This question crosses over pro and college. For the baseball instructors on our board. How does a high-level pitcher create spin? Is it whipping the wrist or is it finger placement and general arm speed?
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It is a combination of different thingsā¦.obviously arm acceleration plays a big partā¦.it also has to do with how far forward you place your fingers on the ball.
The more force you place on the ball will increase the spin rate as wellā¦.it helps to have strong fingers.
I know it sounds silly but itās the truth.
There are several philosophies out there regarding spin rateā¦ā¦so please donāt take my answer as the be all end all.
I never knew or thought about any of this stuff when I playedā¦.most of what I know comes from the Driveline program.
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It makes you wonder if the combination of year round baseball during their youth coupled with mechanics on increasing spin rates when they hit the pros is leading to more UCL injuries.
LMJ has four plus pitches in his repertoire but he was so CB heavy the first few years of his career throwing it nearly 50% of the time from ā16-ā18. After his TJ surgery in ā19, his CB rates were cut in half and he utilized a slider much more. Iām wondering if the forearm strain was caused by utilizing the SL more and a mechanics in delivery change?
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The last time I played was in American Legion. Back then the guys that pitched told me that (and these were the real pitchers) they really didnāt know how to explain it to me. One friend told me it was, like you say, a combination of things. But the way he phrased it was,
Paraphrasing after decades:
āI get my curve grip on the outside of the seam and throw everything into it right at the end. Fingers, wrist, shoulders. If I want to take speed off and exaggerate my head movement before I release to make āem think its coming faster than it is.ā
He also said, āif Iām getting hit and throwing too many in one inning it wears me out. Thatās why I shake off the catcher so much in a rough inning. Because my body wants to throw the fastball.ā
He had this huge back property where his daddy had cut the pine trees in a corridor about 35 ft wide. Weād throw batting practice and the hit balls would go off a tree and keep them close by. His daddy also cut and sewed a trampoline vinyl about 3.5 feet high and stretched it across half the corridor. This protected the pitcher (who was throwing meat balls) from getting a line drive.
He worked with me on a curve snd slider many days but both hurt like Hell after about 10 pitches. I still remember the crack of the bat and the crack of one of the pine trees right after. Great times. When we played with a whiffle ball I swear that guy could break a pitch 20 ft. It was comical. But we outlawed that because the guy shagging couldnāt catch the ball. That guy had a nice career at Central Arkansas University. But he wasāt an ace for them. Which made me wonder how TF the other kids were so good.
Iāve often wondered how pros can do it so often and so long.
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Lance has tremendous torque when he throws that breaking ballā¦.it puts a ton of strain on his elbow and arm in general.
His TJās and missed playing time is 100% because of poor mechanics IMO.
The coaches have to have tried to fix his mechanicsā¦.I donāt know if he didnāt buy into it or whatā¦.
But it is a crime to have given him that big contractā¦.was Click the GM that gave it? Crane should have kicked his a$$ out of Houston for that alone.
Lance knows he is getting away with highway robberyā¦.I canāt say with certainty but I think there is a pretty good chance he knew he was injured or at least heading that way when he signed the contract.
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That sounds like a good time growing up.
Does anyone remember those āincrediballsā? They were almost like a first class sock ballā¦ā¦
Best friend and I growing up used to play one on one baseball against each otherā¦.(9-12 years old)
We would find all the stats from the news paper and make a full AL team vs NL teamā¦.write our rosters down and put them on the fenceā¦.( he had a beautiful house just down the street from where Carl Lewis lived)
Plenty of room and we used the side fence as a backstop with a strike zone painted on itā¦.there was an empty lot across the street and we measured anything over 200 feet was a HR and worked our way inā¦ā¦our āmoundā was a rubber 50ā from the fenceā¦.he and I were both future college athletes so this was not a couple of kids tossing the ballā¦.we were both throwing 60 mph at 10 years old.
Super competitive and if you had left handed guys on your lineup you had to bat leftyā¦.itās where I learned how to switch hit.
We always stayed in touch even after I moved to El Paso for HSā¦.I went to see him over a Christmas break in college and his dad took our picture in front of about 15-20 broken boardsā¦.his dad never complained once about getting boards every now and thenā¦ā¦great guy( and owner of a Super Bowl ring).
Good times
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Oh when boys played baseball
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These are great stories guys. I needed to read something like this this morning. Just uplifting and feel good. Takes me back to the days of a good buddy and me playing one vs. one baseball or whiffleball in the back yard. When there were 3 of us and not just 2 weād play ārundownā in the backyard forever. Great times.
These are great memories.
As for the spin question ā¦ some believe it is just inherent and thereās not much a pitcher can do to increase spin rates. I personally believe there are things pitchers can do to alter spin. Perhaps you canāt change it on a massive scale without help. For example, if you naturally have, say, 2,100 spin on your FB ā¦ I donāt think you can make a couple of adjustments and suddenly have 2,700. I could be wrong.
You can use illegal (sticky) substances on the ball to increase spin. But to do it above board, I think it does come down to grip manipulation and finger strength, etc. like Pollard said.
A college pitching coach explained to me a couple of summers ago that spin rate is neither inherently good or bad. He claimed the further away you are from average, one way or the other, is good. I donāt know a ton about spin rate so take it all with a grain of salt.
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