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This is C.J. Wilson’s gyroball, striking out Eric Chavez in the process. He confirmed that this pitch was indeed a gyroball, so there’s no conjecture here. Here’s the video in slow-motion:

You can definitely tell there is pronation of the arm, and the hand is on the outside of the baseball, so it’s thrown like I’ve been taught how to throw the pitch.

As you can see, there’s nothing magical about the pitch. It’s just a good semi-offspeed pitch.

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Here’s me hitting off a tee today at the park (30 frames/sec):

Boy, that swing is long. It would explain the trouble with above-average fastballs in the games and my sudden ability to crush curveballs. Most of my extra-base hits have been against off-speed pitches.

Well, something else to look at. (Like there wasn’t enough already)

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This motion here was stolen from Carlos Gomez’s blog. It’s David Price, first pick overall in the 2007 MLB draft by the Devil Rays. The importance of this clip is to show exactly what I am trying to do with my new pitching mechanics - lead with the hip and the butt in order to stay closed and keep the throwing-arm shoulder over the rubber as long as possible.

Here’s Casey Weathers, 8th pick overall. You can see the ability to “drift through the balance point,” another part I am working on.

The two biggest problems I have with my delivery are:

1. Slow and deliberate movement from leg kick apex to foot strike. I need to speed it up.
2. Flying open too soon, which results in finishing pitches poorly.

I believe if I work hard over the summer on just these two things that I can get my velocity in the mid 80’s consistently.

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Remember the phenom J.J. Hardy, on pace to hit 92 home runs and 310 RBI?

Here’s his 2007 stat-line: .280/.339/.498

“Small sample size,” indeed. Reality’s a bitch, but an 800+ OPS is still pretty damn good.

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I played three games over the weekend and went 3-for-10 overall. Here’s a brief rundown of the games:

Seattle League Nandemoya vs. Central

Central is the defending champions of the league, mainly on the strength of their pitching. Their ace is a former high school player in Japan who gets it into the mid-80’s pretty reliably with an average breaking ball (overhand curve) and average changeup. We ended up winning the game 5-4, which is a great way to start the summer league off. I went 1-3 with a single and a stolen base and committed a throwing error at third base (which luckily didn’t contribute to any runs scored).

PSSBL Mariners vs.  Missions

This is a rematch against a team that I pitched against and ended up walking tons of their batters, unfortunately. We had our ace, Cole, on the mound today, who is an RHP who reliably throws in the mid-upper 80’s with a plus slider and curveball. Cole gets great movement on his two-seam fastball to generate a ton of groundballs for us. The opposing team has two ex-college pitchers who are both right-handed and throw in the low-mid 80’s. The reliever had the best curveball I’ve seen since college, while the starter had a bit better command. We won this game 5-3.

I played some left field and second base, recording a single putout at second and chasing a line drive over my head in left, which is about all the action I got on the day. I’ve never played outfield in my life (career third/second baseman when I wasn’t pitching), so getting used to the idea of “first step back” is pretty tough. My line for the day wasn’t great, going 1-for-4 (one strikeout, swinging) with a double, a run scored, and an RBI.

Random Pickup Game

A bunch of people I met get together once a month and play pickup games occasionally. Most of them are ex-HS players who play in local amateur/recreational leagues, so the competition isn’t stellar, but it’s not beer league baseball either (though we had beers on hand). In this game I went 1-for-3 with a triple and a run scored.

Hitting stats:
.372/.449/.605 over 49 PA / 43 AB
16 H, 8 2b, 1 3b, 9 RBI, 12 R, 7 SB, 5 K, 4 BB, 2 HBP

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