Four-seam fastball
Backspin · seams roll up
Tight, fast backspin. Seams blur into a light pink-white haze. The ball looks “true” and stays on its line.
Tell: no hump out of the hand. Where it shows up is about where it finishes.
FREE TOOL · HITTING PROCESSOR · NEW
Chase Tool Swing or take, from the hitter’s eyes
Four pitches, four decisions. A pitcher or a pitching machine throws it, you read where it starts and how it spins, and you make the call before it lands. Slow-mo to learn it, game speed to prove it. Baseball and fastpitch.
- Pitcher or machine
- Slow-mo + game speed
- Free · no sign-up
Read it. Call it.
Score 0 / 0
Throw a random pitch, read the start and the spin, then make the call.
Or study each pitch:
The one rule
Fastballs finish where they start. Off-speed finishes lower than it starts.
A heater that starts above the letters stays above the letters. A breaking ball that starts in the zone ends up in the dirt. A breaking ball that starts up and out drops into the zone. Hunt the top of the zone and let the spin tell you which one you’re looking at.
Reading spin
Curveball
Topspin · seams roll down
Seams roll forward over the top. You can often see the seams turning, not just a blur.
Tell: the hump. It pops up out of the hand, higher than a fastball would start.
Slider
Gyro spin · the red dot
Spins like a football spiral. Shows a red dot where the seams spin around the axis.
Tell: the dot. Starts like a fastball, then short, late break down and away.
Changeup
Backspin on a slant · 10 to 4 on a clock
Fastball arm speed, with the seams rolling on a slant from 10 to 4 on a clock face. A little less spin than the fastball.
Tell: the tilt. It fades and dies under the barrel and gets you out front.
Methods
Read the window, not the ball
Pick the release window before the pitcher starts. Your eyes are already there, so the first few feet of flight give you spin and height early.
Hunt the top
Set your eyes at the letters. It’s easier to lay off something that drops out of your sight line than to chase up after it. Anything above your eyes, take it.
Hump means off-speed
If the ball pops up out of the hand, it’s coming down. Ask one question: did it start up and out, or in the zone? Up and out, get ready to swing. In the zone, let it go.
Decide early, commit late
Recognize in the first third of flight. The commit point is roughly 20–25 feet in front of the plate. Train the read so the decision is made before that point.
Say it out loud
In front toss and machine work, the hitter calls “heater,” “hump” or “dot” before contact. If you can’t name it, you didn’t see it.
Drills
Colored-seam ball ID
Mark balls with a bright stripe on the seams. Toss backspin, topspin and gyro. The hitter calls the spin, no swing. Then add swings.
String zone, letter line
Run a string at letter height. Fastballs at or under the string, swing. Over the string, take. Builds the top-of-zone eye.
Two-string tunnel
Hang two strings 20 feet out to make a window. Pitches through the top of the window with a hump are swings; pitches that enter low and spin forward are takes.
Take-to-two
Live BP where the hitter can’t swing until two strikes. Every pitch gets called out loud: swing or take, and why.
Questions
How do I stop chasing pitches?
Know where each pitch finishes before you commit. Fastballs finish where they start, and off-speed finishes lower than it starts. Read the starting height and the spin in the first third of the pitch, and the swing-or-take call is made for you.
Should I swing at a high fastball?
Letter high, yes: it’s the top of the zone and the pitch to hunt. Above the letters, no. A fastball that starts above your eyes stays up.
How do I lay off the breaking ball in the dirt?
A breaking ball that starts in the zone ends up below it. When you see the hump and topspin with the ball starting at the knees, take it.
Is the Chase Tool free?
Yes. It runs in your phone or computer browser with no app and no sign-up.