 When you watch a baseball game on TV one guy that they will pay a lot of attention to is the pitcher and This is for good reason as he's arguably the most important player on the field But many of the things that pitchers do are unique to baseball So let's look at a general overview of pitchers and how their jobs work Like what pitches they throw how they know when to throw each type of pitch and finally we'll look at a few different types of pitchers that there are in baseball The pitchers job is to make it as difficult for the batter as possible to hit the ball hard or even to hit it at all While not getting too wild and either walking or hitting the batter The main way that the pitchers going to do this is by gripping the ball differently Which will allow his pitches to be different speeds and it will also cause them to move differently on their way to the plate I'm not going to get into how each pitch is actually gripped you're better off learning that from an actual pitcher But there are no shortage of websites and videos out there that will explain just that More important for us is what the pitches do The simplest type of pitch is the fastball or more specifically the foreseam fastball It won't move at all. So as far as our batter will see it will come straight in But it is the fastest pitch that a pitcher can throw and when I say fast in Major League Baseball Which is the highest level of play in the United States? pitchers fastballs will usually be somewhere between 90 and 100 miles an hour and keep in mind that the pitcher is only 60 feet six inches from the batter Similar to the foreseam is the two seam fastball which will be a few miles an hour slower But it will also have movement meaning that the pitcher will grip the ball in such a way that it will drop towards the ground quicker than the foreseam so to a batter it will start up high and then it will drop down to here hitting a ball coming in at 90 miles an hour is tough enough, but now it's moving and in the two seamers case It is sinking Similar to a two seam, but usually a little slower There is another type of pitch called a sinker which will have similar movement The other kind of fastball we'll look at is the cut fastball or the cutter Which rather than sinking will cut sideways which way it goes will depend on whether the pitcher is right or left-handed It will also affect the batter differently depending whether he is hitting left or right-handed in this case Our pitcher would be right-handed and our batter is left-handed. So it is moving in towards the batter In addition to fastballs we have off-speed pitches, which will be slower But still be tough to hit because they will have a lot more movement on them One of the most common off-speed pitches is the curveball Which will be similar to a sinker in that it will get partway to the plate and then have the bottom drop out a Combination between the curveball and the fastball is a pitch called the slider Which will be in the mid to low 80s in terms of miles an hour So not quite as slow as the curveball But you're still going to get a lot of horizontal movement on the pitch Sliders and curveballs are also called breaking balls because they drop or break so much The batter will obviously not know which pitch is coming toward him So he will try to pick up on things like the pitchers armspeed to try and get an idea of which pitch is Being thrown but pitchers have used this to work against hitters by creating a pitch called the change-up Which will feature quick arm speed and not a lot of movement as if he's throwing a fastball Only the pitch will come in at 75 miles an hour instead of 90 Which will obviously wreak havoc on the hitters timing The last pitch we'll look at is one you won't see all that often that some pitchers have been successful By mastering something called a knuckleball Using a knuckleball will result in a pitch that is very slow, but virtually unpredictable in where it will go Even when he lets it go the pitcher won't know which direction the ball is going to go Some batters have actually said that the pitch looks like it gets halfway to the plate and then goes up But that's not quite how physics works Most pitchers will throw three or four of these pitches There's a balance between having a large variety of pitches to go to and being able to throw each one of them well Some pitchers are able to have success with five pitches But other pitchers like knuckleballers will have success throwing just one or two types of pitches almost exclusively This will also depend on a pitchers style Power pitchers tend to focus more on speed Whereas control or finesse pitchers will focus more on throwing his pitches accurately as possible Okay, so we know that pitchers want to throw off batters with their different pitch types But with pitches coming in so fast and in such varied ways. How is it that they do not throw the catcher off too? Well before every pitch you will see the pitcher pause and look in at the catcher Who will be crouched down behind the batter and the catcher will put down a certain number of fingers This is called the sign or the signal Each number means a different pitch So if the catcher wants him to throw a fastball he would put down one finger if he wants a curve ball He would put down two Sometimes it is the catcher who is picking which pitches to throw sometimes that will be the coach from the dugout Who was giving signs to the catcher to relay to the pitcher? Ultimately though the pitcher and the catcher are in this together So if the pitcher does not want to throw a pitch that the catcher suggests You will see him shake his head and the catcher will put down a different number of fingers to pick a different pitch With such a diverse number of pitches One of the worst things that can happen is that signs get crossed up and a pitcher throws one type of pitch While the catcher is expecting another not only could that cost their team runs But it could be dangerous to the catcher and the umpire Luckily though, you won't see that happen too often If a runner gets on base especially on second base He will be able to see and potentially steal which signs the catcher is giving So the catcher may put down a series of signs like he'll hold down three fingers and then one and then two The pitcher and the catcher will decide in advance Which is the real signs? Maybe it's the first one that he puts down so they will know what the real sign is But it will make it a lot tougher for the runner to pick up on Finally, let's take a look at pitcher rolls We already mentioned power and finesse pitchers which refers to their style But more often you will hear them referred to in terms of when during a game they will pitch All pitchers are eligible to pitch at any point during a game But over time they have become more specialized in where they enter the game The first type of pitcher is the starter who as you may have guessed will be the first pitcher In the game for his team starters are usually the best pitchers on the team and major league teams will usually have five starting pitchers That group of their starters is called their starting rotation Because of that starters will only throw once every five days And they will usually stay in the game for as long as they can But if they make it through at least five or six innings without allowing too many runs It will be seen as a good outing for them Once the starter comes out of the game a reliever will take his place Relief pitchers are any pitchers who are not starters If the starter allows a bunch of runs early in the game a long reliever might come in This is a guy who's capable of lasting most of the game, but isn't quite good enough to be a starter Other pitchers will be middle relievers that will come in for one or two innings at a time Although some managers won't even leave them in for that long depending on the situation Most teams now will also have a set up man Who if the team is winning will throw in the eighth inning And a closer who will throw the ninth inning to close things out These two guys are usually pretty good, but they rarely throw more than one inning per game Pitching can be a confusing topic if you were just getting into baseball But the good thing is that with so many pitches thrown during a game You will have the chance to see them look in for the sign And deliver their different pitch types a few hundred times per game So you should be able to catch on pretty quickly