My Pitching Philosophy #1 - Throwing A First Pitch Strike

I believe that pitchers should try to throw a first pitch strike always. Now you are asking "what if he's a first pitch swinger"? Good! That's better for us. Let's just throw him something off speed, or if he's got a slow bat, throw him a fastball. Now we are 0 and 1, ahead of the hitter, where we always want to stay.

Staying ahead of the hitter by throwing a first pitch strike will not only maximize our chances of getting the batter out, but it will also keep our pitch count down.  Think about if we got only 3 outs on the first pitch for the game by throwing a first pitch strike.  Those potential at bats could have been 18 + pitches but now is only 3 because we focused on throwing a first pitch strike!

You'll be amazed at the results you see by throwing a first pitch strike.  Try it in your next outing and let me know how it goes!

Read Pitching Philosophy #2 - The 1 and 1 count.