5 Things You Didn’t Know About Fastball
The fastball is one of the most common pitch types seen in baseball and softball. Pitchers use this method because of how effective it is at catching out batters, but also because it tends to be easier to throw than a curveball or other type of pitch. While there is an agreed-upon technique for this pitch, some players change things up slightly to produce better results. For example, putting backspin on the ball which makes it fall slower than expected.
While fastballs are extremely common in baseball, there are lots of things that you might not know about them. We’ve put together this list of the strangest and most interesting fastball facts. Use them to impress your friends or for betting online. Sports betting in Canada is becoming much more popular thanks to a growing number of legal and safe online sportsbooks. These sites offer bets on a variety of sports including baseball and hockey. Â
Fastball pitchers usually use one of three different techniques, the four-seam fastball, the two-seam fastball, also known as the sinker, and the cutter. The four-seam fastball is the most widely used and moves around the least of any fastball pitch. Meanwhile, the two-seam fastball is known as the sinker because of the way it drops. They’re harder to throw but also much harder to hit accurately. Finally, the cutter is held in a similar way to the four-seam pitch but holds the ball slightly off-centre in the hand. This pitch moves slightly on its approach, helping to fool batters into striking out.
For many years, pitchers all over the world strived to reach the 100 mph fastball pitch, a feat that many thought was impossible. Most pitchers today are frequently able to throw fastballs around 95 mph, but it wasn’t until 1974 that the 100 mph mark was finally broken by Nolan Ryan.
Today, the record is held by Aroldis Chapman, who threw a 105.1 mph ball while playing for the Cincinnati Reds. While this is the official record, it was quite difficult to accurately measure the speed of pitches back in the day. There are some players who claim to have beaten this record in the past, but there’s no way to prove it.
Overall, pitch speeds have improved over the last decade, as more than twenty pitchers have all managed to throw fastballs that have passed the 101 mph mark.
The past decade has seen a big increase in the speed of fastballs being thrown. While ten years ago, there were less than 200 pitches thrown over 100 mph, there were over 1000 in 2017. Although the numbers have increased, the speeds haven’t, and 100 mph seems to be the plateau. Advances in sport science, nutrition and training have led to this increase, but in most cases, pitchers can’t seem to throw faster than 100 mph, mainly due to the physical limitations of the human body.
While some batters claim that baseballs often rise between the pitcher and the plate, leading to them missing their hit. Despite the insistence of this belief, rising fastballs have never been caught on camera, and this effect is believed to be an optical illusion caused by trying to process the speed of the fast-moving ball. When combined with the backspin that makes the ball drop slower than usual, it can cause batters to think the ball is actually rising as it comes towards them.
The fastball pitch has long been one of the most popular techniques for pitchers to use, but its usage has decreased since 2017. It’s hard to say why this is happening, but possible reasons include the plateauing of pitch velocity and the fact that batters tend to hit more runs against fastballs than other types of pitches. Still, the fastball will likely continue to be the most common type of pitch as the technique is generally easier, and it’s still very effective, especially if the pitcher can reach triple digits.
