Welcome to Baseball 101!

[NYM]

Curveballs are overated and are easy to hit. Im 15 years old going into my Junior year of High School, and a curveball is the pitch I see the most besides the fastball. Its easy to pick up, it has a distinctive spin, and it just is an overused pitch that puts pressure on the arm.

I pitch occasionally and I throw pitches that put absolutly no stress on the arm, and there effective.

I throw around 80 with movement. I throw a four seamer, 2 seamer, changeup, cutter and splitter. All of those pitches are thrown with no twisting, spinning, turning of the wrist/arm. My arm never hurts and all pitches keep hitters off balance.

If you want to be a good pitcher, get a difference of 10 MPH between your fastball and changeup, change the eye level of the hitter and work the corners.

You can say that doesn't work but there's this guy called Tom Glavine who has 301 wins in the MLB, and probably has only thrown 50 curveballs in his career.

[AstroEric]

Here's a question for you 101'ers....

Two men on -- first and second. No outs. A line drive miraculously caught. Throw goes to second before the runner gets back. Throw goes to first before that runner gets back. How many outs are there?

[Homer]

I pitch occasionally and I throw pitches that put absolutly no stress on the arm, and there effective.

absolutely no stress? sorry, but not physically possible. every time you use it you're stressing it. but just because you've never felt pain from it doesn't mean it wasn't stressed. there are various levels of stress/injury, and various levels of pain tolerance. every time you pitch, you're causing millions of microtrauma in the soft tissues of your arm and shoulder. that's stress. pain isn't stress.

You can say that doesn't work but there's this guy called Tom Glavine who has 301 wins in the MLB, and probably has only thrown 50 curveballs in his career.

that or you can throw 97 mph 2 seamer. it's pretty effective too.

[TwentySeven]

Here's a question for you 101'ers....

Two men on -- first and second. No outs. A line drive miraculously caught. Throw goes to second before the runner gets back. Throw goes to first before that runner gets back. How many outs are there?

Maybe I'm missing something and it's a trick question, but wouldn't that be a triple play, meaning three outs? Is this a trick?

[AstroEric]

It's not a trick. It's baseball rules. I'm still trying to figure them out.

It has something to do with the nature of appeals plays. I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable will log on and answer for us.

[TwentySeven]

Thats not an appeal play. Thats a simple triple play.

[Kccitystar]

It's not a trick. It's baseball rules. I'm still trying to figure them out.

It has something to do with the nature of appeals plays. I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable will log on and answer for us.

It's not a trick and it isn't baseball rules, it's the splash video to Triple Play 97

[AstroEric]

Here's the post seen elsewhere that led me to the question:

Rule 7.08(d) He fails to retouch his base after a fair or foul ball is legally caught before he, or his base, is tagged by a fielder. He shall not be called out for failure to retouch his base after the first following pitch, or any play or attempted play. This is an appeal play;

Let's say there were no outs and both runners were "breaking" with the pitch and the runner on second is near third and Sweeney is near second when Ausmus catches the ball. Ausmus fires to first to "double-off" Sweeney. THIS IS AN APPEAL PLAY. An appeal play is A PLAY and, by this rule, A PLAY removes the possibilty of an appeal at second on the runner now standing on third. Technically, this is precisely what the rule says.

Most UNASSISTED TRIPLE PLAYS are like this EXCEPT, the runner going from first to second is TAGGED OUT OFF BASE after the SS "appeals" the runner going to third by stepping on the base. According to this rule, the runner coming from first WOULD NOT BE OUT if he was standing on second when he was tagged* and the SS could not then throw to first for an appeal (since there was already "a play" made at second). Now, let's say the SS catches the line drive and then tags the runner from first now standing on second. Said runner is OUT ON APPEAL even if he is in possession of second base. Technically, the SS cannot now step on second to "double-off" the runner going to third. HOWEVER, if the SS throws to 3B and the runner is TAGGED out before he reaches possession of third base, said runner is OUT. However, if he is standing on third, he cannot be "tagged out".

[Campo09]

absolutely no stress? sorry, but not physically possible. every time you use it you're stressing it. but just because you've never felt pain from it doesn't mean it wasn't stressed. there are various levels of stress/injury, and various levels of pain tolerance. every time you pitch, you're causing millions of microtrauma in the soft tissues of your arm and shoulder. that's stress. pain isn't stress.

that or you can throw 97 mph 2 seamer. it's pretty effective too.

Tim lincecum throws a great curve with a 97 2 seamer.

[SESbb30]

its not dirty, it NASTY!

[superciuc]

absolutely no stress? sorry, but not physically possible. every time you use it you're stressing it. but just because you've never felt pain from it doesn't mean it wasn't stressed. there are various levels of stress/injury, and various levels of pain tolerance. every time you pitch, you're causing millions of microtrauma in the soft tissues of your arm and shoulder. that's stress. pain isn't stress.

If you can pitch with no stress, you're superman. It's impossible. You can pitch without pain, but not without stress.

And yes, curveballs are hittable but most of the players prefer fastballs. Maybe that's why pitchers throw curveball, sliders and all that breaking stuff.

[redsox]

If a batter reaches base on an error, does his OBP get updated?

Also, how about if you have a runner at 1st base and the batter at home plate hits into a force out where the runner is out at 2nd? Since the hitter is now on first, does his OBP go up?

[TwentySeven]

http://www.baseballscorecard.com/forum/vie...um=25&topic=546

That topic is particularly informative, but the answer is no.

Force outs adversely effect OBP - they make the batter's OBP go down.

Cheers!

[redsox]

Thank you very much for the info. Take care.

[NYM]

I should've rephrased what I said. The pitches I throw don't put the stress a curveball would put on your arm.

[nutts55]

As coach High School ball and I feel I should weigh in. The slider can put more stress than a curveball depending on how it is thrown. The Karate Chop curve puts much less than a snapped off curve. As for the age we don't want kids throwing them before HS, because of coaching. They do not have proper coaching on throwing it and they can easily overuse it because it is effective. The best thing any young coach or parent, or Uncle can do is teach the change up. I was away from the program for 2 years w/ my new son (He hitting lefty) and we got a new pitching coach who did not stress the change and it has greatly hurt our pitching. I noticed it right away. It is the best pitch in baseball. Mo the knukleball is a tough pitch to master. I can get mine to dance a bit but not consistantly. I believe the best knuklers throw 85% good ones. Just remember in teaching the change that the arm action needs to be the same and same speed the friction will slow it down.

If you want a good pitching book geared towards kids for parents check out Mazzones book.

[NYM]

I'm a junior, and after two years of JV baseball I must say the curveball isn't that hard a pitch to hit anymore. It's so overused, that I see it constantly. Over the summer I played with some older competiton and they threw changeups. To me, a good changeup is harder to hit then a curveball, simply because it has no rotation and doesnt loop up in the air like a curveball.

[hmsrenown]

I just learned a knucklecurve a couple years ago when I was 14, and it works out alright, but I don't throw it as much as I would because potential risk. I had a hard time getting knuckleball to work, and it's not fun.

[piratesmvp04]

Here's my question: Let's say that there is a runner on 3rd with 2 outs. The batter hits the ball into shallow right field, and the ball is fielded on a bounce by the right fielder. The runner who was on 3rd arrives at home plate because the team executed the hit and run. The right fielder then throws the ball to first and gets the the batter out for the 3rd out. Does the team still get a run or is the runner on third left stranded?

[tebjr]

The runner is left stranded, I believe.

[abc006]

Yep, but, for example, if the runner at first is safe but gets tagged out at second after the runner on third arrives home, the run scores.

[superciuc]

Yep, but, for example, if the runner at first is safe but gets tagged out at second after the runner on third arrives home, the run scores.

That's right. As a matter of fact, if the runned gets thrown out at first it's actually a ground out (9-3 ground out, funny, huh?).

[piratesmvp04]

So the runner is stranded even though the ball touched the ground before the right fielder picked it up and threw it t 1st?

[abc006]

Yep, as long as the runner was thrown up before he touched first. It's just like a groundout, only it happened to get into the outfield.

[RaptorQuiz]

Here's my question: Let's say that there is a runner on 3rd with 2 outs. The batter hits the ball into shallow right field, and the ball is fielded on a bounce by the right fielder. The runner who was on 3rd arrives at home plate because the team executed the hit and run. The right fielder then throws the ball to first and gets the the batter out for the 3rd out. Does the team still get a run or is the runner on third left stranded?

The runner is stranded (no run scores) if the hitter was thrown out before he touches first base (no matter when the runner from 3rd touches home).

However, the runner DOES score if the hitter rounds first base, then is thrown out while attempting to get BACK to the bag. The run counts, as long as the runner from 3rd base crosses home plate before the hitter is thrown out at first.

The reason for this is that in the first situation, it is a simple inning-ending ground out (albeit, a rare groundout to the outfield). In the second situation, it is an RBI-single, followed by a "3rd out made on the bases."