Pitching Basics: The Importance Of Pitching Control

Hitting wins games. Defense wins championships! Defense starts with pitching, and the most important part of pitching is to throw the ball where you want to throw it. A pitcher can only control when he pitches and where he throws the ball. So don't worry about the rest.

The number one goal of pitching is to hit your target. So pitching is really nothing more than target practice. Velocity is secondary. Movement is secondary. The sharpness of your pitch is secondary.

Pitching is the ability to throw strikes to both sides of the plate. The ability to change speeds with a breaking ball or a change-up is also important, since it creates a timing problem for hitters.

Then comes the importance of creating ball movement, either horizontally or vertically, particularly with a fastball, change-up, or breaking ball.