Pitching Tactics Quotes

I use high velocity to keep hitters off balance.

Every single pitcher is making changes every single start. You can talk to any pitcher about this.

I think there's a growing number of pitchers who want to have a plan going into a game about how they're going to go after that lineup. I'd say 75 percent want to have an idea, and they plan their attack. I know that 75 percent of hitters do not have that same type of plan against a pitcher.

A hitter's impatience is the pitcher's biggest advantage.

If a pitcher goes up there and he's throwing a ball and it's a breaking ball down and away or a fastball up and in, a perfect pitcher's pitch, and you're able to just foul it off and stay alive in the at-bat, just keep grinding, keep working through the at-bat and hoping for that mistake that he's going to make. And if he doesn't, then you walk.

Pitchers make adjustments, and it's up to the hitters to readjust and sort of tweak what they do.

Rules or no rules, pitchers are going to throw spitters. It's a matter of survival.

I wouldn't throw all spitballs. I'd go maybe two or three innings without throwing a spitter, but I always had them looking for it.

The way to get a ball past (Honus) Wagner is to hit it eight feet over his head.

Why shouldn't we pitch to Babe Ruth? We pitch to better hitters in the National League.

The pitcher has to find out if the hitter is timid, and if he is timid, he has to remind the hitter he's timid.

American League teams don't bunt very often. National League teams bunt a lot.

Pitchers are smart. They know they are much better off if they mix things up and keep you off-balance.

In my own case I have frequently faced the pitcher when I had no desire whatever to hit. I wanted to get a base on balls.

Gaylord (Perry) is a very honorable man. He only calls for the spitter when he needs it.

You would be amazed how many important outs you can get by working the count down to where the hitter is sure you're going to throw to his weakness, and then throw to his power instead.

At the end of the day, all we're trying to do is get the hitter off balance. Get him in a position where he's not strong in the strike zone.