Fangraphs: The Submarine Riseball

[weams]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/introducing-the-submarine-riseball/

"Lot of sidearmers have trouble elevating fastballs, but I elevate a four-seam fastball up and in on lefties. It kind of keeps them off balance so that I can get them out down and away.

I get a lot of swinging strikes. So I pitch up in the zone. Traditionally, sidearmers are sinkerballers, they get a lot of groundball outs. If you look at my results, you see more popups and flyouts because I do pitch up so much.

My teammates have affectionately named that pitch the Jennie Finch. You know, the fast-pitch softball player, very famous. Actually, I think she may throw harder than me. So they've named it that, they just call it the Finch."

[Beef Supreme]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/introducing-the-submarine-riseball/

Some physicists have claimed that a thrown baseball can not rise. I agree a seamless ball could not rise, but a baseball's seams create magic. O'Day's riser is beautiful and effective.

Of course some people used to say that curve balls were optical illusions.

[spiritof66]

Some physicists have claimed that a thrown baseball can not rise. I agree a seamless ball could not rise, but a baseball's seams create magic. O'Day's riser is beautiful and effective.

Of course some people used to say that curve balls were optical illusions.

As I understand it, a ball thrown with a classic overhand motion imparts a downward force to the ball, which cannot then rise, and the illusion of a rising or upwards-"exploding" fastball comes from the ball not falling as much as the observer's experience leads him to expect it to fall. The physics input, as I recall reading about it, is that a ball delivered from, say, an elevation of six feet or so (the height of the pitcher's release point plus the height of the mound at the point of delivery, which is some portion of the 10-inch height of the mound) toward a target with an elevation of two to four feet cannot head downward toward that target and then "explode" upward as it nears the target.

Of course, a ball thrown underhanded (as a softball pitcher delivers it) rises. The same is true of a ball thrown by a true submarine baseball pitcher, who releases the ball upward from an elevation of less than a foot (a couple of inches off the ground plus a portion of the 10-inch elevation of the top of the mound) toward a target that is higher than that. It sure looks to me as if some of O'Day's pitches fall into that category, and have a very slight upwards flight path, but maybe that's an illusion.

And a wiffle ball or a boomerang can do just about anything.