reading seams of ball

Question
When a pitcher that I am facing has a curveball or any other pitch that has movement, the coach tells us to watch the seams of the ball. How do you read the seams to find out what pitch he is throwing?  

Answer
Hi Anthony,

This is a very good question.  Your coach is essentially saying that a curveball or some other breaking pitch will have a different spin that a two seam or four seam fastball.  Simply, put a fastball will normally have a straight spin where the seams appear to be horizontal for a four seam fastball and vertical for a two seam fastball.  In comparison, breaking pitches like a curveball will tend to have more of a diagonal spin to them.  

However, as a matter of practice, very few hitters have good enough vision to spot this distinction.  I myself have 20/20 vision and was not able to make that distinction when I was hitting.  Another problem with this is a number of pitchers will have natural movement even on their fastball making this even hard to guess which pitch is being thrown.  For this reason, I would recommend you use these other tactics in determining what pitch is coming.

1.  The most common strategy is to guess based on the pitch count what the pitcher is going to throw.  For instance, almost all high school pitchers will lead off with a fastball and throw their curveball when the pitch count is no balls and two strikes.  

2.  Look for tells in the pitcher's windup of what pitch he is throwing.  For instance, is the pitcher moving has hand around a lot in the glove?  If so, he is probably trying to get a good grip for a breaking pitch compared to a fastball which will be a pitch he can grip very easily.

3.  Study the pitching routine of the pitcher when they pitch to other batters.  You should not just be eating sunflower seeds waiting for your turn at bat.  Instead, watch the pitcher and see what his tendencies are for throwing certain pitches.

Bottom line: Do not be overly concerned about this issue.  Make your best guess with your at bat.  Sometimes you will guess wrong; however, other times you will guess right.  By being willing to take a chance with this, you will increase your chances for better hitting.  Over the course of the season, you will get much better at this guess work.

Hope this helps,
Jack Elliott
http://www.baseballtrainingtechniques.com