Hitting the Slider in Baseball
A stud pitcher usually can take care of stud hitters. If you are a hitting coach there is only so much you can do to prepare your hitters for a great pitcher. You can study the pitchers tendencies as when he throws different types of pitches and do some guess work, but usually stud pitchers are so good that most hitters can’t hit their pitches even if they know which pitch is coming.
The best way to get a stud pitcher off his rhythm is to somehow rattle him. Some baseball coaches like to play small ball and try to steal bases and lay down some bunts to force the team to make plays. This is a good tactic. Then there is a tactic of creating a power line-up full of good hitters and see if one of them can break the game open with an extra base hit. This tactic is probably even better as it can create momentum changing effects when a long ball is hit.
Either way, the stud pitcher has the edge and with one or two stud pitchers on the same team, the organization as a whole has a greater chance of winning. Pitching is definitely 75 percent of the game.
Arguably, the greatest hitter of all time, Ted Williams has been quoted as saying, “The hardest pitch to hit is the slider.” If someone like Ted Williams said this, there must be a good reason why. Most good pitchers who can develop a good curve ball or change-up are somewhat effective. The reason is that the majority of decent hitters have trouble staying back on the off-speed pitch. Great hitters have the ability to quickly recognize different pitches, have a natural ability to stay back and rarely get fooled by off speed pitches.
The slider, however is a pitch that appears to be a fastball then slides on diagonal plane down and away (or in) right at the last second. Ted Williams never had a problem recognizing and adjusting to any pitch other than the slider. As a pitcher, developing a slider pitch without hurting your arm is not an easy thing to do. However, developing this pitch with the right technique would be a good idea, especially since the best hitter in the world had trouble hitting it.
As a hitter, it is important to learn the secrets on how to stay back on all pitches as you climb the ladder of success. Hitting different types of pitches is challenging enough, let alone trying to decide to swing at a nasty slider. Hitters who learn how to stay back will be less likely to swing at bad pitches.