Setting Up A Batter

The contest between you and the batter hinges upon your ability to keep the batter mentally off stride. You can do this by varying the speed and position of your pitches. Some power pitchers can be successful merely by overpowering batters with fastballs. But those pitchers are the exception. If you're a pitcher with more modest stuff, you must rely on cunning and control to get the batter out.

In general, you should always try to keep the ball low and away from the batter, with an occasional high-and-inside pitch thrown for effect. Unless you have exceptional speed, a high-and-inside fastball should be thrown to force the hitter back from the plate, not necessarily to make him swing at the pitch. No matter how weak a batter is, if he is thrown nothing but a steady diet of low-and-away pitches, sooner or later he'll adjust his swing and hit one of them.

The ratio of fastballs to curveballs to sliders to change-ups you throw each game should be determined not only by which pitches are generally yout best, but also by which pitches are working best for you that day. If you have an excellent curveball on a certain day, you should not work it to death, but save it for only toughest situations. Neither should you ever abandon your weakest pitch on a given day; you should try to use it in certain spots to keep a batter off balance ... not necessarily to get him to swing at it.

That said, try to "show" the batter your weakest stuff early in the count, but throw it to a spot, say, off the plate, where he can't hit it. A curveball in the dirt reminds the batter that you possesses the pitch while still not giving him a chance to hit it. It is one more pitch the batter must think about.

No matter whether the batter is a fastball hitter or a curveball hitter, in a tight situation, you must go with your strength, even if that strength is also the batter's strength. So even if the hitter is a fastball hitter ... and you're a fastball pitcher ... throw the fastball. At best, hitters hit in only 3 out of 10 chances at bat (.300 avg). The percentages are in your favor!

Work on it!