WebBall.com - Work the Count, work the Zone

Work the Count, work the Zone

Azam Shah At the time of his earliest contributions to WebBall, Azam Shah was a pitching coach for college players during the summer and was involved with the AABC league. Azam has seen 80-year-old men strike out major leaguers, and young arms that can throw 90+ mph who get hammered. Coach Shah more recently coached a Little League World Series team for six months, setting a new record by sending the only team ever to the series without allowing a run. (Click to close.)

by Azam Shah

In the second part of his series, Coach Shah considers selection/location factors - for starters certainly, but for other pitchers, too.

How valuable is the first-pitch strike?

Maybe we should add something to this - Throw first-pitch strikes that batters won't hit. Young pitchers taught to throw a first-pitch strike with no idea why, throw a batting cage fastball down the pipe. Young pitchers should think about where they're going to throw this strike if they plan on getting ahead. Throwing strikes and letting the fielders do the rest is one thing, but throwing strikes just for the sake of throwing strikes is essentially throwing BP for the opposing team.

How can a youth pitcher maximize a breaking ball?

When it comes to asking about the effectiveness of his curve... Simple - don't throw it. Working on curve balls takes time away from learning a dominant fastball. The better the fastball, the better the curve, knuckleball, slider, or any other pitch developed later.

The time involved with learning other pitches is immense, and the fastball should be learned first, as it is the foundation for all other pitches. Also, when coaches teach young pitchers how to throw the curve, it can become a seemingly invincible pitch for many youngsters - for a short time. Eventually though, puberty and other forces effect young hitters, and the curve (underdeveloped because of a lack of fastball) goes from god-like to meat-ball. Meanwhile, pitchers who learn better fastball techniques (combined with an easy-to-learn, easy-to-use changeup), grow up and develop amazing command of all pitches.

When the count is 2-0 what should the pitcher look to do?

Having fallen behind, the pitcher won't want to go 3-0 to give the the batter an advantage. This is a mental mistake. Not wanting 3-0, he throws a pitch he knows will be a strike, usually along the heart of the plate.

The numbers show the results: In a college baseball study over five years, with a 2-0 pitch count the batter's average goes up just over 100 points. So the pitcher should go 3-0 to preserve a mental advantage. Although the pitch doesn't have to be an obvious ball, it should be well away from the heart of the plate - not a pitch Ït catch up to the batter.

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