Welcome to Part 3 of our “How to Throw” series! If you’ve read the previous blogs, we bet you’re excited to begin learning about off-speed and breaking pitches. This post teaches how to throw the changeup—most pitchers’ go-to off-speed pitch. We’ll provide you with the core information on what a cha...
With new research developments in other labs and our own facilities, we felt it was a good time to update our data set on offspeed pitches. Previously, we looked at offspeed pitches and were able to come close to replicating peer-reviewed research with the motus sensor. Essentially, fastballs were t...
By this point, you’ve probably heard a lot about about pitch design. But how exactly do we go about designing pitches? What are we looking for when working on a pitch? What tools do we use? How do we do it? The most important tool we have in house is the Rapsodo. It provides instant feedback on the...
Offspeed/breaking pitches such as the curveball and slider have received so much attention and scorn in the last few years that they are part of the reason for an increase in arm injuries. In this article, we will attempt to examine this claim with relevant research and data that we’ve collected in...
Let’s take a look: Nope. Sure doesn’t look like it based on 30 FPS video, even when you compare a changeup (left, 2010) to a four-seam fastball (right, 2011). The “falling off” you see on the left is simply him chasing the ground ball Ryan Howard hit to Strasburg’s left...
The changeup is a deadly weapon at the major league level: Entire careers are made (Jamie Moyer) or destroyed (countless starters who couldn’t master one) as a result of the pitch. Change-ups are typically 10-15% slower than a pitcher’s best four-seam fastball he’ll use in a game a...
