As the way sports go, when someone is making waves with a something new, people take notice.  Many try to emulate and get in on the opportunity for success.  In reality, how many people actually achieve these desired results?  Not so much.  Because ideas come and go and the ones who fizzle out quickly all but regret the big game that they talked with their new gimmick, no studies are ever produced to see the trickle down effects.

These are not innovations when mastered by the most talented.  Just enhancements for a select few.  Let’s flash back a few years to a pitching craze that has done both harm and good to the craft of pitching.  The Cutter.  Some have had success with the buzz saw as a compliment pitch, others cluelessly hoped it would work for them.  If you are on the struggling side of this pitch, please allow this post to open your eyes to reality.  Here are 3 Reasons Why My Cutter SUCKS.

 

  1. My Cutter Sucks
You are NOT Mariano 

Let’s just get this one out of the way.  There will never be another Mariano Rivera.  No need to waste time arguing it.  In the early 2000s, the baseball world was drooling over the fact that the best closer the game has ever seen, was throwing just 1 pitch, the Cutter.  It was mind blowing that he had such a Dominant level of success in the pressure cooker of closing out World Series games, with a lone weapon in the arsenal.

This one did create a noticeable trickle down effect.  High school and college pitchers everywhere thought they were just as elite.  You would hear it all the time in bullpens and at tryouts camps:

I just throw a Cutter 

Sure you do!  How many repetitions have you made with the pitch?   How well do you locate it?  What do you do when hitters make adjustments on the cutter?  What do you throw when your cutter is not effective on any given day?  Are you seriously throwing just one pitch as a starter? Or do you just hope, hope, hope, that you will have success with a pitch you know nothing about?

Thanks to the balancing act that is life, this notion of laziness did not last for long on an individual level.  Pitchers quickly saw that the hype lead themselves down a deadened rabbit hole.  On a larger scale, unfortunately, this trend went on for several years among amateur pitchers.  But hey, we are only human, right?  Yes we are….although, Mariano on the mound was divine….we all know that.

 2. My Cutter Sucks
Don’t Throw it in the Middle of the Plate

It’s just disastrous.  The Great Mariano threw the pitch into or away from hitters.  Even he himself got beat when he left it over the plate.  The pitch is designed to miss the barrel of the bat.  Either on the trademark or off the end.  When you throw the cutter correctly, the hitter makes bad contact.  Like any pitch, when you get later movement on it, you will have the most success.

Cutters that stay in the middle of the plate and just spin, will get hit very hard, very far.  Have a game plan of where you want the pitch to begin, and where you want it to finish.  To have success with any pitch, you have to know it inside and out.  Know how to correct your flaws with it, and minimize any damage that may occur.

 3. My Cutter Sucks
Understand That This is a Compliment Pitch

Unless you have a sharp, natural break on the cutter, use it as a complimentary pitch.  Don’t over use it.  Don’t over expose it.  If you throw a good two seam fastball to your arm side of the plate, and a cutter on the glove side, breaking off the plate, is a great way to expand the zone.  The hitter sees your velocity pitches moving off the plate, not into it.  That’s not a lot of fun for any hitter.  

Do you throw a cutter and a Slider? Here is a good sequence to try out.  First pitch, cutter away, strike one. Second Pitch, 4 seam or 2 seam fastball in, strike 2.  Now go Slider away.  The hitter saw the slighter, cutter break away, then you came in, now you go away again, with a sharper, bigger break out of the zone.  The cutter away teases him, it has him looking out there.  Now after the inside pitch, you have expanded the zone, so you have more to work with going away.  The cutter break baited the hitter to see how you pitch away.  Now the next time you go out there, the hitter thinks he has already seen you once.  Next thing he knows, he is walking back to the dugout pissed off as the Slider exploded away!

Another sequence is Fastball, Cutter, Slider, Curveball.  I once worked with a left handed pitcher who had command of this arsenal along with a good change up.  Catching a bullpen session of his, I had him throw the 4 pitches to the outer half of the plate in order.  All 4 of them looked the same coming out of the hand the same way. They all kept breaking more than the previous pitch.  Then I had him follow it up with a fastball inside.  

A hitter tracking the pitches will see:

 

 

 

 

 

Very few hitters can make that adjustment after seeing everything away at different angles.  It was amazing!!!

 

MY Cutter SUCKS
What Should I DO

Like anything as a pitcher, you need to know your strengths, and know your value.  What are your go to pitches?  What pitches can you fix and which pitches should you just throw to the scrap heap?  If the cutter is a no win situation for you, eliminate the weakness.  If you know that you can get a better feel for this pitch, keep working on it.  As pitching success is deep rooted in self-reliance, you have to be honest with yourself when something isn’t working.  Now I personally dabbled with a cutter.  When I realized it was of no purpose, I threw the pitch more like a breaking ball, and thus, Slider Domination was born.

These 2 pitching sequences mentioned above consist of throwing multiple pitches to the outer half of the plate, and a fastball inside.  That’s pitching right there.  Being able to command pitches to both sides of the plate.  Master the strategy of pitching and you will have mucho success while the hitter weeps.  

Isn’t that why you pitch?

 

Keep Dominating!!!