Single Best Location For One Fastball?

on the corners inside/outside. paint the black. knee high. Worst place? down the middle and up. down the middle and up, you had better come to the bump with a L screen.

[qupte]Worst place? down the middle and up.[/quote]

I should have said, the worst corner.

It all depends on the count and tendencies. If looking for the best generic location and he throws a heavy fastball I would say middle in with "heavy" movement.

The worst, the one he has to turn and watch.

1. Low and Away! 2. High and In! For the pitcher you describe and most others.

Split the black on the outside corner knee high. One pitch this is where I would want to put it.

Cheese. Up and in.

I don't see how you can answer this question without knowing the hitter's stance and approach. How was he pitched to in previous at bats, what did he do.
The answers given would be the most likely, but not always and not with all hitters.

Not enough information

I dug out my old copy of "Coaching Pitchers" by Joe McFarland from 1989. He analyses "hard hit" balls in 5 years of NCAA games and concludes the following are best:

Right handed batter: Up/Away or Low/In
Left handed batter: Low/Away or Up/In

Single best place to put a ball for both is Up/Away. Worst is down the middle.

His stats warn that pitching low/in to a lefty is very dangerous.

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His info only looks at balls that are hit, not those that are missed..
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I was wondering if there's been any update to his info or additional studies.

Bighit is dead on. I know of hitters who murder the low & away pitch, but couldn't hit anything up & in on their hands if their life depended on it.

There is no one best or worst location that fits every batter. The pitcher needs to read each batter, looking for the openings that particular batter's stance, swing, attitude, etc. leaves.

This comes under "Knowing the Hitters You Face"

No two batters are the same!!!!

Re: "knowing the hitters you face"

This is where a pitcher that also is (or was) a very good, 'knowledgable' hitter himself has a distinct advantage ... he'll be able to analyze the batter's mechanics, i.e., are his hands fast or slow, does he lunge, does he have too much weight forward, does he pull his head, does he have his front shoulder open or closed, is his swing compact or 'round-house', and then use a pitch sequence and approach that attacks that batter's weaknesses. I know this has helped my son immensely ... as a hitter, he studies every nuance of what helps or hurts his own hitting, which in turn has helped him determine what type of pitches a particular hitter can or cannot hit well when he's on the hill. Obviously, in high level competitive ball (club, scout, college, national-team, etc.), there's a lot more quality hitters than HS ball, so they're a bit more challenging to pick apart. It seems like on most HS teams, maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of your lineup are decent hitters while the rest have some obvious flaw you can exploit.

quote:

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If you were that pitcher and could only throw one fastball to get the batter to miss (or pop/ground out), where would you place it?

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Catchers mitt. Next question?

Obviously these guys are right...you must know the hitters before you can tell.
I guess for me, if I HAD to pitch and didn't know a thing about the hitters, I'd guess on the type of hitter 1st (where they hit in the order, size of the kid, etc.) and go from there. Punch & Judy hitter, I'd come in on the hands low, big kid in the middle of order I'd go low & away.
Each spot in the lineup is unique, and each kid has his own strengths/weaknesses. We try to "book" a kid if we aren't sure, keeping the ball away from the middle of the plate in hitter's counts. No real relevation there....simple baseball.