Latest / The Mound Visit / Pitch Design Crash Course

Transcript

Pitch Design Crash Course · The Mound Visit

0:10
All right, guys. In this episode, Josh and I are going to
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break down all pitch types. He's gonna talk about the pitches that he throws,
0:17
the grips he uses, and the cues that he uses for himself.
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I'm going to provide some insight on every single pitch, on grip options,
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cues and what to look for, and also how to optimize your personal arsenal
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and understand how it works with the rest of your pitches. Let's begin.
0:32
All right, we are live with episode two. How you doing, Josh?
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I'm doing good. How about you? That's too bad? How's the
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back feeling? The back it was a little bit worrying. I'm not gonna
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lie. I had some back spasms the past two weeks. But they put
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me on some drugs, some muscle relaxes, and it's actually been feeling a
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lot better. And we've also done some mechanical stuff to clean it up,
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put some like less stress on the back, and that's actually really helped.
1:00
And my vela ticked up just a little bit, so I'm excited about that.
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That's great. What kind of adjustments did you make mechanically? So beforehand
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I was a really get into the back leg deep kind of guy. But
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now we're more just like drift. We're gonna like pulse and then go type
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things. It's a lot more quick. It's less like deep positions, and
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I'm pretty sure like the deep positions of what was hurting my back. So
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we adjusted that. NFL good today. I threw a live today, so
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hopefully it continues. That's sick, that's great. You're telling me a little
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bit about the life today. Before we started recording about some of your self
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plus numbers, and the four seam was what would you say, it was
1:41
like one forty or something. Yeah, it was super interesting. My four
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seam was one forty, which is like above major league average, and I
1:49
was not expecting it because the metrics are nothing special. It was fourteen vert
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with five horizontal. It might've been four or five something like that. But
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the release height was five four, which is I guess you said was pretty
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low. Yeah, because average in the big leagues is closer to that six
2:09
feet mark, so anything below that, like the vert is going to play
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up a little bit more. So now we'll get into vertical approach angle type
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of conversation. So the steepness of the way it's approaching the strike zone in
2:21
a lower slot, because you're talking from a lower slot and you're still at
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that fourteen mark, which is barely below league average from a vertical vertical break
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standpoint, but it's going to play up because that approach is going to be
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flatter, it's not going to be dropping as quickly relative to what the hitters
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used to seeing. So that's why, even though it's you know, roughly
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average movement numbers, that lower release is going to allow it to play up
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a little bit. Mmm. And I think also you said there's there's like
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a tiny bit of cut on the fossible and because I'm so much on the
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third base side of the rubber and a lower slot, that might have had
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something to do with it as well, for sure. Yeah. Yeah,
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so you're five you said you like four or five inches of HB. Big
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Lely average is ten inches of HB. So it's not actually cutting like in
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for it to actually be cutting up to be you know, greater than zero
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inch's glove side, but relative to what the batter is used to seeing,
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there is some glove side movement because it's you know, five inches less of
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horizontal movement to the arm side. So it's appearing like it's cutting to the
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hitter. You've got a lower release height, so that's why it's allowing it
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to play up a little more and gives you a little bit of that funkiness
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and uniqueness. Mm and probably like the release side probably makes it look like
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it's cutting a little bit more than it actually is for sure, Especially if
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you're like throwing that in or away to a lefty or a way to a
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righty and into a lefty, it's just gonna appear like it's just running it
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on the hands hard or it's running away and they're running out of bat.
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So that's a unique profile. And that's exactly what we're gonna talk about today
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is just kind of diving into pitch design, pitch arsenals. You know.
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We'll talk about the pitches that you throw. I'm gonna be super curious to
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hear your thought process. I've obviously done some bulpins with you, so I've
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seen at your video of all your pitches. I know what you throw,
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but i haven't heard in detail your process for all of your pitches and what
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you're trying to do. So we'll break that down a little bit. We'll
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talk about every single pitch type to try to give you guys as much information
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on pitches, some grip ideas, some cues, and figure out what pitch
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types might be the best for your arsenal. So why don't we start with
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forcing fastballs. Why don't you show us what your grip is, what you're
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trying to feel, and kind of go from there. Oh, I'll go
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my baseball here, all right? Awesome, So the forcing fossible. I
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used to throw it just like this right here, and it was a pitch
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that I've never really been able to carry very much, just because I have
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been a low onslaught guy. I would always get like around ten. But
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and that's why I've always been a sinker guy. But this off season I
4:54
actually changed my grip and so I went from being right here. I talked
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through it a little bit, just in case someone's not watching it. What
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what side of the horseshoe are you on? Oh? Yeah, okay,
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So I'm just I'm just I don't know how to explain it. How would
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you explain that? I would say the horseshoe, so like where where the
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ball is going out the laces is on the outside part that horshes on the
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outside part of your fingers, which is a fairly standard forcing grip, is
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that horseshoe circling on the outside of the hand. Okay, yeah, so
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the force the horseshoe was on the outside, yep. But this off season
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I switched it over and I flipped it over, so now the horseshoe is
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on the inside, right next to my index finger. Yep. And my
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thought process with this was that I'm kind of I'm trying to cut it a
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tiny bit. Yep. I'm not coming straight through it because that's what causes
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the run and the small avert numbers. So when I try to cut it
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a little bit, I think what happens is it tilts the access a little
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bit closer to twelve and it gives a little bit more ride. No,
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that makes perfect sense. The second you said that you flipped over the other
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side, I was like, there you go. That's why he's cutting it
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a little bit, because you already supinate a little bit. So your hand
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is, you know, on the side of the ball a hair naturally,
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and when you put the horse shoe on the inside, because of the way
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the laces are oriented, it tends to make the ball want to cut a
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little bit, because if you look closely here, with the horseshoe going this
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way, the lace actually starts to dip down a little bit, or sorry,
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it starts to go up on this side where that index finger would be.
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So in order for you to actually have your index finger on top of
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that seam, you're gonna have to slightly turn that ball in your hand so
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that both fingertips are on the seams. And because of that slight tilt when
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you rip through this pitch, it's gonna give it just a hair of cut
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on the pitch versus the other side of the horse shoe with the horse shoe
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on the outside. Because the seams are a little bit lower where the index
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finger is, I can be straight on this pitch and have both fingers on
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the seams like that. So they just that slight change allows you to cut
7:15
the ball without even really trying. But because of the way you have to
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position the ball in your hand, it's going to kind of preset a little
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bit of that off centered cut position. Yeah, that makes a lot of
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sense. Yeah, because another one of my cues is that I don't want
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to be straight on because I don't like this lace on my ring. Finger.
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I like my ring finger underneath the lace, and for that to happen,
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I need to turn my fingers a little bit more. So if I'm
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straight on, it kind of kind of looks like a cut a grip already,
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yep, And then I'm just throwing it straight through the ball and gives
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it that ride and tiny bit of cut as what you talked about. No,
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that's perfect. I actually would guess if you threw it on the other
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side of the horse, which actually you did say. You said your vert
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was like ten inches with the other side. M hm. That makes sense
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because now you're more straight on the ball and those fingertips around the seams.
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But because of your arm slot, you're not gonna get a lot of vertical
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break on the pitch, and it's just going to kind of be in no
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man's land in that ten to twelve VB range, with probably twelve ish HB
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if I were to guess maybe a little bit more at times, which kind
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of puts it in that no man's land. So now you're going a little
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bit of cut, a little bit more carry, and now you have a
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little bit of a unique fastball and apparently the stuff plus scores like it too,
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Yeah, I know. And something that's super interesting with the full seam
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is that when I'm throwing a lower intense my vert just skyrockets. It's like
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eighteen to twenty when I'm throwing like, you know, like eighty percent bullpens
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yep. And so what do you think about that? Why does that happen?
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Does your efficiency change the spin efficiency? I don't think so. No,
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interesting, because I would guess maybe at higher intensities, maybe you tend
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to cut the ball a little bit more versus low intensity, you stay behind
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the ball a little bit better, you get more true spin. And another
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consideration is the seam orientation. So spin efficiency could be the same, the
9:15
release tilt could be the same. But if the way the ball is overlapping,
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like let's just say, you know, for you on your good ones
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I'm trying to demonstrate right handed, let's just say, for you, on
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your good ones, it has that slight cut and it rotates perfectly like this
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at low intensity, that's going to allow it to have a little bit more
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vertical break. But let's say it's just a little bit off like this,
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where the seams aren't even as they're rotating. That could cause it to not
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have as much lift on the ball because it has to fight those seams a
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little bit harder versus resisting that drop that gravity wants to do to the baseball.
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If the seams are just oriented slightly different, it can impact its flight.
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So that could be what's going on too, but I'd have to see
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edge of video to know for sure. But I also do see guys at
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lower intensity sometimes they raise their slot a little bit, like I know I
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do for sure. I'm when I'm going low intensity, I throw from like
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a five nine to five to ten release site versus full speed, I'm at
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that five six, five seven range in the higher slot. If everything else
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is the same efficiency wise and seam orientation, it's gonna have more carry on
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it because I'm getting more back spin on the ball and the tilt is probably
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gonna be a little bit higher. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes
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a lot of sense, But I'd have to see it to know for sure.
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But let's give We'll give the listeners a couple of different four seam ideas
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too. And you know, this is kind of a video based episode,
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so definitely would encourage you guys to check out the YouTube video of this where
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you can actually see us walking through these grips. But I'll try to explain
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them the best I can if you're just listening to it. Some options that
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you can have for four seam, like if we were trying to maximize carry,
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if we're trying to have it as true of a force seam as we
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can. Typically you want to have that horseshoe on the outside like we talked
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about earlier, horseshoe on the outside. You want those fingers to be straight
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on these scenes the best you can. Any sort of deviation from there is
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going to impact the cut or the run on the pitch. So for you
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with your slot, having a little bit of cut was actually advantageous based off
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of your arm slot. For a typical armslot, the average arm slot Porsche
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on the outside is going to be beneficial. Seams directly or sorry, fingertips
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directly on the seams here. Sometimes guys will climb up on the leather a
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little bit too much like this, and they just don't have anything to really
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pull against. They slip off of the bare part of the ball. I
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like to feel the tips of the fingers almost like they're hooking these seams right
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here, So if I actually were to let go of this ball, it
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feels like the pressure is going this way, and that allows me to rip
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straight down through those seams and create good backspin on the fastball. And then
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the next thing would be just to have those fingers fairly close together. I
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like to think of them almost as one unit instead of two separate fingers.
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I like to treat them as one finger, so that they come off at
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the same time or as close to the same time as possible, so there
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isn't any deviation with my middle finger or index finger that's going to kick the
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ball a different direction. So that's just kind of a couple, you know,
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simple cues and tips you can do with the four seam. Like I
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used to be a guy that was thirteen fourteen BB it was dead zone average,
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wasn't a good pitch. And then the last few months I've been tinkering
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with it and like trying some of these concepts, and it has just allowed
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me to get so much better backspin on the ball. I'm now seventeen eighteen,
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sometimes twenty inches of vertical break without raising my arm slot. So I
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would definitely experiment with that as a player because that cleanness of that spin is
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going to be critical to the lift on the ball and getting good carry.
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Have you experimented with any of those things or have you had any of those
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types of feelings with the ball when you're throwing the four seam. I think
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one of the things that really helped me actually was when I'm releasing it,
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I'm trying to throw it down like this, I'm trying to spin it downwards
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instead of oh, I'm throwing it straight. And when I try to throw
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it downwards, I feel like I could get more of that spin, which
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equals more carry. And also had a question for you, is that the
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finger width? Yeah? What do you think about that? Because I wats
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the video on you know, Shotaga. Yeah, and he was saying that
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the more the closer that he gets his fingers, the more vert he gets.
13:16
Yep. But when he makes it wider, he has better control of
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the pitch. Interesting, Well, the wider makes sense because he just has
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more coverage on the baseball. So maybe he has a better feel for it,
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I would guess, And it makes perfect sense why he carries it more
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than fingers closer, because it comes back to what I said about almost treating
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two fingers as one finger, they're one unit rather than if they're separate.
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It's probably going to come off of the middle finger first, or the index
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in some cases, but they're not going to come off at the same time,
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which is going to kick that access a little bit or kill the efficiency
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one way or the other, and you're not going to get the same lift
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on the ball. I see younger kids, especially with with really wide grips,
13:56
Like I was working with a fourteen year old last weekend and his four
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seam fastball was like this, Like he literally was way here on top of
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the seams here. And I think part of it too, is their hands
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are starting to get bigger, so until they get to know the full maturity,
14:11
their hand size might be a little bit too small for them to fully
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grip the ball. And getting wider can kind of give you a sense of
14:16
control of the baseball. So coming back to the command, that makes sense
14:20
why that could help some guys just because you have more coverage of the baseball
14:24
and it's you know, you said, more control in your hand with it.
14:28
So okay, let's talk about sinkers. Now. I know you throw
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a really good sinker. What's your grip, what's your thought process. All
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right, So my SINCO when it was really good, this was the grip.
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It's just a traditional two seam and with my low armslought, it just
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worked really well because I'm just trying to side spin it like this and then
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it comes out and it gets the run and sink. Yeah. But now
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that my armslow has climbed a little bit, I'm struggling to find a pitch
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that a grip that makes the bowl move the way I want it to.
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I feel like I've done a better job of it now. During the off
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season, I tinkered with all kinds of grips. I tinked with the one
15:09
seam grip, the offset, two seam grip, everything, and now I've
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kind of just come back to the two seam grip and that's what works best
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for me. But yeah, the SINKA is it's pretty tough when you confind
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it because of all the seam shift stuff and all of that. But well,
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exactly because yeah, seam shift. I'm glad you brought that up,
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like sinkers are heavily impacted by the seams. And for you, just because
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I've seen you throw your efficiencies usually in the eighties. If if I'm correct,
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like in the eighty to ninety percent range, I guess we'll call it.
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And that's a really good range to get seam effects. And that's why
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I'm actually glad that you came back to the traditional two scene because that type
15:52
of grip is going to work really well, especially from your arm slot,
15:56
where you're going to be getting probably a one forty five o'clock release till is
16:00
that about right? Yes, it's usually closer to one thirty. Yeah,
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yep, So you know when one thirty works, Like, if the seams
16:11
are oriented correctly, at one thirty, you're probably gonna get forty five minutes
16:14
to an hour of seam effects, which is going to push that vertical break
16:17
down to that four to six vertical break range, which I think you said
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that's where it was today, which is great. And I wish I brought
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my dot balls. I left them at the facility, but I wanted to
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show guys, you know, what that would exactly look like, and I'll
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be sure to you know, post some pictures or some videos later for you
16:33
guys to see that. But essentially, if you can picture Josh throwing a
16:38
two seam here, so he's got this script right here, this part of
16:42
the baseball, this bear part, you would want slightly facing you as it
16:48
is spinning away from him. And what that's going to do is the way
16:52
the air is interacting with the seams, it's going to push the ball in
16:55
the opposite direction of that bear part of the ball. So if that is
16:59
you know, oriented here we were at a one thirty tilt and that bare
17:02
part of the ball is slightly facing you, bringing that efficiency down to that
17:04
eighty eighty five percent range, that's going to be in a perfect location for
17:08
the seams to catch and allow it to take off down into the arm side.
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So for you, you know, a one seam potentially could work,
17:15
but I see one seams typically work better for guys that are higher spin efficiency
17:19
so ninety five ish percent, give or take a little bit. So for
17:23
you with cutting it a little bit, the seams just aren't going to interact
17:26
quite quite the same with the one seam grip, which is probably why you
17:29
had a little bit of inconsistency with that when it just didn't feel quite right.
17:33
So the two seam is a really good option for guys that are a
17:36
lower spin efficiency typically eighty five percent or less, and if you're on the
17:40
higher end and you're trying to throw a sinker, a one seam is probably
17:42
going to be a better option for you. M hm, yeah, that
17:45
makes sense. And so you talk about cutting, is that a queue that
17:49
you give to players. Do you say, hey, just cut it just
17:53
a little bit, or do you just leave that up to the guys who
17:56
have a supernation bias. I'll be honest, I rarely say cut the ball,
18:03
because most guys, especially if that feel for the baseball, when you
18:06
tell them to cut the ball, they actually will cut the ball, and
18:10
essentially like you are cutting it slightly, but it isn't like actually where you're
18:15
like breaking your wrists this way and you're trying to get it to actually move
18:18
armside. Like there's a very very fine line. But what I do find
18:21
is typically with change ups or sinkers, guys have traditionally thought that they need
18:25
to pronate those pitches to create the movement. So I'll usually start with the
18:29
queue of just just throw it like a for seam fastball. Don't try to
18:33
pronate this, don't try to overdo it. Just try to get your hands
18:36
in this position here and rip straight through it and then we'll go from there.
18:40
If they're still not cutting the efficiency enough, then maybe we'll try a
18:42
little bit more of a cut queue. I've seen the best results with just
18:48
visually showing guys. So I'll show them a slow motion video of how the
18:52
ball should be spinning or what we're looking for, and then I'll also show
18:55
them what that hand position looks like and let them get creative with what they
18:59
need to feel and what cues they might need to give themselves. Because a
19:03
que that works for me might not work for you. It's my own verbage.
19:06
So it's important, like as a coach, finding the verbae that works
19:08
for the player, because just because it resonates with me, it could mean
19:12
something completely different to you. So that's why, like that relationship billiing is
19:17
you know once again, so important is that you can speak the language of
19:19
the player and know what's going to click for them, but also give them
19:23
room to kind of discover it on their own. I think sometimes less is
19:26
more like just showing them what you want them to do, give them a
19:30
starting point from a grip standpoint, and then let them get creative and experiment
19:34
a little bit, and then you can help guide them from there. Yeah,
19:38
that makes a lot of sense. And I asked that because during the
19:42
off season I was throwing a one seam sinker and my cue was to cut
19:48
it and that worked really well for about two weeks until I actually started cutting
19:55
it and it turned into like a cutter, yeah, because it was becoming
20:00
more gyro instead of tilting the axis. And so I was just curious as
20:06
to if you're queuing that to people or not, and so, yeah,
20:10
that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, no, exactly, Like sometimes
20:14
cutting works if you tell them to cut it, sometimes it will work.
20:17
Just have to be careful that they're not actually cutting the ball, and it'll
20:19
be pretty clear if they are. So a couple other grips is so you
20:23
show the traditional two seam, so right here, you you're kind of inside
20:26
the seam slightly right, yes, yeah, yeah, yep. So that's
20:30
one option, the one seam option. There's a couple of ways to do
20:33
it. This is the way I usually do it. So I will go
20:37
across the tracks like this, and the middle finger is on the seam like
20:41
this, and when I throw this pitch, I'm trying to rip it right
20:44
through that middle finger, like when I'm throwing it right, I can feel
20:47
that seam rip off of the middle finger when I'm throwing it, and then
20:51
a couple other ways. Instead of being, you know, this far forward
20:52
with it, you could go further back on it. The important part is
20:56
just that you're kind of going at a diagonal across those seams. Some guys
21:00
like to split the seam like this. For me, that just didn't feel
21:03
right. I don't like feeling the bare part of the ball when I'm throwing
21:06
a fastball, So for me, feeling that seam was important for me.
21:10
What about thumb position? Where's your thumb for this pitch? My thumb is
21:12
just directly underneath. Perfect. I don't really think too much about that.
21:19
Yeah, with this pitch, I'm just trying to a side spin it just
21:22
like this, just like a fossible right there. Perfect. Yeah. Thumb
21:26
position is kind of an individual thing. I've actually seen like guys that have
21:30
a lower spin efficiency, they tend to have that thumb more underneath the ball
21:33
because it just kind of allows you to stay in that stuporinated bias a little
21:37
bit longer. M hm, all right. Cutters, now you have a
21:41
unique cutter. I wouldn't even call you as a cutter, to be honest
21:44
with you, but I want you to explain it because it is a very
21:45
unique pitch. Yeah, so my cut up I actually have like a true
21:51
cutter now, But when I was throwing with you, I was throwing a
21:55
cutter that was pretty much, as they call it, like a hand of
21:57
God, which is pretty much just a rising sweeper. And so this is
22:03
the grip for that. I'm right along the two seams and my thumb is
22:11
on the bed part of the wall. Oh if I can get it,
22:14
yeah right there, yep. Interesting. And all I'm trying to do with
22:18
this pitch is because I am a supernation biased guy, I'm just trying to
22:23
throw it, and I'm trying to throw a gyrable. So right here,
22:29
I'm ripping through the side of the seams right here, and then I honestly
22:33
feel gyrable. But I think what actually happens is when I'm ripping through the
22:40
seams, it's coming out at more of like eleven o'clock access, and that's
22:45
what gives it the ride and the sweep. Interesting, So give give people
22:48
an example, like what's the movement typically on this pitch. Yeah, So
22:52
when I was starting with you. When I was calling it a cutter,
22:56
it was usually ten to ten negative tenor right now, I've actually turned it
23:03
into more of my slider, and so it's anywhere from five to ten,
23:10
but with negative ten to negative twenty horizontal. Interesting. Yeah, that's a
23:15
super unique pitch, Like I can't throw it to save my life, but
23:18
I haven't tried your grip, so I'm gonna have to try this, So
23:21
let me verify. So we're going here like this, So my middle finger
23:26
is up against the seam, is that right? Mm hm? And then
23:29
the index finger is like this yep, and you're on top of the scene.
23:34
I'm more like hooking the scene, hooking both fingers. I'm like hooking
23:40
it. And instead of the pad of my fingers on the on the seams,
23:44
it's more like the sides of my fingers. Got it right there?
23:51
Yeah, So this is you know, this is a very very similar grip
23:53
to an actual sweeper. But I think because your index finger, your hand
23:59
in general is a little little bit further up like to where you're kind of
24:02
going over this seem a little bit. I'm guessing that's what allows you to
24:04
get the extra lift on the ball as opposed to a regular sweeper being a
24:10
little bit further back. You're just a little bit further forward on it,
24:15
is that right? Yeah? And I'm also way index finger dominant guy.
24:21
Yep. So I don't feel it coming off my middle finger at all.
24:23
It's just my index finger just ripping through it. Yeah, that makes perfect
24:29
sense. So and now you're throwing a regular cutter too. You said,
24:33
is that a different grip? That is a different grip. So it's just
24:37
the offset full scene right here. Yep. And then again, all I'm
24:41
trying to do is I'm trying to throw I'm trying to throw gyro ball for
24:45
some reason that that cube works for me, just so that I get on
24:48
top of the ball and then I can spin it like that. Yeah.
24:52
When I try to side spin it or anything, I just start yanking it
24:56
and it doesn't feel good. So yeah, try to rip through the seams
25:02
and try to throw gyrable. Seems to work a lot for me. That's
25:04
perfect. Yeah. So we'll call the cutter the same as a gyro slader
25:10
for an how world, we'll talk about them in the same bucket essentially,
25:12
So a cutter, like you just said, would be the forcing fastball grip,
25:18
but off centered. So if I'm here for the forcing with the horseshoe
25:21
on the inside, I would slightly turn that ball in towards my body.
25:26
So now I am at this angle just like this, so when I throw
25:30
this pitch, I'm able to rip through those seams, and now this part
25:34
of the ball so that my partner would be seeing this side of the ball,
25:37
I would be seeing it on the opposite side is spinning like this.
25:41
So it's just a slightly off centered fastball here like this to where that part
25:45
of the ball where the label is. So if you're looking at my side,
25:48
the label would be spinning perfectly clean like a bullet. The more that
25:53
starts to face us. So if it was pure bullet like this, that's
25:56
when we're getting towards the zero zero type of arrits. But if you want
26:00
to have a little bit of VB with this and cut, so now we're
26:03
getting to let's just say five inches or more of VB or even up to
26:07
ten and still have a little bit of cut, that dot would now be
26:11
more so in between a fastball and a true bullet gyro slider somewhere in between.
26:15
There the grip that works best for me is very similar to you,
26:19
except I go horse shoe on the inside for my cutter, so forcing would
26:22
be here slightly turned just like that. And I want to really make sure
26:26
that the fingertips are right on top of the seams, because if I climb
26:30
too far up like this onto the bare part of the ball, it has
26:33
a tendency to get a little bit too big and starts to turn into more
26:37
of a regular slider or even into sweeper territory at times. So one thing
26:41
I like to think about, like if you want to make this a really
26:44
hard pitch, like let's just say you throw ninety and you want this pitch
26:47
to be eighty six plus, you're gonna want less cut obviously, so I'm
26:51
not trying to break my wrists like this. Like you explained, you want
26:55
to really think about presetting that grip off centered and just rip straight through those
26:59
seams so you're getting behind the ball more. And because of the way the
27:02
ball is oriented, it's going to allow it to have a little bit of
27:03
lift and cut and still be a harder pitch. If you wanted to be
27:07
close to that gyro range, you potentially can off center at more to where
27:11
you're getting into this territory here like this, and just think about ripping straight
27:15
through the side of this baseball. But I think for both of these you
27:18
want to make sure you're not breaking the wrist like this. It's not a
27:22
big slider. It shouldn't it be slow, like even the gyro one.
27:26
If you're getting a little bit more depth on it, it should still be
27:27
within eight or nine miles an hour of your fastball. So kind of use
27:32
that as like a proxy of am I manipulating this pitch too much? Or
27:34
am I staying behind it just enough? And this is a perfect pitch for
27:38
a dot ball, so I will I'll be sure to you to add a
27:41
link to that in the show notes on how to make that dot ball.
27:45
But that can be a really good visual for guys that don't have track man,
27:47
especially when you're playing catch. You can get a better idea of how
27:49
that ball should be spinning and how should you where should you be seeing the
27:56
dot on that one? So the dot would be right here. I'm sorry,
28:00
I'm trying to look at my my image here be right here on both
28:04
sides, So the same exact part of the baseball on both sides. Okay,
28:10
all right, Yeah, that's interesting because that's how I throw them a
28:12
possible I think, and I guess you do it as much. But so
28:19
how about so if I came into you and I was throwing like my cut
28:25
up and I wasn't getting enough cut on the pitch yep, how would you
28:30
try to fix that without going too deep into supernation. I think it's the
28:37
grip, Like if we can get more off centered with this pitch, because
28:42
typically what I'll see, especially since I have an edger, I can look
28:45
at this. I'll tell guys, let's start with this grip here, so
28:48
we're off centered like this, and I'll look at the video and guys are
28:52
kind of more in like a traditional fastball position. So like that is one
28:56
of the main steps is like can we get that ball torqued in our hand
28:59
a little bit more or to where we can create that movement. Now,
29:02
another grip option, and this is typically a better option for guys that have
29:04
a higher slot, is coming right here like this, so you're on this
29:10
part of the ball here. A lot of higher slot guys will do this
29:11
and it allows them just to kind of rip straight down through it like this
29:15
through the outside part of the ball and they can get that bullet spin on
29:19
the pitch. So it would come back to that, like seeing the video,
29:22
if you're not getting enough cut, you're probably staying behind it too much.
29:25
So we might need to think about that wrist being locked in a little
29:27
bit more like this and then thinking fastball from this position here. Okay,
29:33
so it's pre set, and then throw like a foss ball instead of manipulating
29:37
at release. Yep, exactly the best we can, right, because we
29:41
want this to be a power pitch like it. It's not a big slow
29:44
breaking but like we need this to be hard, so we want to make
29:45
sure that we're not taking away that intent from it. M that makes sense.
29:49
Yep. Okay, let's dive into sweepers. Now, I know you've
29:53
got a really good one. It sounds like you just mentioned you're kind of
29:56
blending the cutter grip with this, but talk your sweeper. Okay, So
30:02
my sweeper grip is the same as my hand of God. But we I'm
30:08
grabbing onto this seam now with the thumb the hand of God I was on
30:12
this scene with the sweeper. I'm deeper in my hand and I'm also grabbing
30:18
onto this scene right here? Are you talking about with your thumb? Yeah?
30:22
With my thumb sorr. Yeah. Okay, so you're on the seam
30:23
underneath the ball instead of the bare part of the ball. Yes, yes.
30:29
And I used to have a really good sweeper like twenty twenty twenty one,
30:34
and how I would throw it was just like a cobball. So I'd
30:37
come through and full supernation and I'm just ripping through the seams and it would
30:44
come out eighty three eighty four with Honestly, most of the time it was
30:48
over negative twenty horizontal. But what happened was as I kept throwing it,
30:53
I would get deeper and deeper into supernation. And last year it kind of
31:00
got to depthy, and my feel for it kind of went away, and
31:06
it wasn't really the shape that I really wanted, and so I had to
31:10
make an adjustment by throwing it more like a fossall. So right now,
31:14
how I throw it is I have the same grip, but just like I
31:18
throw the Hand of God, I'm ripping through the outside of the boat like
31:21
this, and I'm trying to throw just again just like a Jyrible. I'm
31:26
trying to spin it just right here, and that seems to work, and
31:32
that seems to get the shape that I want, which is usually anywhere from
31:37
zero to five vertical break and negative fifteen plus horizontal break. That's really really
31:45
good. And you're kind of a perfect candidate for a sweeper because you have
31:48
that superinnation bias and you also have a lower slot, so it's kind of
31:53
like the best of both worlds, which I think is why you throw it
31:56
so hard, because eighty three eighty four for a sweeper is no especially if
32:00
you're throwing what ninety three ninety four right now? Yes, yeah, yes,
32:04
like that is that is a very very hard sweeper. Typically sweepers are
32:08
like twelve miles an hour off the fastball. It's almost like a sideways curveball
32:13
essentially, and the curveball differential from a fastball is typically twelve thirteen miles an
32:16
hour on average. The harder ones, you know, typically are going to
32:21
be better. If we can make it harder and still have the action,
32:22
that's great. So the fact that you have a sweeper that's eighty three plus
32:25
with fifteen plus HB that's a pretty unique pitch and you know puts you in,
32:30
you know, pretty elite territory from a movement and velocity standpoint. Yeah,
32:35
and that's exactly why I kind of banged the Cobol type sweeper that I
32:39
used to throw, because it was getting a lot slower. It was getting
32:43
into the mid to high seventies, and it was just getting depth and it
32:47
was too big. And so now that I'm throwing more of the hand of
32:52
God as my primary slider, I can throw this a lot hotter, you
32:55
know, eighty three eighty four. It is a little bit tighter, it's
33:00
more in the negative thirteen to negative eighteen range, but I still think that's
33:05
enough to get those swing and misses against especially alrighty one, Well, and
33:10
think about it this way too. We always want to compare our off speed
33:15
pitches to what our fastball does. Our primary fastball and against rities, you're
33:19
going to be throwing more sinkers and your sinker is what you said today,
33:22
It was five VB and seventeen HB. Right, So you think about that.
33:27
If you're throwing it off of the sinker, your sinker at seventeen inches
33:30
arm side, the sweeper at thirteen arm side, you're still getting thirty inches
33:32
of separation. Like that is plenty of separation and with the velocity being as
33:37
good as it is, that puts it in a really really good position to
33:39
succeed, especially against right handers. And I actually have a question for you
33:45
on that is. You know, at the start of this episode we will
33:49
tell you about the stuff plus stuff and my sinker wasn't grading out very well,
33:53
but my forcing was grading out really well. Do you think if you
33:59
have a good stuff plus pitch, lean into that or go with the sinka
34:04
or like the pitch that completes your arsenal in a way? Yeah, I
34:09
think it's about pairing it with everything else, right, Like, I never
34:13
like to look at pitches and isolation because it has to interact and intertwine with
34:16
the rest of your arsenal. So for you, maybe your sinker is a
34:21
below average stuff plus pitch, which I still like to understand why because I
34:23
think it's still a pretty good pitch at five VB seventeen HB and you know
34:28
ninety three ninety four. When you throw that pitch and you have the slider
34:31
off of it, it's going to make the slider play up even more so,
34:36
even if I have to throw a pitch that is quote unquote below average.
34:38
If it makes another pitch even better, it's worth throwing. Now it
34:42
doesn't mean I'm throwing it all the time, but if it allows me to
34:45
make another weapon even better and it sets it up, it's still a pitch
34:49
worth having and using. You just got to know when and how to use
34:52
it. And in this case, the sinker variety's is going to be a
34:54
really really good pitch for you running in on the hands because it's got a
34:57
lot of run and it's going to open up the outside part of the played
35:00
for the rest of your pitches. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
35:02
And for the writings. My sweep is going to be my primary pitch
35:07
anyway, So anything that can make that a bet of pitch might be worth
35:12
throwing. And at the end of the day, right, like we talk
35:15
about stuff plus numbers, we talk about shapes of pitches like, I'm all
35:19
for it. And at your level though, especially now that you're in pro
35:22
ball, the hitters will tell you what's working what isn't working. So if
35:25
over a long period of time your sinker is just getting whacked and you feel
35:30
like you're executing it, then maybe there's an adjustment you have to make,
35:32
but I think you know with where it's at right now, Like on paper,
35:36
it sounds great the way that you would use it, throwing it into
35:38
rieties and opening up that slider off of it. I think you go with
35:42
that game plan and then you let the hitters kind of help you understand how
35:45
it actually is playing. And spring training is a really good time to talk
35:50
with hitters about especially when you're throwing like in live vps and hitters are standing
35:52
in like it's a great opportunity to pick the brains of some of your teammates
35:57
on what they're seeing and how they feel like it's setting up the rest of
35:59
your arsenal hmm, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And I think
36:05
there's also a confidence factor to that as well, because sync is to rieties
36:09
for me isn't a very big zone pitch. I leave it onside a lot,
36:16
and so I don't really like throwing it early in counts. But my
36:22
forcing is a big zone pitch, so I throw that a lot early in
36:25
the count and so I think there's a lot of feel and confidence pots of
36:30
that as well. For sure. That's why like on paper things can look
36:36
great, but like if it doesn't feel good in your hand, or like
36:37
you don't feel like you can execute it, then it's not going to be
36:40
performing at the level you would expect. And I think last year, I
36:44
think we talked about you threw a ton of sliders right like you were primarily
36:46
breaking balls to write ees correct, yes, yeah, especially to write ees.
36:51
It was Hannah Goode sweep yep. So think of it that way.
36:54
Let's just say you're still throwing those, you know, half the time,
36:59
hitters are going to start leaning over the plate a little bit. So now
37:00
if you have a sinker, even if it's not a strike pitch, you
37:04
said you miss armside. Honestly, missing armside is the better location to miss
37:07
with that pitch anyways. So even if you can throw it in and run
37:10
it in on the hands and it gets in the back off the plate a
37:14
little bit, now you're going to be able to open up that outside part
37:15
of the plate for your slider once again. So it is a good pitch,
37:19
even if you aren't throwing it all the time. If you see a
37:21
guy getting comfortable and kind of leaning in over the plate and they're looking for
37:23
that slider, bust that sinker in and really don't care if it's a strike
37:28
or not, just make sure you run it in on the hands. Yeah,
37:31
I'm going to do that. Actually, maybe even use it just as
37:35
a show pitch when I'm ahead show pitches, we see them inside and then
37:38
come back with a sweep exactly and then you're golden. So okay. So
37:43
that's one sweeper grip. You got the two seam grip with the split fingers
37:47
essentially, and there's really two other sweeper grips that you can go with.
37:52
The other one would be two seam once again, but our fingers are close
37:57
together like this, and it's the same idea. We're still trying to create
38:00
that same shape, same spin. It's just the fingers are together, middle
38:04
fingers still up against that seam. The other version is right here, so
38:08
middle finger would be up against this seam here in next finger up against that
38:14
finger like, so you throw it like this. One thing that guys try
38:21
to do, or I've seen some guys do, is they try to throw
38:23
a sweeper with a curveball grip. So what I mean by that is curveball
38:28
grip would be kind of like this, or it would be on the other
38:30
side of the horseshoe running up against the seam. The issue with that is
38:35
is those are four seam oriented pitches. So when you throw those pitches,
38:38
let's just say, you know, I'm throwing this type of grip and I'm
38:42
trying to throw a sweeper and I'm trying to get around it. It's going
38:45
to get this type of spin if I have a lower arm slot, so
38:50
I can still get sweep with this grip, but only if I have,
38:53
you know, a side arm or lower slot that's going to create that shape
38:58
for me. Otherwise, if I'm a higher slot guy, there's no shot
39:00
that I'm going to be able to get that type of spin on the pitch.
39:02
And with that type of spin, because it's such a four seam oriented
39:07
type of spin, there isn't going to be a lot of seam effects on
39:09
the pitch. So the direction that that ball is spinning out of my hand,
39:13
that's the direction it's going to move. Which is why if I'm a
39:15
lower slock eye, I could still sweep it at fifteen hp plus with zero
39:20
eight or zero VB if I have a lower slot, because that's the direction
39:24
that ball is spinning in. But if I'm up high and I'm trying to
39:28
do that same exact thing. I'm probably going to have to get in front
39:30
of the base ball like this a little bit, because I just I can't
39:32
do this unless I'm getting underneath the ball when I throw it, and it's
39:36
just going to turn into a curve or more of like a slurf type pitch.
39:38
The beauty of the two seam oriented pitches is they are heavily heavily seam
39:45
shifted pitches, and that's just because of the way the orientation of the seams.
39:49
It allows the ball to stay up longer while still moving sideways. So
39:53
that's why it's important to look at the release tilt and the breake tilt if
39:57
you have access to those types of NUMBERSI tilt is what people are used to
40:00
seeing on rap Soto for example. So me being left handed, when I
40:05
throw a sweeper out of the hand, it's about a four o'clock spin direction,
40:07
so four o'clock four to thirty. If the ball actually moved in the
40:12
four o'clock four to thirty direction, it would be you know, probably negative
40:16
negative six, negative seven vertical break with whatever HB. It's gonna have more
40:21
depth, right because it's it's four four thirty but because of the way the
40:24
seams are interacting with the ball, the movement tilt is actually closer to three
40:30
o'clock. So if I release it at four thirty, but it moves like
40:31
its at three o'clock, I'm getting an hour and a half of seam effects.
40:36
And that ball is staying up longer and is able to stay near the
40:38
zero line and is moving different than what's expected. And that's what allows guys
40:43
that have a higher slot to still get seam effects or sorry, to still
40:46
get HB on their slider without a lot of depth because of the way the
40:50
seams are interacting with the air. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
40:54
I used to actually throw it like that when I first going into pro
40:59
bowl yep, and it was still sweeping because of my armslaught. But as
41:04
soon as I went to the two seam grip, it was the same movement,
41:08
but I threw it like five times five miles now horder right, Yeah,
41:15
so that was a big upgrade. And so if you're throwing it like
41:17
this, switch to the two seam, yep, exactly exactly. Okay,
41:23
curveballs, you don't throw a curveball, right, Yeah, No, I
41:27
have tried, but I can never get the depth because of the armslot.
41:31
I'm assuming, right, what grip did you try and you threw a curveball,
41:37
So I've tried. I think when I actually really tried to throw it,
41:42
it was the spike four seane grip where I'm right here and full supernation.
41:46
I'm just trying to pull it down. But what happens with me is
41:51
that because I'm from here, I'm a low three quarter armslaught. When I
41:55
do that, it's just gonna sweep. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It
42:00
was exactly So now going back to the slider right or sorry, the sweeper
42:06
right. When we were talking about those four seam oriented pitchers, of those
42:08
curveball type grips, the ball is generally going to move in the direction that
42:14
it's spinning out of the hand. There's not going to be a lot of
42:15
deviation there. There's not a ton of seam effects in true overhand curveballs.
42:21
So if I'm a lower slot guy and I'm trying to throw a curveball,
42:22
it's probably going to be more of that slur if I'm straight over the top.
42:27
Those gonna be the guys that are able to throw those twelve six curveballs.
42:29
It's going to match typically your arm slot a couple of grips. I'll
42:34
go back to the one I just showed, like this is probably the most
42:37
common one. So right here, like this middle finger up against the seam
42:40
index finger here, and you're just trying to get that middle finger to the
42:45
front of the baseball. Like this option two is right here. I'll just
42:50
on the other side of the horseshoe trying to get that middle finger to the
42:52
front. I think a spike is typically the best option for guys that can't
42:58
supinate well. So if you look or you don't get a lot of depth
43:00
on the pitch, or if you look on edger and it almost looks like
43:01
it's spinning like a slider like Bullety, that means that you're pronating into release
43:07
a little bit too early, and spiking that index finger is honestly like a
43:12
cheat code to where you can stay supinated a little bit longer. I also
43:15
like to think about the wrist staying locked, so I'm not trying to be
43:19
loose with my wrist where I'm snapping it over the top. I want to
43:22
really lock my wrist in this position, and I like what Trevor Bower says
43:25
about this, I think he uses the queue to karate chop this pitch,
43:29
so that wrist is staying stiff, and I'm able to take that hand straight
43:32
out in front and that middle finger in front of the baseball, and that's
43:36
what's going to allow it to get that top spin. A couple other things
43:37
to try is to get it deeper in your hand. So deeper in your
43:42
hands allows you to hold on to it a little bit longer and allow that
43:45
middle finger to travel out in front a little bit more. So there's just
43:50
a couple of simple cues. Like the spike honestly is it's actually a really
43:53
good cheat code for the sweeper as well. If guys are struggling with getting
43:57
the HB it can allow you to stay soup and a a little bit longer
44:00
and get the horizontal movement that you're looking for on the pitch. So something
44:02
to keep in mind in something to try. The size of the spike can
44:07
vary, Like it doesn't have to be a full spike or the index is
44:09
going into the ball. It can be just a baby spike like for a
44:12
sweeper. If we're going back to that, like it could be you know,
44:15
just a little bit where I'm just getting that index finger a little bit
44:17
on top, saying. With a curveball, it can be just a baby
44:21
spike if needed. Sometimes you can even just spike it in warm up throws,
44:24
you know, or catch play, just to kind of get the feeling
44:27
and then you can go back to a regular grip once you've mastered that soupinate
44:30
a position, you get the feeling for creating that top spin on the pitch.
44:35
Yeah, yeah, I think the spike grip is good. One of
44:37
my teammates has the best coball I've ever seen. Is absolute banga. He
44:44
throws it in the mid eighties. He throws a spike. But what he
44:47
does is that instead of having his nail on the scene, he just completely
44:53
he gets his knuckle on that scene, so he completely talks the index finger.
45:00
Yeah, and now he has so much pressure on the ball that he
45:02
can just rip down on it. Yeah. And I can't do that because
45:06
it just hurts my index finger. But yeah, no, that feels I'm
45:08
trying to do that now, that would hurt. But I guess if you
45:10
do a long enough to get used to it. And now, like you
45:13
said, now all the weight is on that middle finger, and I can
45:15
just snap it out in front super easy. M hm. That's good.
45:19
That's really good. Well, one other thing this actually goes for all breaking
45:22
balls that I think can be helpful for guys. Typically, with like fastballs
45:27
and changeups, guys get quite a bit of extension. They're out front a
45:30
lot. On breaking balls. You actually want your extension to be shorter,
45:34
So on sliders and on curveballs, you shouldn't be reaching out as far in
45:38
front. You usually don't have to think about it, like you can just
45:42
look at the data like you'll look at TrackMan numbers or Hawkeye, and you'll
45:45
see that the extension is usually a few inches shorter, sometimes even like six
45:50
inches shorter compared to their fastball and their change up, and it just allows
45:53
you to get out in front a little bit better, because if you think
45:55
about it, if I reach further out in front or further away from my
46:00
body, it's harder to get my finger to the front of the baseball versus
46:02
it's close to my body, I can really snap it and almost take my
46:06
hand into my body. So think about really staying tight with your body with
46:09
your arm when you're throwing the curveball, especially, A simple queue can be
46:15
you know, middle finger to the front of the ball and then take that
46:17
middle finger directly into your hip and that can allow you to stay a little
46:21
bit shorter with that arm out front and spin it a little bit quicker.
46:24
That's just a simple queue that you know you can play with if you feel
46:28
like you're trying to reach out further for that pitch. M Yeah, that's
46:32
super interesting. All right. We got the last pitch, well, the
46:37
last two pitches, we'll bucket them. Bucket them into one change up and
46:39
splitter. Which one do you throw? All right? So I have never
46:45
thrown a change up up until this off season, and we worked it a
46:49
We worked on a bunch and when we were working on it, I just
46:54
threw a traditional two seam change up right here. Yep, there was nothing
46:59
special about it. I was right here and I just threw it just like
47:01
my sinker. So I'm trying to sit spin it right here. But after
47:07
a couple of weeks this started to flatten out a little bit, and I
47:09
wanted to find one that was super consistent vert wise, so I didn't really
47:15
care too much about the horizontal. I wanted the vert to be down.
47:19
I wanted to be zero line or below. I wanted to be negative.
47:22
And so after tinkering a little bit, this is the grip that I found,
47:27
which is pretty much just an offset tooting grip, and I threw it
47:32
just like my sinker and it's consistently on the zero line or below. But
47:40
when I was at tread, I tried the kick change, which I think
47:45
you're going to touch one, which didn't work for me, but I've seen
47:47
some crazy results with that grip as well. Yeah, what did the kickchange
47:52
do for you? I just couldn't control it. I just it just didn't
47:57
really work, and my ring fingers quite weak, and so throwing it off
48:01
that finger just didn't really work and it would just spray outside. Yeah,
48:06
no, that makes sense. So when you're throwing this pitch, do you
48:08
have a cue or are you trying to stay loose with the wrist? Is
48:12
it deep in your hand? Like, explain the grip a little more.
48:15
So. I used to feel like loose in my hand and then I would
48:22
just throw it just like my sinca. But then it started to feel like
48:25
it was just gonna pop out of my hand. So now what I'm feeling
48:30
is honestly just I'm gripping it tight, just like a word of sinca,
48:35
and I'm just ripping through the scene's right head and so pretty much just like
48:40
exactly the same as my sinca pretty Muchah yeah, Well what's nice about that
48:45
too, is you don't have to change your mentality, right, Like sometimes
48:47
when people throw change ups, they try to manipulate it too much. They
48:52
slow down, they change everything about the pitch compared to their fastball or their
48:57
other pitches. But it sounds like you just have the same mindset as you're
48:59
Sae, which probably gives you a lot of freedom just to kind of rip
49:01
it and trust the grip. Yeah, for sure, and sometimes it does
49:05
become pretty hot. It would only have about like five mile to our difference
49:09
to Masinka, But because the movement is so different, I feel like it's
49:15
uh, it's fine, and it still plays against especially lefties, but especially
49:21
against righties. As we talked about, it's if you can get that,
49:27
then it's such a valuable weapon. But that's still a work in progress for
49:32
sure. Yeah, Like the speed kill thing, like, it's great if
49:36
you can kill speed and get it, you know, ten miles an hour
49:37
plus, but most guys can't, and especially the superinators. I have found
49:42
guys that are more superinated. I'm at release. Those guys tend to throw
49:45
harder changeups, and the guys that are big pronation through release, those guys
49:50
typically throw those throw the change up slower, but they don't get as much
49:52
movement on the pitch. Now, the best of both worlds is you're killing
49:57
movement or sorry, you're killing velo and you're also getting a lot of movement
50:00
on the pitch, but having you know, a couple miles an hour off
50:04
your fastball and it gets a lot more depth. That can work as well.
50:07
Like there's there's plenty of pitchers that do that have success with this pitch.
50:10
Zach Granke he did it forever through his changeup just as hard as his
50:14
fastball sometimes, but it had such different movement that it worked. Recent guy
50:19
Merrill Kelly, he's a good example for the Diamondbacks, and I was watching
50:22
him, you know, this whole playoff or this whole last playoffs, and
50:24
he was, you know, ninety three to ninety fourth the fastball and the
50:28
change up was ninety but it moved so much different and it performs super super
50:31
well for him. So I always tell guys don't intentionally try to make the
50:37
pitch slower because if I'm intentionally trying to kill speed on the pitch, I'm
50:40
probably slowing down my delivery. And that's the last thing you want to do
50:44
on a changeup, because, yes, movement is important on a changeup,
50:47
but I think more important is the deception of the pitch. So if I'm
50:51
slowing down into release and I'm getting pushy with it, even if it's moving
50:54
well, a good hitter is going to know that I'm doing something different with
50:59
my deliveries. So you want to make sure that you have the cell part
51:01
of it, that you are being aggressive with it, you're trusting it,
51:05
and you're probably gonna command it better when you do that as well. And
51:07
then you know, once you understand the way the ball should come out of
51:09
your hand, the movement, all those things, you're gonna have the deception
51:13
piece and you're gonna have the movement. And if you happen to have the
51:15
speed kill, that's great. But I don't I personally don't think the speed
51:17
kill is something you should intentionally try to go after. Yeah, for sure,
51:22
And I think the biggest thing for me was realizing that you don't have
51:28
to pronate the changeup. Yeah, And that's why I've never been able to
51:31
throw a change up well, because I have a supernation bias, and whenever
51:36
I'd pronate, it would help my elbow and it just wouldn't get the kind
51:39
of movement that I wanted. And so when I found the grip and it
51:46
gets the movement through the seam shift wake, that was a big unlock for
51:51
me. Yeah. No, that's a big one for a lot of guys.
51:53
I feel like like the second you tell them they don't have to pronate
51:57
a changeup, it's like a light bulb goes off in their head and like
52:00
they're like, really, I don't have to pronate a change up, but
52:02
I've been told that for twenty years that I have to pronate a change up.
52:07
And then you realize once you realize you don't, you try it.
52:08
You're like, wait, how does that work? How am I staying on
52:12
the side of it? But it's actually moving armside and it feels so much
52:15
easier and I don't have to drop my arm slot to try to create the
52:17
movement and all those things, Like it's it's incredible. It's you know,
52:22
now guys that have a supornation bias and guys that historically have not thrown good
52:27
change ups because they thought they had to pronate it. Now they have some
52:30
of the best change ups in baseball. So that's a really really important unlock
52:32
and a thing to understand. So I'll walk through a couple of grips.
52:36
There's so many change up grips you can do, but I'll just go off
52:38
of a couple. So you mentioned the two seam change. Just straight on
52:43
it here. I like to be further back on it. Some guys like
52:45
to go further up. That can work too for me. When I'm further
52:49
back, it just allows the ball to slip out of my hand a little
52:52
bit better. And I like the feeling of it slipping out for a change
52:54
up because I wanted to get that rolling off feeling off my fingertips to create
53:00
the movement. And it just kind of reinforces the looseness for me of me
53:01
being able to be relaxed with the pitch. And then you mentioned the kick
53:06
change, so I'll just show that one. This one was one that Tread
53:09
came out with, you know, a couple months ago. And I experimented
53:14
with it for a while and it is it can be unpredictable, like it
53:19
feels uncomfortable, feels a little weird at first, but once you understand it
53:22
and can get the feel for it, it can take off and be nasty.
53:25
So the way I do it is I have my regular change up grip
53:30
to start like this, and then all I do is just baby spike that
53:34
middle finger. So some people go way up here. That doesn't feel comfortable
53:37
for me. And actually when I do that, it almost turns into like
53:39
a split type pitch like it's it would be sometimes under a thousand RPMs when
53:44
I throw it with a fole on spike, and it kind of just like
53:46
knuckles a little bit, which can be effective. It was just very unpredictable
53:50
for me. So the baby spike is what works for me, and I
53:53
basically try to baby spike it so that my rain finger my middle finger are
53:57
the same length, and I just try to feel off of both of those
54:00
fingers at the same time, as opposed to just the middle finger, which
54:04
is what typically happens with changeups. So that's that's what works for me.
54:09
A couple other options that you could do you could do a one seam change
54:13
So change up that I used to throw was like this, so just like
54:16
my sinker basically, but a change up version. Ring finger is on that
54:20
scene and I'm trying to rip through that that rain finger at release, and
54:24
there are four seam grips. Like, I personally don't teach four seam change
54:29
ups, And it's not to say that they don't work, it's just I
54:31
think there's few and far between people that should be throwing them. One of
54:36
the best change ups in baseball is Devin Williams. He does throw a four
54:38
seam change up. Actually I think he throws it literally just like this,
54:42
like just a very traditional four team change up. But he has an incredible
54:45
ability to pronate, like his hand literally gets like this, and it's I
54:50
would honestly call that pitch a screwball because he's not getting any seam effects on
54:54
the pitch, Like he is purely getting it through pronation, and he averages
54:58
like negative three or negative four inches of induced vertical break. But it's without
55:01
seam effects, which is insane. And he's not a submarine guy. So
55:06
like, I honestly call his a screwball just because of the action and the
55:08
spin that he gets on the ball. A couple other options like you could
55:14
you could tinker with all these like you could, like I said, come
55:15
way up here on the two scene. You could do a one scene where
55:19
you're splitting the scene like this. I have some guys that throw their change
55:22
up like this, So it's basically a two seam oriented pitch as well,
55:25
but you're going along the tracks this way. And so yeah, those are
55:30
a few options for me. Being loose as important because that allows the ball
55:34
to slip out a little bit when you choke it. Sometimes that can,
55:37
you know, cause inconsistency with command. But it's it's all personal of what
55:39
works for the guy and for the individual. And then split fingers. You
55:44
know, I know you don't throw one. I don't throw one either,
55:46
but I have worked with guys that do. Really a common one is it's
55:52
like a one seam split, so the fingers are oriented like this, and
55:59
I think this is similar like the ghost fork that a sanga throws. I
56:01
think, if I'm not mistaken, it's like you're going along this one seam
56:06
here, you're hooking the seam with your index finger right here, and then
56:12
these fingers are separated like this and you just throw it like a fastball.
56:15
And this is usually actually a really good option for higher slock eyes because higher
56:20
slock eyes have a hard time getting depth on their change up, and a
56:22
split is a really, really good option for those guys to get the action
56:27
because it will kick the axis down in a lot of cases for them.
56:30
So over the top guys that are struggling to kill Velo on their change up
56:32
or to get depth, a splitter is a good option for those guys.
56:37
And then there's also kind of like an in between pitch that Kevin Gosman throws
56:42
for the Blue Jays. It's labeled as a splitter, but I would call
56:45
it more of a change up. But basically he is split right here like
56:49
this, so his index fingers on this side of the ball, all of
56:51
the other fingers are on the outside, and he puts all three of them
56:54
together like this, and then the index is here just like that. And
56:59
when he throws this pitch, he's trying to get this Major League logo right
57:04
here in that top right corner or sorry for me, I'm left hand,
57:07
that'd be the top right for him. He'd be in the top left corner,
57:09
so he's getting that bare part of the ball slightly facing him and that's
57:13
what allows it to get the seam effects and to take off armside, like
57:15
we talked about earlier. M h. Yeah. And for splitters I actually
57:20
worked with. I actually tried to throw on last year when I was working
57:24
with Shinji Kurno, who is a coach who taught Senger the ghost fork.
57:31
Okay, yeah, he's like a legendary coach in Japan, and he basically
57:37
told me that there are three ways to throw a splitter. And so the
57:39
first one is just straight up, yeah, grabbing it like this along the
57:45
two seams and he's throwing it straight and it's coming out and because of the
57:51
the spin, the lower spin, sorry, it creates out the depth.
57:58
The second one is a gyro splitter, so you have your middle finger on
58:02
that scene and when you're coming through it, you're trying to make it gyro
58:07
and that's what creates the depth. Yeah. And the third one was the
58:12
ghost folk where you just come through and you'll trying to create spin the opposite
58:17
way like that, and so I tried around with it, but it was
58:22
really hot to command and so I uh settled on a change up instead.
58:29
Yeah. Well that's the thing with splitters. They are a little unpredictable,
58:30
like they can be super nasty. And I know everyone's saying this is the
58:34
year of the splitter, which you know rightfully. So it is a really,
58:37
really good pitch and it probably isn't used enough, but there is some
58:40
inconsistency with pitch shape wise, Like if you look at a plot of a
58:44
splitter for a guy, it's usually a scattershot, like some of them are
58:47
gonna cut, some of them are gonna be negative VB. They're just kind
58:51
of all over the place, which I guess the unpredictability can be okay as
58:53
long as you're around the strike zone with it, but that's the important piece.
58:58
But yeah, yeah, I wanted to, you know, before we
59:00
wrap this up, I just wanted to touch on how to use this stuff,
59:05
or how to decide what pitch shape might be the best for you,
59:07
because you know, not everyone should be throwing a sweeper, not everyone should
59:10
be throwing a cutter, and everyone should be throwing a splitter. So determining
59:15
what pitches you should throw based off of you know, your supernation or pronation
59:19
bias, your arm slot. All of those things play into it. So
59:22
I just want to briefly touch on the three types of profiles that guys have.
59:28
There's a north south approach, so those are typically guys that are over
59:30
the top where they have a forcing fastball, usually with pretty good carry.
59:35
They got a big curveball, maybe a gyro slider, and you know,
59:38
maybe a regular straight change. That's your north south approach. Then there's the
59:43
east west approach, which is closer to you to where you're throwing a sinker
59:46
and slider primarily so your pitches are moving more armside and glove side as opposed
59:52
to up and down. Those guys typically are people that have a little bit
59:55
lower slot. If we're just going on averages. There's, of course,
59:59
you know there's people that are outside of that. There's outliers for both of
1:00:02
these, but typically lower slot guys are gonna be your east west guys.
1:00:06
And then there's the combo guys. Those are the guys that maybe they throw
1:00:08
a four seam and a two seam, maybe they throw a slurve, a
1:00:12
sweeper, or they throw a twelve six curveball. Like they're kind of in
1:00:15
the middle. They're not quite east west, they're not quite north south.
1:00:17
And those guys typically have two different approaches depending on who they're facing. If
1:00:22
they're facing a righty in their right handed pitcher, they might throw their sinker
1:00:24
and their slider more. If they're facing a lefty, they're probably gonna throw
1:00:28
their forcing their change up in their curveball more. So they're adjusting their profile
1:00:31
depending on who they're facing. A good example of a guy that's in that
1:00:35
bucket is well Max Suers doesn't throw a two scene, but Max Suers or
1:00:39
is kind of in that combo range of where Spraking balls a little more slurvy.
1:00:44
He's got the hard slider. His fastball, believe it or not,
1:00:45
is actually kind of in the middle from a movement standpoint, but he does
1:00:49
have a lower slot so it has that vertical approach angle. So he's an
1:00:52
example of kind of being somewhere in the middle. But his ve low helps
1:00:54
and just the his ability to locate his pitches plays up as well. You
1:01:00
know, before you know, before we wrap this up, how do you
1:01:01
use your stuff? Because you you're a combo guy sort of because you do
1:01:05
have the four team as well, Like, what is your approach against righty's
1:01:07
versus lefties, so against righty's. The Texas Rangers actually did this last year
1:01:16
where we had two different arsenals for a right handed hitter and a left handed
1:01:22
hitter, and that actually made it really easy for us because what they basically
1:01:25
said was, all right, you have these two pitches that you're gonna throw
1:01:30
against your the righty's, and these two pitches you're gonna throw against lefties.
1:01:36
And we're an able, So if you can locate two pitches, then you're
1:01:39
gonna get a good success. Yep. And for me, for righty's,
1:01:45
it was cutter and slider primarily, and so those are my best graded pitches,
1:01:52
those are my best zone pitches, and so I was throwing that the
1:01:57
most. In a perfect world, I throw the sinker as well well,
1:02:00
so that it keeps them honest and there's something going on side as well as
1:02:05
glove side. And for the lefties, I was throwing my sinker and cutter,
1:02:12
and conventional wisdom says that sinkers don't play as well against opposite sided hitters.
1:02:20
But for some reason, my one acted kind of like a changeup.
1:02:23
And so I will go in with the cutter and then out with the sinker
1:02:28
and my sinker was my best swinger mispitch against lefties. Wow, and it's
1:02:31
so super unique and rare. Yeah, yeah it was. It was super
1:02:37
interesting. But I think this year I'm gonna throw more change ups later in
1:02:42
the count and continue to use the cutters in and the sinker because it plays
1:02:50
and the change up to put away, Yeah that's perfect. Yeah, that
1:02:53
is a little unique with the lefties, but it can work like That's that's
1:02:58
the value of Like I said, the hitters will tell you what's working what
1:03:00
isn't working, And because you had so many pitches moving glove side, probably
1:03:05
the fact that you were just showing something that was going armside allowed it to
1:03:07
play up even more. So that's that's really interesting. But yeah, generally
1:03:12
speaking, same sided hitters, if you can have more of an east west
1:03:15
approach, that's gonna work better against opposite hand hitters, more of a north
1:03:17
south approach. Now that doesn't mean you can't throw those other pitches, and
1:03:22
it doesn't mean you should design all those other pitches, especially if you're in
1:03:25
high school or just getting to college, like you need to master you know,
1:03:29
those those first two or three pitches that you have but if we're getting
1:03:32
advanced and let's just say you know you're a sinker slider guy primarily and a
1:03:37
change up. There are guys that have success against lefties with that mix,
1:03:42
and a perfect example is Logan Web. He is one of my favorite pitchers
1:03:45
to watch. Just watching him go about attacking hitters is really impressive. And
1:03:50
what he does with his sinker to lefties is he attacks inside. He doesn't
1:03:53
throw armside sinkers to him, or if he does occasionally, but his primary
1:03:58
focus is inside to lefties because typically armside sinkers to opposite handed hitters, they
1:04:03
get hit pretty hard, there's no screen and miss, there's a lot of
1:04:06
damage. But when you actually execute them glove side, they play super super
1:04:11
well. So what he does is he pounds his sinker into lefties so like
1:04:15
a front hip type sinker, and then he throws this change up off of
1:04:17
that down in a way, so it sets up that change up really really
1:04:20
well. Aaron Nola is another guy that does it. He is really really
1:04:24
good at executing glove side sinkers as well. If you can execute it inside,
1:04:29
it's a super valuable pitch. But the margin frayer is small because it
1:04:32
can leak over the plate pretty easily. But if you can master that location,
1:04:36
you're gonna have a lot of success with that sinker to opposite hand hitters,
1:04:40
despite it typically not performing best overall. So that kind of sums it
1:04:44
up. Same side of hitters east west in general, north south to opposite
1:04:48
hand hitters if you're able to. But I thought this was good man,
1:04:51
This was really valuable information for me. I learned stuff from you, some
1:04:56
things I'm gonna try on myself on some of the guys that I work with
1:04:59
that I think be really helpful. And you know, hopefully some of these
1:05:01
grips work for guys that are listening. Yeah. No, that was a
1:05:05
lot of fun. I learned a lot from you, and I'm definitely gonna
1:05:11
try some of this stuff out as well. Perfect awesome, and as usual,
1:05:15
guys like feel free to reach out to either of us on Twitter.
1:05:16
You can send us a message. We're happy to answer any messages, but
1:05:20
until next week, we'll see you then.