Types of Manny Acosta Pitches

Manny Acosta, formerly of the Atlanta Braves, is a member of the New York Mets organization. Acosta, a relief pitcher, was a member of the Mets AAA team Buffalo, as of May 2011. Acosta has four pitches in his arsenal: Fastball, slider, curveball and change-up.

  1. Fastball

    • Like many pitchers, Acosta relies primarily on his fastball. Throughout his career, Acosta has used his fastball nearly 60 percent of the time, according to Fangraphs.com. Acosta's average fastball speed is 94 mph, as of 2010.

    Slider

    • A slider "slides" across the strike zone. Acosta relies on the slider only about 8 percent of the time.

    Curveball

    • The curveball sweeps across the strike zone, as well as dives down. Most pitchers, Acosta included, will use the curveball as a strikeout pitch because of its movement and significantly slower speed compared to a fastball.

    Change-up

    • A change-up is a useful pitch because the arm action used to throw it is similar to that of a fastball, but a change-up is much slower. Acosta's change-up is nearly 10 mph slower than his fastball.