[Syd Thrift]

The pitches which could be deemed a fastball in the game are:

Fastball (4-seamer)
Sinker (2-seamer)
Splitter (split-fingered fastball; like the 2-seamer only your fingers aren't so far apart)
Cutter (see: Mariano Rivera)

While pretty much everyone has one of those 4 pitches in the game, I think a lot of guys don't throw the 4-seam "rising" fastball much at all. In fact, one of the classic archetypes of the relief pitcher, one that was so popular in the 1970s, is of a guy who throws nothing but the sinker and the slider. This guy might throw from a weird angle (like sidearm, even) and have a pretty awful split, but he keeps the ball down and hitters (at least like-handed ones) who sit on the sinker will get punched out pretty easily by that slider breaking (in) on them.

It's worth pointing out that Mariano Rivera also doesn't really throw a 4-seamer. Actually, I think the only guys who really *do* throw that as a regular pitch for the most part are guys who throw really, really hard. If you hear a catcher or manager talk about how a guy throws a "heavy" fastball, chances are that guy throws the 2-seamer instead of the 4-seamer; the sinker breaks downward, hits the catcher's mitt at the heel of his hand and feels like a ton of bricks whereas the 4-seamer seems to break upward, hits the mitt around the fingertips, and feels as light as a feather.