The Secrets of Fastball Spin

[Can_of_corn]

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=22362

Written by ex-MLB pitcher, Zach Day.

[Tony-OH]

Fantastic article. I was playing around with this myself but never took the time to put it all together like this.

[weams]

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=22362

Written by ex-MLB pitcher, Zach Day.

I missed this before. Great article. Thanks!

[Redskins Rick]

Really good article, thanks for sharing.

I guess this explains how pitchers can get more "movement" on their ball than others.

Ones with less movement, tend to end up being batting practice pitchers.

[Tony-OH]

Just wanted to bump this again because it's something everyone should take the time to read. Very interesting stuff.

[waroriole]

Really good.

I started thinking of Koji as an example of a lot of spin and there he was.

The revelations are common sense (the more seams, the more spin) but its cool to see it quantified.

[backwardsk]

Logically, I can understand how one can lower spin by changing the grip. For example, when you split your fingers, there's less backspin because the ball doesn't cross your finger tips. But how does someone like Cordero or Koji increase spin? What are they doing with their grip. Also both are/were successful relievers and did not have much success as a starter. Is the sneaky fastball effect difficult to achieve over a starters pitch count? In other words, is it only effective over short durations?

[Redskins Rick]

I remember a guy, back a few years ago.

I want to say the guy was Brad Pennington, had a really hot fastball, could hit 100 MPH, if my memory isn't failing me.

No "movement", once the hitters figured him out, it was simple, wait on fastball and hit it a mile.

Pitch to the plate 100 MPH.

Pitch leaving the ball and traveling 200 MPH over the wall.