Makes perfect sense she throws the lh drop curve to the rh hitter and the straight drop to the lh hitter. If I was calling pitches and IF she could make the ball break down and in to the lh hitter the way she can to the rh hitter, I'd never call a straight drop. This is what I'm talking about when I say the direction of drop compared to the ground is unimportant. The direction of drop in relation to the swing plane is a big deal imo.
For All You I/R Pitching Junkies........
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- Jul 14, 2008
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Actually Mark, Cat loves to work away from both RH's and LH's.
Count the amount of curves she throws away to lefty's in this no hitter, as well as outside pitches to RH's in this no hitter against the Ausies. Infact, she ends the game on a drop-curve down and away to a lefty to clinch it. She loves to work the outside corner from what I've seen.......Many starting on the black and ending out of the zone........
And I understand she threw left handed curves to beat a lineup of slappers for one of her gold championships but I see her in the clip I referenced throwing a drop curve breaking down and in to a rh hitter. I like that. A lot. All else being equal. Of course all else is never equal and a pitcher has to consider her strengths, the situation, the batter etc. But my default is to like a pitch that breaks down and in, a pitch that breaks straight up at the upper inside corner and a change with late movement on the low outside corner. And of course pitches to set up those pitches. 
- Aug 21, 2008
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Tell me what you see.. well, I don't know. I guess I see her throwing 2 separate pitches. The clip to the left is clearly a change up. Not only by the change in her motion where she is leaning forward but also by the batter having an obvious timing malfunction. Clip to the right could be a change up, I don't know. She may throw her change off her drop grip. But the reason I don't think either is a drop is because she's got ZERO arm snap in her pitches. That leads me to think she's not snapping her pitches, which in the limited times I have seen her throw she does when trying to pop the ball harder. Or as ANYONE would do trying to pop the ball harder.
Bill
Bill
- Aug 21, 2008
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then again, in the Youtube post where she is throwing the no hitter.. she is not snapping her elbow either on her drop. But I do think the other 2 clips are change ups. It would appear she and I have similar (not exact) deliveries for our change ups. She gets good break on her drop as is.. but I can only imagine if she actually used her elbow to snap the pitch.
Bill
Bill
- Jul 14, 2008
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Here is the pitch on the left from 3 different views. The first view is not in slo-mo.....And is clearly not a change up.
The second pitch is also not a change up. They both reach the plate in under .45 secs, which is almost 89fps, or 60mph.
I was hoping you'd comment on that fact that both pitches are dropping, but one is NOT curving and one is. And the one that isn't, is clearly using different mechanics to keep it moving straight down as compared to the one that is drop and curving....
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The pitch on the left is a straight drop. The one on the right is a back door curve ball.
On the drop, now she doesn't follow through or in this case fake the finish like she did back when that video was recorded.
On the drop, now she doesn't follow through or in this case fake the finish like she did back when that video was recorded.
halskinner
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- May 7, 2008
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BM.
I am 95% certain she is throwing what we always called a 'Flip change'. The ball is released with the fingers on top of the ball and the fingers then extend towards the batter at release. It gives the ball a huge amount of downspin. However, not many pitchers inour area used that one as the more speed you add to it the faster the 'Flip' had to be for any kind of accuracy at all. If the timing was off even the slightest, it was in the dirt or up out of the strike zone.
If it was well practiced and timedperfectly, yeah, it could come in just as fast as their fastest pitches.
Hal
- Jul 14, 2008
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And I'm 99% certain neither of these are change ups. From what I've seen Cat's change ends with an open palm toward the catcher.
Like this, where she basically "kills" her wrist action:
I'll search my clips to see if I have a change from Cat. Because she varies speeds so much, I don't think she uses change all that often.........
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halskinner
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- May 7, 2008
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I wouldnt spend a great effort on it. As talented as she is, I would find it unlikely that she has ONLY one slow change up to call on. The one I described was thrown noticeably slower than their faster pitches and I believe it was because of the accuracy thing I mentioned. I never used that one and I did noit teach it. However, there were a couple of instructors that did teach it in my area. Most of the time I saw a young pitcher try and use that one with ANY decent speeed it hit the dirt in front of the plate.
Her release looks very much like that pitch but I could definitely be wrong here, my vision is not what it used to be.
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