Pitching Articles:

The intentional walk or pitch out can be under practiced and looked over sometimes.  The intentional walk can be deceptive by thinking that all you have to do is walk the batter.  Yeh that sounds easy enough but what you really have to do is throw 4 pitches to the catcher's chest, when he's moving, to a spot you haven't had to throw to all game.  It's a little harder than it seems and needs to be practiced in case you need to do it in a game.  Here are some important things to remember when executing the intentional walk:

1)  Throw the ball chest high 2 - 3 feet away from the outside corner of the plate.  The batter should not be able to hit this pitch from where he normally stands in the batter's box.

2)  Take a deep breath and make sure you come set.  If there is a runner on base you do not want to balk and move then runner over.  This could mess up the whole situation of you intentionally walking the batter in the first place.

3)  Gather yourself and throw a strike to the target.  The catcher will be moving to where his hand is (or glove).  You should aim for his hand because that is where he plans to be to catch the ball.

4)  If there are runners on base you want to make sure that you come set and check them.  You do not want to forget about them and give a big kick, or slow delivery and just give them a base to steal.  Be aware of them even in this situation. 

5)  Throw the pitch nice and easy and make sure you open up a little bit to make sure you hit your target.  Don't lob the baseball in.  When I say nice and easy I mean a firm 4 seam fastball.  Not your hardest fastball, just a bp fastball, but make sure you hit your spot (4 pitches in a row).

The pitch out requires the same as to where you want to throw the baseball.  The only difference for the pitch out is the leg kick.  For the pitch it may make sense to slide step however that is not the correct way to do it.  If you slide step the baserunner may not steal and then you have waisted a pitch.  You obviously don't want to do a full leg kick because then you are giving the baserunner the base.  The best leg kick would be something in between.  This pitch will be thrown harder than an intentional walk pitch is thrown because you are trying to get the runner out.  It should be a 4 seam fastball.