12/31/2023 0 Comments Chapman hype gifEven if we don’t know for sure that it causes injury, the reward is still very minimal. Going back to that “Mystery of the Vanishing Screwball” article, let me solve the “mystery” for you in a sentence: It’s a hugely unreliable, uncontrollable pitch, the effects of which can be duplicated by the far more dependable splitter (or sinking changeup, if you want it to move slowly). The Screwball Preservation Society Awards 118 batting average against, and Tazawa isn’t far behind at. (Also, the Forkball Preservation Society is led by some very powerful people who exerted their influence on this post.) Regardless, both are incredible pitches. Officially, there are no MLB players who throw a forkball, but two - Boston’s Junichi Tazawa and Baltimore’s Kevin Gausman - throw splitters that have the kind of tumbling, straight-up-and-down action that fools PITCHf/x into thinking they’re forkballs. Roenis Elias, Seattle Mariners, with a filthy curve: The “I Made Derek Jeter Look Foolish in His Farewell Season” Award We lost the Marlins ace to Tommy John surgery until 2015, but none of us will ever forget his insane curveball: I will also pay $12 to any pitcher who throws over 110 mph.) In Memoriam: Jose Fernandez He “dialed it down” on the next pitch, striking out Danny Espinosa with a 101 mph fastball. No surprises here: Aroldis Chapman, reliever extraordinaire for the Reds, reached 104.17 mph with this 1-2 pitch for a low ball on May 21 against the Nationals: Any MLB pitcher does this, I’ll pay him $12. The gauntlet has been laid: I’m putting a $12 bounty on a sub–50 mph pitch. Second, here’s the Twitter convo about how this mysterious pitch was classified as a screwball.) Slowest Pitch of the YearĬongratulations to Marlins fireballer Randy Wolf, who delivered a 55.2 mph stunner (a “slow curve) on July 7, just edging out Henderson Alvarez’s 56.9 mph effort from the day before. was batting last, despite the Mets having a pitcher in the lineup, making him a likely target for these kinds of shenanigans. Thus ended Teheran’s screwball experiment, probably for a lifetime. It was a 64.61 mph effort, and, uh … it didn’t go well. It was thrown July 8 by the Braves’ Julio Teheran to the Mets’ Eric Young Jr., and it’s the only one he’s thrown in his entire career. A quick visit to Baseball Prospectus, followed by one Google search for confirmation, shows that the Indians’ Trevor Bauer also throws one, and FanGraphs (which uses MLB’s computerized PITCHf/x) says Alfredo Simon has one, too, though he calls it a “ slow splitter.” Aside from those three pitchers, there has been one other screwball - literally just one - in MLB this season. I read the New York Times piece on the “ Mystery of the Vanishing Screwball” and thought I’d check up on the following assertion - “It’s safe to say that Santiago is the only pitcher who has thrown the screwball in a game this year” - which was backed up by a speculative quote from none other than Tim McCarver. (As always, we thank Nick Pollack of Pitcher GIFs, a must-follow for baseball fans.) Most Hilarious Pitch of the Year Starting, because we’re real rascals, with the latter. Here we’ll be honoring the good, the bad, and the ugly from baseball’s first half. It’s All-Star week, so rather than focus on a single pitcher, it’s time for the first annual PitchCraft Awards.
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