what is the hardest off speed pitch to hit in baseball?

Answer 1

Knuckle ball with out a doubt.

Answer 2

The hardest off-speed pitch to hit in baseball is the change-up. While a good 12-6 curveball can be effective, good hitters can still pick up the spin and sometimes the change in arm angle or hand postion. When combined with an effective fastball (accurate with at least average velocity) the change-up is almost untouchable. There is no spin to pick up and when thrown correctly there is no discernable difference between it and your fastball upon release. Many here will try to tell you that a curve or slider is the way to go, I admit that they are extremely important, but by no means the hardest to hit. Ask any college or pro player and they will tell you it's the change. Just look at what Johan Santana does every year...dude has two changes (a straight change and a circle change). Just listen to other guys in the league talk about him and which pitch they hate the most from him.

Need further proof, when asked about throwing change-ups or throwing slow intentionaly:

"I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it."
-Sandy Koufax

"My job isn't to strike guys out, its to get them out, sometimes by striking them out."
-Tom Seaver

"Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing."
-Warren Spahn

"The most important thing in pitching is the element of surprise -- you have to throw every pitch with the same motion. ... There are two ways of surprising a batter. One is in the sphere of space. When the ball hops or sinks or curves, the batter can't be sure where it's coming. The other is in the sphere of time. If you throw fast one time and slow another time and medium slow another time, the batter can't be sure when it's coming. I like a young man who does both."
-Branch Rickey

"Ryan was hard to hit early in his career, even harder in the middle of his career, and damn near impossible toward the end when he developed a change-up."
-Pete Rose on Nolan Ryan

*Johan Santana, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Jamie Moyer are all very successful change-up pitchers (and Maddux and Glavine should have been retired years ago, but still winning games because of their ability to change speeds), and those are just the ones off the top of my head*

Answer 3

The Knuckle Ball

Did you know there are actually 3 Knuckle Ball pitches? The knuckle sink, the floater, the cork screw. Most people don't even know that because the Knuckle Ball is such a highly secretive pitch. Ask 50 K-Ball pitchers and they'll give you 50 different ways to throw it. It takes years to develope and learn how to throw it. It is NOT easy.
Learning what makes the ball "dance" in a desired fashion also does not make for a great knuckle ball. If you repeatedly throw the K-Ball in the same way people will pick up on it. Same as the change up.
What makes the K-Ball therefore better than the change up is the ability to throw it for different effects with unnoticable differences in arm angle, hand positioning, and release. So from a hitting perspective or even pitcher perspective "I don't even know where its gonna go." - Tom Candiotti.
And if we're throwing qoutes in for effect "there are two ways to hit the knuckle and neither one works" - Charley Lau

If anyone is interested in a more detailed w/pics w/video break down of the knuckle ball and how to throw it. contact me via email or text message. Broadband internet connection recommended for the videos.

Answer 4

the hardest off speed pitch to hit is a good change-up as long as the pitcher has a good fastball. the reason being is that a changeup looks exactly like a fastball and the pitcher throws it like a fastball so its harder for the batter to pick up what kind of pitch it is. everybody always says the best combo in baseball is the fastball, changeup because its so hard to pick up. also when batters look the worst at the plate is when the pitcher fools them with a good changeup because they are so out in front of it.

Answer 5

It depends on the pitcher's pitches. For example, on my high school team, one of our pitchers, Charlie, throws a wicked change but his curveball is meat. Another one, Lee, throws a sick curve and change, and both are equally hard to hit because he changes speed well. another pitcher, last year, was unhittable because of a sick knuckleball. However, I think the most dangerous pitch to both the batter and the pitcher is the splitter; it has a sharp downward break and it's slower than a regular fastball. Also, it's impossible to pick up out of the hand because it's throw with the exact same arm action as a fastball.

Answer 6

If it is working right, the hardest one to hit is the knuckleball. It comes in so slow that you think you can clobber it, but then it will move to the left, right, or just plain sink into the dirt. It is almost impossible to tell where and when its going to break. It is the reason pitchers such as Phil and Joe Niekro, Wilbur Wood and Tim Wakefield stuck around so long. It takes very little effort to throw it, and it makes your other pitches that much more difficult to hit because you are looking for that floater all the time.

Answer 7

Depends on who the pitcher is. A good fastball pitcher will kill you if he has a tough changeup. Someone who throws a cut fastball will buckle your knees with a tough slider. Look at Barry Zito's big sweeping curve.

Then each hitter has his own idea of whats tough. I remember Dave Kingman(.250 career average and a ton of HRs). He couldn't hit a curveball to save his life, but throw him a change up and he would treat it like slow pitch softball.

Answer 8

right now i am a highschool freshman and play highschool baseball and i believe a good curveball is the hardest pitch to hit in baseball but i am sure a great knuckleball would be a pitch which u just watch too.

Answer 9

I heard a good splitter is the toughest because it looks just like a fastball and dives right before it gets to the home plate. Roger Clemens resurrected his career with that pitch.

Answer 10

Fork ball -It's a pitch thrown with the ball inserted between the index and middle fingers causing it to dip sharply near home plate.

You are either way out in front of it or you think it's out of the strike zone and you watch a strike go by.

Answer 11

Wakefields Knuckleabll