Barry Zito pronated curve link dump

Watch the 2nd little clip they show in that video, that would be a pronated curveball. The full article goes into full description of how he says he applies force with his index finger. He might be toast now but he put up 1400+ innings before that...

about 1 year ago nickmueller 5 comments 0 recs |

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I saw this.

Very interesting, and it explains the looping/eephus motion of his curveball. It is also easier to pronate through release as a result. One of my HS students throws his curveball just like this since he was unable to grasp the concept of the Maxline Pronation Curve.

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by Kyle Boddy on Sep 18, 2008 5:51 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Similar pitcher...

I’m almost certain Mets left-hander Jonathon Niese throws his curveball the same way. Aside from the pitch behaving almost exactly like Zito’s curve, I distinctly remember an interview SNY did with Rick Peterson (a.k.a. the guy talking in the background) during Spring Training where he said “Jon grips his curve a lot like Barry Zito.” I googled some photos of Niese trying to pick up his pitch grips and found that he threw a four-seam fastball (fairly typical grip), a changeup (circle type grip), a splitter that I couldn’t find a good picture of, and a curve. This was the best picture I could find of the curve (I’m going to video-tape his next start, though I’m not sure how I’d upload that onto a computer)…

http://blog.nj.com/mets_main/2008/09/medium_jon-niese-mets.jpg

Is it just me, or does he show signs of early supination (which would be good and indicate pronation through release)?

by Dalkowski110 on Sep 19, 2008 9:31 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Totally totally impossible to tell from still images

Supinating early could mean he is just be throwing a spike curve (more likely than pronating at the very least), and the slight change in grip for Zito replicated means next to nothing. Even if you have video from the front it’s still hard to tell at 30 FPS. In 60 fps HD you’d get a decent look from a front view but there really aren’t many big leaguers who pronate breaking balls, it’s just not taught (and it isn’t even easy to really do).

by nickmueller on Sep 19, 2008 9:58 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Understood...

I knew I was taking a flier with the still and probably couldn’t conclude much with it. Whilst I was planning to get a front view of Niese’s curveball release (SNY shows about 20 pitches per home game from a camera behind the catcher), I’ll admit that I don’t have the 60 FPS HD to accurately get much of a read on it. Would a 30 FPS regular VHS tape of the front of his release be of any use at all?

by Dalkowski110 on Sep 19, 2008 10:44 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs