Pitching position

The pitcher may optionally throw to a base or disengage the rubber, but in order to pitch, he first brings his arms together in front of his body (a movement punctuated with a discernible pause).

Typically, pitchers from the set use a high leg kick, thus lunging toward home in pitching; a pitcher may instead release the ball more quickly by using the slide step, quickly stepping directly and immediately toward home and pitching.

Compared to the set, the windup has a relatively slower execution, and it is therefore better suited for situations in which there are no baserunners or when the lead runner is on third base, because it is difficult to steal home plate.

The reason more than half of pitchers start from the windup position is because that type of motion gets a little bit more of a rhythm going before pitching.

[2] Additionally, common wisdom is that the set is less damaging to the connective tissue of a pitcher's arm, but research in this area has been unable to support this hypothesis.