im looking to add a new pitch to my arsenal, what should it be?

Question

so far ive got a 75-78 mph 4-seamer, a pretty good circle-change, a good curve, and okay 2-seamer and cutter. i want to work on a new pitch over the winter, what should it be??

p.s. Just turned 15....

Answer 1

In addition to everything Duke D. said, work on rotator cuff exercises. Also throw long toss every day possible, throwing as if your target was the catcher. It does not matter if it bounces in front of him at first but as you train, you can eventually throw strikes 200' away. Always keep the ball on a line. If you develop a strong arm, you can almost play any position, especially outfield. Stay away from the junk or else you will end up as a high school "has been". Here's one from back in the day. Pedro Borbone, RF of the Cincy Reds was asked how he could throw a strike home from the wall. He said since he was a kid he threw long toss with a softball. FYI - the strongest arm ends up in RF.

Answer 2

Work harder on your fastball through technique and arm strength. Your arm hasn't developed enough to throw a lot of breaking balls and you could do serious damage to your elbow. In High School...a good 4 seam and 2 seam fastball and a good change...all of which you can "command"..i.e. throw for strikes when you want are all that you really need...being able to hit corners when you try , and keep the ball down when you need to is more important than an huge arsenal of pitches. You need to concentrate on good control of 2-3 pitches more than have a bunch of different ones.

There are good exercises you can do over the winter with a piece of surgical tubing that can strengthen your elbow and shoulder. Having an arsenal of 5-6 pitches at your stage is simply an ego thing.... some of the best h.s. pitchers I've ever seen had heat and a good change-up and a curve they could throw for a strike when they wanted or a waste when they needed...and they were excellent

Answer 3

Fastball and change-up, agreed, but... where to throw them and when?

If you throw a fastball low and inside and he (a RH batter) rifles it foul down the 3rd base line, that means he has that thing pretty well timed. So what to do? Smart bet would be to throw your change-up low and away (but for a strike), change of speed is important to get his timing off.
Let's say he lunges out and gets a piece of it, and it's a slow roller foul and to the right, not even making it to the firstbase coach.
Count is 0-2. You can throw another change-up in that location, and hope this time he misses, or a change-up low and inside and hope that freezes him (don't be afraid to double up [means to throw the same pitch twice]), or you can throw a fastball high and inside or high and outside (but for a strike). Why those two places? Because you're changing his eye level (from low to high) and you're changing his timing (from fastball to change up and back to fastball).

And don't waste your time doing long toss when you could be pitching from the mound at 100% intensity. Pitching is a two-phase motor skill. To improve, you must do that skill with good feedback so you know what to work and improve on.

Throwing 200 feet is not the same as throwing a change up low and away for a strike on a mound that's 60.5 feet away.

Pitching velocity has nothing to do with arm strength, but that's for a different question being asked, so I'll leave it alone for now.

Only work on a new pitch if - and this is just an extreme example - someone put a gun to your head and told you to throw [insert pitch here] at [insert location here] and you could do it, and do it over and over again, then by all means, work on a different pitch.

Answer 4

At age 15 you only need two good pitches to get hitters out. A good fastball and an off speed pitch is enough to work on and you can forget about anything else at this time.

Answer 5

One over the plate for a strike!

You can have 120 different pitches, but if you can't get them over, they don't do you a lick of good.

Answer 6

Try a Slider or a Cut-Fastball
PS- Dont hut ur arm

Answer 7

Slider

Answer 8

The powerful paralyzing perfect pachyderms percussion pitch.

Answer 9

How about the Tommy John ball. That's the surgery you're going to be getting if you keep throwing that sh*t.