Why your shouldn't throw both a curveball and a slider

A common misconception in baseball is that the more pitches you have, the better you'll be as a pitcher.

Not true.

It's better to have two good pitches than it is to have five mediocre pitches.

Most big league pitchers do not throw a curve ball and slider because it’s difficult, even for pros, to keep the integrity of the pitches without them becoming a "slurve." (A slurve is a combination of the two pitches that doesn’t exactly "dart" like a true slider or "drop" like a true curveball -- making it, usually, easy to hit.)

Don’t spread your baseball pitch mastery too thin by working on a curve ball and slider. As you advance to college and professional baseball, it's unlikely you'll throw both. And even if you're throwing a curve ball and slider out of college, your first pro pitching coach will have you focus on just one of them, whichever is the better pitch.

That's why I encourage younger pitchers to select and develop just one two-plane pitch to master (the curve or slider), and spend the rest of the time getting that change-up down.

This way, you'll have a complete arsenal of "looks" to unbalance the hitter: a fastball, a change-up, and a two-plane pitch.

So which one are you going to focus on: the curve ball or slider?