Tiny Baseball Lessons: Position Series | Pitchers Explained

Hey babes!!

Welcome to a new Tiny Baseball Lesson!

Pitchers do much more than throw the ball. They control the pace, set the tone, communicate with the catcher and turn every plate appearance into a tiny strategic battle.

In the second installment of the Baseball for Girls position series, we’re taking a closer look at one of my favorite positions: the pitcher.

In this Tiny Baseball Lesson, we’re covering:

• How pitchers and catchers choose each pitch
• The pitch clock and disengagement rules (*edit: I said 20 seconds but pitchers have 18 seconds with runners on base, not 20)
• What a balk is and why runners advance
• Why managers replace pitchers during a game
• Starting pitchers, relief pitchers, bullpens and closers
• How pitchers receive a win, loss or no decision
• The difference between a save and a hold (*edit: a hold requires entering with a lead in a save situation, not a tie)
• Beginner-friendly pitching stats, including ERA, WHIP and K/9
• Why pitch sequencing makes every at-bat feel like a puzzle
• My favorite story about Greg Maddux that makes me think of him as such a legendary strategic pitcher

Whether you’re still learning baseball or want to understand what pitchers are thinking on the mound, this episode will help you see the game within the game.

Thanks for joining me in the softest corner of sports media!

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Transcript

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Hey babe, welcome to Baseball for Girls, where baseball meets soft girl energy. I'm Shaunacy, and here we do baseball with heart, humanity, and a little humor. So, whether you're brand new to the game or deep in your baseball era, you're in the right place. So grab something cozy, settle in, and let's get into today's episode. Let's play ball. Hey babes! Welcome back to another episode of Baseball for Girls. So today I have a tiny baseball lesson for you guys. So this is the second episode in the position series. You can go back and listen to the first episode where I kind of just give like an overview of all the positions. And now I'm gonna start going through each position individually, starting with pitchers. So I'll have a pitchers episode, catchers episode, then I'll have an infielders episode, which will just include like first, second, third base, and then the shortstop, and then an outfielders episode, which will have the right fielder, center fielder, and left fielder. So I'm really excited about this first episode for pitchers because pitchers are like my favorite players, and I really just wanted to start off the episode talking about why they're my favorite. And so I think that pitchers are literally the game. Like if a pitcher is dominant or not, it really sets the tone for the entire game. And honestly, it's so impressive that they can throw pitches like so fast and so accurately, like they have to fit the pitch within that strike zone, the invisible square that's like from the batter's chest to his knees, I believe. And so they're trying to hit within this specific zone, and they're also trying to get the batter to swing through it and not hit it and not get a home run. They're also doing it in pitch sequencing, so they'll do certain pitches first and second and in different orders and everything to confuse the battery, and it's just a lot more intricate than it looks from just throwing a ball. They have to be so consistent. What I also really appreciated about pitchers is how long it used to take them in between pitches. So in 2023, the pitch clock was introduced. Before then, pitchers were able to take as much time as they needed in in between pitches. This is how they would slow the game down and were able to throw pitches in a way that felt good for them and also was able to confuse the batter. There were a handful of pitchers that were not able to adapt to the pitch clock. They really did need that amount of time between pitches in order to stay accurate and consistent. So for the pitch clock, a pitcher has 15 seconds to begin their motion. So basically lifting their foot off of the rubber or you know the thing that they're standing on. Otherwise, it's considered a ball if they run out of time on the pitch clock. But when there's runners on the bases, then the timer goes up to 20 seconds instead of 15. But for the batter, the batter must be alert to the pitcher, so making eye contact with the pitcher at least at eight seconds left on the pitch clock. Otherwise, it's a strike. Pitchers are also allowed two disengagements per plate appearances. So a disengagement is when the pitcher steps off of the mound or stepping off of that rubber piece on the mound, and he's attempting to either get a pick off attempt, trying to get a runner who's on base, trying to get them out, or just when he steps off the rubber at all for like a timeout or something. However, if the pitcher does a third disengagement per that plate appearance, that third one is considered a bulk. So a bulk is when the pitcher kind of pretends to throw a pitch, but then he doesn't actually throw it, or he tries to pick off the runner, but he doesn't pick the runner off. If he doesn't do it that third time, then that is considered a bulk. And the rule for a bulk is that all the runners are allowed to advance one base. So if the bases are loaded and the pitcher does a bulk, then a run would score. And sometimes that wins a game. So pitchers really have to be careful about their motions and their movements on the mound to make sure that they're not considered to be bulks and to make sure that they're pitching within the 15 seconds or 20 seconds, depending on if there's runners. So they do have a lot to think about other than their pitch sequencing. The other thing that I just love is that it really is such a battle between the pitcher and the batter. And the statistics tell us that pitchers almost always win that battle, and that's one of the reasons why they've become one of my favorite players. Um, my other kind of favorite like position is first base, but that's another episode for another day. So, really, what I wanted to get into today for the lesson is to talk about what confused me about pitchers at first. So, the very first thing that confused me was when I was watching baseball trying to just learn it myself, I noticed that pitchers would be nodding their head or like shaking their head before they would make a pitch. And I always kind of wondered why. And I realized it was because they are in constant communication with the catcher. So the catcher is sometimes is calling the entire game and is telling or suggesting to the pitcher which pitch to throw. And so sometimes when you see the pitcher like shaking his head no, it means that he disagrees with the catcher, and so then the catcher suggests a different pitch, and then the pitcher says no again, and then eventually he nods and throws a pitch. And sometimes you'll see the pitcher constantly saying no, and all of a sudden the catcher just stands up and goes over and talks to him because clearly they're just like not on the same page. So when you see the pitcher kind of just like shaking his head, at first I was just like, Oh, maybe that's just like a quirky little thing that this particular pitcher does, but then I saw all the pitchers doing it, and I was like, Okay, there must be some sort of meaning behind this. And I think I just figured it out just from watching games and listening to the announcers, but that's definitely something that I thought was just really weird. Another thing that it took me a really long time to understand was why they switch the pictures out. So a picture will just be like, you know, playing the game and whatever, and then seemingly all of a sudden, the manager will come out and take the picture out of the game, and then they'll have another pitcher come in and start playing. So it took me a while to figure out like how do they even decide like when is the right time to take a picture out? Um, and I really just learned from watching games that once the picture starts not pitching well, usually the manager is gonna come out and say, Okay, your time is up. You can go sit down. Thank you for your service. Um, but we're gonna ask someone else to keep playing. So once I realized that, it made a lot more sense. And now, whenever I'm watching a game and the pitcher is not doing well, I'm like, okay, let's let's put this guy out of his misery and bring someone else in. So it's really just one of those things that once you understand it, it helps you appreciate the game more and you're able to follow it much better. So it's not random, they take the pitcher out. Usually, if the pitcher's pitch count is getting too high, or if the pitcher maybe is just not really doing well and the bases are loaded, and the manager just doesn't think that the pitcher can get out of the situation, and so there's like a whole bunch of different reasons why a manager might decide to take the pitcher out and replace him with another. It also could be something simple like the pitcher is right-handed, and there's gonna be a left-handed batter coming up, so they want a left-handed pitcher to pitch against him, and because left-handed batters are better against right-handed pitchers, it yeah, it's it can get kind of confusing, but it could also just be the matchup between the pitcher and the batter. It also could just be because it's just time for the pitcher to be done pitching. So the very first pitcher that starts is considered to be the starting pitcher, so they are starters. Once they typically get to about six or seven innings, the relief pitcher will come in. So the relief pitcher is just the pitcher that will come in after the starter. So there are different groups of pitchers. There are players that are starters and players that are relief pitchers. They do like the relief pitchers, if you put them in in the first inning, they're gonna make a mess, okay? They just get really stressed out by the spotlight, I guess, and just like having being the first one. I don't know what it is, but if you sometimes if you try to put a relief pitcher as a starter, they'll just not do well. Or even if you put a starter in the middle of the game, they're gonna make a mess. They're not gonna know what to do. And so it's just, I guess, the mindset of the different kinds of pitchers that makes them more successful at different points of the game. So relief pitchers come in after the starter has done his job, hopefully well, and the relief pitcher will try to maintain the lead if there is one, or maintain the score as it is, just in general, and making sure to not get any more runs to accumulate in the game. And relief pitchers are the ones in the bullpen. If you ever hear hear the term bullpen, that is where all the pitchers that come in after the starter are sitting, they're sitting in the bullpen in the back of the stadium. Um, you can see them just like chilling, um, not doing anything until they get a call from like a rotary phone, and the manager asks for a certain pitcher to start pitching and like getting warmed up because he's gonna be a relief for the starter. So you honestly don't know who's gonna be a relief pitcher that day. Um, you can kind of make an estimate based on who's pitched previously. So pitchers don't pitch every single day just because they need rest in between pitching. Usually pitchers pitch every five days. And so if your favorite relief pitcher pitched yesterday, the chances of him pitching again the next day are lower, but not completely zero. Sometimes relief pitchers do pitch multiple days in a row because they're not pitching as many innings. Really, what we're thinking about here is the pitch count. Like if the pitcher is pitching almost a hundred pitches, like you're not gonna want him to pitch again tomorrow. That's just not nice. It's not nice to him. Give him a break, you know. But if you're a relief pitcher and you only usually pitch one or two innings, maybe you've only pitched about 30. And so you're able to go in again tomorrow. So that's relief pitchers, and within relief pitchers, there are closers. So closers are the pitchers that come in at the very, very end of the game, usually the ninth inning only, and they only have to get those three outs and hopefully win the game. Again, if you try to put a closer in the first inning, he's not gonna he's not gonna do well. I mean, obviously, there's nuances to this. Of course, there are probably pitchers that can play at any point in the game, but typically closers like to be the ones at the end. They probably really like the spotlight because the ninth inning is when everyone is finally paying attention and everyone's clapping, and like after every single pitch, people are like, boo, or yay! Like, there's always a reaction versus like throughout the whole game, like people aren't really paying attention, honestly, at baseball games, um, unless it's like a super important game or whatever, but in general, people pay attention at the very beginning and then at the very end, and so you have to be kind of mentally prepared for that because I feel like it's probably even more stressful when you know that everyone literally is watching, and closers, they love it. And so the last thing that really confused me that I've just had to like figure out from actually researching is why do pitchers get a win or a loss or no decision? So at the end of the game, it is announced who the winning pitcher is and the losing pitcher and the pitcher who got the save. So saves are exclusively for closers. That just means that there was a save situation where the closer entered the game with three runs or fewer as the lead, and they were able to keep that lead, and the team won the game. But if there is more than three runs between the teams, then it's not a save situation anymore. But in order for a pitcher to get a win, usually it's the starting pitcher, so he has to pitch at least five innings, and the team has to take the lead while that pitcher is the pitcher on record, and the lead is never lost by the team. That is the only way they are able to get a win. If the starting pitcher does not go five innings, then a relief pitcher can get the win instead. But again, the team has to take the lead while that pitcher is on record and the lead cannot be lost. For a pitcher to get a loss, this goes to the pitcher who gives up the run that becomes the go-ahead run for the other team. So a go-ahead run is basically the run that ends up being the one that is the reason the team wins. It's a little bit confusing. So it's like not necessarily the winning run, but the one that allows for the team to win. Okay, so here's an example. When the score is like one to zero, and that just means like basically the both pitchers were doing extremely well. If the score is one-zero, the batters were not able to score. The pitchers were dominating the entire game. So that means that one of the pitchers made a mistake and uh run got in. Now that pitcher loses the whole game, even though he maybe made that mistake in like the first inning and then pitched seven great clean innings, no other runs, he still gets a loss because that one run ends up being the go-ahead run, the run that ended up winning the game. The last situation is a no decision. So a no decision happens when the pitcher leaves the game before they're eligible for either a win or a loss. So an example is when they have to leave the game while the game is tied, and the team either wins or loses, it doesn't really matter. Like the pitcher just doesn't get a decision. So those are really all the different situations. There's also a hold situation that doesn't really get talked about a lot. But when a relief pitcher comes in and says the game is tied or the pitcher's team is winning, if the pitcher is able to maintain the lead or just maintain the score, they would get a hold in that situation. But like I said, no one really ever keeps up with that. But I feel like that's actually a pretty important statistic because it shows that this is a really good relief pitcher, and if you put them in the game, you know that the score will stay the same, and hopefully you'll be able to either come back if it's like a tie situation or maintain and win the game if you also have a really good closer. So that's different from a closer getting a save. A hold usually happens like within like that those middle six to eight innings, trying to hold on to whatever the score was. Now I'll just talk about a couple of very common pitcher statistics. So one that we all hear all the time is ERA. So that means earned run average, and it just tells us on average how many earned runs does the pitcher allow over nine innings. So a good earned run average or ERA is typically below 2.3. That's kind of considered like an elite pitcher. If the pitcher is around 3.5, that's pretty good. Or maybe around 4, that's kind of considered a little bit average. But anything greater than five, that pitcher is completely struggling. And so an earned run typically is like a home run, or if a batter gets a hit and gets first base or second base or something, and eventually that batter comes home and scores, that is also considered to be an earned run, even though it wasn't a home run. An unearned run is usually because there was an error or something, like it wasn't the pitcher's fault that that batter ended up going all the way around the bases and scoring. So that's an ERA. Another one that you'll hear often is whip, so it's spelled like W-H-I-P, like whip, and that stands for walks and hits per inning pitched. So if your whip is less than one, that's definitely considered to be elite. If it's between 1.2 to 1.3, that's pretty good. And so basically the whip tells you how crowded the bases usually are when the pitcher is on the mound. And so it's really just math. I don't want to explain math to you, but it's like walks over hits. So it's like how many walks they get divided by how many hits they get, and then that number is the whip. The last one is strikeouts. I feel like that's obviously a very common one and pretty easy. So sometimes you'll see strikes as just the letter K, or you'll see K slash 9. So that is just shows you an estimate of how many strikeouts a pitcher would record over nine innings. So those are really the things that I wanted to talk about today for pitchers. Really, what was confusing me, like when they were nodding and shaking their heads, which is just communication with the catcher, or how do you know when they're gonna get switched out? It's really just based on the manager and the situation in the game, and figuring out how pitchers get a win or a loss. And it's really depending on how many innings they pitched and the status of the game that the batters were playing. And then, of course, going through some of those very common statistics. So finally, I just wanted to talk a little bit about just why people love pitchers. I mean, obviously, I have my own reasons, but I think that overall people love pitchers because of pitch sequencing and being able to determine, like, oh, like what kind of pitch is he gonna throw next based on the pitch that he just threw. Because that is what the batter is trying to figure out in real time, in order to figure out if he's gonna swing at the next one. They're constantly trying to predict what the next pitch is gonna be. So pitch sequencing just really feels like a puzzle, it's all about strategy, and the pitcher always gets the first move. They are really creating the anticipation that you feel in baseball. They are setting the pace. I mean, granted, with the pitch clock, the pace is now set, but in the before time, they really were setting the pace of the entire game. They are creating game-changing moments, one inning at a time. Oh, there was one more thing I wanted to mention. So, one of the greatest pitchers, I think, arguably, um, his name is Greg Maddox. He was a starting pitcher for the Braves in the 90s, during the Braves' like domination of that entire decade before the Yankees came. Came in and won three World Series in a row starting in like 1998, I believe. But before then, it was Braves Country, okay? And Greg Maddox was the key to all of that. I watched his documentary, definitely recommend. I think it's just like an hour. But the story that really stuck in my head, I can't remember the exact year he was talking about, but it was one of the years that the Braves won the World Series. So he was saying that there was this one batter that was really good. I don't remember the batter's name, not important, but he was like a really good, like a really good hitter. And Greg Maddox was known for being very strategic with his pitches and really confusing people and like making them upset because of how confused they would be after facing off with him. And this was like a batter that kind of had Greg Maddox's number. And so in this particular game, it was like a regular season game, and Maddox's catcher, I can't remember the catcher's name, but they were like, you know, in communication, and Maddox was not agreeing with whatever the catcher wanted him to pitch. So the catcher comes up and they're like having a conversation. The catcher's like, no, we should do this pitch because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Maddox is like, no, I'm gonna pitch this because he's gonna get a home run. And when we face him again in the World Series, he's gonna be looking for this pitch because he's gonna think it's a mistake. And the catcher's like, what are you talking about, bro? Like, that makes no sense. But he's like, okay, whatever. So Maddox throws the pitch, the batter gets a home run, Maddox acts like he's all mad, you know, whatever. Months later, this was like, I don't know, May, June. Months later, it's like late October, November for the World Series. They're in the World Series, one of the last games, that batter comes up to plate and he strikes out and they win the World Series. And the catcher's like, oh my gosh, you know, like, congratulations, blah, blah, blah. And then Maddox is like, Do you remember it? And the catcher's like, What are you talking about? Like, you don't remember? Remember months ago when I told you I was gonna do this? And the catcher was just like, oh my god, this man is insane. So we don't really have any more Maddoxes like that. At least I don't think, I don't know. But Gark Maddox, legendary, I recommend his documentary. He just knew how to get into batters' heads, confuse people. He would think five steps ahead of everyone. One of the most phenomenal pitchers, I think, of all time. But okay, enough of me just rambling. I hope that you enjoyed this episode. I hope that you got something from it and you learned a little bit more about pitchers. And maybe now you can really appreciate pitching and pitch sequencing. The next time you're watching a game, really pay attention to the plate appearance and how the pitcher is pitching. Notice the balls and the strikes, but also notice the swinging misses and seeing if the pitcher might have actually thrown a ball on purpose so that the next time he threw something that looked like it was in the zone, the batter would try to swing and he would miss. Things like that. I could go on and on, but I will not. I hope that you have a good rest of your week. And thank you so much for joining me in the softest corner of sports media. I'll see you next time. Bye.