Pitching "Uphill"

In some cases it means throwing high

I believe this refers to the pitcher standing behind the mound and throwing to the plate his plant foot lands on the uphill part of the mound. this is a teaching drill.

Throwing "uphill" usually involves a pitcher who is moving from low to high or "small to tall" during his delivery instead of the opposite. Picture a guy on the mound with his knee up. He should be at his tallest at this point and gradually get lower as he travels towards home plate. When he finishes, he should be at his smallest height - back almost parallel to the ground. A guy who throws "uphill" usually bends his back knee too much which makes him "smaller" when he lifts his knee and then gets "taller" as he travels towards home. In essence, he is going from "small" to "tall" or throwing "uphill." These pitchers are usually at their tallest at the end of their delivery. These guys have a tough time getting the ball down in the zone.
Does this make sense?

BaseballByTheYard

I have also heard this term when describing a P who drops and drives ala Seaver vs. standing tall, getting on top and throwing on a more downward angle. Even though it is not technically throwing uphill, it is relative to the other style.
Similarly, I suppose this could also apply to a P with a lower arm angle.

It also refers to pitchers who get their shoulders tilted uphill a'la Andy Pettitte.

Yet I think Andy throws "downhill." There are different shoulder tilts some down, some level and some up like Andy Pettite. This is not what downhill and uphill is describing.

A supposedly good trait of a pitcher is to throw "downhill." I don't care about downhill and will never stress the so called angle of attack or leverage from throwing downhill.

Uphill would mean you wouldn't time your lower and upper body during delivery. If your lower body is ahead of where it should be with the upper body late, the arm slot will not be in the proper place. A right-handed pitcher late will be up and in to a right hander. This is an example of not "getting on top."

Does anyone have pictures of 'uphill', 'downhill', etc.?

I should have taken a picture of my kid hitting the outside corner in one pitch and the right handed hitters helmet in the next.

"getting on top" doesn't mean a high arm slot and throwing "downhill" from a pitcher means getting in the right spot from any delivery slot at the point of leverage.

"Uphill generally means the upper half is late. When that happens it cannot catch up and the ball tends to stay up or even sail, generally arm-side.

Cole Hamels - downhill
http://i.usatoday.net/sports/g...ch-pg-horizontal.JPG

Lincecum - downhill
http://myhero.com/images/guest...u83098_mechanics.jpg

Clemens - he is long tossing here but a kid who throws uphill will look something like this ... leans back, shoulders tilt, moving upwards to throw, etc.
http://i.usatoday.net/sports/g...ed-media/clemens.jpg

BaseballByTheYard

quote:

Originally posted by #32 DAD:
I believe this refers to the pitcher standing behind the mound and throwing to the plate his plant foot lands on the uphill part of the mound. this is a teaching drill.

According to Jaeger it's a drill to help pitchers to get over on their front side.

I never heard that term before used to describe the act of pitching.

I must have missed something.

So in essence, no one really knows what it means...LOL

I have always been told that pitching uphill meant that a pitcher's lead arm was higher that his throwing arm.

Meachrm has it perfectly descibed above with the picture of Roger Clemmons. What do they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Drop and drive pitchers do this a lot. The problem is they get their arm and the ball ahead of the plant leg and lose velocity because they don't get the torque from the torso twist. Lots of times its just a 1/2 of a second or so but it robs them of power in timing the delivery. Kids that are told to use their legs more and load up on the back side unintentioanlly do this too. Tom Seaver and I guess Clemmons are just so good that it doesn't hurt them. High school kids aren't.

My understanding is that throwing downhill means that the pitched ball is traveling on a downward trajectory. In other words, the release point is up high and the point that the ball crosses the plate is well below that. So, if you release the ball at 7' above the ground and the ball crosses the plate 2' above the ground (on a fastball), you would be throwing downhill.

Converse to that, if the pitcher releases the ball at a certain point, say 4' off the ground and the ball crosses the plate on a more flat trajectory at say 3 or 4' above the ground, you would be considered to be throwing uphill.

There are probably many causes for this including what many have mentioned here. Front shoulder higher than pitching shoulder, not using you legs, low arm slot, hand getting under the ball at release, etc. But the guys with the high release point, keeping their fingers "on top" of the ball and pulling the ball down would be considered throwing downhill. A submariner (to the extreme) would be considered to be throwing uphill.

That's how my feeble mind would envision throwing uphill vs. downhill.