Hitting - Timing and Adjustments

Introduction

"Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing." - Warren Span - Hall of Fame Pitcher

The quote above provides the essence of how the majority of major league pitchers make a living. There are very few pitchers that can overpower a major league hitter with a fastball alone. Moving pitch locations and changing speeds to keep the hitter off balance are essential to a pitchers ability to get hitters out. So from the perspective of a hitter it's just as important that you understand what the pitcher is trying to do and rather than guessing, learn to pick up the ball early so you're able to adjust to changes and provide yourself the best opportunity to time the pitch correctly.

If you had film of some of your games from last season and closely watched each batter, you'd see some hits of course but you'd also see many swings and misses where the hitters are swinging either late or early, but most often late. Why is it that a hitter can watch a pitcher from the dugout, again from the on deck circle, and then up at the plate and still consistently be behind on the pitch? In reality there are a number of reasons why this might be happening and in this lesson were going to work on skills to help you avoid that problem.