Pitcher Pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. The pitcher is often considered the most important player on the defensive side of the game, and as such is situated at the right end of the defensive spectrum. There are many different types of pitchers, such as the starting
Netherlands national baseball team (Texas Rangers; born in Curaçao). "Sports Illustrated" opined that the Dutch team "boasts arguably the most talented infield in the entire tournament." The Netherlands was defeated by Team Israel (4-2), but beat South Korea (5-0) and Taiwan (6-5), in the first round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Along with Israel, which came in ahead of it in the pool, it qualified for the next round, in Japan. In what NBC reported was thought to be the tallest batter-pitcher matchup in baseball history, the Dutch team’s pitcher Loek Van Mil walked Israel's first baseman Nate Freiman. In the second round