This post was inspired by the book “Training Talk” by G. Martin Bingisser. The book was comprised of conversations with some of the world’s best coaches in track and field, soccer, football and rugby. If you haven’t read it, it’s definitely worth your time. My biggest takeaway and a reoccurring theme in the book was to TRULY know and understand your event or sport. These master coaches took a step back and really tried to define their event/sport and break it down to its simplest parts or skills. If you’re about to go to war, the better you know your opponent and what you’re up against, the better chance you have.. So in coaching terms, the more accurately know the event, the more accurately you can prepare.
Side note: It’s interesting that the coaches who are looked at as the best in their sport seem to simplify things better than others. What’s also interesting is that I never thought to do it. Maybe it’s because I played the game and you feel like you’re past that point. But if you were trying to explain why hitting is so difficult to someone who knew nothing about the sport, this would be a great mindset to start with.
The event that we’re interested in as hitting coaches is the matchup of the pitcher and the hitter. So as the title of the post infers, I tried to describe all of the variables of the at bat. Since the pitcher starts the event, that’s where I’ll begin and then take it all the way through the end of the pitch and then multiple pitches of the at bat. At the end of this post we’ll talk about the training implications and how it might change how we train hitters.
The pitcher variables: The pitcher is the first part of the equation and since every pitcher is different, we’ll start by looking at their variables.
Their delivery and consistency of the delivery
Every pitcher’s delivery (windup or stretch) is different. Their overall motion needs to be timed and some pitchers like Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen have deliveries that have been known to give players difficulties. Plus pitchers are using quick pitches and hesitations during their delivery to add every more variation to their deliveries.
Hiding the ball
Some pitchers “hide the ball” in their deliveries better than others. This is more of a qualitative idea as you hear from players that a certain pitcher is harder to pick up than another. There really isn’t any data on something like this but I’m not one to discard the opinions of those who are the highest level of the game.
Pitch release point
As we’ll see below, the pitcher’s release point certainly has a part in the variables of ball flight like pitch trajectory and pitch angle. We’ll cover this in the next section however, I think it deserves its own category. Visually speaking, a pitcher’s release point can be very different. Think about where you are looking (and how that might affect your stance, posture and swing) when facing a pitcher who releases the ball at 1′ to the right of the rubber and 7′ above the ground versus a pitcher who releases the ball 2′ to the left of the rubber and 2.5′ off of the ground. Plus the more outside of the normal release point that hitters are used to and the less they see a release point the more difficult or uncomfortable it’ll be.
The pitch variables: Once the pitcher lets go of the ball there is a new set of variables related to the pitch.
Pitch angle
What angle does the pitch come to home plate? A quick search on brooksbaseball.net will give you a good idea of horizontal release points. Pitchers can release the ball up to 4+ feet to the left and the right of the rubber. Think Chris Sale and Max Sherzer although both of them are only in the 3+ range. So think about putting a pitching machine at 55′ feet from home plate and moving it from 4 feet to the left of the center of the rubber, 4 feet to the right of the center of the rubber and everywhere in between. On top of that, the horizontal movement of a pitch also determines the pitch angle as it crosses home plate. Think about Chris Sale with his release point 3″ to the right of the rubber from the hitter’s perspective and then add in his slider which has on average 14″ of horizontal movement.
Pitch trajectory
According to Blast Motion, the average fastball crosses home plate at -6 degrees while the average breaking ball crosses the plate at -10 degrees. Although for this exercise we’re not looking for averages. We’re trying to figure out everything we need to handle. Turns out that most pitches enter the zone between -4 and -21 degrees. It’s also important to remember that pitchers have different vertical release points with the highest being 7+ feet and the lowest being at 2+ feet.
Pitch movement profile (spin and axis)
The easiest way to describe this variable is pitch movement but the movement of the pitch basically comes down to two factors, pitch spin and spin axis. It is also dependent on velocity but for simplicity sake I figured I’d leave it at spin and spin axis and give pitch speed it’s own category. While you could go look up these variables for each and every pitcher, it’s probably more practical to look up the average MLB movement profile for each pitch (fastball, curveball, slider, changeup, etc.) and then work off of that making them slightly better or worse based on your desire and training goal. Here are the league averages for the most common pitches: 4 seam fastballs average 7″ horizontal movement and 16″ of drop, cutters average 3″ of horizontal movement and 27″ of drop, sliders average 6″ of horizontal movement and 37″ of drop, curveballs average 10″ of horizontal movement and 54″ of drop, changeups average 13″ of horizontal movement and 31″ of drop and sinkers average 15″ of horizontal movement and 25″ of drop.
Pitch speed
As we all know, velocity has been increasing. The fastest pitch in 2019 was 104.3 mph by Jordan Hicks. On the other side of the spectrum, Zach Greinke throws his eephus pitch on average at 63.5 mph. That’s quite the differential and something all hitters should prepare for.
Pitch location
This is basically where the ball ends up as it crosses the plate and is described as how high/low or inside/outside a pitch is. While this is a simple variable remember that all pitch locations are not equal. Just because a pitch ends up in the same spot as another it doesn’t mean it got there in the same way with the same variables (ie. movement profile, velocity, angle or trajectory).
The hitter’s response: As Rob Gray puts it on his podcast (The perception and action podcast), the hitter’s job is to perceive the information from the variables listed above and then create a reaction to them. We shouldn’t lose sight of this. When looking at a video for example, we have to realize that the swing itself doesn’t just happen in a vacuum. It happens as a response to all of the variables above. It’s basically the best solution to the list of variables that a hitter could come up with in the moment. That’s not saying it’s an ideal response or it couldn’t be improved but it’s definitely something hitting coaches should remember.
Pitch to pitch variables: Depending on the hitter’s response above (swing and miss, put the ball in play or take) the at bat might continue past a single pitch. This introduces a few more variables.
Pitch sequencing
Pitch sequence is just the order of the pitches and how they compare to each other. I think everyone would agree that if you knew what pitch was coming and a pitcher threw it 3 or 4 times in a row it would be easier to handle than a 97 mph fastball at the top of the zone followed by a Zach Greinke eephuss pitch at 64 mph.
Pitch tunneling
As for pitch tunneling, it’s another way that pitchers deceive hitters. The goal of tunneling is to make two different pitches looks the same for as long as possible and then break away from each other with different movement profiles.
For each pitch, the batter tries to perceive as many of the variables as they can and create the best response. As we all know, this cycle continues until the hitter gets our or gets on base. So there it is, my list of variables that a hitter has to be prepared to face. It’s like knowing the questions that are on the test. Now the focus should turn to how, as coaches, can we prepare our hitters for these variables. You don’t need to overcomplicate things but if your practice doesn’t account for training these variables in some way, then it might be time to make a few adjustments. For example, this list might make you re-think doing front toss where the ball is released from the center of the cage with the same delivery and timing to a similar location with a similar speed over and over again. That’s not saying there isn’t a time and a place for something like that but it’s clearly not like the environment our hitters are going to face in a game.
Recent Comments