For Everyone’s Reference: Yoshi Tateyama’s Screwball
For everyone’s reference — and also for their moral improvement — here are two animated GIFs from tonight of Texas reliever Yoshinori Tateyama throwing his screwball (a pitch that Mike Fast, formerly of Baseball Prospectus and currently of the Houston Astros, documented with some precision last June) against a pair of Oaklanders.
Here, for a called strike, against the largely menacing Yoenis Cespedes:
And here, as well, to induce a swinging third strike against Josh Donaldson Brandon Moss:
Full credit to resident of the information superhighway, @Vermilioned, for bringing this important event to the author’s attention.
Carson Cistulli says terrible things at The New Enthusiast.
:-O
I need to see it from the straight-on angle.
I very much agree. I actually looked back through the entirety of his game log. He’s pitched in front of a couple of the league’s better cameras (Boston, Tampa Bay), but, in every case, either (a) he didn’t throw the screwball or (b) the game was a FOX national game.
Are there any other big-leaguers who currently throw one?
Here’s the entire list: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=10&type=9&season=2012&month=0&season1=2012&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=14,d.
I thought maybe one other pitcher besides Hector Santiago would be throwing one, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Danny Ray Herrera has a screwball, but he got Tommy John earlier this year.
Thank you!
Ironically, PITCHf/x doesn’t even see all of Tateyama’s screwballs as such; it classifies many of them as either sliders or curveballs. Yet another example of why I never trust its pitch identification labels.
2nd hitter is not Josh Donaldson, it’s Brandon Moss.
Ack. Entirely. Edited duly. Thanks.
ack attack
What’s the difference between this and the 2 seem FB for righties?
Much slower with a lot more break. Much more depth.
Is this the categorical imperative come to fruition? This looks like the categorical imperative if the categorical imperative were a pitch, which, being the categorical imperative, it most certainly could be.
How fast does the pitch go?
If you look at the end of each gif, you’ll see “73″ flash on the diamond at the top of the screen.
As fast as molasses in the cold