TPM,
For one last time, I never meant to say that the curveball (in it's strictest sense) was the second best pitch in baseball. Perhaps it was my fault in that first post not to make that understandable. To be clear though i did explain myself many times in correcting my statement to reflect what i really meant. If you find yourself happy with the conclusion go give yourself a pat on the back. Everyone else on this board already realizes that I made it clear from later posts that i was really meaning that the "breaking ball" was the second best pitch in baseball. I also made it clear that by todays standards, the fuzzy line between a curveball and a slider was getting more and more. I also made it clear that at least in HS, many kids "curveballs" could in fact be "sliders". I said it all in that context.
So, for the last time- get over it! We are both on the same **** page here. We both agree that the breaking ball is used more effectively in professional baseball than any other offspeed pitch and is second only to the fastball.