John Van Benschoten’s Gyroball / Pronation Slider
On June 16th the Pirates hosted the White Sox. In the third inning, John Van Benschoten struck out Tadahito Iguchi looking on a 1-2 count with an offspeed pitch. The announcers couldn’t tell what kind of pitch it was - the slow motion video and grip clearly show a grip that is the exact same thing as the two-seam gyroball grip from Himeno and Tezuka’s book.
The action on the pitch is extremely similar to video of known pitchers who throw the gyroball. Was Van Benschoten taught how to throw the gyroball, or is this a variant of the slider (think Matsuzaka’s pronation slider)?
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