside the corner. They chased everytime, and right to my SS...
But let me also say, I have never breezed so easily through the defensive side of a game like this one before. This one was rare for me, but the same strategy of playing towards your pitch's stengths is how I always pitch. I dare never lay the very low confidence fastball down the middle, not even on a 3-0 count... but I wouldn't sweat giving a maxed out confidence fastball down the middle, even if I'm down a run or two...
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