Handling Different Hitters on the Mound

Hall of Fame Catcher Yogi Berra once said, "You can observe a lot by watching." This is a true statement with life and baseball. Just by watching the game you can pick up on the tendencies of a hitter's swing. In this post I will go over different kinds of hitters and how to handle their strengths or tendencies. 

Baseball provides many strategies to either have success or failure. With the right strategy, the odds are in your favor. If your team does not have the ability to do an advanced scout or watch the opponent's batting practice, then the next best thing is for the catcher, pitcher, and coaching staff to watch the swings of the opponents. Things like the handedness of the hitter, the swing path, and bat speed can provide details as to how to attack each hitter in a batting lineup. 

Ways to Attack Different Hitters

• If a hitter fouls a ball straight to the backstop or pulls a pitch down the foul line, then the hitter is on time with the pitch. The pitcher needs to change speeds and location to get the hitter off his timing. 
• For a hitter with slow bat speed, the pitcher needs to throw fastballs inside and breaking pitches low and away. 
• Attack left handed hitters with the fastball up and inside because lefties usually cannot cover that location well. 
• Attack a hitter who stays inside the ball well or inside-outs pitches with fastballs inside and breaking balls low. 
• If a hitter chases pitches outside of the strike zone, throw a high fastball or low and outside pitch outside of the zone. The more the hitter swings outside of the strike zone, the more you can go outside of the zone to see if he will chase. 
• Use a changeup on a first pitch swinger. You can use the changeup or an offspeed pitch the second or third time through an order if the hitters are used to seeing a first pitch fastball. 
• The second time through a lineup in a fastball count, the pitcher can pitch a controlled breaking ball or slower than max speed fastball (6-8 miles per hour slower than his standard fastball). This can cause the hitter to swing and miss or cause weak contact.
• On nervous or overthinking hitters throw back to back pitches. Even if this hitter has a feeling a certain pitch is coming, he will still have doubt that he is seeing another pitch. 
• During the first pitch strike attempt, challenge the hitter When ahead in the count, be finer on the corners and expand the strike zone. 
• For a fastball hitter give him either a fastball in a location that he cannot do damage, or when ahead in the count give him an outside of the strike zone fastball.
• Take note if the hitter changes his stance during the at bat, this will tell you if he is compensating for something in the strike zone. Here are a few ways to attack hitters based on their stances:

1. If a hitter is standing tall, pitch him up in the zone. 

2. If a hitter is crouching in his stance, pitch him low. 

3. Heavier Players need to be pitched away. They typically pull the ball.

4. If a hitter is a dead pull hitter, pitch away. They will roll over to hit a weak ground ball on pitches away. 

5. If a hitter uses a closed stance, pitch him inside. 

6. If a hitter is using an open stance, pitch him outside.

7. Watch for weaknesses of hitters and pitch to their weak spot if their stance isn’t a giveaway. 

These strategies provide pitchers to maintain the advantage when attacking a hitter. Although these strategies work, it is important to remember that the wrong pitch thrown with conviction by the pitcher is still better to do than throwing the right pitch without conviction. The reason being is because the pitcher will get the hitter out more than the hitter getting a hit off of the pitcher. Therefore the pitcher should remain confident in the game plan and have conviction behind what he is throwing.