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Gyroball
Click Here For Matsuzaka's
Repertoire of Pitches
(Boston Globe)
Graph of Japanese Players in
Major League Baseball
(Boston Globe)
The gyroball is the name given to a breaking baseball
pitch purported to be used by players in Japan, although if it
were invented in the United States it would probably be called a
sinker. The pitch was developed by two Japanese scientists,
Ryutaro Himeno and Kazushi Tezuka, who used computer simulations
to create a new style of delivery intended to reduce stress on
the pitcher. They published their work in a book, currently
available only in Japan, whose title is roughly translated as,
"The Secret of the Miracle Pitch." According to Himeno and
Tezuka, a gyroball is thrown so that, at the point of release,
instead of having the pitcher's arm move inwards towards the
body (the standard method used in the United States), the
pitcher rotates his arm so that it moves away from his body,
towards 3rd base for a right-handed pitcher and towards 1st base
for a lefty.
The unusual method of delivery creates a bullet-like spin on the
ball, like a bicycle tire spins when facing the spokes or a
perfectly thrown football. When thrown by a right hander, the
pitch moves sharply down and away from right handed batters and
towards left handed batters. In baseball, most pitches are
thrown with backspin, like the fastball, or with a more forward
spinning motion, like the curveball and the slider.
Batters use the arm speed of the pitcher and the spin on a
baseball, highlighted by the seams, to judge the speed and
movement of the ball. The gyroball is thrown with the arm speed
of a fastball but goes slightly slower, and since it has a
bullet-like spinning motion, on occasion (when the seams are
hidden from view of the batter) it will make experienced batters
swing wildly at the ball.
The gyroball pitch is a source of considerable controversy;
despite Himeno and Tezuka's simulations, it is not clear whether
the pitch is actually usable at the professional level, or even
whether such a distinctive pitch exists. Will Carroll, a writer
for Baseball Prospectus, convinced the high school pitcher Joey
Niezer to learn the pitch, and reported that he'd "seen Joey's [gyroball]
break 3 feet. It takes a left turn and heads to the dugout."
In an interview, Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Boston Red Sox said
that he has never thrown a gyroball and doesn't even know how,
laughing at the proposition. Some viewers report that video
clips purportedly of Matsuzaka's gyroball actually show a
slider.
The gyroball is also often confused with a completely different
Japanese pitch called the shuuto, due to an error in a
well-known article by baseball writer Will Carroll. Although
Carroll later corrected himself, the confusion still persists.
Source: wikipedia.org
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