@eatyum said in Is it possible for the fastball to be an effective pitch?:

"If we're talking about a player that has good plate discipline and knows how to time up a fastball, it just seems like any fastball in any part of the zone just gets crushed."

But isn't that kind of expected? If someone knows how to time a fastball and has good discipline, it's only a logical conclusion it will get crushed no?

Don't get me wrong, off speed does usually work better, slurves and sliders especially, and maybe fastballs should work better, but if someone knows how to time one, I don't think it's an unexpected outcome that they crush it.

I tend to agree with you, I kinda thought the same thing, but then what do I do? Never throw fastballs? That seems kinda cheesy/dirty to me...kinda goes against all my baseball sense. Just like I won't throw a sinker high in the zone even though its an effective way to pitch just because...it's just..like no...i dont do that.

I wouldn't say don't throw a fastball, I'd say surprise them with it, lull them into a pattern of off speed and then hit them with the fastball on the hands. That's how I pitch when I can't use my fastball as much as I want.

@eatyum said in Is it possible for the fastball to be an effective pitch?:

"If we're talking about a player that has good plate discipline and knows how to time up a fastball, it just seems like any fastball in any part of the zone just gets crushed."

But isn't that kind of expected? If someone knows how to time a fastball and has good discipline, it's only a logical conclusion it will get crushed no?

Don't get me wrong, off speed does usually work better, slurves and sliders especially, and maybe fastballs should work better, but if someone knows how to time one, I don't think it's an unexpected outcome that they crush it.

I tend to agree with you, I kinda thought the same thing, but then what do I do? Never throw fastballs? That seems kinda cheesy/dirty to me...kinda goes against all my baseball sense. Just like I won't throw a sinker high in the zone even though its an effective way to pitch just because...it's just..like no...i dont do that.

Eh, I wouldn't say it's cheesy to not throw fastballs, in RL a pitcher would throw it 5 feet of the plate every pitch if he knew the batter would swing each time, pitching to a batters weakness isn't (or at least shouldn't be) cheese.

"If we're talking about a player that has good plate discipline and knows how to time up a fastball, it just seems like any fastball in any part of the zone just gets crushed."

But isn't that kind of expected? If someone knows how to time a fastball and has good discipline, it's only a logical conclusion it will get crushed no?

Don't get me wrong, off speed does usually work better, slurves and sliders especially, and maybe fastballs should work better, but if someone knows how to time one, I don't think it's an unexpected outcome that they crush it.

I tend to agree with you, I kinda thought the same thing, but then what do I do? Never throw fastballs? That seems kinda cheesy/dirty to me...kinda goes against all my baseball sense. Just like I won't throw a sinker high in the zone even though its an effective way to pitch just because...it's just..like no...i dont do that.

But isn't that kind of expected? If someone knows how to time a fastball and has good discipline, it's only a logical conclusion it will get crushed no?

Don't get me wrong, off speed does usually work better, slurves and sliders especially, and maybe fastballs should work better, but if someone knows how to time one, I don't think it's an unexpected outcome that they crush it.

From my experience so far, fastballs are fairly unusable. If we're talking about a player that has good plate discipline and knows how to time up a fastball, it just seems like any fastball in any part of the zone just gets crushed. Don't get me wrong, I mix in breaking pitches as well to try to change speeds but then as soon as I throw a fastball it gets crushed. Am I missing something that others use to throw their fastball effectively or is it just how the game is this year that fastballs are just not good pitches?

I think people are waiting on the fastball more this year, at least that's what it feels like, I haven't had to much difficulty with using my fastball this year but I am not up into the 700's yet, so that could change.