Baseball Question from a 90%er

FreeDawg

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Oct 6, 2010
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Before the game Jim Ellis spoke a little bit about Routt and his pitching post injury. He talked about how his best "out getting" pitch was a nasty change up.Since his tommy john surgurery he has lost this pitch, Apparently now he has only a fastball and curve. I have heard of pitchers losing velocity and there "stuff" after an injury, but how common is it for a pitcher to lose a specificpitch after surgury? And why can he not throw this one particular pitch?
 

57stratdawg

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Mar 24, 2010
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At least it looked like it on TV.

I heard Cohen mention in his interview during the 4th inning that the Frazier couldn't move over into the 4 hole (even though basically had all their hits through it) because of Routt's change up.
 

FreeDawg

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and never heard him say a change up during the game. i thought that pregame commentary sounded odd. maybe he just lost the effectiveness of his change up (really dont know, i just assume jim knows more about our baseball team than most anyone)
 

Todd4State

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Basically, his problem was how he was gripping his old change up- his grip was causing him a lot of pain. So, what the coaches did was change the grip of his change-up, but of course in doing that, he has to learn how to "feel" that pitch throw it effectively. So, that's the issue with Routt right now.

Pitching is all about feel- in other words, being comfortable with how you are throwing your pitches to the point where you can control them. That's why it takes pitchers a year or so to learn how to throw a pitch effecitively a lot of times- even in the pros.

You have a few types of change-ups- I think most pitchers throw a circle change-up that Tom Glavine made popular where you grip the ball with your middle and ring finger and your index finger and thumb come together to make a circle.

Another kind is what my Dad used to call a choke change-up, but I think most people call it a three-finger change-up where you basically hold the ball in the back of your hand with your index, middle, and ring fingers across the seams and your thumb and little fingers are at the bottom. I think this is the kind that Trevor Hoffman used to throw.

Glavine's change-up seemed to cut a little more, but Hoffman's seemed to have a little more sink on it- I don't know if that's typical for both of the types of change-ups. But basically, by holding it in the back of your hand- either grip- the friction from the fingers will slow the ball down so that the pitcher can keep the same arm motion as a fastball- which adds deception to the hitter, and the sinking action make it tough to barrel up on the ball- it's a great pitch to throw if you need a ground ball.

I know that's more than you asked for, but I was on a roll.
 

Tds & Beer

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And they were nasty pitches. Now whether or not he has been doing that on a regular basis, I'm not sure. But I know he threw a few nasty ones for outs yesterday. I was working and trying to watch the game at the same time, so some of the hits could have come off of bad changeups, I'm not sure. But I know he did throw some good ones. If he has had trouble with it, he's at least throwing some good ones every now and then.
 

coach66

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Mar 5, 2009
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earlier this year he indicated that the way he threw his changeup is what led to his injury. I would imagine they are being very, very careful on developing his new changeup. The guy has alot of potential, he has good pop on his fastball especially for a left hander.
 

basedog

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control. Gets behind to many batters and his command is way to high in the strike zone.
I don't care who is pitching when you get behind in the count you want last long.
 

DowntownDawg

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RougeDawg

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as a hitter and the count is in your favor, you are sitting one pitch. Most of the time you get that pitch because the pitcher doesn't want to fall more behind and walk you. End Result, pills and souvenirs. First Pitch strikes are a must for a good outing, but you can't throw same damn pitch first to every batter. Got to keep them off balance, even if it's not your norm. Every team has scouting reports and you've got to pitch against your scouting report as well sometimes. Throw them off. But what do I know?
 

basedog

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Routt not only gets behind in the count, but so many times this year when he did get ahead on the count his pitches stayed up way too many times. Just way to many pitches to batters. I hope he stays another year, first off we need him, I think he would face better competition in the SEC than in a lower minor league.