If you're a fastball-slider pitcher then this article may be helpful.

As you know, the slider is a great pitch. It comes in harder (more velocity) than a traditional curveball, and breaks later.

Those two factors make it tough to hit.

But not always.

That's why I teach my fastball-slider guys to avoid throwing the pitch to hitters with long swings. Against those types of hitters, a straight fastball middle to middle-in is a much better pitch.

That's because hitters who have long swings tend to have slow bats (unless they guess the pitch correctly).

For them to get the head of the bat out in front of the baseball to drive it off the "sweet spot" of the bat, they need a pitch moving at less-than-full velocity, and out from in on their hands. That, of course, is how sliders move and where most pitchers place it.

Many long-swinging hitters can't catch up to the fastball inside. Unless they "cheat," start their hands early, or guess fastball, they cannot handle inside heat -- their hands are too slow to the ball.

If you establish the inner half with a fastball as opposed to dropping a slider on the outside part of the plate, you'll get a lot of weak pop-ups, strike outs, and/or just plain easy outs.

The slider's a great pitch. Throw it. But be smart with it.

Practice It!

I hope your season is going well and that the work you put in during the off-season is paying dividends for you on the field.

The Major League Draft starts today, and if things go well some of the players that you know will get the opportunity to play professional baseball this summer.

The one thing that those players will notice is was how hard everyone will work.

Sure, some of them busted their tails in high school and college ball to get to this point.  That's how you develop a 90+ mph fastball or a strong, flexible lower body.  Working hard!

But in pro ball, EVERYONE works their tail off year round to give themselves the very best opportunities to succeed.

Even if you think you're working hard, trust me someone's working harder than you. And come this June (or next June, or any June after that), you're going to have to compete against that guy for a Major League Draft slot. Or for a spot on the pitching staff of a minor league team. Or, if you're in high school, for a college scholarship or a spot in a college pitching rotation.

And all those days you miss now at working hard and getting better mechanically, or getting stronger physically, or getting mentally tougher will catch up with you.

There are no shortcuts in baseball. If you want to open up opportunities for yourself, you have to MAKE the opportunities happen by working harder and SMARTER than the next guy.  You can't just show up and expect it to happen!

You can have the best Strength and Conditioning Manual for Baseball Pitchers but even that will only take you so far. If you don't put in the effort, remember there's a guy in the next town or next city or next state that is.

And he's going to take your spot. And he's NOT going to apologize to you when he does.

You can start now, even if you're in-season, just like college and professional pitchers.

It is never too early or too late to improve your game....

Work Hard!

"Run" is a dreaded word among baseball pitchers everywhere.

In fact, the joke is often made that athletes play baseball because they DON'T like to run.

However, I believe that running is an integral part to a pitching staff's success, especially in-season.

In-season running cannot be limited to running directly after a game, it must be a carefully laid out plan that enables pitchers to develop stamina and explosive power in their legs.

Every coach wants their starting pitchers to be able to maintain consistent velocity and location throughout a game.

In order to continue pitching at a high level for an extended period of time, a pitcher must be in shape mentally and physically, and running is one of the primary ways this can be accomplished.

Here's a sample MLB pitchers' running plan...

• Mon: 30-7-sec sprints (rest 15 sec).
• Tues: 20-15-sec sprints (rest 30 sec).
• Wed: 10-30-sec sprints (rest 90 sec).
• Thurs: PITCH GAME.
• Fri: 35-45 min long run.
• Sat: Agility drills (jump rope, cone drills, etc.).
• Sun: Off day.

Work Hard!

Mind controls the body, be strong both ways.

Athletic ability is useless without the right wiring upstairs: just look at how many extremely talented athletes fail in their professional careers.

Just remember, for every Ryan Leaf there is a Doug Flutie: a man whose (sometimes wanting) athletic ability is directly improved by his mental capabilities.

Pitching, more than any other position in sports (except perhaps the quarterback in football), requires mental prowess.

Hitting, while requiring a good approach for constant success, still comes down to reactions.

Being smart helps, but not like it does a pitcher.

Greg Maddux would never have won a single Cy Young without his brain. Mental toughness is also not something that can be gained quickly. It takes just as much hard work to be mentally prepared and mentally tough as it does physically.

It also requires a huge leap of faith: abandoning "just going out there and throwing the ball" in favor of a mentally-focused and prepared approach is very, very difficult.

For that reason I recommend heartily The Mental ABC's of Pitching by H.A. Dorfman. (Amazon.com has sample pages for you to read, if you'd like.) It takes a one-by-one approach to the mental challenges a pitcher faces, arranged alphabetically for easy access in times of need.

Only by being mentally tough can you be a complete pitcher.

Work Hard....

Baseball is the President tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That's baseball. And so is the big, fat guy with a bulbous nose running home one of his (Babe Ruth's) 714 home runs.

There's a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh forty-six years ago. That's baseball. So is the scout reporting that a sixteen year old pitcher in Cheyenne is a coming Walter Johnson. Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic.

In baseball democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rulebook. Color merely something to distinguish one team's uniform from another.

Baseball is a rookie. His experience no bigger than the lump in his throat as he begins fulfillment of his dream. It's a veteran too, a tired old man of thirty-five hoping that those aching muscles can pull him through another sweltering August and September. Nicknames are baseball, names like Zeke and Pie and Kiki and Home Run and Cracker and Dizzy and Dazzy.

Baseball is the cool, clear eyes of Rogers Hornsby. The flashing spikes of Ty Cobb, an over aged pixie named Rabbit Maranville.

Baseball just a game as simple as a ball and bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, a business and sometimes almost even a religion.

Why the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World's Series catch. And then dashing off to play stick ball in the street with his teenage pals. That's baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying., "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.”

Baseball is cigar smoke, hot roasted peanuts, The Sporting News, ladies day, "Down in Front", Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and the Star Spangled Banner.

Baseball is a tongue tied kid from Georgia growing up to be an announcer and praising the Lord for showing him the way to Cooperstown. This is a game for America. Still a game for America, this baseball! Thank you.

Another baseball pitching tip...

You must be able to turn negatives into positives.

A leadoff walk? Incentive to get a ground-ball double play.

A solo home run? A signal to refocus and bear down.

An error on a routine double play? Be a hero and get out of the jam.

Use the situation to your advantage. Play mental games with yourself, but do not, do not, give in to a bad break.

A one run inning can, and usually will, be answered.

A seven run blowup means an early shower and a loss every time.

Pitch all the time, not just with no men on base.

Bases loaded and nobody out is a challenge.

Anybody can pitch with nobody on, two out, and the nine-hole hitter up.

Play Hard....

Another baseball pitching tip...

In a pinch, make it your best versus the hitter's best.

With the game on the line, too many pitchers get beat with their second, third, or (heaven forbid) fourth best pitches.

Sometimes this is the result of timidity: it takes courage to throw a straight fastball when a curve or other off-speed pitch might "trick" the hitter (and reduce the odds of contact -- at least in the pitcher's mind).

Sometimes it is because of over-analysis: A hitter has seen a particular pitch several times, so a sub-standard pitch is substituted just for the change in "look".

The fact is, in a crucial situation, a pitcher must beat the hitter with his best pitch. No matter if that best pitch is a fastball -- and the hitter is a fastball hitter -- or the hitter has seen the pitch before.

Remember that even the best hitters fail 70% of the time. Pitchers must give hitters the chance to get themselves out -- a much greater probability on the best pitch in a bag of tricks than on a less effective one.

Work Smart!

Another baseball pitching tip...

As I watch our local Lancaster County Junior Varsity and Varsity teams play, I can’t help but notice the lack of player responsibility before, during and after the games.

If you are a starting pitcher at this level you need a routine.  It doesn’t have to be complicated or extreme but something that you do every time that you are scheduled to pitch.

Your routine should start the night before with at least 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep.  Some players like to start thinking about the game at this time, and visualizing what they need to do when you take the mound.  Maybe this could work for you?

Once awake, it is important to eat a healthy well balanced breakfast and then follow it up with a good lunch. Always take a small snack to eat right before the game especially if you have a 10:30 or 11:00 lunch.

When you’re in the locker room and getting dressed, make sure that you have everything that you will need for the entire game.  If the temperature is below 75 degrees make sure that you have a jacket to keep your arm warm.  I watched a pitcher last week forget his jacket and the temperature was around 60 degrees. It seemed like it took him 3 innings to get loose and once he did get loose he dominated but until then he had to fight for everything he got.  When you are done pitching and you’re no longer in the game, ice your arm.  This doesn’t mean getting a baggy full of ice and holding it on your arm for 30 seconds at a time (noticed this as well).  It means bringing an arm sleeve or at least an athletic wrap and covering your entire arm with ice for 20-30 minutes.

When you step on to the field to prepare for the game, don’t just go through a basic stretching routine.  Get your blood pumping somehow by doing 15-20 minutes worth of dynamic warm-ups (I will try to post a routine later this week) before you pick up a baseball.  Once you do start throwing have a routine of what you need to do to get ready to pitch the first inning.  Don’t go to the bullpen and start winging it.  Have a course of action (I will post one for you on our website if you need to reference a routine).  Again, I saw a pitcher warming two weeks ago who was laughing, throwing from different arm angles and throwing pitches that he would most likely never use in a game.  He got shelled!  He wasn’t laughing anymore!

A huge pet peeve of mine is when you go out to throw your warm-up pitches before an inning and you don’t take it seriously.  I’m watching pitchers that go to the mound and throw their warm-up pitches @ 60-70%.  They are not trying to locate, get a feel for the mound or their pitches but to just go through the motions.  The last pitch (the one where the catcher throws down to second base) is generally some sort of Eephus pitch thrown at half speed.  This doesn’t help you and it definitely doesn’t help the catchers. Throw the ball like you would in the game not like your'e in a back yard wiffle ball game.

These are your responsibilities!  Not your moms, dads, your coaches or teammates but yours. 

Practice it!

Another baseball pitching tip...

You have to be able to duplicate all pitches. If you throw a strike, you need to be able to throw another one ... and another one.

A good pitch cannot be luck of the draw. If a pitch is taken for a called strike in the first pitch of the at bat, throw it again. That's the point: You have to follow up strikes with strikes.

A pitcher who hits the corner 0-0 but misses over the plate 0-1 and gives up a hit isn't doing anyone any good.

Consistency is the key to dominant pitching. Your ability to throw back to back to back quality pitches is key to your success in pitching.

Practice it!