Hitters are stupid …
… but they get significantly smarter as the count turns in their favor!
The game of baseball has forever favored pitchers. If it favored hitters, all fences would be 300 feet. There wouldn’t be 9 players on defense either. I could go on but the point is that the way baseball is structured favors the pitcher. That’s why none of the best hitters in baseball are currently hitting above .350 as of today.
Pitchers have the advantage in that they get to choose the type of pitch, the speed it comes in, and where the pitch goes. The batter knows none of this. He can only take educated guesses.
But a funny thing happens as the count turns in the hitter’s favor. His educated guesses become more accurate. He gets smarter.
On an 0-0 count, the pitcher is free to throw any pitch at any speed and to any location. The same thing continues with 0-1 and 0-2 counts. When the count goes to 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, and 3-1, the pitcher is increasingly forced to throw a strike. That typically involves something straight and hard. A fastball towards the center of the plate.
Of course, hitters know this and are able to sit “dead-red” and tee-off on fat ones over the plate.
The Fall and Winter months are great times to iron out mechanical issues and work on new pitches. However, pitchers should never forget the need to work on more strikes early in the count. Amazing breaks on sliders and curveballs are fantastic but strike one is even more important.
The game favors pitchers. When you get behind in counts, you voluntarily hand that advantage over to the hitters.
Throw early strikes.