Good pitching has a clear advantage against good hitting…

You are the competitor with the baseball in your hand…

You are the competitor in control of which pitch to throw…

You are the competitor in control of the location of that pitch…

Words are just words…you must believe this as a pitcher and have the confidence in your ability to win the competition between pitcher vs. hitter.

Do you believe that Good Pitching beats Good Hitting?

A good pitcher will force a good hitter to adjust/change/become uncomfortable according to the pitcher’s strengths…

Hitters, or as evident in studying basic human behavior, do not like change…do not like being uncomfortable.

Pitchers: you are literally in control of forcing the hitter to adjust, and as a result, become uncomfortable.

Advantage pitcher.

Every hitter wants to get their feet set in the box where they feel comfortable and balanced.

Every hitter wants to get a little bend in their knees and become locked in on timing a pitcher release point.

Every hitter wants to breathe easy at the plate and have a winning at-bat.

The goal of the pitcher is to disrupt all of that…

Make the hitter uncomfortable…

Example of Good Pitching against Good Hitting:

RHP, live fastball, wipeout slider, command anywhere/anytime

vs.

RHH with quick hands, batting fifth in the lineup, leading the league in HRs and Doubles (Power Hitter with excellent bat to ball ability)

Hitter would love to be able to time up one of these live fastballs…

0-0: Fastball In: pushes hitter off the plate…pitcher asserting dominance…hitter naturally uneasy about that pitch and location as it surely “jumped” on him with very live Perceived Velocity.

1-0: Fastball Down and Away (90 MPH RV / 84 MPH PV): hitter late on pitch and fouls to right side.

1-1: Fastball Up and In (90 MPH RV / 96 MPH PV): hitter swings and misses…Pitcher used Effective Velocity to achieve that whiff…the previous 1-0 Fastball Down and Away was 90 MPH Real Velocity but played down to 84 MPV Perceived Velocity based on the RHP/RHH location…therefore the 1-1 Fastball Up and In now looks likes 96 MPH (12 MPH Spread on the same pitch type).

Pitcher at this point in the at-bat has gone strength vs. strength with only Fastballs (using Effective Velocity) against an above-average Fastball hitting RHH. With a 1-2 count, the hitter is most definitely unsure of what will come next…and where.

Advantage pitcher.

1-2: Slider Down and Away (82 MPH RV / 76 MPH PV): hitter swings and misses…strike three. Pitcher backed up the 1-1 Fastball Up and In (96 MPH PV) with a 1-2 Slider Down and Away (76 MPH PV)…a 20 MPH Spread in Perceived Velocity and seeing the slider for the first time in the at-bat.

In that example, Good Pitching won against Good hitting…which should be the case each and every time.

The RHP in this imagined at-bat utilized their major strength (Fastball) for 75% of the at-bat but forced the hitter to become uncomfortable (0-0 Fastball In) and used Effective Velocity (pitch type and location based on previous pitch) to dominate this league leader in HRs.

Good Pitching beats Good Hitting.