I usually get frustrated in things that I don't fully understand. As such, when I get frustrated, I tend to not listen and get bored with whatever topic is at-hand. I think this is human nature, actually. If you don't understand something, why bother learning the more comprehensive aspects of said topic? So, in this post, I'll try to define the vertical-movement versus horizontal-movement graph as best as I possibly can -- once you understand it, it really is pretty interesting.
This post is going to be long as hell. As well, credit goes to Beyond the Box Score, The Rays Party, and Son of Sam Horn. Being the geek that I am, I had made a whole document that was presented in my college speech class last summer that was influenced a lot by their interpretation of F/X graphs. Why I did this and not something easier and probably more entertaining for students, I do not know.
Last post you saw a graph of Fu-Te Ni's movement of his slider and 4-seam fastball plotted on a graph.
From this, we can see the pitching of baseball player Fu-Te Ni from the view of the catcher (from behind the plate). Now, with this type of graph, you have to be careful, as a graph of v-movement vs. h-movement can be deceiving to the untrained eye.
Looking at this type of graph, as if it were a grid of 4 quadrants, helps understand it easier.
Every pitch has some sort of “spin” to it; whether it be topspin (it’s not dropping down with a magnitude), dropspin (it is dropping down with a magnitude) or sidespin (it’s moving to the left or right with a magnitude). When the pitch is above the x-axis, it’s considered to have topspin. When the pitch is below the x-axis, it’s considered to have dropspin. As well, when the pitch is located to the LEFT of OUR VIEW of the graph, it’s considered to have RIGHTspin; when the pitch is located to the RIGHT of OUR VIEW of the graph, it’s considered to have LEFTspin. Now, think about this for a moment. The reason this is so is because we are looking at a right-handed pitcher throwing to us, not vice versa. Because of that, their right is our left point of view. Basically, we're the catcher with the pitcher throwing the ball to us.
You might think that since a ball has topspin, wouldn’t that also mean that it’s elevating? No, anything but, actually. The vertical break in the positive direction does not mean that the ball is going up. The baseball never rises without an external force, or an angle above 0 degrees from their angle slot. You can’t throw a baseball in such a way that it will continually go up after a certain force is exerted on it based on the aforementioned conditions. The positive vertical break represents pitches that fall less than they would due to gravity because of their spin. So, a fastball wouldn’t be rising, it just would not go down quite as fast as, let’s say, a curve ball, or a slider (don't use a comma).
For a rough approximation on where a pitch will most likely end up, see Son of Sam's break guide, or just look at it right now:
(this is only my interpretation of hmovement vs vmovement. Don't take my word for it. Even though I think you should)
