No pitcher can be successful throwing the same pitch in the same place over and over.  Pitchers need to attack different parts of the strike zone, change speeds and change location to keep hitter’s guessing about where the next pitch will be.

Fastballs

A fastball down the middle is usually not a good pitch.  Pitchers like to throw fastballs up, where a hitter is more likely to swing and miss or pop them up.  Fastballs away are another favorite, where the hitter has to reach out to try to make contact with the ball and will likely miss the pitch or foul it off.

A “bread and butter” pitch that every pitcher throws.  It is the fastest pitch in the game but also has limited movement.

A good 4-seamer will be thrown at better than 92 mph.

Continue Reading to see the rest of the pitches....

Regular Season

The Major League Baseball season runs from the start of April to the end of September, with each club playing 162 games. That means about one day off every ten days, so baseball is pretty much "game-a-day".

Teams normally play "series" of three (occasionally four) games on consecutive days against the same opponent, normally with a "homestand" of two or three series, or a "road trip" (though most of the travelling is now done by air!) of two or three series. So a fan can expect to have a week of home games, and then nothing but Baseball on TV for the next week or so.

If a game is "rained out", then it's replayed later in the season (unless at least five innings have been completed for both teams, in which case the score is "called" at the point at which both teams had completed the last innings), usually as part of a "double header" (two games played on the same day). 

Nowadays a double header means one game in the afternoon and one in the evening (the "night cap"), which is particularly tough on a pitching staff (as there's no time for rest at all). In the past double-headers used to sometimes be scheduled (for example on public holidays) with fans getting two games for the price of one. In modern day Baseball, however, they sell separate tickets for each game and generally there is at least a couple of hours  between games, not least to allow the first game's crowd to leave and the second game's crowd to come in.

In modern day Baseball most midweek games are typically played in the evening, under floodlights (to allow people to come to watch the game after work), and often weekend games are played during the afternoon. However, if television wants a game to start at a particular time, then generally it'll start when television dictates!

The Postseason & The World Series

At the end of the regular season the three divisional winners (ranked 1, 2 and 3 according to their win-loss records) and the wild-card team (ranked 4) from each league (the American League and the National League) go forward into the playoffs. The four teams in each league play two series of knockout baseball to determine the who "wins the pennant" (by tradition, the league winners are awarded a pennant to fly over their stadium). The two league winners then meet in the "World Series" (so called, because the first sponsor was the "Daily World" newspaper).

The first round of the playoffs (known as the "Divisional Series") are played over the best-of-five games (the first two at one venue, then two at the other, then a fifth at the first venue if required), with the higher ranked team having "home field advantage" (i.e. three home games and two on the road). The second round of the playoffs (known as the "Championship Series") are played over the best-of-seven games, with home field advantage meaning four home games (two games at one venue, three at the other, then two more at the first venue).

In the first round, the no.1 ranked team plays the no.4 ranked team (and no.2 plays no.3), unless they came from the same division, in which case 1 plays 3, and 2 plays 4. Ties in rankings are broken by the toss of a coin!

Note: the Major Leagues keep changing the formats for seedings, who plays who and schedules, and the TV companies have an impact on scheduling as well.

If a team can clinch a postseason series early it's a big advantage, as they can rest their players and "set up" their pitching rotation for the next series (if your star pitcher had to play in the final game of the Divisional Series, he won't be rested enough to pitch until the middle of the Championship series). However, if a hitter doesn't play for more than a day or two he tends to get out of rhythm, and teams with a few days off will normally play one or two practice matches (but not involving their pitchers).

Normally (unlike the regular season) there is a day's travel in the middle of the series when the venue changes, so teams can normally have smaller pitching rotations for playoff series (because of the extra days' rest). Teams will normally change their rosters slightly for playoff series, perhaps bringing in an extra hitter for a pitcher, or a pitcher more used to pitching from the bullpen.

The World Series

The playoffs climax with the World Series (also known as the "Fall Classic"), matching up the champions of the two leagues, playing a best of seven series with AL rules in AL ballparks, and NL rules in NL ballparks. 

Home field Advantage for the World Series is currently decided by whichever league wins the "All-Star Game" - a serious debating point for all Baseball fans. In the past the two leagues simply took turns - one year the AL, the next the NL.

Major League Baseball teams will normally carry eleven or twelve pitchers on their roster (eleven pitchers, and thirteen "position players" are considered the minimum, with the twenty fifth position normally being down to managerial preference).

The pitchers can normally be divided into three distinct roles:- the starting rotation, the middle-relief and the late-innings relievers. The middle-relief and late-innings relievers form what is known as the "bullpen".

As with the hitters, pitchers can be substituted at any time by another pitcher. Again, if pitcher is replaced, he cannot then return to the game.

Hit the title/read more to see when and how pitchers are used in baseball...

Scoring Runs

One of the fielding players, known as a "pitcher" stands on the pitching mound and throws the ball to the hitter who stands at home plate. The hitter tries to put the ball into play by hitting it inside the foul lines (the ball must go in front of first or third base and first land inside the foul lines) and then running to first base without being tagged out. He can stop at first base if he wishes, or continue to second, third or home base.

If a hitter stops on a base (becoming a "base runner"), then he can advance again when the next hitter is "at bat". Thus any time you see a hitter put the ball into play, you'll not only see him running, but any team-mates on other bases running as well.

If a hitter manages to hit the ball over the outfield wall (a "Home Run") then he, and any other base-runners automatically advance to home base.

Any time a runner manages to reach home base, he scores a run.

Making Outs

The fielding team can get a hitter out in one of several ways:-

Fly Out - The hitter hits the ball and a fielder catches it without the ball bouncing. A ball doesn't have to be in "fair territory" to be caught - some of the most spectacular plays see fielders catch the ball as they fall into the stands, the dugouts, or at the outfield wall, fielders reaching over the wall and catching a ball and preventing a "home run".

Slightly curiously, if a hitter makes slight contact with the ball and the catcher still manages to snare it (a "foul tip") it doesn't count as a catch, but is simply counted as a strike (which may be the third strike).

Put Out - The fielding side can "put out" a runner by touching him with the ball when he isn't standing on a base. In certain circumstances they don't even have to "tag" the runner - if he's forced to run towards a base because a runner behind his is running towards his, a fielder can simply touch the the base whilst holding the ball and the runner is "forced out".

Strike Out - When the pitcher throws the ball, he has to throw it in the "strike zone", or have the hitter swing and miss it. The strike zone is above the hitter's knees, below the mid point of his waist and shoulders, and over the "home plate" (which is 17 inches wide). If a pitcher can throw three strikes the hitter is "struck out". 

It's also a strike if the hitter swings at a pitch and misses (even if the pitch is outside the zone) or if he hits a "foul ball" (a hit which doesn't go inside the two foul lines). However, a "foul ball" cannot be a third strike.

If a hitter doesn't swing at a pitch, and the pitch isn't in the strike zone then it's known as a "ball". If a hitter receives four balls, then he gets a free "walk" to first base (also known as a "base on balls").

Ending an Inning

An inning comes to an end when the fielding team have got three hitters (or runners) out. The two teams swap over and the fielding team take their turn to bat, and the hitting team take their turn to field.

At the end of nine innings, the team with the most runs win!

The Field

The infield is a square, but is known as a "diamond", and has a base (first base, second base, third base and home base) at each corner. Each base is 90 feet away from the next. In the middle of the diamond, 60.5 feet away from home plate is the pitcher’s mound.

Beyond the diamond is the outfield, which is normally surrounded by a wall, between 325 and 450 feet away from the home plate. There are also two "foul lines" which extend to the wall from the first base and third base lines, and at the end of each foul line where it meets the outside wall, there's a huge "foul pole" to show which long hits are fair and which are foul.

The area between the first and third base lines, and the outfield wall is known as "fair territory".

A Baseball field can be divided into three sections:- the infield, the outfield and foul territory. No two Baseball fields are exactly the same.