Baseball Pitching Grips Fastball Seam Charts

A softball curve can be thrown with some variations, but all curves have a certain circle look that the Seams make. A curve ball from a right-handed pitcher will break away from a right-handed hitter and in on a left-handed hitter. Deception is likely the reason why pitchers with below-average vertical movement and velocity – such as the Milwaukee Brewers’ Brent Suter – can still manage to generate strong whiff rates on high fastballs.

Hard Focus is for a short amount of time and comes right as the pitcher begins their wind up or a little after and remains until the ball is hit or crosses the plate. Hard Focusing on release helps one pick up the ball and in turn the seams, as soon as possible. This is the most common pitch in softball and is thrown the straightest. Poche put up a pedestrian 4.70 ERA in 51.2 innings pitched during his rookie year in 2019, and his best pitch – a fastball which averaged only 92.9 MPH – was thrown a whopping 88.5% of the time last season . Sadly, most of the kids who come to us in high school are cemented into throwing just a 2-seam fastball, a circle change, and a curve.

The pitch has somewhat the speed of a fastball but also the movement of a screwball. Hard Focus on Release Point is the second step in the Seam Readers Process, this is the first physical step the hitter will do. This is the state of focus the batter will naturally be in at the plate.

A risk with throwing the four-seam fastball is that it has no movement. If you place the ball in the center of the strike zone, or a batter’s wheelhouse, you can give up a big hit. Your index finger and middle finger should be about a half-inch apart. If you move your fingers slightly off-center, the ball should break a bit. The backspin on the ball makes the ball rise relative to a ball with no spin due to the magnus effect.

There is a noticeable difference in the direction of the stitches which could lead to slightly different movement patterns. This pitch has very late down movement which makes this pitch to lay off of. Depending on the pitcher, some will throw a change-up that has a little depth, and some just float pitcher’s pocket pro it in there and rely on the change in speed, and the similar spin for effectiveness. This pitch moves only a few inches to the pitchers glove side and doesn’t usually have much depth. This pitch is slightly more difficult to locate than the four-seamer, but still is thrown with good control.

Two-seam fastballs should be thrown when ahead of the count and to trick the batter with unpredictable movement. As stated earlier, 2 seam fastballs typically move to the pitcher’s arm side. Movement is great for pitchers – as long as they can control it. If a pitcher wants to generate more movement on his fastball, then a 2 seam is the way to go.