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Reply to "Pitching Inside"

In my humble opinion, a pitcher should throw inside to establish the inner 1/3 of the plate.  It seems today the emphasis is on pitching away.  I hate it!!  When my son was younger, 9 or 10, he went through a phase where I could not get him to throw inside.  We had a discussion about this one day.  He was very frank with me and said, "Dad, I am afraid to hit him.  I don't want to hurt him."  I explained to him that hitting a batter (accidentally) was just part of the game.  If he was afraid to hit a batter, then he should never pitch again.  Son got the message.  He was the only one of our pitchers that would throw inside consistently.  Today, I think he secretly loves to come inside.  He typically establishes the inside very early in the game and then adjusts as needed, especially to a lefty.  It makes his curveball almost unhittable.  The only time I hate the inside pitch is on a 0-2 or 1-2 if the pitcher is not confident and has good control.  Nothing worse than setting up a batter perfectly only to put him on base freely.  Always seems to come back to bite you on the bottom.

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