A Hitter's Golden Rules (to date)

These are a hitter's golden rules, these rules are incontrovertible at all times. All mechanics aside, these are concepts based on biomechanics and physics. Can't really argue with those two.

1) The lower and farther outside the ball is, the farther back you must hit it in your stance. Your arms can only reach so far, don't make them reach out front as well as outside unless you want to ground out all day.

2) The faster the ball is going, the less it drops. Therefore, you must swing higher than you think you should to hit faster pitching.

Rule 1 confirms why change ups are most effective when thrown outside and low. Not only must the hitter wait because it's traveling slower, but wait because a low outside change can only be hit hard when hit to the opposite field, or farther back in the hitter's stance. Saying this, the odd change up thrown on the inside part of the plate is not a bad thing either. Often hitter's with circular swings won't be able to keep an inside change in fair territory.

Faster pitchers use these rules to their advantage, as they are more effective in the vertical plane. Such that, a drop ball will be thrown with more velocity because of the combination of gravity and spin [down spin+gravity=drop]. Whereas a riseball won't be thrown with as much velocity because it is fighting gravity. It will still appear to be faster though because it drops less [rise spin+gravity=0]. Therefore a hitter must hit a riseball more out in front (opposite of rule 1), giving less time to react.

So how can slower pitchers be effective? Well, since the ball is moving slower, hitters will tend to be ahead in their timing. In doing so, the bat is already through the "good" contact zone and coming around the body aka rolling over. Rolling over (your wrists) results in hitting the top of the ball and grounding out. Also, slower pitching tends to make hitters lunge at the ball. This lunging action lowers the center of gravity, and in turn, the hands. So, if the bat was going down already, it will go even lower, causing you to be under the ball and pop up. Another thing a slower pitcher can do is make the ball move more. Since the ball is moving slower, gravity has more time to act on it. So, with the combination of spin and gravity, a pitcher can really make that drop ball "fall off the table".

Accordingly, as a hitter it's always a good idea to stand in the back of the box in order to see the ball travel and spin as long as possible. For slower pitchers, to take away the element of waiting, try crowding the plate instead of automatically moving up in the box. While moving up in the box makes the pitcher seem faster, giving you less time to react, crowding the plate lets you hit the ball more out in front of the plate. And since slower pitchers are less likely to throw inside to hitters, getting jammed is a lesser factor to take into account.

Also, as a side note to rule 2, if you succeed in getting your hands high enough on a riseball pitcher and hit a line drive or grounder, that pitcher will be less likely to throw you another riseball, taking away her best pitch. Because if you are able to get your bat over top of the rise, then you're sure able to match it and hit it a long ways.

So we've learned that low outside pitches need to be hit farther back in our stance, and in order to hit faster pitching you must swing higher than you think you need to. So for all you pitchers out there, work batters in sequences of low outside and high inside pitches since those two have the most discrepancy in timing. Whereas low inside pitches and high outside pitches have roughly the same timing.