The Fade Change is on the left, the Cut Change is on the right. Also like fastballs, changeups thrown with a two-seam grip get more run and fade. But, this is just another iteration of his changeup, a different way for a him to manipulate hitters. The changeup Hendricks threw at the time notably wasn't the same as the one he uses in the majors. But what creates that downward movement on Hendricks changeup is, in part, his grip. Same scenario but different pitch. A few of my high school pitchers threw to the Rapsodo device and turned in spin-efficiencies of 90% or better, indicating a very clean diagonal spin axis on their changeups, confirming that what I believed was happening. Learn more. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. does st martin parish have school tomorrow. You can do so HERE. Condition 1: Pressure must be at the junction of the palm and fingers, not on the fingertips. From there, they can decide to alter the movement profile of the pitch by tweaking its release. But with a changeup, the feedback I give while playing catch with a pitcher is different. There are a few conditions that result in more reliable hand action and spin application, which are made difficult or impossible by certain grips. Not to mention he has a baby on the way. My All-Time favorite was Johan Santana, though his relied more on greater speed change (15% or so) than movement. The guy is near unhittable and with good reason. Cole was sharp, and the King has returned. If you called his Cut Change a slutter, you might best get across what hes doing with the pitch. Hendricks rotates the ball backwards less than 90 degrees, allowing his two fingers to sit right below the horseshoe (the right side of the split screen at the 50-second mark). We get about 5% from the grip itself, and 5% from the hand action. If it can be a more effective weapon, maybe Sunday night's 14 percent usage is a sign of things to come this year. It was interesting to find out that it was an entirely different pitch. Looking at the most effective changeups of 2016, a trend emerges. The #1 baseball brand in the world, Rawlings, has partnered with Cressey Sports Performance to make getting the best training gear for you more affordable. But cutters are usually about two miles slower than a pitchers fastball, while this Cut Change is almost 10 mph slower than Hendricks fastball. He reminds me of Brad Lidge, who threw a slider that appeared to have mostly downward movement. Hendricks runs his fastball up to 94 MPH, mixing in a slider, curve, and changeup. [In the regular season], I would have started flipping a lot more breaking balls or tried something a lot different, Steele said. And, unfortunately, it ended too early. By his mid-30s, Verlander had all but abandoned his fourth pitch. He had been between about 195 and 205 pounds, generally, and feeling good. There. In September, Eno Sarris at FanGraphs wrote a great article entitled What Can Hitters Actually See Out of a Pitchers Hand? He can locate his sinker well, though, and has a good change. Copyright - EliteBaseballPerformance.com, Part of The Advanced Continuing Education Institute -. Either way, it is hard not to feel like Pineda is one small adjustment away from something special. Kyle Hendricks is a solid and consistent pitcher. And, what grip will get him there? For a RHP looking at the back of his hand, and the ball as a clock, place the thumb at 7 oclock, the little finger at 5 oclock and the first 3 fingers on top of the ball at 11, 12, 1 oclock. Hendricks sinker achieves about 26 inches of downward vertical movement on average, roughly five inches more than league average in 2020. Over the course of six innings, he generated a 55.6 percent whiff rate with the change, his highest such mark with that pitch since April 8 of last year (58.3 percent, also against the Brewers). Heres what David Adler had to say about the right-handers elite offspeed stuff. Because any slower than this and the arm has to begin slowing downits very rare to see pitchers throw a pitcher much slower than 10-12% with their normal delivery and full arm speed. His slider wasnt the archetypal slider, but it still had deadly effect as shown by his season of 41 saves without a single blown opportunity. He was a good-though-not-great pitcher . Kyle Hendricks assigned to Daytona Cubs from Tennessee Smokies. We tilt the axis of rotation of the ball to a diagonal axis, which will result in angled downward movement a mix of both arm-side lateral movement (run) and sink. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. The answer depends on the other big half of the equation: movement. Changes will take effect once you reload the page. Your email address will not be published. Kyle Hendricks, left, and Alexi Pappas as Dartmouth freshmen, in a photo from Pappas. Turn the hand on the inside of the ball to apply spin. Your email address will not be published. Straight changeups are sooooo old-school. They, together, accomplish this task of applying spin and speed over and inward on the ball. The middle and ring finger do the job of turning the ball inward (pronating over it), and the thumb holds it in place. Okay, so once you learn this shiny new pitch, itll be important to understand when and why you should throw a changeup. The power finger, or [index finger], is off the ball, Marshall said. The speed difference is significant, but the difference in their running action is nearly zero. In this development stage, he wants to get ahead of hitters before mixing it in. I know he had great stuff and his pitches had tons of movement but he constantly struggled with command his entire career. Itll help you a ton. What is an appropriate age? Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer. Although Kyle Hendricks is not a pitcher in need of change given his prolonged success with below-average velocity, comparing him to other pitchers with the footage from Edgertronic cameras provides insight into how he succeeds. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. Condition 2: The ball must be held stable with as little pressure as possible. Call it what you will, its a different pitch. He is the owner of a 3.12 ERA, which is among the best in all of baseball. We prefer the 3 finger grip because we find it easier to control. Hes looking for closer to a 10 mph difference. Controlling the Running Game: Should Young Pitchers Slide Step? He strikes out right-handers regularly with that thing. At the same time, it is such a small number that it might just be a result of their Pitch F/X algorithm falsely classifying 111 of his pitches as two-seamers. It was his sparingly used curveball that stole the show, a pitch he altered the grip on during quarantine and has seen improved results compared to last season. Its just gonna be a game-changer for him, Hendricks said. 1 Anthony Volpe, The 25 Most Surprising Seasons in Yankees History. If so, then stick with me! I have one collegiate pitcher who throws the pitch with a 15% reduction, no decrease in arm speed, and heavy, fork-ball like sink with no lateral movement whatsoever. The frustrating righty could definitely use a third pitch. Were excited to welcome Chicago Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks to this weeks podcast. Odds & lines subject to change. The grip helps us remove speed from a changeup while simultaneously applying spin to it. Kyle Hendricks' changeup. This converts some of the arm speed into spin, which reduces the balls speed in the same way as a curveball or slider (except the spin is applied to the opposite side of the ball). strength and conditioning for baseball and softball. Ive only encountered this a few times and Matt Clement was one pitcher I recall reading about that could run his sinker away from RH batters if he kept it down in the zone. As a high school pitcher under Wright's direction, Hendricks added a changeup. Hendricks rotates the ball backwards less than 90 degrees, allowing his two fingers to sit right below the horseshoe (the right side of the split screen at the 50-second mark). Not technically. The middle and ring finger MUST be close together. That equals 4.5mph off a 90mph much too hard to be effective. His change caused more hitters to swing and miss (24.4 whiff percentage to 29.8) this season compared to last. Last year, he used the breaking ball 9.5 percent of the time. The Mets had a prospect in their system with a solid repertoire but he was having trouble adding an off speed pitch. Learning how to maximize the effect of the pitch, and minimize its weaknesses is what takes a pitcher to the next level. His other stuff is elite. Fold your other two fingers down the sides, and turn the ball inside as you release like youre pouring out a can of Coke. Marshall threw his two-seam fastball similar to this Edgertronic footage, but from a left-handed release. I have a question for you after reading your article. No, Im not blowing smokeIve taught lots of pitchers over the years, and its not hard to produce a heavy sinking changeup. But, we need to do this at a 100% intensity, which is difficult. got a stalwart anchor atop the rotation in Hendricks. His thought? Instead, hes thrived on the tactics long employed by a former Cubs ace, Greg Maddux, in control and movement. Hendricks is predominantly a sinker (42.4 percent of his pitches in 2019) and changeup (27.8 percent) pitcher, mixing in the four-seamer and curve as well. Dropping the hand and elbow and short arming across the body. You can check these in your browser security settings. This sinking, running action is critical in giving the hitter not only a speed change to try to figure out, but also a moving pitch to content with. And, we welcome your suggestions for future guests and questions. We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. This is not to say they miss up the in zone; rather, they are able to control the ball in the strike zone most of the time, with the same frequency as their fastball, with fewer egregious misses. Kyle Hendricks purposefully cuts his changeup sometimes. It was extremely helpful. This is likely the only thing changeup throwers all agree on. His excellent strikeout numbers and walk numbers, combined with his below average ERA have perplexed many, with a few explanations floating out there. The changeup was traditionally just a pitch that was slowerit was straight and slower, that was it. To add to the positive changes in his life, Steele is expected to break camp in the Cubs rotation or, as manager David Ross put it Tuesday morning, Steele has a strong chance of doing so. Right-hander Kyle Hendricks' changeup has been a staple of his big-league success. . This is why we need a defined hand action that converts speed into spin. Watch below to see if this is the type of pitch youd like to learn. Theres too many questions, too much confusion with the changeup. Casey Sutherland may have just 12 games of experience with the Red Sox, but he has already shown dominance while fulfilling a childhood dream. As for the changeup, Steele wanted a bigger drop in velocity from his fastball. Why 10%, give or take? 0 0 Less than a minute. Jun 9, 2022 26 Dislike Share Chicago Cubs 206K subscribers Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks talks about when in his career he developed what he calls his most important pitch: the changeup. This is the first article in a 3-part series on throwing the modern changeup. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website. Kyle Hendricks of the Chicago Cubs was a bright spot for the Wrigleyites this summer. If you work hard practicing it and improving over time, yours will have similar movement to the changeups thrown by Kyle Hendricks and Johnny Cueto. Though this works quite well for him, it's not the standard version for most pitchers, for one main reason: pitchers need a pitch that breaks away from opposite-handed hitters. Faster changeups were more effective; slower were much more effective. This is basic, but needs to be addressed in any good changeup article. This week, MLB.com had a team of writers pen a piece on the games nastiest changeups and you can be sure Hendricks name showed up on said list. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted
It sounds like a cutter to me but thats not a pitch that is associated with sinking. The changeup used to be a significant part of Verlander's arsenal, but he began relying on it less and less as his slider became more of a weapon. The hand pronates inward, slightly, before release. Hendricks throws a sinker and changeup within 7-8 mph of one another. We also create a reliable movement pattern for the hand, creating relatively equal parts sink and lateral movement. The table below shows the qualified pitchers with the 10 highest pitch values for changeups, in terms of FanGraphs Pitch Values metric. Twitter: https://twitter.com/cubs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cubs/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubs/ Snapchat: http://Snapchat.com/add/Cubs TikTok: http://bit.ly/3jRYPkM Cubs Kyle Hendricks: Justin Steeles new changeup will be a game changer, Cubs move up Wednesday game time vs. Rays due to rain in forecast, What switch hitter Ian Happs right-handed rhythm means for the Cubs, Cubs Jed Hoyer, David Ross remember Jake Arrietas legacy after he announces retirement, Cubs Keegan Thompson plays extremely valuable role in Cubs bullpen, win vs. Rays, Cubs Patrick Wisdom, Frank Schwindel face an uphill climb, Cubs Seiya Suzuki, turning heads to start MLB career, named NL Player of the Week, Dear Abby: When my husbands brother marries, I should be in the wedding, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and wife to invest $250 million in new Chicago research lab, Jose Abreu on life with the Astros and leaving the White Sox, who werent a family in 2022, Chicago police officer was shot and killed in front of kids playing at school: They ran as quickly as possible just to get to safety, Dear Abby: With boyfriends fussy father living here, I feel trapped, Taking aim at gun safety in Illinois invites tragedy, Tom Sizemore dies at 61; actor known for Saving Private Ryan, Natural Born Killers, Cubs Justin Steele back on track after efficient first spring-training start, Cubs spring-training camp thins as WBC participants leave for tournament.