MLB The Show 22: Best Pitcher Build (Velocity)

MLB The Show 22 allows you to create and customize a pitcher to use in Diamond Dynasty and Road to the Show. There are four archetypes: Velocity, Break, Control, and Knucksie. Speed kills in sports which makes Velocity a great archetype to build a pitcher. Instead of mastering breaking balls and focusing on pitching strategies. You can simply use power to decrease a batter’s time to react.

Below, you’ll find the best build for a Velocity archetype pitcher in Road to the Show (RTTS). This will include the best Perks, equipment, and best pitching to equip on your RTTS pitcher or two-way player.

Also, here are Outsider Gaming’s other guides for Road to the Show on two-way player archetypes, best teams for your player by position, and the fastest ways to get called up to the MLB team.

Loadout

To edit your player, you have to go into the Loadout page under the My Player menu. From the Loadout page, you can access all of the submenus found below, beginning with your Perks, which may be the most important aspect of your ballplayer.

Perks

MLB The Show 22 allows you to stack Perks attributes together. Use all three levels of the Velocity perk to substantially increase your player’s pitching attributes along with Pulse Pounder. You can unlock these perks by grinding out games in Road to the Show or by using Stubs to purchase them in the community market. 

You’ll unlock higher levels of the perks, including the silver, gold, and diamond-level Perks, as you complete your pitcher archetype program. To view the program, click Square on the Perks from the Loadout screen, and not from the picture above. You’ll see there are many repeatable missions and once you reach 100 archetype points in the program, you’ll proceed to the next level (silver, gold, diamond).

• Velocity I: Increases Velocity and Hits per 9 Innings.  
• Velocity II: Increases Velocity, Pitching Clutch, Arm Strength, and Durability.
• Velocity III: Increases Velocity, Pitching Clutch, Arm Strength and Hits per 9 Innings. 
• Pulse Pounder: Significantly increased pitch velocity.

Equipment

There are only three equipment slots that affect pitching in MLB The Show 22. Use these items together to increase your pitcher’s efficiency and clutch. The unfortunate aspect of these three slots is that the there aren’t too many of each, and the best ones – the diamond level – will cost a significant amount to purchase (pictured). Look to the Diamond Equipment Choice packs from your archetype program to hopefully unlock one of the three.

• Ritual Item: Axle Grease adds +5 Pitching Clutch, +5 K per 9 Innings, +5 HR per 9 Innings, +5 BB per 9 Innings.
• Fielding Glove: UA Flawless adds +11 K per 9 Innings and +7 Hits per 9 Innings.
• Cleats: Harper 6 adds +10 BB per 9 Innings and +6 HR per 9 Innings.

Pitches

After your Perks, your pitch repertoire is the most important factor in your build. MLB The Show 22 gives you the option of selecting pitching types for your player. You can select up to five different pitches, but will need to have a minimum of three. The pitches that you select should reflect the pitching archetype of your player. Different variations of fastballs will benefit the Velocity archetype the most, as well as off-speed and breaking pitches that can be thrown at high velocities. Having a curveball and/or changeup to go with your fastballs will help prevent the batter from getting into a rhythm

4 – Seam Fastball: This is the most used pitch in baseball. This standard fastball is great for attacking the edges of the strike zone. It is almost always the fastest pitch in a pitcher’s repertoire and has little to no movement. Velocity pitchers will probably throw this pitch a plurality, if not majority, of the time.

Sinker:  The sinker is a type of fastball that has significant downward movement. A high pitch will appear as a ball and drop into the zone in a split second. Low pitches will appear as strikes before suddenly dropping below the strike zone. It’s similar to a two-seam (2-seam) fastball, but the sinker has more north-south movement (though not entirely) whereas the two-seam breaks more toward the arm side of the pitcher. A running fastball has similar movement to a two-seam, though a two-seam tends to be thrown with more velocity. For a fastball with some downward and arm-side movement, any of the three work.

The other types of fastballs are the cutter and splitter. These two pitches generally can’t be thrown as fast as the other fastballs, though some players in MLB The Show 22 can throw cutters extremely fast thanks to the Outlier player Perk, so it’s possible you could do the same. The cutter has late glove-side movement, breaking in on opposite-handed batters and away from same-handed batters. The splitter drops significantly south as it approaches the plate, like a changeup, and has been used effectively the past few seasons by the likes of unanimous 2021 A.L. M.V.P. Shohei Ohtani and 2022 Cy Young contender Kevin Gausman.

Slider: A slider possesses sharp lateral movement towards the glove side of the pitcher with some downward action. It is great for disguising inside strikes as balls (or outside strikes as balls) as well as making batters chase outside pitches that cross the plate outside the zone. The slider is the best breaking pitch for a velocity pitcher to have because of it’s significant movement and ability to throw the pitch in the low-90s.

12-6 Curve: The 12-6 curveball drops vertically with almost no lateral movement. Its name derives from the 12 and 6 on the face of a clock – completely north to south. Curveballs in general work well alongside great sinker and slider play because they look similar, but have more significant movement. 

Other variations include the knuckle curve and sweeping curve, which will have lateral in addition to downward movement. A regular curveball will have less lateral movement. The slurve, a combination of the slider and curve, will have significantly more lateral movement than the other curves, but not as much as the slider. It will have more vertical movement than a slider, but not as much as the curves. If your Velocity archetype is a lefty, the slurve can work well against lefty batters, but be wary if throwing it to righties.

While not a curve, the screwball is similar with one major difference: it breaks differently. It starts out like a 12-6 curve, but it breaks toward the arm-side of the pitcher as if throwing a two-seamer. The break is late, so it can look like a 12-6 until the last moments, inducing weak contact as the ball trails away from the bat.

Changeup: It appears like a fastball, but is slower to disrupt batter timing. Crucially, it has movement, which can be extremely effective when paired with a great four-seam fastball. You can carry a changeup and curveball together, but the changeup is traditionally what you would use to mess with a batter’s timing especially if used alongside fastballs that have little-to-no movement.

The traditional changeup starts like a straight four-seam fastball, but then drops dramatically as it nears the plate. The vulcan change has even more downward movement than the changeup. The circle changeup has more arm-side movement in addition to its downward movement.

While not changeups, the old-school forkball and palmball are essentially the predecessors to the the changeup. They’re not fast and have extreme downward movement. Choose whichever type of changeup fits your ideal the most.

For your Velocity archetype, follow the tips above on pairing your Perks, equipment, and pitches together to create an overpowering pitcher in MLB The Show 22. Look to the likes of high velocity pitchers like Jacob deGrom or Max Scherzer for an example to follow as well.