Daisuke Matsuzaka was interviewed at the WBC and was vague (intentionally maybe) about the gyroball. He said he was 'trying to develop' the gyroball and had 'thrown it once or twice'. It honestly sounds very similar to a Greg Maddux pitch in that it's not a breaking pitch as far as the arm wear and tear go since the spin is imparted by the standard pitching motion, grip and follow-through. It sounds like it's a difficult pitch to have a good feel for as well...it's something that you or I could go out and try to throw and get absolutely no movement. I've tried this by the way and I couldn't get it to move at all...then again my dropball (basically a slurve with a different grip) that used to move a bit over a foot when I played was only moving about 6 inches when I went out and tried it so that could just be my own lack of pitching ability.
Oh, and while it is just a variation of the eephus pitch Casey Fossum gets a big for naming one of his pitches after himself - The Fossum Flip. I LOVE watching when he's on and he whips out the Fossum Flip and deals at about 45-50 mph...that's just sick how badly he gets the batters out in front.
"Journeyman pitcher Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez has taken to throwing the eephus once in a while. On August 26, 2002, he threw a few to Alex Rodriguez, who hit one out for a homer."
Rodriguez explained: "You can expect a lot of different arm angles and a lot of different pitches from him, but I never thought I'd get a 48 mph curveball. It looked like a slow pitch, softball really."
"Journeyman pitcher Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez has taken to throwing the eephus once in a while. On August 26, 2002, he threw a few to Alex Rodriguez, who hit one out for a homer."
Rodriguez explained: "You can expect a lot of different arm angles and a lot of different pitches from him, but I never thought I'd get a 48 mph curveball. It looked like a slow pitch, softball really."
I remember seein ARod hit El Duque's eephus right out to the seats in left field.
The Loveable Losers wrote: Oh, and while it is just a variation of the eephus pitch Casey Fossum gets a big for naming one of his pitches after himself - The Fossum Flip.
how about satchel paige's names....
hesitation pitch
Satchel Paige's famous pitch in which he would stop suddenly in the midst of his windup to throw off the hitter's timing. When he finally made it to major leagues in the 1950s hitters complained so much about the hesitation pitch that it was officially banned by the American League. Several modern pitchers have used variations of the hesitation windup since Paige's time. In the late 1990s for example, reliever Robb Nen would sometimes add an extra step in the middle of his windup which he claimed was a timing device but which gave hitters fits.
Paige had a large variety of pitches in his arsenal and gave them all colorful names, such as the "trouble ball", the "long ball", the "jump ball", and the "bumblebee".
I think Eric Milton should nickname his pitches the 'trouble ball' and the 'long ball' since most of the time he throws the ball it gets him into lots of trouble and goes a long way.
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by The Loveable Losers » Tue Jul 11, 2006 2:07 pm 
for naming one of his pitches after himself - The Fossum Flip. I LOVE watching when he's on and he whips out the Fossum Flip and deals at about 45-50 mph...that's just sick how badly he gets the batters out in front. 
