Welcome to Bulletspin Season!

[ArmWhip]

Have we spotted anyone in the College World Series throwing a true rise? We have definitely seen true drop ball spin.
I have seen / heard the TV announcers give pitch type percentages i.e. ( 77 percent rise and 6 percent change up). Are those stats coming from some public source?

Another question is which spin is more common, I'm seeing a lot more bullet spin in the replays but that might not reflect overall usage.

 

[Hillhouse]

And they're often variations of the same thing. Slightly different fastballs, etc.

"Darvish relies on 8 pitches. Slider (23.1%) Four Seamer (22.4%) Sinker (14.5%) Sweeper (12.3%) Split Finger (8.4%) Curveball (7.8%) Cutter (5.9%) Knuckle Curve (5.6%)"

This makes me think of several questions. but #1 on my mind is: what is the difference between a curve and knuckle curve? If they do the exact same thing, why does altering the grip somehow make that into a new or different pitch?

Next question, any team with Yu Darvish must really struggle to find a catcher! Most people I know only have 5 fingers but for Darvish the have to find a catcher with 8 fingers!!! Those have to be hard to find!!!!

 

[ArmWhip]

Here is a look at Darvish's Statcast page. It shows the spins on his pitches from the catcher's point of view. I have a hunch that he doesn't have all these pitches ready to go every game, but will try some of the lesser used ones and if they are working put them into the rotation. Some of his pitches have nearly identical spin but a different seam orientation which causes a different break. When you watch MLB it's amazing how these guys can make the ball break so much and in different directions. I think a lot of it is due to the pitching distance, a softball pitched from 60 ft would probably break just as much or maybe more.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/yu-darvish-506433?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb

 

[CoachCeetar]

You can easily fall down a rabbit hole of information with baseball savant sometimes. It doesn't look like it really classifies the knuckle curve different than the curve when you dig down a little further, but it shows 7 distinct pitches from his last game, so it's every game.

size/weight of the ball probably plays in too, but of course less reaction time in Softball. But I have to imagine the bigger ball also means less strikeouts but also a lot of bad contact not centered on the ball.

 

[Hillhouse]

size/weight of the ball probably plays in too, but of course less reaction time in Softball. But I have to imagine the bigger ball also means less strikeouts but also a lot of bad contact not centered on the ball.

You do realize that baseball, while having a smaller ball, also have much larger bats! I swear the way it looks on TV, some guys have a bat that resembles the clubs used on the Flintstones when they'd hit each other on the head. So yes, the ball is smaller but the bats are considerably bigger. That's the trade off. When I was young and would go to the local batting cages (the old Iron Mike's, with the actual arm that throws the ball instead of the drop down feeders that make it hard to time the pitch), anyway I'd go to the cages and use my softball bat and hit in the "fast" baseball cage. My thinking at the time was, if I work on hitting a smaller ball, it's going to make a softball look huge in my games. Of course, none of that BP I did in cages prepared me for a 75mph riseball but that's another story.

 

[CoachCeetar]

You do realize that baseball, while having a smaller ball, also have much larger bats! I swear the way it looks on TV, some guys have a bat that resembles the clubs used on the Flintstones when they'd hit each other on the head. So yes, the ball is smaller but the bats are considerably bigger. That's the trade off. When I was young and would go to the local batting cages (the old Iron Mike's, with the actual arm that throws the ball instead of the drop down feeders that make it hard to time the pitch), anyway I'd go to the cages and use my softball bat and hit in the "fast" baseball cage. My thinking at the time was, if I work on hitting a smaller ball, it's going to make a softball look huge in my games. Of course, none of that BP I did in cages prepared me for a 75mph riseball but that's another story.

2.61 max to 2.25. just under 3" diameter, 3.82 for softball. So roughly you've still got .4" difference. Plus I don't think the bat _really_ matters that much for this thought experiment. I think you'd miss completely significantly more baseballs than softballs swinging a broomstick or a pizza peel, there's just less to hit.

 

[Hillhouse]

2.61 max to 2.25. just under 3" diameter, 3.82 for softball. So roughly you've still got .4" difference. Plus I don't think the bat _really_ matters that much for this thought experiment. I think you'd miss completely significantly more baseballs than softballs swinging a broomstick or a pizza peel, there's just less to hit.

The other factor that people often forget, the lightest bat they use in MLB is 30oz. There's no such as a -10 for them. That can't help.

I don't know where you live but, I'd invite you to watch a game of men's major fastpitch between 2 of the top teams, I can absolutely GUARANTEE you'll see more swings and misses there than you would at a baseball game.

 

[LEsoftballdad]

The other factor that people often forget, the lightest bat they use in MLB is 30oz. There's no such as a -10 for them. That can't help.

Aaron Judge uses a 35-33 maple bat. And those are light compared to what Ruth and Mays swung. Of course, the pitching wasn't as fast back then.

 

[sluggers]

After finally taking a stand and moving away in December, her new PC took one look at her pitches and said, "Your fastball has so much natural spin that it's already a drop." He has her focusing on that instead of a curve, and it's helped tremendously.

Good PC.

Develop the drop and when she gets older she can learn a rise.

 

[sluggers]

I can absolutely GUARANTEE you'll see more swings and misses there than you would at a baseball game.

Unless you're pitching... Then the battery don't miss so much.