Screwball video

[SBFAMILY]

As mentioned previously, the screwball is usually not a “go to” pitch. Typically, it is thrown 10% to 15% of the time, depending on the situation, batter’s aggressiveness and proximity to the plate, pitcher’s ability, and the objective with this batter.

Screw Ball - The Intimidator Great softball pitching hints and recommendations for girl softball pitchers

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I agree 100% with this, and the look in, adjust out hitting philosophy.

My pitching philosophy is that a pitcher is there to get outs, not necessarily strike outs. I teach catchers to call pitches based on what we need to do as a defensive unit to get an out. A pitcher with a "screwball" in there arsenal has one more tool that can be used to get the batter to hit where the pitcher wants them to hit in order to get the out that the defense wants to get. Strikeouts are icing on the cake.

-W

Well put! Many times the pitcher is on the same side as the batter ..... from the perspective that the pitcher is trying to get the batter to make contact .... to put the ball in play to be fielded for an out. Many times both the batter and hitter desire contact to be made.

 

[MandM]

starsnuffer, not trying to rain on the parade of your logic with regard to differences in the speed of a pitch thrown from the 1B side of the pitcher's plate compared to the 3B side- but the difference in the distance (figuring a 6ft leap- therefore 37 feet from home plate) is less than one inch. which would be very difficult to measure as a change in reaction time .

 

[starsnuffer]

starsnuffer, not trying to rain on the parade of your logic with regard to differences in the speed of a pitch thrown from the 1B side of the pitcher's plate compared to the 3B side- but the difference in the distance (figuring a 6ft leap- therefore 37 feet from home plate) is less than one inch. which would be very difficult to measure as a change in reaction time .

It's all good, again, it comes down to angles. Remember, the batter wants to hit the inside pitch much sooner, they have to trigger the swing early. The outside pitch has to travel and get deep, so the batter triggers later. The more the pitcher can do to confuse inside with outside, the more they can mess with the batters timing. The more messed up the batters timing is, the weaker the hit. Batters try to counter this by having swings that are "long through the zone". Pitchers counter this counter by having vertical movement. It's like chess, only it happens in .2 seconds.

-W

 

[MandM]

Thank you for that explanation- that makes very good sense

 

[CoachFP]

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.

 

[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)

 

[CoachFP]

MandM if it doesn't have the right spin it won't move. You want it to move but it will not. It is angled. The pitcher also loses speed on the pitch by stepping sideways and throwing the other way. That is physics. A good hitter will see that step to the side and know what's coming. Bad hitters won't. Bad hitters also won't hit a faster pitch inside that isn't "angled". Like I said it is a hoax.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

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.

 

[MandM]

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?