One of a baseball scout's main criteria when scouting a prospect is how fast he throws a four seam fastball. The four seam fastball is widely regarded as the main key to advancing to the next level of play. With this grip, the thumb will generally have no seam on which to rest. The thumb then rests underneath the ball about in the middle of the two fingers. Keeping those seams parallel to the body, the pitcher places his index and middle fingers perpendicular to them with the pads on the farthest seam from him. The first and most traditional way is to find the horseshoe seam area, or the area where the seams are the farthest apart. ![]() Two general methods are used to throw a four-seam fastball. It was clocked at 105.1 miles per hour.ĪpChapman lit up the stadium radar gun at 106 MPH (the TV-reading had his pitch at 105 MPH, and the pitchF/X reading was actually 102.4 MPH). The fastest pitch recognized by Major League Baseball (MLB) was on September 25, 2010, at Petco Park in San Diego by then-Cincinnati Reds left-handed relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman. It is often perceived as the fastest pitch a pitcher throws, with recorded top speeds above 100 mph. This type of fastball is intended to have minimal lateral movement, relying more on its velocity. The pitch is used often by the pitcher to get ahead in the count or when he needs to throw a strike. The four-seam fastball is the most common variant of the fastball. ( June 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. This section's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. Lateral motion is achieved by holding a four-seam fastball off-center (a " cut fastball"), and sinking action with a lateral break is thrown by splitting the fingers along the seams (a " split-finger fastball").Ĭolloquially, a fastball pitcher "throws heat" or "puts cream on it", among many other variants. ![]() A sinking fastball is thrown by gripping it across the narrow part (a " two-seam fastball") so that both the index and middle fingers are along a seam. ![]() Although it is impossible for a human to throw a baseball fast enough and with enough backspin for the ball to actually rise, to the batter the pitch seems to rise due to the unexpected lack of natural drop on the pitch.Ī straight pitch is achieved by gripping the ball with the fingers across the wide part of the seam (called a " four-seam fastball") so that both the index and middle fingers are touching two seams perpendicularly. This causes it to fall less rapidly than expected, and sometimes causes an optical illusion often called a rising fastball. ![]() Pitchers who throw more slowly can put movement on the ball, or throw it on the outside of home plate where batters can't easily reach it.įastballs are usually thrown with backspin, so that the Magnus effect creates an upward force on the ball. " Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have thrown fastballs at speeds of 95–105 miles per hour (153–169 km/h) (officially) and up to 108.1 miles per hour (174.0 km/h) (unofficially). The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. During pregame bullpen warmup Chris Young warms up with a four-seam fastball.
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