Saturday, May 23, 2026

Baseball Pitches

Baseball pitches are grouped into three primary categories—fastballs, breaking balls, and off-speed pitches. Pitchers throw different variations to disrupt a batter’s timing, induce ground balls, or generate swinging strikes.

1. Fastballs

Designed primarily for velocity, fastballs are typically the fastest pitches a pitcher throws.

Four-Seam Fastball: The standard, fastest pitch. It travels relatively straight with high velocity and is designed to create upward "ride" or carry at the top of the strike zone.
Two-Seam Fastball: Slower than a four-seamer with intentional "run" (side-to-side movement) that moves away from the hitter's barrel.
Sinker: A specialized two-seam pitch that utilizes heavy downward and arm-side run to induce ground balls.
Cutter (Cut Fastball): Thrown harder than other fastballs, it acts like a slider but features sharp, late movement away from a left-handed hitter (for an RHP).
Split-Finger Fastball (Splitter): The fingers are split apart around the ball, resulting in reduced velocity and a sharp, tumbling dive right before reaching the plate.

2. Breaking Balls

These pitches alter the flight path of the ball dramatically, using heavy spin to drop, curve, or sweep.

Curveball: Thrown with a looping, downward trajectory and a 12-to-6 drop (top-to-bottom).
Slider: Thrown faster and harder than a curveball with a tighter, more lateral or diagonal break.
Sweeper: A variation of the slider characterized by an extreme horizontal break, causing the ball to sweep widely across the plate.
Slurve: A hybrid pitch combining the wide break of a curveball with the tighter, faster trajectory of a slider.
Screwball: The rarest breaking ball. It breaks in the exact opposite direction of a slider or curveball, moving toward the arm-side (e.g., in on a right-handed hitter from a right-handed pitcher).
Knuckle-Curve: A slower curveball thrown with the fingertips or knuckles on the laces, offering an unpredictable, spiked drop.

3. Off-Speed & Specialty Pitches

These pitches prioritize deception, changing speed, or completely eliminating spin to throw off a hitter's timing.

Changeup: Thrown with an arm motion identical to a fastball but featuring an off-center grip, causing the ball to arrive roughly 10-15 MPH slower and sink.
Circle Changeup: A popular variation where the pitcher creates a circle with their index finger and thumb against the ball, allowing for deeper downward drop.
Palmball: An off-speed pitch where the ball is tucked into the palm rather than gripped with the fingers, yielding slow, unpredictable movement.
Knuckleball: The ultimate specialty pitch. The ball is gripped with the knuckles or fingernails to eliminate virtually all spin, causing it to dance, flutter, and move entirely unpredictably in the air.
Eephus: A rarely used, novelty pitch that loops in an extreme high arc and arrives at exceptionally slow speeds to catch a batter off-guard.

To explore the exact grips and grip variations for each pitch, check out Rockland Peak Performance's Pitch Grip Guide, or refer to the full pitch encyclopedia available on MLB.com's Pitch Glossary.

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Jesus's Miracles ONLY EXISTED IN THE STORY, not in reality! by Michael Bradley

by Michael Bradley

In the New Testament, miracles were not presented as random supernatural displays meant merely to amaze people or establish an endless pattern for all future church history. They primarily functioned as covenantal signs validating Jesus as the promised Messiah, confirming the authority of the apostles, demonstrating the arrival of the kingdom, and marking the transition from the Old Covenant age into the New Covenant order. The miracles were deeply connected to Israel’s prophetic expectations and covenant crisis.

Jesus’ healings, for example, fulfilled restoration imagery found in the prophets. When Jesus told John’s disciples that “the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear” (Matt. 11:5), He was echoing Isaiah’s descriptions of Israel’s restoration. These signs showed that the long-awaited kingdom age was arriving within Israel’s covenant world. Likewise, miracles authenticated divine authority. Nicodemus openly acknowledged this when he told Jesus, “no one can do these signs unless God is with him” (John 3:2). The apostles functioned similarly. Hebrews says God testified to their message “by signs and wonders and various miracles” (Heb. 2:4). Miracles therefore served as divine confirmation of the apostolic witness during a unique redemptive-historical transition.

The miracles also symbolized deeper covenant realities. Healing the blind represented the removal of Israel’s spiritual blindness. Cleansing lepers symbolized purification. Raising the dead pointed toward covenant restoration and life. Exorcisms demonstrated the overthrow of uncleanness, corruption, and the oppressive powers associated with the Old Covenant world in crisis. Even the New Testament’s emphasis on demons and uncleanness is heavily connected to the condition of the land and the approaching judgment upon Jerusalem and the Temple-centered system.

Miracles also had a judicial purpose because they exposed unbelief. Jesus repeatedly performed signs before Israel’s leaders, yet many still rejected Him. Their rejection intensified their accountability and became part of the basis for covenant judgment. Jesus even declared that if the same miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, those cities would have repented long before Israel did (Matt. 11:21). In that sense, the signs functioned not only as revelation but also as witnesses against the unbelieving generation.

Importantly, the New Testament consistently ties miracles to imminence and covenant transition. Jesus declared that if He cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then “the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12:28). Hebrews describes these miraculous gifts as “powers of the age to come” (Heb. 6:5), referring to the incoming New Covenant age that was replacing the fading Mosaic order. This is why miracles are concentrated around Jesus, the apostolic ministry, and the foundational period recorded in Acts. The New Testament never explicitly teaches that miracles would continue universally and indefinitely at the same intensity throughout all future history. Rather, they are consistently associated with the establishment of the kingdom message, the validation of apostolic authority, and the covenantal transition leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the Old Covenant age.

So within the New Testament framework, miracles primarily functioned as covenantal signs, prophetic fulfillments, demonstrations of kingdom authority, validations of divine messengers, and judicial witnesses during the climactic first-century transition from the Old Covenant world into the New Covenant order.