Whats up baseball players. Coach Dan Blewett here. in today's video.
Let's talk about
should you be learning to throw back door sliders and backdoor curveballs?
Are these useful pitches for amateur players or not so much?
So if you're new here, I'm Coach Dan,
I'm a former pro pitcher on my channel, I hope you subscribe.
You know, you're going to find lots of videos
on your baseball IQ, on strength training, arm care,
you know, pitching mechanics, game situations, all that good stuff.
So definitely stick around.
I've got a lot more content that will help you with your game.
On today's video, let's talk about back-door sliders and back-door curveball.
So if you don't know what these are.
This is when you throw a pitch that goes off the outer part of the plate.
So if it's a left hand hit
or be into the right handers batter's box and breaks back onto the plate
at the last minute , that's what they call back door
because it looks like it starts a ball
and then breaks back over the plate for a called strike.
So are these useful?
You see them in the big leagues sometimes on TV.
You know, you can throw on accidentally in a game and a guy freezes on it.
But should this be
something that you're practicing is is a useful pitch for amateurs?
So my answer is not really. Not really.
So here's the thing.
When you throw a curve ball or slider these breaking pitches,
there's essentially three locations that you want to throw them to.
Number one is down the middle where you're just giving yourself
the most margin for error to throw called strike.
The second one is to the bottom border of the strike zone on the outside
border of the strike zone, which is where you want to get the pitch when you're
pretty sure they're going to swing in like an O one count or one to count.
And you want them to either swing and miss or to be called strike
or they just put it in play with we contact.
But you don't want to throw it off the plate.
You want to throw it to the corner of the plate, essentially,
so that you get the bat over with in those counts.
And the third place you throw your breaking ball is either breaking
in the case of a curveball like down the middle below the strike zone
or on a case of a slider down the middle where breaks off at a diagonal.
So they're breaking off the plate where they can't possibly swing
and make contact.
It's going to be a ball if they take it,
but it's going to be a swing, a mess if they swing at it.
So that's again, on the bounce curveball or the the slider that,
you know, maybe bounces or is like close to the dirt.
So those are the the the three locations that if you really watch a game
on TV, you're going to see the pitchers throw those pitches.
Those three locations, the vast majority of the time, at least thats
where they're going to set up and try to throw them.
Now, the fourth location, I guess, is the back door slider curveball.
But here's the thing.
Those first three locations are super duper important and effective,
and they're going to get hitters to swing and miss.
They're going to get them to roll over ground balls.
They're going to get you called strikes.
Those are the important things that you really need to do,
get called strikes, get weak contact, get swings and misses.
So then what does the back door getting on my pinky?
What is the back door slider Curveball really do for you?
Really, what it does is it's a trick pitch.
It's tricking a hitter into he thinks it's a ball.
Then it becomes a strike.
So he takes it and then he walks, sadly, back to home plate.
It's really just a trick, just just a trick, a hitter.
When you can make that pitch and you see some guys
at the big league level, especially guys with
really good command and lesser stuff, typically throw that pitch
because here's the thing.
If you're slider is nasty or your curveball is nasty.
Why would you throw it outside the plate so that it breaks out back over
so that he doesn't swing at it? What's the advantage there?
If your pitch is nasty, throw it for the middle.
So it starts down the middle and then breaks off the plate,
because if you know that thing's dirty, then you want him to swing at it. Right.
So really what this ends up being is something for a guy who doesn't throw
a great curveball or a great slider.
Maybe he just throws it out
and it comes back or maybe have nasty command of it
and they can just throw it into the left handed batter's box,
have a break back over and freeze righties all day.
You know, there can be a use for it in some situations.
But again, as an amateur player, whether you're college, high school or below,
you really need to spend the vast majority of time
honing the middle one to and and strikeout locations.
And those are really hard to master.
Even towards the end of my career, I could not throw the one two curveball
very well or it's breaking to the bottom board of the strike zone on the outer
part of the plate for a cold or kind of weak contact strike.
So you'll have your hands full throwing
in those big three locations for most of your career.
And so to practice the back door, it's
it's just not really like a necessary tool that you need to have in your tool belt.
Because, again, the biggest thing is
if you have a good slider, you have a good curveball.
Make them swing and missile that throw it down the middle
so you get them to swing and then it breaks where it needs a break.
And they hit it weekly or they swing and miss.
So again, the back door slier, the back door curveball.
They're just sort of like tricky pitches where if you can make that pitch
in, you're a high level player.
You might need it like for a guy.
You know, if you're a slower thrower, like a Kyle Hendricks type
in the big leagues,
you might need to throw a door slider to Mike Trout to freeze him to get him out.
Like that might be a pitch that's necessary for you.
But if you're throwing more like an Andrew Miller type to that
disgusting slider for the Indians back in the World Series back in 2016,
he doesn't need a freeze and trick anybody.
He's just going to throw it down the middle. You're going to swing.
And you're going to strike out, and that's going to be
the end of the transaction, right.
So don't mistake the use case of each pitch.
The back door slider is trick.
I am trying to trick him into not swinging or is if it's a good breaking ball,
you want them to swing
and that because you're going to get the result that you want.
So hopefully this was helpful.
If you have any questions, leave one in the comments below.
You know, again,
learning and controlling your breaking ball is one of the most
important things you can do.
And so spending your time on it, practicing the right things
and not wasting time practicing stuff that you don't really need.
That's an important discussion.
And that's why I want to make this video here today.
Thanks again for watching.
Coach Dan, I'll see you here in the next video.