The good rising fastball is the best pitch in baseball.
Cleaning up that lack of the definition between the two, and then leaning on the four-seam, having it become my primary fastball over my two-seam, it's just benefited me as a whole.
When you're spinning a two-seam, getting on the side of the ball to get more run or sink can be good, but it can really be detrimental to your four-seam.
I think the changeup has become more popular recently by pitchers like Pedro Martinez and the success he had with it.
John Wetteland had a very good curveball. He threw it for a strike, too, in any count, any situation. But, he really didn't use it much. He didn't want to throw it. He wanted to throw fastball-slider.
The reason I think I'm a good pitcher is I locate my fastball and I change speeds. Period. That's what you do to pitch. That's what pitchers have to do to win games.
Half the time, I have trouble following our own pitcher's sequence.
When I can buy strikes with that curveball, that just lets everything else play up.
You can be a two-pitch guy and be successful, but your room for error is very small.
In my bullpen sessions, I'm just trying to feel comfortable, throw strikes, and not get too complicated.
I just try to make the pitcher work.
I've got a fastball, change-up, forkball, curve, slider, knuckle-slider, knuckle-curve, I had about seven pitches I could have used at any time.
I threw a good fastball and changeup, but a below-average curveball.
I was short with my fastball and breaking ball.
Give me 10 high school pitchers, let me spend a week with them, and I'll show you 10 pitchers who won't balk. It's not that difficult, and they better learn it.
You aren't going to stick around long with just two pitches.
I've got some good movement on my sinking fastball, and I rely on that.
If I can execute pitches and keep the ball out of the middle of the plate, I know I can have success.
When you have an injury in your forearm, it affects the command of your pitches. I would yank pitches down away, or they were staying up. I'd go to accelerate, but everything would come forward except the ball. The ball was staying behind. When you have an inconsistent release point like that, it's impossible to throw a changeup.
Because I have so much life on my pitches, I can get away with getting too much of the plate every now and then.
The big thing will be having two pitches you can throw for strikes and developing a change-up, too.
I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.
I'm not executing my pitches. I'm not commanding my fastball, and I get behind in the count. When I try to throw strikes, I'm getting hurt. That's not the way I pitch.
I know when I get to 0-2, 1-2, when I'm ahead in the count, that I hold a distinct advantage over every single hitter. I have so many options because I don't have to work within the strike zone anymore.
Later, I could take something off my slider and I could make my fastball sink, so I really had four pitches.
