Thread: Screwball video

I am covering old ground but here goes. IF a screwball did indeed have east-west spin it would in fact move. I have yet to see a female or male pitcher have a pitch that they call a screwball with the spin in the orientation that would make it move. I have seen fathers and pitchers and coaches watch a "screwball" and do not, even when asked, know the spin on the ball. In fact I have had one father argue with me that the ball is spinning differently than it was. All of the screwballs I have seen have almost curve like spin but are angled inside. The people who teach this pitch obviously cannot tell spin because they profess that the ball is moving when in fact the spin would prevent any such movement. If the pitch had the right spin the pitcher would not need to step so far to the other side to get it to go inside. Yes people get people out with this "screwball". That is because the pitch is thrown inside and the weak hitters can't turn on the ball. The location gets the out not the movement. It is the biggest hoax in the game regardless of what Denny Tincher says and does.

Don't you think that the angled pitch that continues inside on a batter (from the outside) would be more likely to produce weaker contact with the bat than a straight inside fast pitch? So its really combination of angle and location which makes the pitch work?
It seems that most people agree that a screwball has limited movement, however I do not agree that it has none- and while I think it is near impossible to get true, linear inside rotation ("a screwball spin") due to the hand position that is required- my DD does get an effective partial inside linear spin that angles up slightly, causing the ball to tail in and up on a left-handed batter cause she is leftie (a scrise??). (or for purists, it is not really rising- but just falling less fast- or something like that)

Originally Posted by MandM

Don't you think that the angled pitch that continues inside on a batter (from the outside) would be more likely to produce weaker contact with the bat than a straight inside fast pitch? So its really combination of angle and location which makes the pitch work?
It seems that most people agree that a screwball has limited movement, however I do not agree that it has none- and while I think it is near impossible to get true, linear inside rotation ("a screwball spin") due to the hand position that is required- my DD does get an effective partial inside linear spin that angles up slightly, causing the ball to tail in and up on a left-handed batter cause she is leftie (a scrise??). (or for purists, it is not really rising- but just falling less fast- or something like that)

Let me give some advice since my DD is a LHP too. Comparing RHP and LHP and their pitches can be like comparing apples to oranges.

You say " tail in and up on LHB ", that is what mine does if she throws it hard/fast. And her "screw" will actually come in faster than her FB. But that's only a piece of the pie.

A screw from a LHP is a very useful tool. For one it is moving away from a RHB, and when controlled can bring a lot of looking strikes painted on the outside corner. It's also a good tool jamming a LHB or slapper.

Here is what we do, DD has two "go to pitches". One is the back door curve, and the other is screwball(s) plural.

1. Screw is thrown hard with tail in/up. LHB
2. Screw with off speed with a little more drop rotation, about 5-6 mph slower, gives a small late dive.
3. Step out angle screw, every now and then you want a angled pitch. The better batters we tend to stay away from this pitch, weaker ones we tend to throw a few just to change delivery methods.
4. My favorite is what we would call in baseball a "sweeping screwball". It's much slower than a normal pitch, not quite slow as a change up ( but close ). DD has got where she can put a heck of a lot of revs on it ( which the revs make it harder for the batter to predict its speed ) and since it is coming slower........gravity drops it like a rock about the time it reaches the plate.

Mixing her screwball speeds this year has really helped her in the circle with much better stats than before.

thank you GD- this is what my DD is working towards
CFP- i believe I understand what you are saying-

Let's presume a Left-Hand Pitcher:
12-6 spin accelerates downward movement , 6-12 delays falling ("rise"), 3-9 moves inside to RH batter (curve); but 9-3 does not produce movement to the outside on RHB- why?

I thought it was mostly because true 9-3 movement is very difficult to achieve due to position of hand. That being said, what if you can throw fast pitch that spins at 25 rps in the 8-2 orientation- shouldn't the pitch move "up" and in on a LHB ?

I think you are saying that a screwball does not really exist on any level- I am simply disagreeing with you and saying that- correcly thrown- that it may not move as much for the reasons above, but that a pitch that is given a hard 8-2 spin will move or tail to some degree, driven by that spin.

Also, there is a good DVD in the championship series, with a coach discussing the mechanics of throwing a screwball- she does not step to the margin of the plate to throw it- she pretty much stays on the power line (and advocates that) and she gets movement to the inside on a RHB (she is a RHP). Also, if a pitcher did get better movement by stepping to the side, couldn't they make the pitch effective for the reasons GD explains, varying speed and spin- or in fact throwing a change-up or flat pitch off the side step to be less predictable?