Satchel Paige Quotes

If I can execute pitches and keep the ball out of the middle of the plate, I know I can have success.

I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.

I'm not executing my pitches. I'm not commanding my fastball, and I get behind in the count. When I try to throw strikes, I'm getting hurt. That's not the way I pitch.

When I can buy strikes with that curveball, that just lets everything else play up.

The big thing will be having two pitches you can throw for strikes and developing a change-up, too.

I just try to make the pitcher work.

That's when I'm at my best. When I can throw a fastball over in the count, just throw strikes both in and away, it just sets up all my stuff.

I'll get in that habit of throwing the ball over the plate too much. You want to keep it going, get those guys back into the dugout. But it's not a good thing when you're over more than a third of the plate.

If you can constantly just put pressure on all four quadrants, it gives you a little more leverage to be able to fill the zone up with breaking balls and fastball counts - or with breaking balls when guys are maybe sitting on the fastball that you've established.

The reason I think I'm a good pitcher is I locate my fastball and I change speeds. Period. That's what you do to pitch. That's what pitchers have to do to win games.

I use fast curves, pitched overhand and sidearm, fastballs, high and inside, and an underhand fade away pitch with the hand almost down to the level of the knees.

I know when I get to 0-2, 1-2, when I'm ahead in the count, that I hold a distinct advantage over every single hitter. I have so many options because I don't have to work within the strike zone anymore.

Getting my curveball back and finding another pitch just helped me figure out how to pitch.

I've always been fastball-curveball and really relied on that pitch, and when it goes away, it just totally changes how you attack hitters.

Within the changing room, everyone has always known I'm best when I pitch the ball up and get a little bit of movement.

Half the time, I have trouble following our own pitcher's sequence.

That's why it's so important to have that gap between your fastball and off-speed pitches: then, when you effectively locate your fastball, it plays at a higher velocity.

Because I have so much life on my pitches, I can get away with getting too much of the plate every now and then.

If you talk to any pitcher, consistency is the most important thing.

The good rising fastball is the best pitch in baseball.

John Wetteland had a very good curveball. He threw it for a strike, too, in any count, any situation. But, he really didn't use it much. He didn't want to throw it. He wanted to throw fastball-slider.

I was short with my fastball and breaking ball.

There's no easier pitch to hit than a splitter that doesn't do anything.

Cleaning up that lack of the definition between the two, and then leaning on the four-seam, having it become my primary fastball over my two-seam, it's just benefited me as a whole.

All I really try to do is whatever hitter gets in there, I just try to get him out in as few pitches as possible.