How many different baseball pitches should you throw?

A member of my pitching forum started a thread on pitching grips.

Because I've gotten quite a few e-mails about the topic, I thought I'd address it here.

A lot of pitchers want to know how many different pitches they should work on: Two? Three? Five?

I think a big misconception many pitchers have is that they think that the more pitches they throw, the more difficult they'll be to hit.

More times than not, the opposite is true. The trap I see a lot of pitchers falling into is spending time throwing many different pitches -- fastballs, sliders, curveballs, screwballs, splitters, changeups, palmballs, knuckleballs, etc., etc. They never master one or two, which reminds me of that old saying: "Jack of all trades, master of none."

In high school, you need just two "plus" (above average) pitches (fastball/changeup) or three average pitches (fastball/changeup/breaking ball).

In college, you need two plus pitches and a third average pitch.

In professional baseball, you need three plus pitches (and some starters have a forth average pitch).

I'm counting four-seam and two-seam FBs as one pitch, by the way.

When it comes to pitching grips, more is not better. Master the fastball and another pitch. Make those pitches above average and you'll have a ton more success than throwing a dozen junkers.