Spin

[Jdeesso]

I know this question may be obvious but…I’m watching a lot of the NCAA conference tournaments and commentators are referencing “spin” when discussing the pitchers and making it harder to hit. Quite honestly it’s hard for me to tell what pitches are being thrown unless the commentators mentions it’s a curve/screwball.

Are they typically referring to spin on the fastball or a secondary pitch like screwball, curve, rise, etc.?




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[Lance Steckler]

first off, unless the pitch is coming directly at you (or camera) it is hard to see the spins. Just as watching from the side, it is hard to see if the pitch broke in or away, but you can see up and down break.

And honestly, often the commentators are full of bologna as to what pitch was thrown.

Pitchers that throw high RPS, the ball tends to break alot (aka nothing is straight) and tight spins are hard to see. Just like in baseball, you can see spots or rotation axis of pitches.

 

[El Oso]

I know this question may be obvious but…I’m watching a lot of the NCAA conference tournaments and commentators are referencing “spin” when discussing the pitchers and making it harder to hit. Quite honestly it’s hard for me to tell what pitches are being thrown unless the commentators mentions it’s a curve/screwball.

Are they typically referring to spin on the fastball or a secondary pitch like screwball, curve, rise, etc.?




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when they are talking about spin, they are actually talking about movement

 

[uncdrew]

Spin mostly refers to the movement pitches (curve, drop, rise). Agree with Lance above, hard to see and commentators are often just winging it, with just a bit more knowledge than the average viewer.

They'll call inside pitches screwballs even if they were just a well-placed fastball. That kind of thing.

 

[softballparent60]

Some of the announcers aren't even at the ball park, they are announcing the game remotely. Unless they get a video stream that has a different angle than what the viewers are seeing, I think they are winging it.

 

[Rick Pauly]

"spins" can mean several things; Spin rate....how many revolutions per second or per minute, Spin direction...the clock face reading of the direction of the spin, Spin axis....the relative horizontal/vertical position of the axis of rotation, spin efficiency....the degree of perpendicularity of the axis of rotation relative to the direction of the ball flight path.
In most cases, I believe the broadcasters are referring to spin direction and as mentioned several times above it is totally misinterpreted. For example, many of the so called "great riseball spins" are in fact a gyro spin pitch just thrown with some upward release angle. This visual is relatively easy to identify when the pitch is replayed in slow motion...........kind of humerus that these so called expert commentators can't recognize that.

 

[Agbracing]

I’ve been watching a lot of college softball the last couple of weeks. And I’ve been seeing more pitchers just throwing bullet spin. And people wonder why we see so many more homeruns. These commentators are a joke for the most part. It’s always one side is curve other is screwball. High is a screw and low is a drop. And they will comment on the great spin and show it in slow motion and it’s bullet. So just be careful with watching and trying to learn pitching from most commentators.

 

[fistafury17]

If the pitchers are asked what pitches they throw, a common response may be "rise, change, curve, drop" and you may only see them use a rise, change, curve. Listen to the announcers and every other pitch is a screwball. This lack of knowledge from even the most seasoned announcers is bad for the sport.