What is the best pitch in MLB The Show?

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MLB The Show 22 is out now and this year you are able to create multiple ballplayers in Road to the Show (RTTS). If you’re looking to make it into the Big Leagues as a pitcher, you’re going to need a successful repertoire of pitches.

Unlike last year’s game, it’s much easier to change your selection of pitches. You can simply do so in the “Loadout” portion of the My Ballplayer menu when in the clubhouse (My Player). It’s as easy as navigating to the right side of the screen and selecting your pitches, of which you can have up to five.

MLB The Show 22 does a pretty good job of breaking down what each pitch in the game does along with the type of movement it has. When you begin your career, you’ll probably start off with the three most basic pitches: fastball, curveball and changeup. This is a solid core group of pitches but, of course, you can personalize it to whatever fits the type of pitch style you want to play with.

The good news is you can have multiple Loadouts with different pitch types in each, so you can easily swap between styles in each game. Of course, you’ll want to be careful spreading yourself too thin as you can only train so much throughout the season and select pitch types and other stats to increase.

When creating your pitcher in MLB The Show 22, you’ll want to select the Archtypes that fit your pitch style. These serve as the core foundation and can have a natural synergy with your pitch selection. While there’s no “wrong” way to build your pitch arsenal, there are definitely certain synergies between Archtypes and pitches, so I definitely encourage you to experiment — especially early on in your Road to the Show career. As you progress throughout your career, you’ll unlock new, more advanced Archtypes and perks to further customize your player.

As I mentioned, there’s no “bad” pitches in MLB The Show 22, it just depends on the type of pitcher you want to be. Do you want to be an ace like Jacob deGrom (when healthy) and utilize high-speed fastballs mixed with a combination of offspead breaking balls to keep batters off balanced? Or do you want to be more of a Kyle Hendricks and rely on pitch location and movement to fool the hitters?

There are 19 pitches to choose from in Road to the Show. Each pitch has its own type of movement and relative speed. This pretty much determines the situation in which you would throw it. If you want to be a strikeout pitcher, a high-powered fastball and a wicked slider or sweeping curve is a deadly combination. If you want to be a ground-ball pitcher, a Sinker or Splitter might do the trick. Maybe you want to really keep things weird and throw a Knuckleball or Screwball. It’s completely up to you, but here are my favorite pitches in MLB The Show 22’s Road to the Show.

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Noah Syndergaard #34 of the New York Mets (Photo by Edward M. Pio Roda/Getty Images)

Fastball

Four-Seam Fastball or Two-Seam Fastball

I’m a traditionalist when it comes to pitching. A well-placed, high-speed fastball is my bread and butter. There are multiple types of fastballs in MLB The Show 22, but my favorites are the traditional Four-Seam Fastball and Two-Seam Fastball.

The four-seam fastball is typically the fastest pitcher in your player’s repertoire but it has little to no movement. The Two-Seam, which is held along the seems of the ball, sacrifices some speed but adds a little movement and drop to the ball.

Cutter

Alternatively, you could opt to go with a Cutter. This is a mix between a Slider and a Four-Seam Fastball so you’re getting a combination of velocity and lateral movement. The Cutter has the opposite movement of a Two-Seam Fastball, moving away from the pitcher’s dominant arm side. So if you are throwing right-handed, the ball with break across the plate, away from a right-handed hitter or inside on a left-handed hitter.

Running Fastball

I actually prefer the Running Fastball over the Two-Seam fastball. While similar in nature, the Running Fastball has more lateral movement and is incredibly effective against batters with the same handedness. The ball tends to move away from the pitcher’s dominant hand and towards the batter, so if you’re a right-handed pitcher, the ball is going to break to the right, in towards a right-handed hitter or away from a left-handed hitter.

When creating a pitcher, I usually go with a Four-Seam Fastball or Cutter along with a Two-Seam Fastball or Running Fastball combination.

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