CJ Wilson confirmed thats what the pitch was, and says he throws it about once every 20 pitches.
his normal fastball breaks quite a bit from left to right, this kind of backs up a little bit right to left without too much movement. probably only usable as an unexpected pitch in the right situations. not that impressive in video, but its interesting. to me at least.
It appeared to have much different movement than the gyroball Dice-K's been speculated to throw, which has more slider/curveball type movement. I didn't find that clip very impressive, but I was also an Eric Chavez owner until I got fed up with him last week!
On a side note, physics doesn't allow a baseball to break "up." Rising fastballs (4 seamers) don't actually rise, but they drop less than other pitches.
[quote:4fef447375="Geek"]The odds of the AL MVP coming from the American League are looking pretty good.[/quote]
Can we all agree that the definition of a "Gyroball" is:
A mistake pitch that does something it isn't suppose to do, but the batter still swings and misses, thus baffling everyone who thought the pitcher wasn't very good in the first place.
The Jury wrote:It appeared to have much different movement than the gyroball Dice-K's been speculated to throw, which has more slider/curveball type movement. I didn't find that clip very impressive, but I was also an Eric Chavez owner until I got fed up with him last week!
On a side note, physics doesn't allow a baseball to break "up." Rising fastballs (4 seamers) don't actually rise, but they drop less than other pitches.
I read some piece about how the grandfather of the Gyroball said it did break up because you set it up so that it flew like an american football in spiral style and the aerodynamic projection made it speed up and explode towards the plate.
I wasn't under the impressions that a 4 seamer had and 'rise' on it, I thought it was just a standard straight fastball. I would disagree that physics doesn't allow the baseball to rise, but I agree it's the overhand motion of a pitch that makes it difficult, Jenny Finch utilises a riseball but thats because she underarms it, and can grip it in a different way., like an upside down curveball.
I have to say that I'm not engrossed by the gyroball myth. People seem to treat it like the holy grail but honestly I'm not bothered about it really, and whenever I see somebody try to explain it they seem to lead you down blind alleys. Urban Myth IMO.
dipset wrote:Well i can throw a gyroball if that is one. just throw it high and inside?
it baffles me that anyone could not tell the difference between that and a fastball. at least not if you had seen cj wilsons normal fastball. watch the slow motion replay at the end a few times closely.
anyway, CJ Wilson replied to a comment i made on the clip on a rangers blog. He goes there from time to time and has confirmed its him.
"basically I have no control over the pitch in relation to my other pitches- I throw it when I can afford to miss the zone if they take, like in 0-1 , 0-2 or 1-2 counts mostly. the reason I walked a few guys earlier in the season was because I might have been over using it and throwing it with a full count. if the batter has swung, only ichiro has made foul ball contact with the pitch, no one else has even tipped it.
I can't really describe how weird the pitch is to throw- I feel like my body is going all over the place but the results are pretty nasty so I practice here and there.
as far as frequency- I just threw out that 23 pitch thing kinda randomly but it evens out to around once an appearance or so. "
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by DSheppard » Sat Jun 02, 2007 2:51 am 
