Preparation is very important. The pitcher is going to do his job and prepare for you, so you as a hitter must do the same. I always watch videotape of pitchers before the game and even sometimes during.
The game can come down to one pitch. But when you're actually out there on the mound and when you're pitching, you can't be worrying about the margin of error or whatnot. You have to go with your strengths and what you believe is the right pitch and keep executing pitches.
Start with local press first. Start with people you know. Don't pitch every journalist.
There's no easier pitch to hit than a splitter that doesn't do anything.
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.
Typically, being under the strike zone with the sinker isn't a big issue. I need to be a little bit higher with the strike zone earlier in the count. If you miss under with one here and there when you're ahead, it's really not an issue.
Everybody here has the ability to throw a fastball down and away or throw a breaking ball in the dirt for a swing and a miss. But are we able to stay in that moment and understand what we're trying to accomplish and see it in our mind before we execute and then make the pitch?
That's when I'm at my best. When I can throw a fastball over in the count, just throw strikes both in and away, it just sets up all my stuff.
My pitching philosophy is simple. I believe in getting the ball over the plate and not walking a lot of men.
Having a pitch clock, if you have ball-strike implications, that's messing with the fabric of the game. There's no clock in baseball, and there's no clock in baseball for a reason.
I was never a strikeout pitcher. Why should I throw eight or nine balls to get a man out when I got away with three or four?
I use high velocity to keep hitters off balance.
My pitch count as a general rule was 135. And I knew how many pitches I had when I went to the mound for the last three innings.
Gentlemen, for the first 60 feet that was a hell of a pitch.
I don't bat an eye at stuff like that. I've had my share of wins. If I worried about the games I should have won, it would probably drive me crazy. It was a fun game to pitch in.
I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them.
Half the time, I have trouble following our own pitcher's sequence.
Greg Maddux is probably the best pitcher in all of baseball along with Roger Clemens. He's much more intelligent than I am because he doesn't have a 95 or 98 mph fastball. I would tell any pitcher who wants to be successful to watch him, because he's the true definition of a pitcher.
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.
Basically, hitters fall into a pattern, and once you know what they like, you can set them up for the putout with something else.
When I can buy strikes with that curveball, that just lets everything else play up.
When I played, I didn't have the strongest arm, and in a game, I never threw it as hard as I could, either.
I just try to make the pitcher work.
I think there's a growing number of pitchers who want to have a plan going into a game about how they're going to go after that lineup. I'd say 75 percent want to have an idea, and they plan their attack. I know that 75 percent of hitters do not have that same type of plan against a pitcher.
