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Two Seam or Four Seam Fastball Grip?
Nate Barnett: “As mentioned in a previous article on how to pitch a four-seam fastball, I loved to hit straight and hard pitches, as do most hitters. This is why a two-seamer was a bit troublesome when I saw it; particularly when it has different movement depending on who is throwing the pitch. The good news for me was that most pitchers chose the easy road and neglected to really learn how to throw a great two-seam fastball and use it to their advantage. I think that the best way to fool good hitters is to have a couple different pitches that are initially perceived as the same from a hitter’s point of view. A two-seam fastball does just that. It comes out hard and straight, but the extra movement can be enough to keep the pitch off of the sweet part of the bat.
This is the reason I always instruct my pitchers to use both the two and four seam fastballs. With the two seam you can also go with the seams or over the seams to create different movement on the baseball. Once a good hitter see’s the same pitch a few times coming from the same pitcher, it doesn’t take long for the score to change.
Pitchers who can develop this pitch now have an extra bullet in their gun so-to-speak. More options mean more questions in a hitter’s mind. Once a pitcher goes through the lineup once, good hitter’s will begin to pick up patterns in pitches. At this point it’s apparent to all those paying attention which pitch a pitcher has working and which he does not. The good thing about the two-seam fastball, from a pitchers perspective, is that it is not too far different from a four-seam fastball grip.”
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