baseball pitcher essay

Essay on Baseball

500+ words essay on  baseball.

Baseball is a bat-and-ball game that two opposing teams play. To put it into simpler words, it is one of the most loved games of America. It is as big as cricket in India. Americans are crazy about this game. Therefore, one might wonder what makes this game such a big hit amongst Americans? This essay will aim to clear that by describing the game.

All About Baseball

There are nine periods of play in a baseball game. Each of these periods is known as an inning. Similarly, when an inning ends, the team with the highest runs becomes the winner. In this game, the pitcher will throw a ball towards the batter who will be playing from the opposing team.

The batter will attempt to hit the ball into the field. When they hit the ball and run around a series of bases, they will score runs. However, this must be done before a field player puts them out.

So, you see that it might look like just any other ball game. It has a ball, bat as well as players. But, the people of America don’t consider it just that. They do not wish to bring this game down to simply as a ‘hit and run’ game.

While a five-year-old child will easily understand the meaning of this game, there also lies a subtlety. This very same subtlety is what attracts older people as well. While some may find it to be slow, Americans believe that the slow pace is what makes it interesting.

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Baseball- Not Just a Sport but a Passion

Baseball is not simply a sport for people, especially Americans. It is much more than that, it’s their passion. If people are not watching it live, they’re watching it in pubs or at their homes. The sound of the cracking gloves and ball hitting the bat is like a melody to the fans of the sport .

The game which entertains most people is that has a low score or no score until late in the game. Moreover, the homerun is one of the most anticipated events of the match. The home run is not simply about the great hit but also the speedy running and sacrifice.

In other words, this game gives an adrenalin rush to Americans. You can view it as an opera. The buildup is quite systematic that will occupy you till the very end. The climax is the ultimate reward which is incomplete without a slow buildup.

Alternatively, it is also about strategy. For a lot of Americans, it is a tradition. People spend time with their loved ones at baseball games. Kids look forward to going to the games with their fathers .

Moreover, it also has the ability to bring an end to long-time rivalries. All in all, it’s about the great feeling it brings for one and all. Baseball got its community status from Americans only. Thus, it went on to achieve a national identity.

Everything ranging from baseball caps to tee shirts is a common sighting in America. In New York, there is a Baseball Hall of Fame that is known for immortalizing the great players of the game from the past to the present.

Thus, the game is all about passion. It can make a passerby standstill on their feet to watch the homerun. Similarly, it can diminish rivalries and bring people together. It is a passionate game with passionate fans.

FAQ on Essay on Baseball

Question 1: Where is Baseball most popular?

Answer 1: Baseball has the most popularity in the United States. The people are ardent lovers of the game in America and have made it a popular game.

Question 2: Baseball is the national game of which country?

Answer 2: It is the national game of the Dominican Republic.

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Science News Explores

Baseball: from pitch to hits.

The ballpark brings home plenty of science

 When the bat hits the ball, the ball goes flying. A lot happens in that split second, as energy is transferred from the player to the bat, and then to the ball. 

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By Stephen Ornes

August 21, 2013 at 12:10 pm

On June 12, the Kansas City Royals played at home against the Detroit Tigers . When Royals centerfielder Lorenzo Cain stepped up to the plate at the bottom of the ninth, things looked grim. The Royals hadn’t scored a single run. The Tigers had two. If Cain struck out, the game would be over. No player wants to lose — especially at home.

Cain got off to a rocky start with two strikes. On the mound, Tigers pitcher Jose Valverde wound up. He let fly a special fastball: The pitch whizzed toward Cain at more than 90 miles (145 kilometers) per hour. Cain watched, swung and CRACK! The ball flew up, up, up and away. In the stands at Kauffman Stadium, 24,564 fans watched anxiously, their hopes rising with the ball as it climbed through the air.

The cheering fans weren’t the only ones watching. Radar or cameras track the path of virtually every baseball in major league stadiums. Computer programs can use those tools to generate data about the ball’s position and speed. Scientists also keep a close eye on the ball and study it with all those data.

Some do it because they love baseball. Other researchers may be more fascinated by the science behind the game. They study how all of its fast-moving parts fit together. Physics is the science of studying energy and objects in motion. And with plenty of fast-swinging bats and flying balls, baseball is a constant display of physics in action.

Scientists feed game-related data into specialized computer programs — like the one called PITCH f/x, which analyzes pitches — to determine the speed, spin and path taken by the ball during each pitch. They can compare Valverde’s special pitch to those thrown by other pitchers — or even by Valverde himself, in previous games. The experts also can analyze Cain’s swing to see what he did to make the ball sail so high and far.

“When the ball leaves the bat with a certain speed and at a certain angle, what determines how far it will travel?” asks Alan Nathan. “We’re trying to make sense of the data,” explains this physicist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

When Cain swung his bat that night, he connected with Valverde’s pitch. He successfully transferred energy from his body to his bat. And from the bat to the ball. Fans may have understood those connections. More importantly, they saw that Cain had given the Royals a chance to win the game.

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Precision pitches

Physicists study the science of a moving baseball using natural laws that have been known for hundreds of years. These laws aren’t regulations enforced by the science police. Instead, natural laws are descriptions of the way nature behaves, both invariably and predictably. In the 17th century, physics pioneer Isaac Newton first put into writing a famous law that describes an object in motion.

Newton’s First Law states that a moving object will keep moving in the same direction unless some outside force acts upon it. It also says that an object at rest won’t move without the prodding of some outside force. That means a baseball will stay put, unless a force — like a pitch — propels it. And once a baseball is moving, it will keep moving at the same speed until a force — such as friction, gravity or the swat of a bat — affects it.

Newton’s First Law gets complicated quickly when you’re talking about baseball. The force of gravity constantly pulls down on the ball. (Gravity also causes the arc traced by a ball on its way out of a ballpark.) And as soon as the pitcher releases the ball, it starts to slow due to a force called drag. This is friction caused by air pushing against the baseball in motion. Drag shows up any time an object — whether a baseball or a ship — moves through a fluid, such as air or water.

“A ball that arrives at home plate at 85 miles per hour may have left the pitcher’s hand 10 miles per hour higher,” says Nathan.

Drag slows a pitched ball. That drag depends on the shape of the ball itself. The 108 red stitches roughen a baseball’s surface. This roughness may change how much a ball will be slowed by drag.

Most pitched balls also spin. That also affects how forces act on the moving ball. In a 2008 paper published in the American Journal of Physics, for example, Nathan found that doubling the backspin on a ball caused it to stay in the air longer, fly higher and sail farther. A baseball with backspin moves forward in one direction while spinning backwards, in the opposite direction.

Nathan is currently researching the knuckleball. In this special pitch, a ball barely spins, if at all. Its effect is to make a ball seem to wander. It may fly this way and that, as if it were indecisive. The ball will trace an unpredictable trajectory. A batter who can’t figure out where the ball is going won’t know where to swing either.

“They’re hard to hit and hard to catch,” Nathan observes.

In the Royals game against the Tigers, Detroit pitcher Valverde threw a splitter, the nickname for a split-finger fastball, against Cain. The pitcher throws this by placing the index and middle fingers on different sides of the ball. This special kind of fastball sends the ball zipping quickly toward the batter, but then causes the ball to appear to drop as it nears home plate. Valverde is known for using this pitch to close down a game. This time, the baseball didn’t drop enough to fool Cain.

“It didn’t split too good and the kid hit it out of the park,” observed Jim Leyland, the Tigers manager, during a press conference after the game. The ball soared over the players on its way out of the field. Cain had hit a home run. He scored, and so did another Royals player already on base.

With the score tied, 2-2, the game headed into extra innings.

Success or failure, for a batter, comes down to something that happens in a split-second: The collision between a bat and the ball.

“A batter is trying to get the head of the bat in the right place at the right time, and with as high a bat speed as possible,” explains Nathan. “What happens to the ball is mainly determined by how fast the bat is moving at the time of collision.”

At that moment, energy becomes the name of the game.

In physics, something has energy if it can do work. Both the moving ball and the swinging bat contribute energy to the collision. These two pieces are moving in different directions when they collide. As the bat smacks into it, the ball first has to come to a complete stop and then start moving again in the opposite direction, back toward the pitcher. Nathan has researched where all that energy goes. Some gets transferred from the bat to the ball, he says, to send it back where it came from. But even more energy goes into bringing the ball to a dead stop.

“The ball ends up kind of squishing,” he says. Some of the energy that squeezes the ball becomes heat. “If your body is sensitive enough to feel it, you could actually feel the ball heat up after you hit it.”

Physicists know that the energy before the collision is the same as the energy afterward. Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Some will go into the ball. Some will slow the bat. Some will be lost to the air, as heat.

Scientists study another quantity in these collisions. Called momentum, it describes a moving object in terms of its speed, mass (the amount of stuff in it) and direction. A moving ball has momentum. So does a swinging bat. And according to another natural law, the sum of the momentum of both has to be the same before and after the collision. So a slow pitch and a slow swing combine to produce a ball that doesn’t go far.

For a batter, there’s another way to understand the conservation of momentum: The faster the pitch and the faster the swing, the farther the ball will fly. A faster pitch is harder to hit than a slower one, but a batter who can do it may score a home run.

Baseball tech

Baseball science is all about performance. And it starts before the players step onto the diamond. Many scientists study the physics of baseball to build, test and improve equipment. Washington State University, in Pullman, has a Sports Science Laboratory. Its researchers use a cannon to fire baseballs at bats in a box outfitted with devices that then measure the speed and direction of each ball. The devices also measure the motion of the bats.

The cannon “projects perfect knuckleballs against the bat,” says mechanical engineer Jeff Kensrud. He manages the laboratory. “We’re looking for perfect collisions, with the ball going straight in and going straight back.” Those perfect collisions allow researchers to compare how different bats react to the pitched balls.

Kensrud says they’re also looking for ways to make baseball a safer sport. The pitcher, in particular, occupies a dangerous place on the field. A batted ball can rocket right back toward the pitcher’s mound, traveling just as fast or faster than the pitch. Kensrud says his research team looks for ways to help the pitcher, by analyzing how long it takes for a pitcher to react to an incoming ball. The team is also studying new chest or face protectors that might lessen the blow of an incoming ball.

Beyond physics

The 10th inning of the Tigers-Royals game went unlike the previous nine. The Tigers didn’t score again, but the Royals did. They won the game 3-2.

As the happy Royals fans headed home, the stadium went dark. Though the game might have ended, information from it will continue to be analyzed by scientists — and not just physicists.

Some researchers study the hundreds of numbers, such as the tallies of hits, outs, runs or wins that every game generates.

These data, called statistics, can show patterns that otherwise would be hard to see. Baseball is full of statistics, such as data on which players are hitting better than they used to, and which aren’t. In a December 2012 paper published in the research journal PLOS ONE , researchers found that players perform better when they’re on a team with a slugger who is on a hitting streak. Other researchers may compare statistics from different years to look for longer-term patterns, such as whether baseball players overall are getting better or worse at hitting.

Biologists, too, follow the sport with keen interest. In a June 2013 paper published in Nature , biologist Neil Roach from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., reported that chimps, like pitchers, can throw a ball at high speed. (Though don’t look for the animals on the mound.)

As for Cain, the Royals centerfielder, by halfway through the season he had hit only one more home run since that June 12 game against the Tigers. Still, statistics show Cain had by then improved his overall batting average to .259, after a slump earlier in the season.

That is just one way the scientific study of baseball continues to improve the game, for both its players and its fans. Batter up!

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101 Baseball Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Baseball is a sport that has captivated the hearts and minds of millions of fans around the world. From the excitement of a home run to the strategy behind a well-executed double play, there are countless aspects of baseball that can be explored and analyzed. If you are tasked with writing an essay on baseball and are struggling to find a topic, fear not! We have compiled a list of 101 baseball essay topic ideas and examples to inspire your writing.

• The evolution of baseball: From its origins to the modern game.
• The impact of Jackie Robinson on breaking the color barrier in baseball.
• Analyzing the influence of Babe Ruth on the game of baseball.
• The role of statistics in baseball: How sabermetrics changed the game.
• The rise of analytics in baseball: Its advantages and disadvantages.
• The impact of performance-enhancing drugs on the integrity of baseball.
• The importance of sportsmanship in baseball: Examining famous incidents.
• The role of umpires in the game: How they shape the outcome.
• The impact of technology on baseball: From instant replay to pitch tracking.
• The significance of baseball in American culture: Reflections on its symbolism.
• The role of the designated hitter in baseball: Should it be adopted universally?
• The importance of team chemistry in successful baseball teams.
• The influence of the media on the perception of baseball.
• The significance of baseball stadiums: A comparison of iconic venues.
• The impact of international players on Major League Baseball.
• The role of baseball in promoting social change and activism.
• The psychology of baseball: Examining the mental aspect of the game.
• The role of managers in baseball: Their strategies and decision-making.
• The rise of women's baseball: Analyzing its growth and challenges.
• The impact of baseball on the economy: From ticket sales to merchandise.
• The role of youth baseball in developing future talent.
• The evolution of baseball equipment: From wooden bats to advanced technology.
• The importance of scouting and player development in baseball.
• The role of superstitions and rituals in baseball.
• The impact of free agency on player movement and team dynamics.
• The significance of baseball records: Breaking down the most notable ones.
• The role of baseball in promoting physical fitness and health.
• The impact of baseball on local communities: Case studies of minor league teams.
• The role of baseball in promoting diversity and inclusivity.
• The importance of teamwork in baseball: Lessons learned from successful teams.
• The influence of baseball on literature and popular culture.
• The role of baseball in fostering national unity during challenging times.
• The impact of the designated hitter rule on offensive strategies.
• The significance of the World Series: Examining its history and legacy.
• The role of baseball in promoting tourism: A study of baseball-themed attractions.
• The influence of baseball on other sports: Comparing strategies and techniques.
• The impact of globalization on the popularity of baseball.
• The significance of baseball cards: Their historical and monetary value.
• The role of baseball in promoting education and academic success.
• The psychology of a successful pitcher: Examining their mindset and strategies.
• The impact of the steroid era on the perception of baseball's golden age.
• The significance of baseball in wartime: Analyzing its role during conflicts.
• The influence of the media on player endorsements and sponsorships.
• The importance of sportsmanship in youth baseball: Lessons for young players.
• The role of baseball in promoting civic engagement and community service.
• The impact of the designated hitter on the National League: Should it be adopted?
• The significance of baseball in overcoming societal prejudices: Case studies.
• The evolution of baseball strategies: From small ball to power hitting.
• The role of baseball in the integration of immigrants into American society.
• The impact of injuries on player careers and team performance.
• The significance of baseball rituals and traditions: A comparative analysis.
• The influence of baseball on American slang and idioms.
• The importance of sportsmanship in the rivalry between baseball teams.
• The role of baseball in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment.
• The impact of rule changes on the pace of the game: Analyzing their effectiveness.
• The significance of baseball in building character and life skills in young athletes.
• The influence of baseball movies on popular culture and fan perception.
• The importance of baseball in preserving local history and heritage.
• The role of baseball in promoting environmental sustainability: Green initiatives.
• The impact of baseball on the tourism industry: A study on baseball tourism.
• The significance of baseball in shaping national identity: Case studies.
• The influence of baseball statistics on player contracts and salaries.
• The importance of baseball in promoting resilience and perseverance.
• The role of baseball in promoting social integration and breaking down barriers.
• The impact of analytics on player development and scouting.
• The significance of baseball in promoting community cohesion: Case studies.
• The influence of baseball on the development of sports broadcasting.
• The importance of baseball in teaching life lessons to young players.
• The role of baseball in promoting cultural exchange and diplomacy.
• The impact of baseball on the physical and mental health of fans.
• The significance of baseball in promoting patriotism and national pride.
• The influence of baseball on fashion and popular trends.
• The importance of baseball in promoting discipline and self-control.
• The role of baseball in promoting volunteerism and community service.
• The impact of baseball on the entertainment industry: From movies to music.
• The significance of baseball in promoting intergenerational bonding: Case studies.
• The influence of baseball on the development of sports journalism.
• The importance of baseball in promoting fair play and respect for opponents.
• The role of baseball in fostering a sense of belonging and identity.
• The impact of baseball on the physical and mental well-being of players.
• The significance of baseball in promoting social justice: Case studies.
• The influence of baseball on the development of sports photography.
• The importance of baseball in promoting teamwork and cooperation.
• The role of baseball in promoting cultural diversity and inclusivity.
• The impact of baseball on the tourism industry: A study on baseball-themed vacations.
• The significance of baseball in promoting physical education in schools.
• The influence of baseball on the development of sports broadcasting technology.
• The importance of baseball in promoting leadership skills and responsibility.
• The role of baseball in fostering a sense of community and belonging.
• The impact of baseball on the physical and mental health of youth players.
• The significance of baseball in promoting national unity: Case studies.
• The influence of baseball on the development of sports journalism ethics.
• The importance of baseball in promoting perseverance and resilience.
• The role of baseball in promoting cultural exchange and understanding.
• The impact of baseball on the tourism industry: A study on baseball-themed tours.
• The significance of baseball in promoting physical fitness in schools.
• The influence of baseball on the development of sports broadcasting techniques.
• The importance of baseball in promoting teamwork and collaboration.
• The role of baseball in fostering a sense of cultural diversity and acceptance.
• The impact of baseball on the physical and mental well-being of amateur players.
• The significance of baseball in promoting social cohesion and harmony.

With these 101 baseball essay topic ideas and examples, you are sure to find the perfect topic to write about. Whether you are interested in the historical aspects of the game, statistical analysis, or the impact of baseball on society, there is something for everyone. So grab your pen and paper, or fire up your computer, and start exploring the fascinating world of baseball through your essay!

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Baseball — How To Play Baseball

How to Play Baseball

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Published: Mar 20, 2024

Words: 529 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

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Basic rules of baseball, skills and techniques, base running, teamwork and strategy.

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Driveline Baseball

Home Pitching Research

Pitching Research

Welcome to driveline’s pitching research page.

Here is where we will start our review of studies and their relation to baseball.

You can see a longer list of the studies we have collected here .

If have any interesting studies to share you can send them to [email protected] and we may review and post them with attribution.

How to use this page:

We do our best to experiment and validate much of the research that we read. We will link to the abstract of each paper to encourage you to do your own investigation/observation/experimentation. These studies should be taken as a jumping point for your own research. Each is simply a piece of the puzzle not law of the land.

“If you don’t experimentally validate research you picked up out of a textbook or published paper, that’s not science. That’s faith.”

Below are links to specific subject matters that relate to baseball. Each page has Driveline blogs (lighter reading) at the top of the page, followed by reviews of either peer reviewed research, thesis’s, or poster presentations on that topic. All contain a short review of the material and a link to the paper if available.

Weighted Ball Training

Reviews of peer reviewed research involving many forms of weighted ball training.

Biomechanics

Short Reviews of peer reviewed biomechanics based pitching research.

Pitching Mechanics

Research on the kinetic chain and pitching mechanics.

Research specifically on long toss.

Research on spin rate

Baseball Reviews

Research on a variety of baseball content, including performance, age, and testing measures.

Research on throwing workload and workload management relevant to pitchers.

Youth Pitchers

Research on youth pitching mechanics and injury factors.

Elbow Injuries and Tommy John

Research on Tommy John rates of return and performance as well as other elbow injuries.

Shoulder Injuries

Research on the scapula and shoulder strength and injury risk factors.

Verbal Cues

Research on communicating with athletes through cueing

Research on different recovery modalities (Marc Pro, EMS) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Ground Reaction Forces

Research on the lower half and ground reaction forces in the pitching delivery.

Weight Room and Workouts Training

Research on lifting and medicine ball work in relation to baseball.

Other Throwing Sports

Research on other throwing sports that may have relatable findings to baseball.

137 Baseball Essay Topics & Examples

Want to write an essay on baseball? Described as a national religion of the US, this sport is definitely worth exploring!

⚾ Baseball Research Topics

🏆 top baseball essay examples, 🧢 best baseball essay topics, 🥎 interesting baseball topics to write about, 🏏 baseball research paper topics, 👟 baseball argumentative essay topics, 🎓 simple & easy baseball essay titles, ❓ baseball research questions.

Developed from folk games in early Britain, baseball has become the most popular bat-and-ball game in the world. About half of Americans claim to be its fans. In your paper about baseball, you might want to focus on its history. Another interesting idea is to talk about cultural impact of baseball. Whether you have to write an argumentative, descriptive, or informative essay, our article will be helpful. It contains baseball topics to research and write about. You can use them for a paper, presentation, or any other assignment. Best baseball essay examples are added to inspire you even more.

• The evolution of baseball form older bat-and-ball games
• History of baseball in the US
• The Massachusetts game and modern baseball: compare & contrast
• Baseball at the age of steroids
• Baseball in the US culture
• British and Finnish baseball: compare and contrast
• Baseball in the world literature
• Women in baseball
• Comparison of baseball and cricket
• The role of individual players in baseball
• Kansas City Zephyrs Baseball Club, Inc. The main reason for the contentious issues is the profitability disbursement to between the club operations and players. The owners want to maximize their interest through reduction of taxes yet the players want to get […]
• Which Is More Profitable, Baseball or Football? There are other sports which are more profitable than the two but the argument here boils to which sport between the two is more profitable. In regard to the ticket price, baseball becomes more profitable […]
• Koprince’s “Baseball as History and Myth in August Wilson’s Fences” Although the connection between baseball and the thematic development of the play might seem tangential at first, a closer analysis of the manner in which the game I mentioned in the novel will show that […]
• “Life in Baseball’s Negro Leagues” by Donn Rogosin This is the particular phase of racism that has made the dominance so very concrete that the title in itself declares the actual picturesque about the foregrounding towards this dominance.
• History of Baseball and Its Impact on American History It is possible to hypothesize that the regional roots of baseball emphasize the special place of the rural culture in the construction of the contemporary American identity and promote the traits that the rural population […]
• Fences: On Stubbornness and Baseball Even the play’s title, Fences, is a reference to “swinging for the fences” in addition to the literal and metaphorical fences Troy builds that keep the other characters out or in.
• Social Injustice in Negro League Baseball The lack of equal pay for African American players in the Negro Leagues during the 1920s and 1930s was a significant social injustice that exposed and sought to improve the inequality within the baseball industry.
• Linear Regression Applied to Major League Baseball Applying regression techniques by drawing a scatter plot of real-world data of MLB payroll amounts and win totals copied to the Excel spreadsheet, it is practical to establish the nature of the relationship between the […]
• Jackie Robinson, an American Baseball Player Robinson reached significant heights in baseball, becoming the first recipient of the MLB Rookie of the Year Award, becoming the National League’s Most Valuable Player, and being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
• The Role of Ezol’s Journal in Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story Outwardly the journal features the history of Ezol’s life, Ada’s citizens, and the Twin Territories; however, in truth, it goes beyond that and has a much deeper symbolic meaning. Ezol’s journal serves as a portrayal […]
• Promotional Campaign Plan for Sault Ste. Marie Baseball It will be a moment to harness the youthful talents of Sault Ste. The youths of Sault Ste.
• Geometry Web Quest for Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Bowling, Golf, Volleyball and Pool Field for golf is the biggest and made of grass, sand and water and is the biggest and it has no fixed shape. Soccer field is made of grass or synthetic material and is the […]
• Fraud Within the Tallahassee Beancounters Baseball Team An additional impetus for the audit of the company’s accounts was the granting of a mortgage to the company for the construction of a new training facility.
• Benefits of Baseball League However this research is perhaps better placed in capturing the impact of baseball league because it is not subject to the different errors that are said to be experienced in the assessment of economic development […]
• Mechanics of the Baseball Swing During the game, the ball is to be hit hard by the batting team and the “hitter” to stop at a base before proceeding to other bases.
• Baseball Game Rules and Age Limit In the game of baseball or any other form of the game, the play of a boy corresponds to the work of an over-aged player.
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Pitchers and Catchers

“Good fielding and pitching, without hitting, or vice versa, is like Ben Franklin’s half a pair of scissors — ineffectual. Twenty-game winners or .400 hitters do not ensure victory.”

B aseball men agree with the philosopher that perfection — which means a pennant to them — is attainable only through a proper combination of opposites. A team equally strong in attack and in defense, well-proportioned as a unit, with, of course, those intangibles, morale, enthusiasm, and direction — that is the story of success in baseball. Good fielding and pitching, without hitting, or vice versa, is like Ben Franklin’s half a pair of scissors — ineffectual. Lopsided pennant failures are strewn throughout the record books. Twenty-game winners or .400 hitters do not ensure victory. Ne quid nimis . Ty Cobb, baseball genius, helped win pennants early in his career, but from 1909 through 1926, his last year at Detroit, he and his formidable array of hitters failed — they never found the right combination. Ed Walsh, the great White Sox spitball pitcher, in 1908 won forty or practically half of his club’s games, to this day an individual pitching record, but alone he couldn’t offset his own ‘hitless wonders.’ Walter Johnson the swift, with over 400 victories, waited almost twenty years before his clubmates at Washington helped him to a championship. Every pennant winner must be endowed both at the plate and in the field. Even Babe Ruth’s bat, when it loomed largest, couldn’t obscure the Yankees’ high-calibre pitching and their tight defense in key spots.

With all the importance that hitting has assumed since the Babe and home runs became synonymous, I note that Connie Mack, major-league manager for almost half a century, household name for strategy wherever the game is played, still gives pitching top rating in baseball.

A Walter Johnson, a Lefty Grove, a Bob Feller, cannon-ball pitchers, come along once in a generation. By sheer, blinding speed they overpower the hitter. Johnson shut out the opposition in 113 games, more than the average pitcher wins in his major-league lifetime. Bob Feller continues this speed-ball tradition. We accept these men as pitching geniuses, with the mere explanation that, thanks to their strong arms, their pitches are comparatively untouchable. When Walter Johnson pitched, the hitter looked for a fast ball and got it; he looked — but it didn’t do him much good. Clark Griffith, then manager of the Washington Club, jestingly threatened Walter with a fine any time he threw a curve. ‘Griff’ knew that no variation in the speed king’s type of pitch was necessary. But what of the other pitchers who are not so talented?

Many times a pitcher without apparent stuff wins, whereas his opponent, with what seems to be a great assortment, is knocked out of the box in an early inning. The answer, I believe, lies in the bare statement, ‘Bat meets ball’; any other inference may lead us into the danger of overcomplication. The player himself takes his ability for granted and passes off his success or lack of it with ‘You do or you don’t.’ Call it the law of averages.

Luck, as well as skill, decides a game. The pitcher tries to minimize the element of luck. Between the knees and shoulders of the hitter, over a plate just 17 inches wide, lies the target of the pitcher, who throws from a rectangular rubber slab on a mound 60 feet, 6 inches distant. The pitcher has to throw into the area with enough on the ball to get the hitter out — that is his intention. Control, natural or acquired, is a prerequisite of any successful pitcher: he must have direction, not only to be effective, but to exist.

Because of this enforced concentration of pitches, perhaps the game’s most interesting drama unfolds within the limited space of the ball-and-strike zone. This pitcher toes the mound; action comes with the motion, delivery, and split-second flight of the ball to the catcher. With every move the pitcher is trying to fool the hitter, using his stuff, his skill and wiles, his tricks and cunning, all his art to win.

Well known to ball players is the two-o’clock hitter who breaks down fences in batting practice. There is no pressure; the practice pitcher throws ball after ball with the same motion, the same delivery and speed. If the practice pitcher varies his windup or delivery, the hitters don’t like it — not in batting practice — and they show their dislike by sarcastically conceding victory by a big score to the batting practice pitcher and demanding another. This is an interesting phenomenon. The hitter, in practice, is adjusting himself to clock-like regularity of speed, constant and consistent. He is concentrating on his timing. He has to coördinate his vision and his swing. This coördination the opposing pitcher wants to upset from the moment he steps on the rubber and the game begins. The very duration of the stance itself, the windup and motion, and the form of delivery are all calculated to break the hitter’s equilibrium. Before winding up, the pitcher may hesitate, outstaring the notoriously anxious hitter in order to disturb him. Ted Lyons of the Chicago White Sox, master student of a hitter’s habits, brings his arms over his head now once, now twice, three or more times, his eyes intent on every move of the hitter, slowing up or quickening the pace of his windup and motion in varying degrees before he delivers the pitch. Cy Young, winner of most games in baseball history, — he won 511, — had four different pitching motions, turning his back on the hitter to hide the ball before he pitched. Fred Marberry, the great Washington relief pitcher, increased his effectiveness by throwing his free, non-pivot foot as well as the ball at the hitter to distract him.

In 1884, when Connie Mack broke in as a catcher for Meriden, Charlie Radbourne — who won 60 games for Providence — could have cuffed, scraped, scratched, finger-nailed, applied resin, emery, or any other foreign substance to, or spit on the two balls the teams started and finished the game with. ‘Home-Run’ Baker, who hit two balls out of the park in the 1911 World Series to win his nickname, — and never more than twelve in a full season, — characterizes a defensive era in the game. During the last war it was impossible to get some of the nine foreign ingredients that enter into the manufacture of our baseball. To make up for the lack of the superior foreign yarn, our machines were adjusted to wind the domestic product tighter. In 1919, when the war was over, the foreign yarn was again available, but the same machines were used. The improved technique, the foreign ingredients, Babe Ruth and bat, conspired to revolutionize baseball. It seems prophetic, with due respect to the Babe, that our great American national game, so native and representative, could have been so completely refashioned by happenings on the other side of the world.

The importance of the bat has been stressed to such an extent that, since 1920, foreign substances have been barred to the pitcher, and the spitball outlawed. The resin bag, the sole concession, is used on the hands only to counteract perspiration. The cover of the ball, in two sections, is sewed together with stitches, slightly raised, in one long seam; today’s pitcher, after experimentation and experience, takes whatever advantage he can of its surface to make his various pitches more effective by gripping the ball across or along two rows of stitches, or along one row or on the smooth surface. The pitcher is always working with a shiny new ball. A game today will consume as many as eight dozen balls instead of the two roughed and battered ones which were the limit in 1884.

With the freak pitch outlawed and the accent put on hitting in the modern game, the pitcher has to be resourceful to win. He throws fast, slow, and breaking balls, all with variations. He is fortunate if his fast ball hops or sinks, slides or sails, because, if straight as a string or too true, it is ineffective. The ball has to do something at the last moment. The curve must break sharply and not hang. To add to his repertory of balls that break, the pitcher may develop a knuckle ball (fingers applied to the seam, knuckled against, instead of gripping the ball), a fork ball (the first two fingers forking the ball), or a screw ball (held approximately the same as an orthodox fast or curve ball but released with a twist of the wrist the reverse of a curve). The knuckle and fork balls flutter through the air, wavering, veering, or taking a sudden lurch, without revolving like the other pitches; they are the modern counterpart of the spitball, a dry spitter.

The pitcher studies the hitter’s stance, position at the plate, and swing, to establish the level of his natural batting stroke and to detect any possible weakness. Each hitter has his own individual style. The pitcher scouts his form and notes whether he holds the bat on the end or chokes it, is a free swinger or a chop hitter. He bears in mind whether the hitter crowds, or stands away from the plate, in front of or behind it, erect or crouched over it. Whether he straddles his legs or strides forward to hit, whether he lunges with his body or takes a quick cut with wrist and arm only, whether he pulls a ball, hits late or through the box — all these things are telltale and reveal a hitter’s liking for a certain pitch, high or low, in or out, fast, curve, or slow.

To fool the hitter — there’s the rub. With an assortment at his disposal, a pitcher tries to adapt the delivery, as well as the pitch, to the hitter’s weakness. Pitchers may have distinct forms of delivery and work differently on a given hitter; a pitcher throws overhand, three-quarter overhand (which is about midway between overhand and side-arm), side-arm, or underhand. A cross-fire is an emphasized side-arm pitch thrown against the forward foot as the body leans to the same side as the pitching arm at the time of the motion and delivery. Not the least important part of the delivery is the body follow-through to get more stuff on the pitch and to take pressure off the arm. Having determined the hitter’s weakness, the pitcher can throw to spots — for example, ‘high neck in,’ low outside, or letter high But he never forgets that, with all his equipment, he is trying to throw the hitter off his timing — probably the best way to fool him, to get him out. Without varying his motion, he throws a change-of-pace fast or curve ball, slows up, takes a little off or adds a little to his fast ball.

Just as there are speed kings, so there are hitters without an apparent weakness. They have unusual vision, power, and great ability to coördinate these in the highest degree. They are the ranking, top hitters who hit everything in the strike zone well — perhaps one type of pitch less well than another. To these hitters the pitcher throws his best pitch and leaves the result to the law of averages. Joe DiMaggio straddles in a spread-eagle stance with his feet wide apart and bat already cocked. He advances his forward foot only a matter of inches, so that, with little stride, he doesn’t move his head, keeping his eyes steadily on the ball. He concentrates on the pitch; his weight equally distributed on both feet, he has perfect wrist action and power to drive the ball for distance. Mel Ott, on the other hand, lifts the front foot high just as the pitcher delivers the ball; he is not caught off balance or out of position, because he sets the foot down only after he has seen what type of pitch is coming. With DiMaggio’s stance one must have good wrist action and power. With Ott’s, there is a danger of taking a long step forward before one knows what is coming. But Mel does not commit himself.

Rogers Hornsby, one of the game’s greatest right-hand hitters, invariably took his position in the far rear corner of the batter’s box, stepped into the pitch, and hit to all fields equally well. Ty Cobb was always a step ahead of the pitcher. He must have been because he led the American League in hitting every year but one in the thirteen-year period 1907–1919. He outstudied the pitcher and took as many positions in the batter’s box as he thought necessary to counteract the type of motion and pitch he was likely to get. He adapted his stance to the pitcher who was then on the mound; for Red Faber, whose spitball broke sharply down, Cobb stood in front of the plate; for a curve-ball left-hander, Ty took a stance behind the plate in order to hit the curve after it broke, because, as Ty said, he could see it break and get hold of it the better. For Lefty O’Doul, one of the greatest teachers of hitting in the game, there are no outside pitches. Left stands close to the plate; his bat more than covers it; he is a natural right-field pull hitter. Babe Ruth, because of his tremendous, unequaled home-run power, and his ability to hit equally well all sorts of pitches with a liberal stride and a free swing, and consistently farther than any other player, has demonstrated that he had the greatest coördination and power of any hitter ever known. Ted Williams, of the Boston Red Sox, the only current .400 hitter in the game, completely loose and relaxed, has keen enough eyes never to offer at a bad pitch; he has good wrist and arm action, leverage, and power. Jimmy Foxx, next to Babe Ruth as a home-run hitter, steps into a ball, using his tremendous wrists and forearms for his powerful, long and line drives. These hitters do not lunge with the body; the front hip gives way for the swing, and the body follows through.

The game is carried back and forth between the pitcher and the hitter. The hitter notices what and where the pitchers are throwing. If the pitcher is getting him out consistently, for example, on a curve outside, the hitter changes his mode of attack. Adaptability is the hallmark of the big-league hitter. Joe Cronin, playing manager of the Red Sox, has changed in his brilliant career from a fast-ball, left-field pull hitter to a curve-ball and a right-field hitter, to and fro through the whole cycle and back again, according to where the pitchers are throwing. He has no apparent weakness, hits to all fields, and is one of the greatest ‘clutch’ hitters in the game. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Like Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove was a fast-ball pitcher, and the hitters knew it. The hitters looked for this pitch; Lefty did not try to fool them by throwing anything else, but most of them were fooled, not by the type of pitch, but by his terrific speed. With two strikes on the hitter, Lefty did throw his curve at times, and that, too, led almost invariably to a strike-out. In 1935, Lefty had recovered from his first serious sore arm of the year before. Wear and tear, and the grind of many seasons, had taken their toll. Now he had changed his tactics, and was pitching curves and fast balls, one or the other. His control was practically perfect. On a day in that year in Washington, Heinie Manush, a great hitter, was at bat with two men on the bases. The game was at stake; the count was three balls and two strikes. Heinie stood there, confident, looking for Lefty’s fast ball. ‘Well,’ thought Heinie, ‘it might be a curve.’ Lefty was throwing the curve more and more now, but the chances with the count of three and two were that Lefty would throw his fast ball with everything he had on it. Fast or curve — he couldn’t throw anything else; he had nothing else to throw. Heinie broke his back striking out on the next pitch, the first fork ball Grove ever threw. For over a year, on the side lines, in the bullpen, between pitching starts, Lefty had practised and perfected this pitch before he threw it, and he waited for a crucial spot to use it. Lefty had realized his limitations. The hitters were getting to his fast and curve balls more than they used to. He wanted to add to his pitching equipment; he felt he had to. Heinie Manush anticipated, looked for, guessed a fast ball, possibly a curve, but Lefty fooled him with his new pitch, a fork ball.

Here was the perfect setup for outguessing a hitter. Lefty Grove’s development of a third pitch, the fork ball, is the greatest example in our time of complete, successful change in technique by one pitcher. When a speedball pitcher loses his fast one, he has to compensate for such loss by adding to his pitching equipment. Lefty both perfected his control and added a fork ball. Carl Hubbell’s screw ball, practically unhittable at first, made his fast ball and curve effective. Lefty Gomez, reaching that point in his career where he had to add to his fast and curve ball, developed and threw his first knuckle ball this year. Grove, Gomez, and Hubbell, three outstanding left-handers, — Grove and Gomez adding a fork ball and a knuckle ball respectively to their fast and curve balls when their speed was waning, Hubbell developing a screw ball early in his career to make it his best pitch and to become one of the game’s foremost southpaws, — so you have the build-up of great pitchers.

At first, the superspeed of Grove obviated the necessity of pitching brains. But, when his speed began to fade, Lefty turned his head. With his almost perfect control and the addition of his fork ball, Lefty now fools the hitter with his cunning. With Montaigne, we conceive of Socrates in place of Alexander, of brain for brawn, wit for whip. And this brings us to a fascinating part of the pitcher-hitter drama: Does a hitter guess? Does a pitcher try to outguess him? When the pitching process is no longer mechanical, how much of it is psychological? When the speed of a Johnson or a Grove is fading or gone, can the pitcher outguess the hitter?

We know that the pitcher studies the strength and weakness of every hitter and that the hitter notes every variety of pitch in the pitcher’s repertory; that the big-league hitter is resourceful, and quick to meet every new circumstance. Does he anticipate what the pitcher is going to throw? He can regulate his next pitch arbitrarily by the very last-second flick of the wrist. There is no set pattern for the order of the pitches. Possible combinations are so many that a formula of probability cannot be established. He may repeat the fast ball or curve ball indefinitely, or pitch them alternately; there is no mathematical certainty what the pitch will be. There is no harmony in the pattern of a pitcher’s pitches. And no human being has the power of divination.

But does this prevent a hitter from guessing? Does he merely hit what he sees if he can? Is it possible for a hitter to stand at the plate and use merely his vision, without trying to figure out what the pitcher might throw? The hitter bases his anticipation on the repertory of the pitcher, taking into account the score of the game, what the pitcher threw him the last time at bat, whether he hit that pitch or not, how many men are on base, and the present count on him. The guess is more than psychic, for there is some basis for it, some precedent for the next move; what is past is prologue.

The few extraordinary hitters whose exceptional vision and power to coördinate must be the basis for their talent can afford to be oblivious of anything but the flight of the ball. Hughie Duffy, who has the highest batting average in baseball history (he hit .438 in 1894), or Rogers Hornsby, another great right-hand hitter, may even deny that he did anything but hit what he saw. But variety usually makes a hitter think. When Ty Cobb changed his stance at the plate to hit the pitcher then facing him, he anticipated not only a certain type of motion but also the pitch that followed it. He studied past performance. Joe DiMaggio hit a home run to break Willie Keeler’s consecutive-games hitting record of 44, standing since 1897, and has since carried the record to 56 games. In hitting the home run off Dick Newsome, Red Sox pitcher, who has been very successful this year because of a good assortment of pitches, Joe explains: ‘I hit a fast ball; I knew he would come to that and was waiting for it; he had pitched knucklers, curves, and sinkers.’ Jimmie Foxx looks for a particular pitch when facing a pitcher — for example, a curve ball against a notorious curve-ball pitcher — and watches any other pitch go by. But when he has two strikes he cancels all thought of what the pitcher might throw; he then hits what he sees. Jimmie knows that if he looks for a certain pitch and guesses wrong, with two strikes on him, he will be handcuffed at the plate watching the pitch go by. Hank Greenberg, full of imagination, has guessed right most of the time — he hit 58 home runs one year.

Just as Lefty Grove perfected control of his not-so-speedy fast ball and curve, and added the fork ball to give him variety, so even the outstanding hitters have to change their mode of attack later when their vision and reactions are not quite so sharp as they used to be.

             V

The catcher squatting behind the hitter undoubtedly has the coign of vantage in the ball park; all the action takes place before him. Nothing is outside his view except the balls-and-strikes umpire behind him — which is at times no hardship. The receiver has a good pair of hands, shifts his feet gracefully for inside or outside pitches, and bends his knees, not his back, in an easy, rhythmic motion, as he stretches his arms to catch the ball below his belt. The catcher has to be able to cock his arm from any position, throw fast and accurately to the bases, field bunts like an infielder, and catch foul flies like an outfielder. He must be adept at catching a ball from any angle, and almost simultaneously tagging a runner at home plate. The catcher is the Cerberus of baseball.

These physical qualifications are only a part of a catcher’s equipment. He signals the pitcher what to throw, and this implies superior baseball brains on his part. But a pitcher can put a veto on a catcher’s judgment by shaking him off and waiting for another sign. The game cannot go on until he pitches. Every fan has seen a pitcher do this — like the judge who kept shaking his head from time to time while counsel was arguing; the lawyer finally turned to the jury and said, ‘Gentlemen, you might imagine that the shaking of his head by His Honor implied a difference of opinion, but you will notice if you remain here long enough that when His Honor shakes his head there is nothing in it.’ (Judges, if you are reading, please consider this obiter .) One would believe that a no-hit, no-run game, the acme of perfection, the goal of a pitcher, would satisfy even the most exacting battery mate. Yet, at the beginning of the seventh inning of a game under those conditions, ‘Sarge’ Connally, White Sox pitcher, said to his catcher, ‘Let’s mix ’em up; why don’t you call for my knuckler? ‘Sarge’ was probably bored with his own infallibility. He lost the no-hitter and the game on an error.

Of course, no player monopolizes the brains on a ball club. The catcher gives the signals only because he is in a better position than the pitcher to hide them. In a squatting position, the catcher hides the simple finger, fist, or finger-wiggle signs between his legs, complicating them somewhat with different combinations only when a runner on second base in direct line of vision with the signals may look in, perhaps solve them, and flash back another signal to the hitter.

Signal stealing is possible in many ways. The most prevalent self-betrayals are made by the pitcher and catcher themselves. Such detection requires the closest observation. A catcher, after having given the signal, get sets for the pitch; in doing so he may unintentionally, unconsciously, make a slight move — for example, to the right, in order to be in a better position to catch a right-hander’s curve ball. But more often it is the pitcher who reveals something either to the coaches on the base lines or — what is more telling — to the hitter standing in the batter’s box.

The pitcher will betray himself if he makes two distinct motions for two different pitches — as, for example, a side-arm delivery for the curve and overhand for the fast ball. A pitcher may also betray himself in his windup by raising his arms higher for the fast ball than for the curve. In some cases his eyes are more intent on the plate for one pitch than for another. Usually the curve is more difficult to control. If a pitcher has to make facial distortions, they should be the same for one pitch as for another.

A pitcher covers up the ball with his glove as he fixes it, to escape detection. Otherwise he may reveal that he is holding the ball tighter for a curve than for a fast ball, or even gripping the stitches differently for one than for the other. Eddie Collins, all-time star second baseman, was probably the greatest spy on the field or at bat in the history of the game. He was a master at ‘getting’ the pitch for himself somewhere in the pitcher’s manipulation of the ball or in his motion. This ability in no small part helped make him the great performer that he was.

Ball players would rather detect these idiosyncrasies for themselves, as they stand awaiting the pitch, than get a signal from the coach. The coach, on detecting something, gives a sign to the hitter either silently by some move — for instance, touching his chest — or by word of mouth — ‘Come on,’ for a curve. But this is dangerous unless the coach detects the pitches with one hundred per cent accuracy. There must be no doubt. Many times, in baseball, a club knows every pitch thrown and still loses. The hitter may be too anxious if he actually knows what is coming, or a doubt may upset him. And there is always the danger of a pitcher’s suspecting that he is ‘tipping’ himself off. He then deals in a bit of counter-espionage by making more emphatic to the opposition his revealing mannerism to encourage them, only to cross them up at a crucial time.

The whole club plays as a unit to win. The signs that the pitcher and catcher agree on reflect the collective ideas, the judgment of all the players on how to get the opposition out. Preventing runs from scoring is as important as making them. The players know how the pitcher intends to throw to each opponent. They review their strategy before game time, as a result of which they know how the battery is going to work, and they play accordingly. The shortstop and second baseman see the catcher’s signs and get the jump on the ball; sometimes they flash it by prearranged signal to the other players who are not in a position to see it. The outfielders can then lean a little, but only after the ball is actually released.

He is a poor catcher who doesn’t know at least as well as the pitcher what a hitter likes or doesn’t like, to which field he hits, what he did the last time, what he is likely to do this time at bat. The catcher is an on-the-spot witness, in a position to watch the hitter at first hand. He has to make quick decisions, bearing in mind the score, the inning, the number of men who on the bases, and other factors.

Pitchers and catchers are mutually helpful. It is encouraging to a pitcher when a catcher calls for the ball he wants to throw and corroborates his judgment. The pitcher very seldom shakes a catcher off, because they are thinking alike in a given situation. By working together they know each other’s system. Pitchers help catchers as much as catchers do pitchers. One appreciative catcher gives due credit to spit-baller Red Faber, knuckle-baller Ted Lyons, and fast-baller Tommy Thomas, all of the Chicago White Sox, for teaching him, as he caught them, much about catching and working with pitchers. Bill Dickey, great Yankee catcher, will readily admit that Herb Pennock taught him battery technique merely by catching a master and noting how he mixed up his pitches. Ray Schalk, Chicago White Sox, and Steve O’Neill, Cleveland Indians, were two of the greatest receivers and all-round workmen behind the plate in baseball history. Gabby Hartnett and Mickey Cochrane stood out as hitters as well as catchers, Mickey being probably the greatest inspirational catcher of our time.

The catcher works in harmony with the pitcher and dovetails his own judgment with the pitcher’s stuff. He finds out quickly the pitcher’s best ball and calls for it in the spots where it would be most effective. He knows whether a hitter is in a slump or dangerous enough to walk intentionally. He tries to keep the pitcher ahead of the hitter. If he succeeds, the pitcher is in a more advantageous position to work on the hitter with his assortment of pitches. But if the pitcher is in a hole — a two and nothing, three and one, or three and two count — he knows that the hitter is ready to hit. The next pitch may decide the ball game. The pitcher tries not to pitch a ‘cripple’ — that is, tries not to give the hitter the ball he hits best. But it is also dangerous to overrefine. Taking the physical as well as the psychological factors into consideration, the pitcher must at times give even the best hitter his best pitch under the circumstances. He pitches hard, lets the law of averages do its work, and never second-guesses himself. The pitcher throws a fast ball through the heart of the plate, and the hitter, surprised, may even take it. The obvious pitch may be the most strategic one.

The pitcher may throw overhand to take full advantage of the white shirts in the bleacher background. Breaking balls are more effective when thrown against the resistance of the wind. In the latter part of a day, when shadows are cast in a stadium ball park, the pitcher may change his tactics by throwing more fast balls than he did earlier in the game.

The players are not interested in the score, but merely in how many runs are necessary to tie and to win. They take nothing for granted in baseball. The idea is to win. The game’s the thing.

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A Novel Approach for Baseball Pitch Analysis Using a Full-Body Motion Analysis System

This article was written by  Paul Canavan

This article was published in Spring 2021 Baseball Research Journal

Contributing authors: Paul K. Canavan, Bethany Suderman, Alex Sklar, and Nicholas Yang

Biomechanical analysis in sports has been used for more than 140 years, including Eadweard Muybridge’s work in 1879. Muybridge created the Zoopraxiscope to analyze motion through photographs and motion pictures (Muybridge E 1882, Muybridge E. 1891, Rondinella L.F. et al.,1929). For the past 50 years, baseball coaches have used biomechanical analysis from movies of the baseball pitch to help improve pitcher performance (Bethel, 1967; Hulen, 1966; Petroff et al., 1966). High speed photography, stroboscopic photography and high-speed video cameras have been used to analyze pitching mechanics for over 40 years (Atwater, 1977; Elliott et. al, 1986; Escamilla et al., 2001; Hang et al., 1979; Pappas et al., 1985, Thurston,1984). High-speed cameras and the use of retroreflective markers worn on the major joints on the body for the baseball pitcher have been used to analyze baseball pitching for over 25 years to the present (Dillman et al., 1993; Escamilla et al., 2002; Escamilla et al., 2017; Fleisig et al., 1999, Solomito et al., 2017).

Over the past 10 years there have been several research studies that have utilized wearable sensors on the arm involving gyroscopes, accelerometers, and/or magnetometers to identify torque and other upper extremity biomechanical parameters related to baseball pitching (Camp et al., 2017; Koda et al, 2010; Makhni et al, 2018; McGinnis et al, 2012; Murray et al, 2017; Sagawa et. al, 2009). Objective testing that truly evaluates baseball ability is welcomed by professional, college, and high school coaches. Pertinent research findings and their practical applications are needed for coaches and players to help improve pitching ability (Reiff et al., 1971).

However, these sensors have only been utilized on the upper extremity and there are limitations to fixation, comfort, and practicality in the field. Coaches and analysts have requested more research advocating improved ease of use, and improved error compensation and analysis procedures to provide informative, concise, and easy-to-interpret metrics (Camomilla et al., 2018).

The XSens wearable full body motion analysis suit has been shown to reliably biomechanically analyze rehabilitation exercises, activities of daily living including walking and stair ambulation, as well as activities such as skiing and snowboarding (Karatsidis et al;, 2019; Konrath et al., 2019; Kruger et al., 2009; Slaipah et al., 2014; Supej et al., 2010). The Xsens inertial measurement suit is an acceptable unit to measure physical demand in workplace assessments such as complex lifting tasks (Poitras et al., 2019).

To date there are no known research papers that have analyzed the baseball pitch using a full body motion analysis suit such as the Xsens for kinematic analysis. This paper has two purposes: First, to present the procedures for a successful application of biomechanical motion analysis of baseball pitching utilizing a wearable sensor body suit. Second, to provide a descriptive analysis of the center-of-mass position of the pitcher’s body as related to the lead foot placement and pitching accuracy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Participant The volunteer participant was a male pitcher (Age 20; Height 1.96 m; Weight 102.1 kg; Throwing Arm; Right) from an NCAA Division III varsity baseball team. The research procedures were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board. The participant was provided an overview of the procedures and provided written informed consent.

Set-up A pitching mound, home plate, pitching target, and batting dummy were set-up in an indoor gymnasium at Eastern Connecticut State University. The distance of the pitching rubber to the back of home plate was placed at the NCAA regulation distance of 60 feet 6 inches (18.44 meters) from each other (Paronto and Woodward, NCAA, 2014). The participant threw from an indoor wooden pitching mound built to regulation height (10 inches/25.4 centimeters) with a gradual slope of 1 inch per foot (0.0254 centimeter per 30.48 centimeters) from a point 15.24 centimeters (6 inches) in front of the pitching rubber (all dimensions based upon NCAA regulations, see Paranto, NCAA).

A target area was designated on the canvas backstop to simulate the strike zone for a 1.75 meter (5-foot 9-inch) tall batter. The pitching target was placed behind home plate and measured 1.52 meters in height by 1.40 meters in width (Muhl Tech Pitching Target, MulTech, Wharton, Texas. See Figure 1).

Figure 1. Example images of pitching accuracy measurements. (Left) Example of a strike while throwing at the Lower Left Quadrant (LLQ). (Right) Example of a ball while throwing at the Right Upper Quadrant (RUQ). The baseball is outlined in for emphasis. Computer generated grid squares are 2″ x 2″.

A level and tape measures were utilized to ensure proper placement of the pitching target. The Designated Hitter Pro Model dummy (TAC Companies LLC, National Harbor, MD) was used to provide a more realistic pitching environment. The target area was subdivided into four equal quadrants of the strike zone. The quadrants were designated as Left Upper Quadrant (LUQ), Left Lower Quadrant (LLQ), Right Upper Quadrant (RUQ), and Right Lower Quadrant (RLQ). The pitching target area was 40.64 centimeters (16 inches) tall by 55.88 centimeters wide (22 inches) and each isolated quadrant area was 20.32 centimeters tall (8 inches) by 27.94 centimeters wide (11 inches). A 3-inch diameter circular white target was placed in the center of each quadrant, LUQ, LLQ, RUQ, RLQ. During the trials, only one of the quadrants was visible to the subject. The goal of the participant was to hit the center of the target in each quadrant.

Motion Analysis

The kinematic analysis of the body and center of mass of the subject was measured using an instrumented body suit (MVN Biomechanical Body Suit, Xsens Technologies, Enschede, Netherlands) containing 17 inertial measurement units. The sensors along with the measurements of the various limb segments created the 3-D body model.

The subject wore the Lycra body suit, with pockets allowing placement of the motion tracking sensors in the correct position on the subject’s body and to hold the data logger and battery pack. A headband, gloves, and foot pads were used to secure the motion trackers to the subject’s extremities. The gloves did not affect the ability of the subject to pitch normally. The sensor goes on the back side of the hand, not the palm or the fingers. According to feedback from the participants, the sensor did not affect the performance of throwing. The data from each sensor were recorded at 120 Hz and processed using the Xsens MVN Studio-Pro software package.

After the suit was put on, and the sensors, battery pack, and data logger secured in position, measurements were taken of the body height, shoe length, arm span, ankle height, hip height, hip width, knee height, shoulder width, shoulder height, and shoe sole height. These anthropometric measurements were taken as per XSens standardized protocol. A single-unit battery pack contains 3 Lithium Ion rechargeable cells, and when fully charged, the suit can be operational for continuous recording Z for up to 10 hours. The weight of the battery was 20.74 ounces or 1.3 lbs and placed on the posterior mid-thoracic region of the participant which had very minimal effect on the participant’s center of I gravity and throwing mechanics.

Prior to event recording, a complete and successful calibration phase was performed, following the Xsens calibration procedure. Connection between the recording laptop and Xsens hardware was done with the standard Bluetooth receivers provided with the Xsens system. Real time monitoring of the motion capture was also performed.

The biomechanical model consisted of 23 segments from the 17 sensors which created the accurate 3-D model for each individual participant. The sensors were translated to body segment kinematics using a biomechanical model which assumes the subject’s body includes body segments lined by joints. The Xsens system calculates the position, velocity, acceleration, orientation, angular velocity, and angular acceleration of each body segment and the center of gravity (COG). For each test trial, real-time standard video capture was also recorded at 29.97 frames per second at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Canon, EOS 7, Japan) and placement of cards that indicated quadrant and pitch number were utilized for both the high-speed camera and the standard video camera.

A midline was defined as the center of the pitching rubber to the center of home plate. MATLAB software was used to better visualize the location of the lateral distance of the center of mass related to the lead foot placement and midline.

Speed and Accuracy Measurements

A standardized and recently calibrated Stalker Sport 2 radar gun (Applied Concepts, Inc./Stalker Radar, Richardson, Texas) was used to assess pitch speed. The radar gun was placed 2.44 meters behind and 10 degrees to the right of the participant.

A high-speed camera (240 frames/sec) at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Sony, NEX SF700, Japan) was utilized to assess accuracy, and the x-, y-position of the ball was analyzed for each pitch relative to the center of the target and the resultant distance was calculated. The high-speed camera was placed orthogonal to the strike zone target and recorded the location of the ball when it hit the target. The camera was placed behind (1.54 meters) and 10 degrees to the left of the pitching subject. Still images of the moment of impact between the baseball and the strike zone target were taken from the high-speed camera and imported into a computer program (Adobe Illustrator, Version 23.0.3, Adobe, San Jose, California) where a 2-inch grid was placed over the strike zone target area (See Figure 1).

The grid was placed over the target area and verified by comparing the grid to physical measurements taken of the strike zone target area. Only the three most accurate and least accurate pitches were analyzed. Accuracy was determined as the resultant distance to the designated quadrant in the strike zone.

Pitching Protocol

Prior to data collection, the subject completed a 15-minute standardized warm-up throwing procedure that he typically performed before throwing off a mound. Prior to data capture, the participant pitcher threw 3 warm-up fast balls from the indoor mound into target number 1 right upper quadrant (RUQ). The participant then threw 10 times with the goal to hit the target in the center of the quadrant. The instructions were given for the participant to throw as fast and as accurately as he could perform with emphasis on accuracy. This was followed by the same procedure for each of the other three quadrants: Left Upper Quadrant (LUQ), Left Lower Quadrant (LLQ) and Right Lower Quadrant (RLQ). All pitches were performed from the stretch position to standardize the position of the body for each trial, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Subject in stretch position wearing the Lycra body suit and Xsens sensors.

The subject performed at least 40 pitches into the canvas backstop target, 10 pitches for each of the 4 quadrants. For each test trial, the subject was instructed to throw consecutively at one of the four defined quadrants. Pitches that completely missed the canvas backstop or hit the dummy batter did not count toward the 40-pitch total.

In addition to starting all throws from the stretch position, the participant aligned the middle of his shoe with a mark on the middle of the pitching rubber, which was itself aligned with the middle of home plate, in order to standardize the start position of each throw. The particular quadrant target circle was only visible for each of the conditions. The participant was allowed to rest as needed between pitches. The time between pitches for each quadrant was less than 60 seconds.

The pitching mechanics were analyzed with visual observation, use of standard video, as well as the Xsens MVN Studio-Pro software package, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Xsens software visualization of the pitch from the stretch position to follow through.

Figure 4. Top view and side view of the center of gravity and fore foot position at the initial stretch position, front foot strike, and follow through.

(Click image to enlarge)

MATLAB was utilized to observe the trace of the center of gravity during the pitching sequence (Figure 4).

Figure 4 shows top view and side view of the center of gravity and fore foot position at the initial stretch position, front foot strike, and follow through. Following ball release for each pitch, the subject’s body fell towards his left side and the back, right foot came across and landed to his left side in order to maintain balance of having the center of gravity (COG) within the base of support of both feet.

The lateral distance of the center of gravity with respect to the midline and front foot at foot strike was obtained by plotting the position at foot strike, as shown in Figure 4. Table 1 shows for the three most accurate and three least accurate pitches, the pitching velocity, the lateral distance of the center of gravity to the midline, and the lateral distance of the center of gravity to the lead foot.

The participant reported that he threw 90% of his full speed for each of his pitches. The participant’s least accurate pitches were low and to the outside relative to the center of the target of the respective quadrant. The combined amount of distance from the center of mass relative to the midline along with the position of the lead foot relative to the midline was 20, 22, and 25 centimeters for the most accurate pitches (Figure 4). The combined amount for the least accurate pitches were 30, 31, and 31 centimeters. The average pitching speed for the most accurate three pitches was 78.37 mph/126.12 kph. The average pitching speed for the least accurate three pitches was 78.27 mph/125.96 kph. The speeds were similar. Two of the most accurate pitches were in the right upper quadrant and two of the least accurate pitches were located in the right lower quadrant.

LIMITATIONS AND BENEFITS OF THE MOTION ANALYSIS SYSTEM SUIT AND HIGH-SPEED CAMERA

• Limitations . Battery life on the high-speed motion camera, sampling frequency low compared to shoulder velocity, time of data processing, place and complexity of data processing (Kosa et al., 2018)
• Benefits: Portability—the motion analysis suit and the high-speed camera can be utilized indoors or outdoors at a pitcher’s own team facility and mounds, ease of analysis—visualization of image following performance of the pitch, and convenience of set-up—the time for set-up for the pitcher may be lower than traditional motion analysis with retroreflective markers.

Many studies have investigated factors that could improve pitching accuracy and performance. A recent study (Fleisig, et al., 2017) showed that utilizing biomechanical motion analysis to identify flaws of the pitching motion, followed by instruction and a followup biomechanical analysis, was able to correct 44% of the flaws identified in 46 healthy baseball pitchers from high school, college, minor league, and major league levels. Studies analyzing the foot position on the pitching rubber and variable stride length did not necessarily correct pitching accuracy (Edwards et al, 1963). There also appears to be no significant relationship between shoulder proprioception and throwing accuracy (Freeston et al, 2015). To the authors’ knowledge, there has been little research on the lead foot position and pitching accuracy.

There is a dearth of literature on mechanics and pitching accuracy utilizing biomechanical motion analysis of the pitching motion. Qualitative analysis of baseball pitching technique using standard 60Hz camcorders cannot provide a complete and accurate profile of the mechanics (Nicholls et al., 2003). Our study appears to be the first that has utilized a full-body wearable sensor motion analysis portable suit to analyze the pitching motion related to pitching accuracy. Coordination in pitching involves the timing of various body motions such as trunk rotation, lower limb drive, and non-throwing and throwing limb movements. The ability to drive the body forward over a stabilized front leg was characteristic of fast pitchers (Elliott et al., 1988). This current study is the first we know of that analyzes pitching accuracy using center-of-mass tracking as related to the lead foot position. This is a preliminary proof-of-concept study that in the future can be expanded and improved upon.

CONCLUSION AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

The Xsens motion analysis suit, along with the described procedures within this study, could be used as an assessment process to identify flaws in the pitching motion. These identified flaws can be utilized by the pitcher and pitching coach to develop intervention to improve, reduce, or correct the flaws by being reassessed. The Xsens suit is portable and can be utilized for pitchers in the comfort and convenience of their respective pitching facilities, both indoors and outdoors, unlike many of the prior studies in which wall-mounted cameras and retroreflective markers are needed. This technology has the potential to provide the pitching coach and player with information that is concise, easy to understand and utilize, and allow them to implement interventions to optimize mechanics and to reduce variability. Also, biomechanical reassessment could help determine the efficacy of the interventions. These interventions may improve pitching performance and reduce the risk of injury for the baseball pitcher.

DR. PAUL CANAVAN is an Assistant Professor at Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU). He is a researcher and rehabilitation specialist with emphasis on injury prevention and sport performance enhancement. He is a SABR member and an accomplished scholar and has presented internationally in China, England, Turkey, Canada and recently at the 2019 National NSCA Conference. He has worked with athletes of all levels including collegiate and professional. Dr. Canavan’s research has been published in many high-quality research journals including Medicine Science in Sport and Exercise, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, and Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Acknowledgments

The authors would also like to thank Guidance Engineering for use of the High-Speed camera and Xsens™ Motion Analysis Suit. We would like to acknowledge the Head Coach Baseball Brian Hamm and Pitching Coach Chris Wojick and the volunteer pitcher participants. We would also like to express our gratitude to Christian Gosselin and Ashley Kennison for their help with data collection.

Partial funding for this project was provided by Eastern Connecticut State University and Guidance Engineering.

Declaration of Interest

The authors have no conflict of interest related to this study. The authors have no affiliations or involvement with organizations with any financial interest related to this study.

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Poems & Poets

Baseball and Verse, from Tinker to Evers to Big Papi

Grand slam poetry: our twin national pastimes..

BY Levi Stahl

Introduction

spring breeze the green field tempts me to play catch (1890, translated by the Shiki-Kinen Museum English Volunteers)

The baseball season now expires, The captains cease to cuss, And insurance men don’t rate umpires As “extra hazardous.”

These are the saddest of possible words: “Tinker to Evers to Chance.” Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, Tinker and Evers and Chance. Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble, Making a Giant hit into a double— Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble: “Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell; It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell; It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat, For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.

But there is no joy in Mudville—Mighty Casey has struck out.

Fanaticism? No. Writing is exciting and baseball is like writing. You can never tell with either how it will go or what you will do

and the terrible slumps, when the greatest hitter mysteriously goes hitless for weeks, or the pitcher’s stuff is all junk who threw like a magician last month

this isn’t like the bad luck that hounds us, and his frustration in the games not like our deep rage for disappointing ourselves

Against the bright grass the white-knickered players tense, seize, and attend. A moment ago, outfielders and infielders adjusted their clothing, glanced at the sun and settled forward, hands on knees; the pitcher walked back of the hill, established his cap and returned; the catcher twitched a forefinger; the batter rotated his bat in a slow circle. But now they pause: wary, exact, suspended—

But by the way, You’re doing the play-by-play, Seaver, So go ahead. I was gonna tell you something, But I forgot what it was. Go ahead.

Essay Service Examples Life Baseball

Process Analysis Essay about Baseball Pitching

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• Ellis, S. (n.d.). Pitching Sidearm In Baseball. Retrieved November 4, 2019, from https://www.pitchingtips.com/pitching-sidearm-in-baseball.html.
• Escamilla, Rafael & Slowik, Jonathan & Diffendaffer, Alek & Fleisig, Glenn. (2018). Differences Among Overhand, Three-Quarter, and Sidearm Pitching Biomechanics in Professional Baseball Players. Journal of Applied Biomechanics. 34. 1-27. 10.1123/jab.2017-0211.
• Fortenbaugh, D., Fleisig, G. S., & Andrews, J. R. (2009). Baseball pitching biomechanics in relation to injury risk and performance. Sports Health, 1(4), 314–320. doi:10.1177/1941738109338546
• Kinesiology. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2019, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kinesiology.
• Pitching style – Three quarters. (2010, May 22). Retrieved November 4, 2019, from https://idavid07.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/pitching-style-three-quarters/.
• Seroyer, S. T., Nho, S. J., Bach, B. R., Bush-Joseph, C. A., Nicholson, G. P., & Romeo, A. A. (2010). The kinetic chain in overhand pitching: its potential role for performance enhancement and injury prevention. Sports Health, 2(2), 135–146. doi:10.1177/1941738110362656

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GymScience™ & SportScience for Baseball Pitchers

The Science Behind Pitching Mechanics

Kinesiology  is the study of human motion and looks at the muscles and joint actions as it applies to sport skill and technique.  It allows us to understand and describe movements, key actions necessary for efficient movement, what muscles do what in the performance of the sport skill, and basically everything that involves understanding how sport motion can be most effective.  Biomechanics is a specialized field of Kinesiology that deals with the factors that are physics related:  speed, acceleration, levers, and force.

By applying scientific laws , sport scientists have come up with accurate descriptions and angles that should occur within efficient pitching mechanics. It is only by comparing your pitching to these sets of standards that you can understand what needs to be changed to make your pitching more effective.  Additionally, knowledge of the key role of each muscle during each part of the pitching motion allows us to understand what specific movements need to be made more powerful in order to improve the pitch velocity.

I perform a  qualitative analysis of your pitching  which is a systematic observation and assessment of the quality of your performance based on the above-mentioned principles.  The purpose of this scientific approach is to create the most appropriate intervention to improve you and move you in the direction of optimal velocity, accuracy, and consistency.  Scientific teaching methods  complete the cycle from the  diagnosis  and  intervention  to the  solutions .

The Qualitative Analysis  requires the integrated use of information from the following areas:

• Biomechanics
• Exercise Physiology
• Structural Kinesiology
• Motor Control & Development
• Sport Psychology
• Sports Medicine

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How to evaluate a pitcher, sabermetrically

Advanced stats might seem like a complicated foreign language, but becoming conversational is actually very easy. Learn how to analyze a pitcher's numbers.

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Share All sharing options for: How to evaluate a pitcher, sabermetrically

Based on years of watching television, I've learned that arriving to a party exactly on time is uncool. I'm not sure who started that social norm, but it seems to have taken hold. As a result, people arrive late to things that don't have a formal beginning. One such thing is the sabermetric appreciation of baseball. If you grew up reading Bill James at your father's knee, you're unusual. Most people show up halfway through the party and sometimes when you show up late, you don't know where to put your coat and you're too embarrassed to ask. You wander around the house opening doors hoping to find a pile of coats. Sometimes you find it, but sometimes you give up and just wear your coat and pretend you're cold.

More from our team sites

At Beyond the Box Score, we'd like to make an effort to help you find the coat room. If you're well-versed in advanced stats, this post isn't going to tell you anything you don't already know. However, if you're curious about how we do things in the modern age but aren't really sure where to start, this might help. You'll notice the format and especially the introduction of this post look very familiar. That's because you may have already read a similar post on  how to evaluate a hitter, sabermetrically.

Oftentimes, people ask a FanGraphs writer or a well-established stathead where to start and their typical answer is to start with  The Book or to click around in the  FanGraphs library . While both of those contain excellent information, they're sort of backwards. The reader has to decide they want to know what Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) is and then learn about it. What if you don't know where to start? First, you need to know what questions to ask. Then, you move on to learning about the metrics we have which answer those questions. We use numbers in baseball to tell a story and analyze what we see. You can love baseball without ever looking at a single statistic, but if you're going to look at a number or many numbers, looking at the ones that tell the most accurate story is ideal. We all want to understand and appreciate the game.

The rest of this post will walk you through the process of evaluating a pitcher using sabermetric thinking and stats. If you want to know more about the game, but don't know where to start, hopefully this will send you on your way!

Starting out

So you've arrived at the decision that you'd like to evaluate a major league pitcher and you'd like to see if you can do so using the the best tools available to the public. In the future, we'll talk defense, baserunning, etc, but for now we'll walk through the process of measuring performance on the mound. Let's choose an example for later! James Shields .

So the first thing we're going to do is head over to  his FanGraphs page. FanGraphs is one of the leading sabermetric websites which houses many of the most important stats. Baseball-Reference and Baseball Prospectus are also terrific, but if you're new to the game, I recommend FanGraphs because it's easier to navigate, in my opinion.

There's a lot of information on that page (the top of which appears above), and many links to other pages, so in order to focus our discussion, let's set out two important questions that we want to answer. How does James Shields' 2014 season compare to his previous seasons and how good of a pitcher is James Shields?

First steps

Credit: Denis Poroy/Getty Images

If you've spent any time around baseball, the concept of wins, losses, saves, innings pitched, and earned run average (ERA) aren't going to be new and you'll find those on Shields' main FanGraphs dashboard. But what we really want to do here is think through an evaluation in the most logical way possible. We want our questions to guide us to a statistic, we don't want statistics to guide us to a question.

So let's think first about what pitchers are asked to do. Baseball is about outscoring your opponent and pitchers are partially responsible for the run prevention side of the equation. It's their job to make sure the fewest possible runs score, but they are also out there with eight other players, so you can't simply look at their runs allowed and be finished.

We can start by dividing aspects of run prevention into two categories: those that the pitcher controls almost entirely and those in which his defense plays a major role. Pitchers have almost complete control over strikeouts, walks, and home runs and have much less control over hits because those are conditional on the quality of the defense and some degree of luck. A strikeout is a good outcome and walks and home runs are bad outcomes. Pitchers should be held accountable for those.

Hits, on the other hand, are partially dependent on factors outside the pitcher's control. How many times have you watched a game when a pitcher throws a perfect pitch and gets the batter to hit a weak ground ball that somehow gets just past the second baseman? The pitcher did his job. The fielder didn't. This goes beyond errors (which are poorly assigned anyway) and centers on the play not made. Imagine two pitchers facing the exact same batter in the exact same situation who throw the exact same pitch. Now picture one with Torii Hunter in right field and one with Jason Heyward. If the ball is heading into the right centerfield gap, Heyward has a way better chance of grabbing the ball than Hunter does.

So we know that pitchers aren't universally responsible for hits allowed. They play a role, but the quality of their defense, along with simple dumb luck, factor into the number of hits allowed and we don't want to evaluate a pitcher's performance based on the defense and luck. This leads us to Defense Independent Pitching Statistics (DIPS), and the most well-known among them is Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP).

FIP takes a pitcher's strikeouts, walks, hit batters, and home runs allowed per inning and generates a number that looks exactly like ERA and can be read the same way. You can essentially think about FIP as a pitcher's ERA if that pitcher had received league average defense and league average luck. In fact, FIP is actually a better predictor of future ERA than current ERA which tells us that the difference between ERA and FIP at a given time is at least partially due to things outside of the pitcher's control.

The great part about FIP is that you don't have to learn a new scale. You read it exactly like ERA meaning that a 2.80 FIP is just about as good as you think a 2.80 ERA is. It's easy and it tells you a whole lot about what a pitcher does without crediting or penalizing them for things they cannot control.

So pitcher's don't control hits at all?

Of course pitchers play a role in hits allowed, but let's work through this a little bit. A pitcher controls the rate at which they allow the ball to be put in play. There's no argument about that. If you don't strike batters out, you create a situation in which you're more likely to allow hits. On average, a pitcher is going to allow about 30% of the balls that are put into play (read: not strikeouts, walks, or home runs) to fall for a hit. The problem is that based on luck and defensive performance that can sometimes take 500 innings to even out. If you're watching every at bat, you know when a batter crushed a ball and when one barely found a hole, but you aren't going to remember every one, you're going to make subjective judgments, and you certainly didn't watch every swing in the league during a season. Batted ball velocity numbers are out there, but they aren't publicly available yet, so we have to make do.

No sabermetrician would argue that FIP captures everything about pitching, which leads me to my advice to newly curious fans. Start with FIP, but don't stop there. FIP tells you how a pitcher is doing based on three very critical indicators of success, but there is more to the story. Some pitchers might be getting lucky or unlucky on home run balls, some might be able to have more influence on hits by generating weak contact, etc.

So what's next?

Next you want to take a peak at the components of FIP and a host of other indicators to see if what that number is telling you is reasonably accurate. Strikeout and walk rate are pretty straightforward, but you want to make sure your pitcher has faced 100 or more batters in a season before you buy into any dramatic changes in those rates. If a starter punches out 15 on Opening Day but usually averages six, don't overreact. If they're averaging 25% strikeouts over 150 innings after years of an 17% strikeout rate, you can believe it.

Home runs are a bit of a different animal because one thing we know from years of studying it is that the number of home runs a pitcher allows per fly ball fluctuates wildly in small samples. Most pitchers are going to allow about one home run for every ten fly balls, but a HR/FB% of between and 8.0 and 12.0 is going to be the long run average. If your pitcher is way outside of those bounds, you're probably due for some regression to the mean.

A pitcher plays a big role in the number of fly balls they allow, but not as big of a role in how many of them officially clear the fence. Which brings us to Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP) which is the same thing as FIP except that it calculates the number of home runs you should have allowed given the number of fly balls you allowed and a league average HR/FB%. In this sense, xFIP is a better predictor of the future than FIP but it is a worse barometer of the past. We can't ignore those home runs when evaluating a pitcher's season, but we can use xFIP to get a better sense of where that pitcher's true ability sits.

After that, we turn to Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP). Some pitchers have the ability to limit their BABIP, predominantly fly ball pitchers because fly balls drop for hits less often than grounders and line drives, but for the most part, most pitchers will sit near .300. If you see a pitcher allowing a higher or lower BABIP than that by a sizable margin for the first time, you're looking at a candidate for regression to the mean. In a practical sense, if you have a pitcher with a 4.20 ERA and 3.20 FIP and you see a .400 BABIP, you're going to trust the FIP. Same is true if it's a 2.00 ERA and 3.40 FIP with a.220 BABIP.

The longer you demonstrate you can keep a low BABIP, the more you start to give the pitcher credit, but those types of pitchers are reasonably rare. Another nuance is that pitchers who are good at managing the running game will tend to allow fewer runs than their FIP indicates because they can keep runners from taking extra bases.

Next,  I'd recommend checking out the pitcher's batted ball profile, specifically their ground ball rate. Grounders find holes more often than fly balls, but ground balls go for extra bases very rarely. If you're able to keep the ball on the ground, you aren't going to give up as many runs, all else equal.

You care about how well the pitcher helps their team prevent runs, but that doesn't mean you can look at their earned runs allowed or total runs allowed and be done. Some portion of those runs belong to the pitcher and statistics like FIP try to estimate that value. But FIP isn't perfect and you want to add in HR/FB%, BABIP, and ground ball rate to see if there's something going on that could explain why a pitcher is responsible for under or over-performing their FIP.

Park adjusting and total value

Credit: Troy Taormina/USA Today Sports

Unsurprisingly, innings matter too. Pitchers who routinely pitch deep into games are more valuable than ones who pitch well, but don't stay out there very long, so you want to make sure you're giving more credit to guys with equal numbers but more innings. It's also important to factor in the park in which the pitcher throws. A 3.00 FIP or ERA at Coors Field is much more impressive than one at Petco Park.

Park adjusting is slightly tricky to calculate, but very easy to understand. FanGraphs houses three stats that do the heavy lifting; ERA-, FIP-, and xFIP-. The minus sign indicates that the stat is park and league adjusted, meaning that 100 is league average at a neutral park and every point lower is a percentage point better than league average. So a pitcher with a 90 FIP- has a FIP that is 10 percentage points better than average when controlling for their park.

To factor in the value of more innings, we'll turn to Wins Above Replacement or WAR. There are a couple of versions of the stat, but I'll give you the basic idea first. WAR is basically a park adjusted runs allowed or FIP scaled to the number of innings pitched. The actual calculation requires some more work, but it really is as simple as innings pitched and runs allowed or FIP.

FanGraphs' version (fWAR) uses FIP as the base. They also have a stat called RA9-WAR, which uses runs allowed per nine as the base. Baseball-Reference (rWAR) uses runs allowed as their base but also works in a control for defense after the fact. The best way to handle the variety is to look at all of them, but if you look at a pitcher's fWAR and their RA9-WAR and they're close, you're pretty much set. If they're different, go back and see if you can figure out why and if that difference is because of the pitcher or their defense. RA9-WAR treats all hits and sequencing as the pitcher's responsibility while fWAR treats them as team-dependent.

There are plenty of other statistics, like velocity data, pitch type, and plate discipline stats, but this is a primer. Now let's put it to use.

Putting it all together

So how's James Shields doing this year? Let's take a look at his numbers prior to his most recent start. This year, Shields has a 3.43 FIP, which is almost identical to his FIP over the last three seasons. The strikeouts, walks, and home runs are all changing a touch, but on balance you're looking at a pretty consistent profile. His FIP is also in line with his xFIP, so you don't have to worry much about a weird home run situation.

His BABIP is identical to his career average and very much in line with his recent past. It doesn't look like there's anything particularly different about Shields between this year and last, other than a slight uptick in ground balls, but he's been up and down with those during his entire career.

Put it this way, Shields is pitching very much like we would expect him to pitch. You'll notice his ERA is quite a bit lower than his FIP, but there's a super easy explanation. He's given up eight unearned runs. His RA9-WAR and fWAR are almost the same, and as we talked about earlier, the difference between a batted ball being classified as an error and it being classified as a play not made have nothing to do with the pitcher. You don't want to penalize him for having poor defense behind him, but you also have to remember that earned versus unearned runs don't capture the true difference between good defense and bad defense, just a random assortment of the way in which the defense performed poorly.

That 1.4 fWAR in 11 starts and 73.1 innings is a very solid number, rating out to something in the 4 fWAR range over a full season which would put him in the second tier of starting pitchers. Probably just south of the ace category, but it wouldn't be crazy to call him a lesser ace given his durability.

Again, this was a lot of information and I still think I'm leaving plenty out. There is much more to know, but hopefully this gives you a sense about how to think through an evaluation using advanced stats. This information doesn't replace scouting data or Pitchf/x type analysis, but if you're going to look into stats for pitchers, looking at K%, BB%, HR/9, BABIP, GB%, FIP, xFIP, and WAR is going to give you a much richer picture than misleading and less useful statistics like wins, saves, and ERA.

All statistics courtesy of  FanGraphs .

Neil Weinberg is the Associate Managing Editor at  Beyond The Box Score , a contributor to Gammons Daily , and can also be found writing enthusiastically about the  Detroit Tigers at New English D .  Follow @NeilWeinberg44

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