3 Common Pitching Faults

Andy Ferguson: Another Day, Another Double Play

While the task of retiring hitters with today’s metal bats is not an easy one, it is made more difficult all too often. Wood bats tilt the scale in favor of the pitcher certainly, but still most high school pitchers struggle. Why? Aside from generally poor throwing mechanics (which I think is one of the most common traits of players today in general), I think there are a few main tendencies that hinder success.

1. Tendency to overthrow

Likely a product of the showcase era, we all want to measure ourselves by how hard we throw. But does the hitter care? Throw either 65 or 95 and it will matter, otherwise probably not. Ask around, would a hitter rather face 75 or 85? I think you would be surprised at the answer.

Hint: is it harder for hitters to be quick enough, or to wait?

Instead, stay within yourself. If you can touch 80 mph, then you should probably be pitching around 77 or so – with that 80 available for when you need to reach back for a little more. By working within your abilities, it is reasonable to expect that you:

A. Will be more consistent
B. Can work deeper into games
C. Can recover faster, and will have a generally healthier arm

2. Tendency to nibble

The plate is 17 inches wide, and some umpires will give another 2 or 3 inches on either side. But for some reason, that just isn’t big enough. After all, we wouldn’t want the hitter to make contact would we? Nah, there are only 7 guys behind you with gloves that work hard every day to catch it and throw it – remember, practice is fun but they like to make plays in games too.

Instead, make it important to throw more strikes. I’m not suggesting you throw it right down the middle, but rather to divide the plate into realistic pieces based on a combination of the situation and your capability to execute:

A. Halves: Early in the count, behind in the count, and probably in even counts too, you should be working to the outer half most of the time. If you work towards the inner half, you better get it in and be willing to miss off the plate – misses back to the middle don’t usually work out to well in your favor.

B. Thirds: As you progress you can begin to eliminate the middle third, if you are working at this level you need to stay out of that area. The outer third will likely be your bread and butter, with the inner third again used mostly for effect.

We’ll cover this more in a future posting, when we look at working up and down in addition to in and out.

3. Tendency to throw too many off speed pitches

Maybe I’m wrong here, but I would rather not show the hitter all the pitches I have until I absolutely have to. Not only are off speed pitches shown too early and too often, but rarely are they setup properly or even at all. Let’s face it, most pitchers don’t have good enough action on their curve, or enough deception on their changeup to make hitters flat out swing and miss – there has to be some element of surprise, or change in speeds and/or location involved as well. If all the hitter ever sees is off speed pitches, how are you going to fool him?

Instead, establish your fastball and hold back something – if you can. You don’t want to show the hitters too much too soon – neither the one in the box, nor the ones in the dugout watching you and trying to figure out your stuff and what you are doing with it. I think going fastball/changeup early is ideal, but many young pitchers don’t understand how valuable a changeup is – therefore, they don’t spend the time learning and developing the feel needed to throw it well.

So, the formula for success is really pretty simple. Stay within yourself, make strikes more important that miles per hour, and try to hold a pitch back for as long as possible.


Andy Ferguson is currently the Senior Director of Baseball Operations with the Baseball Factory. Ferguson joined the North Carolina State baseball team as a walk-on, and went on to solidify his role on a team that participated in four consecutive NCAA Regionals. He later coached with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and then served as an Associate Scout with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Diego Padres.

The Most Honest Evaluation?

Andy Ferguson: Another Day, Another Double Play

A couple of weeks ago, Steve Bernhardt urged players to create an honest evaluation of their abilities as their first step in a player development plan of action. In an effort to better arm players and parents to do just that, I wanted to expand on that concept a little bit.

Just as Steve mentioned, players need to identify both their strengths and weaknesses. I think one of the best ways to do this is to try and get your tools in order, from best to worst. Though my playing days have been over for some time, I will use myself as an example to help illustrate how to work through this process.

First, let me give you a little background information.

When I was younger, I could run a little bit and was a good enough athlete to play shortstop and center field. I was very fortunate to play summer ball under former University of North Carolina and current Cotuit Kettleers (Cape Cod Baseball League) skipper Mike Roberts – also father of Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts. I guess he did most of the evaluation for me back then, and determined that I would outgrow both shortstop and center field (plus Brian played shortstop then, and was WWWAAAYYY better than me there), so he moved me behind the plate when I was about 15.

I only bring that up to point out the value of the insight that an experienced baseball person can provide. I realize we don’t all have access to such people, but I urge you to seek an unbiased opinion of your abilities. You may not like what you hear, which of course I didn't when I got moved, but it just may work out for the better in your case...just as it did for me.

OK, back to self evaluation. Here are how my tools would have lined up in high school.

POSITION PLAYER
1. Power
2. Arm strength
3. Hitting ability
4. Fielding ability
5. Running ability

PITCHER
1. Control
2. Fastball
3. Curveball
4. Changeup

As is the case with many high school players, even though my personal best position was catcher, I played a lot of first base my sophomore and junior years. That was where my name got written into the lineup, so that's where I went. I caught my senior year, but only because our regular catcher hurt his throwing shoulder and was out for that season.

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TODAY'S DOUBLE PLAY
The best double play combo I played with during my career

What I was doing on this club, I still don't know for sure. I had already finished my redshirt year at NC State, and was still just 18 years old - the same as most recently graduated high school seniors. The 1995 Ohio Warhawks had four players that made it to the Major Leagues. Two are household names: Brian Roberts and Pat Burrell. Two other players bounced up and down and between a couple of teams: Brent Butler (2B with Rockies, most recently with AAA Tampa Bay) and Jon Adkins (RHP with the Padres, White Sox and Mets. Now in AAA with the Reds).

1. Brian Roberts
Played shortstop then, and through college before moving across the bag in professional baseball. Could really throw, so much so that he would take pre-game infield from darn near shallow left field - and still threw missles to first base. A relentless base stealer and sparkplug at the top of the lineup. During this summer he began to hit for more power, a trend that would continue through college and into professional baseball.


2. Brent Butler
Played second base at the time, but would flip flop across the bag every other game or so with Roberts during the 95 Warhawks season. He absolutely raked, just hit everything hard and all over the ballpark. Had right around the same home run total for that summer as Pat Burrell. Signed with the Cardinals as a third round pick in 1996, made it to the big leagues with the Rockies in 2001.
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It is important to look at how your tools, and the order you put them in, “profile” at your position. Profile is a scouting concept that essentially outlines what players at each position ideally have in their “tool box.” You may read “tool box” and think of it literally, but in scouting terms “tool box” is the little box on the scouting report where the tool grades are written.

In my case, my tools didn’t fit the catching position particularly well back then. They probably fit first base better, but still not a perfect fit. Actually, some other schools that recruited me wanted to consider me at third base as much as behind the plate.

Now, we will begin to look at tool importance by position. First, if you have any interest in the exercise, you should try to rank your tools in order from best to worst.

Position players: tools are hitting ability, power, arm strength, fielding ability, running ability

Pitchers: tools are fastball, curveball, changeup (if you have it), other pitch (like a slider, splitter, etc., if you have it), and control

Now that you have your tools ranked, let’s look and see how they fit at your position. I should point out that these tool importance charts are just my opinion, and they most certainly vary from person to person, team to team and school to school.

PITCHER
There really is no order for pitching tools, at least not like there is for position players. Generally, pitchers are split into two groups based on the tools they have: Starters & Relievers.

The biggest difference is the quality and quantity of their secondary pitches. Often times pitchers with quality stuff but lack of consistent control, or with questionable pitching mechanics, are considered better bullpen guys.

Starting pitchers are expected to get around a lineup two or three times, which gets tougher as hitters get better – the ability to throw strikes, and to do so with several different pitches is eventually a necessity.

CATCHER
1. Fielding ability
2. Arm strength
3. Hitting ability
4. Power
5. Running ability

FIRST BASE
1. Hitting ability
2. Power
3. Fielding ablity
4. Arm strength
5. Running ability

THIRD BASE
1. Hitting ability
2. Power
3. Arm strength
4. Fielding ability
5. Running ability

SHORTSTOP
1. Fielding ability
2. Arm strength
3. Hitting ability
4. Running ability
5. Power

SECOND BASE
1. Hitting ability
2. Fielding ability
3. Running ability
4. Arm strength
5. Power

CENTER FIELD
1. Hitting ability
2. Fielding ability
3. Running ability
4. Power
5. Arm strength

RIGHT FIELD
1. Hitting ability
2. Power
3. Arm strength
4. Running ability
5. Fielding ability

LEFT FIELD
1. Hitting ability
2. Power
3. Running ability
4. Fielding ability
5. Arm strength

Not to jump back on my favorite soapbox, but you will notice (at least on my personal tool importance chart) that running ability is never higher than third most important at any position. There are without a doubt certain college programs that value running ability very much, and I don’t entirely disagree since usually guys that can run are pretty good athletes. However, I believe that either hitting ability or fielding ability should be number one, depending on the position, since those tools are among the most basic components of any baseball player.