You like pitchers grading out themselves? Liam, Noah, and Trevor edition.

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Pitch one: Four-seam fastball

Origin: Since Little League.

Purpose: I have always learned that the best pitch in baseball is strike one. Throwing my fastball the first pitch to a batter gives me the best opportunity to get to that point.

Grip: Standard four-seam grip.

Speed: The fastest I have topped out at is 98 [mph]. Other radar readings have been higher than that, but I think they were a little bit askew. I average 94, 95.

Grade: I’d probably give myself the benefit of the doubt and give it a 70.

Pitch two: Two-seam fastball

Origin: I have always thrown it; I don’t even remember when I picked it up.

Purpose: I love breaking bats, and when I want to break a bat to a right-handed hitter I’ll throw my two-seam inside and just let it work. It breaks in. … I throw my four-seam and two-seam about half and half, 60-40 in favor of the four-seam, if anything.

Grip: Traditional two-seam grip, in between the two laces.

Speed: Around the same as my four-seam, like 94, 95.

Grade: I’d give it a 70 as well.

Pitch three: Curveball

Origin: In high school, I didn’t really throw a curveball at all. There was one game, a 15-strikeout game, when I had to revert to my curveball because [batters] were all over my fastball. I just had to improve it quite a bit when I got to pro ball because it got high school hitters out; it didn’t do much — have much effect — against pro hitters.

Purpose: I mostly go with the curveball in two-strike counts. Sometimes I can throw it 12-to-6, but more often it has a slide to it, more 1-to-7 action to it.

Grip: Traditional curveball grip.

Speed: 78-79, but I will add a little a velocity here within the season.

Grade: Some people say it’s a “plus curveball,” but this past year that was what I was working on the most. This year was more of a “feeling” year, to get a feel for my curveball. I have been working on it a lot this offseason and it’s getting to be a pretty good pitch in my mind. I’ll give it a 50.

Pitch four: Circle changeup

Origin: I don’t really remember when I first learned it. Since my Little League days.

Purpose: To keep hitters off-balance. … I mostly go with the curveball in two-strike counts, but if it’s a 3-2 count and I know the hitter is sitting dead-red fastball, then I’ll throw a changeup.

Grip: Just a typical circle-change grip.

Speed: Around 84. I can get it up to 88, but that’s a little too fast for my liking.

Grade: I’d give it a 65.

Andrew Pentis is a contributor to MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewMiLB. This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.

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Pitch one: Four-seam fastball

Origin: I threw two-seamers and sinkers growing up because I didn’t throw super hard and relied on a lot of movement to keep the ball down and get hitters off-balance. But I didn’t know a whole lot about effective velocity and pitch sequencing back then. Now that I have a better feel for it and what hitters react to and what actually gets them out, I’ve gone to the four-seam. I find I’m better able to control the movement on it.

Purpose: For the way I sequence pitches and try to hit tunnels, it’s important to have a pitch that moves consistently so that I know where it started and where to start other pitches to make them look the same.

Grip: Straight across the four seams.

Speed: Anywhere above 92 [mph].

Grade: I’d give myself a 60 because I don’t have the best command of it yet. Velocity-wise, it will continue to get better. I’d say it’s an 80 [in terms] of upside.

Pitches two and three: Changeups

Origin: My dad has always been a proponent of the changeup [since] I started pitching when I was 8.

Purpose: I have two variations of it; I can make it cut or I can make it run. I’m pretty confident [using either] to any side hitter.

Grip: I grip a fastball but with my middle and ring finger. I don’t really ever close off the circle [like a typical circle change]. I basically create an equator around the ball, split the ball in half with my ring finger and thumb, and then everything else lays on there comfortably. And then I just throw the ball so that, when I release it, my ring finger and my thumb are directly on top of each other vertically.

Speed: From 80-84.

Grade: I’d give myself a 70. It’s actually the pitch I command the best.

Pitches four and five: Curveballs

Origin: I started throwing a variation of a curveball when I was 9 and then started throwing an actual curveball when I was 12. It was never really a concern to me [to throw a breaking ball at that age]. People don’t understand how to throw a curveball properly, so they end up putting their arms at risk. They try to do something with their hand to make it spin artificially. My pitching coach, Jim Wagner, told me, ‘Set your wrist, throw it and let the ball roll off naturally.’

Purpose: To get a strike early in the count, or as a put-away pitch.

Grip: I have two different grips, one that I use for a strike pitch and then another grip I use when I really want to bury it. Bury it means, primarily, that I’m going to throw it in the dirt.

Speed: From 76-81.

Grade: I have pretty good command on it and it has good break, so I’d give it a 70 on the scale.

Pitches six and seven: Dot slider and circle slider

Origin: I picked up a slider during my junior season in high school, so I haven’t been throwing it as long.

Purpose: I have two variations — one of them is more of a traditional cutter, but it has more horizontal movement to it than vertical movement. I call that my circle slider because when I throw it, it comes out with a circle on it instead of a dot. I use that one primarily early in the count to hit tunnels to righties, disguise it, make it look like a fastball or a changeup and keep it in the zone. My dot slider is the one that breaks more.

Grip: The only thing I do differently is grip [each] differently. I throw it the exact same. One of them is a very traditional slider grip. I hold it right on the horseshoe of the ball and pull down on the seam. … The other one, in doing video analysis and playing with different grips, I noticed that I can throw it the exact the same [but] with this grip … based on the orientation of the grip, the pressure zones it creates as it’s spinning through the air, I can get it to move less than the other one. It’s been a struggle because the grip is not particularly comfortable, but I’m getting a lot more consistent with it.

Speed: The dot slider is about 84-86; the circle slider is usually about 84.

Grade: My dot slider, the one that breaks more, I’m going to grade that one about a 70. My circle slider, strictly based on the inconsistency of it, I’ll give a 55 or a 60. It will be a lot better next year than it was last year, but it’s not as much of a ‘wow’ pitch as my dot slider is.

Pitch eight: Reverse slider

Origin: Between my sophomore year and junior year at UCLA, [that’s] really when I picked up on Perry Husband’s Effective Velocity and learning how speed and location interact with each other in the zone. It became apparent that I needed something to go the opposite way at a [specific] speed range. It’s a cross between a sinking fastball and a screwball — it’s a little bit slower than a sinking fastball and a little bit harder than a traditional screwball would be. I played around with it and got it done. I used it a lot [my senior] year at UCLA.

Purpose: It’s designed to be a left-handed cut fastball. I want it to sit in the middle range of speeds and move about 5 inches, just enough to get from the middle of the plate to the outside corner to a lefty or the inside corner to a righty.

Grip: If you think about how you grip a slider and how your hand is on the outside of the ball, I just reverse everything. So my thumb position, my wrist position, all that stuff, I reverse. And [the ball] rolls off my pointer finger.

Speed: Between 88-91.

Grade: Give it a 50. Movement-wise, people are going to say, “Oh, that’s not impressive,” but very few people understand how effective a pitch that moves 4 inches is, and especially in that speed range. It’s a pitch that I will throw increasingly often as my career goes along.

Pitch nine: Split-finger fastball

Origin: I was down at Texas Baseball Ranch one summer and talked to this guy, Brent Strom, and he asked me if I threw a splitter. I said no. He asked me to spread my fingers to see how far I could spread ‘em, so I did. And he said, “You should definitely throw a split. Your fingers have enough flexibility that you should do it.” He taught me how and sent me on my way to practice it. Funny story: I had [Team] USA trials after that — two weeks after I learned it — and I actually threw it; it was the only pitch that worked at the trials. I didn’t make the team that year [in 2008] but, since then it’s been a good pitch for me. I threw it in college increasingly as coach [John] Savage got more comfortable with it and realized that it was a viable pitch for me.

Purpose: What’s really gotten success — I didn’t have a whole lot of ’em hit — was in two-strike counts as a put-away pitch.

Grip: Traditional, [spreading index and middle fingers].

Speed: In the 86-88 range.

Grade: I’d give it a 40 or a 50. It’s still a developing pitch, but it’s not something I’m going to give up on because the possibilities are pretty great. It’s something I have seen work for many guys. If I can get it to be more consistent — and it will take more repetitions of me throwing it — it can be a very devastating pitch.