Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 09, 2007
Swinging And Taking

Curt Schilling writes a lengthy post on last night's game, and what I like is that I learned something new (emphasis added):

I spoke at length in spring training about 'pitching to contact' and I am not sure some people understand what that means. Maybe it means different things to different guys but to me it means getting hitters to hit the ball in counts I used to try for the swing and miss. That's first pitch and behind in the count breaking balls. For years my 'breaking ball' was the split for the most part. The split is a pitch I have never, ever, tried to throw for a strike. It gets swung at because it spends ¾ of the time 'in' the strike zone, and when thrown right, is a ball when it reaches the plate. I've always thrown a very high percentage of strikes but I would bet that a very large portion of those strikes are balls, made strikes by contact or swings and misses. It goes back to a philosophy I tried hard to learn and pitch by which is this. The key to pitching is being able to throw a ball when they are swinging, and a strike when they are taking. The key to that is being able to know when those two will happen. That's what made the 3-2 walk to Shealy so wrong in KC. I knew he was taking, I knew I could beat him with a fastball, yet I still forced myself to throw a split, a pitch I know I am not throwing for a strike. You never stop learning, you never stop making mistakes, but I think the key to getting better as you get older is making the same mistakes less.

It's pitching as a poker game.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:51 AM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Tell me again why people have a problem with Schilling's blogging? This is fascinating stuff.

Posted by: Jeff B. at April 9, 2007 09:58 AM

I have actually always thought Schilling was a blowhard, and I don't enjoy his politics, but I LOVE the blog. He is a pretty good writer, and is brutally honest and revealing about the process of pitching and it is fascinating stuff.

That highlighted passage jumped out at me this morning too.

Posted by: Mr. Furious at April 9, 2007 03:02 PM

agree.

i'm no redsox fan, but this is the kind of stuff i have been wanting to read for years.

i wish barry lamar Himself would write like this on his website. i would LOVE to hear about hitting and fieldoing from a guy like him.

Posted by: lisa gray at April 10, 2007 01:14 PM
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