Spinning the Curveball with Al Leiter

we're at the old skybox I love this thing Lance McCullers why am i showing it to him day game against the Yankees Lance McCullers having a good year throws a lot of sliders remember last year in the ALCS he threw like 23 or 24 in a row so much is being discussed and talked about about spin rate and I want to kind of try to put a little bow on it and what is spin wait why why do we talk about it what does it mean and I thought it was appropriate certainly with Lance McCullers pitching today so I want to show some some some pitchers with spin rates on sliders and curveballs basically when you spin the baseball it's gonna make the ball move in this case right here highest average slider spin rate here it is right here folks this season that's right Garrett Richards Louis Submarine oh we got some brand names here but as you can see it's not phew site young guys kendall grave mitt I'd sent him down Sonny gray has been kind of hot and cold Chris Stratton has done a nice job but certainly not too high-profile you got grant rich Richards is a tra in the for certainly Luis severino's that side young guy average revolutions per minute of almost 2400 and you see these guys are above that so what does it mean they know how to spin the baseball which is important when it comes to breaking balls curveballs sliders you want to be able to spend them spin the ball so let's go to the next full screen here this is slider you saw those numbers and now here we got curveball spin so it's a different break curveballs a little slower you hold a little differently I'll show you that in a minute but here we're seeing kind of the same guys again now Charlie Morton's on here pavetta Justin Verlander yeah you got a couple sighs dear Charlie Moore it was fantastic is a couple young pitchers you look at the average rate now the curveball spin you got a little higher spin right here although the average rpm is it the same at 2484 on the average curveball spin rate I want to also now show some notable pitchers that we got some songs I mentioned Justin Verlander but some other guys like a Kershaw and a Kluber we got some songs there marco estrada guys that i'm we know as guys that have good curve balls and have good break but get look at this here I mean we're talking almost what a thousand less than what some of the guys Garrett Richards and the other guy again we're back to the average spin rate on a breaking ball but look at this Clayton Kershaw I mean he's just a tick over the average spin rate for amazingly pitcher either slider or curveball so I wanted to show this because it's not always indicative of as to whether it's gonna be a good breaking ball slash slider a curveball so you can still have a good curveball and have a look at this these two guys here it even Betances and marco estrada and be effective so what does that mean location do you are you throwing it in predictable counts do you have great spin rate but you're leaving it up in the zone for guys that they know you've got a good curveball and it's hittable certainly it doesn't always show that it's effective we're showing guys right here spin rate average and here they are one of the premier pitchers certainly when it comes to breaking ball let's go into some video and I want to show what does it mean and what I'm talking curveball folks anybody who remembers her knows of Sandy Koufax this guy was it he threw in the mid to high 90s and he had a buckling curveball Sandy Koufax and Lou could be good stop it slow look at this thing back it up Jeff Torborg is catcher one of his perfect game no-hitters what's this way over top I know it's grainy you're not gonna see it we're gonna see better spin later but look at that look at the curveball how it dropped sandy amazing way over the top and he spun the baseball stop right there look wait what before you started on the run the reason why I showed Sandy Koufax I got a chance to work with Sandy with the Mets he talked about don't try to curve the baseball try to spin the baseball and that's how you make the ball break and that always stuck with me it's not about how you try to make the ball curve try to spin the baseball and Sandy was always in my mind about spinning the baseball that's where I wanted to show Sandy Koufax we're talking about old-school Nolan Ryan yes he threw a 100 500 watt plus miles in there go ahead look this guy had a great curveball buckler look at the break on that so you got Nolan Ryan at 100-plus watch this here foot down big curveball down on his own unhittable he's thrown the 95 plus nolan ryan stud Garrett Richards up let's go to Badr look at the 12 to 6 over him that's the spin rate spin rate gives you late movement and not forget about deception stop stop right there I want to come back so you had Garrett riches a little bit higher back it up real quick come at release point and stop forward forward at release port stop Charlie Morton we saw what he did in the postseason he said really found a spot over here stop so if you look at the hand of a clock would you say this is like a 10:00 to 4:00 yes I wouldn't call it 11:00 to 5:00 but this is a different kind of break when you're coming off to the side you're gonna get kind of that frisbee break that goes from 10 o'clock to 4 o'clock in the zone go ahead and throw it play it play it forward and you look at the spin on the baseball exceptional that's a high fat curveball in there zone stop right there I'm sorry back up Verlander now we're going a little higher get it release point come forward forward and stop at the release point now here stop right there so here we got a higher release point what's gonna happen at a higher release point his break is going to be more down Allah closer to a Sandy Koufax but not the same if you watch here I'm gonna try to show it go slow Luke and there's a dot on the ball stop each one of these dark spots is the writing on the major league baseball where it says Rawlings if you had a higher definition of video keep going you'll see them stop you'll see this dirt this is one side of the ball keep going stop you can see the dirt this is how you determine with the naked eye of course now they have statcast where of how many spins and that's always trying to do keep going just go clip by clip click by clip see the dark spot go keep going see it now this is an obvious say we're stopping here but this is what Justin Verlander is trying to do with at 11 to 5 break a little dirt spot that's not dirt it's the it's the words on them on the ball Rawlings and also the Major League Baseball logo keep going keep going alright so that was my point keep going stop so look at this he sweat six-four six-five I don't know how tall Justin Verlander is and he's throwing at this high release point on a tenant 10-inch mound and he's going from that area - what - looks like B Mac just catching that ball look at his glove here you see it out here he's it's it's about 4-5 inches off the ground that's what makes major league hitters do what they do with spinning the baseball at a high release point Brian McCann sketching his ball in the dirt and who's that Bellinger Bellinger swing miss go ahead and play it again or keep going Oh kluever I mean stop right there back up back up the reason why to me it's a little bit confusing with him because I think he has slider spin but he calls it a curveball but you come out of here is this similar to Charlie Morton I believe it is this is going to be a 10 to 4 on the clock but look at the spread rate this is what pitchers try to do when it comes to a breaking ball it has a little bit almost of a slider spin but it's got downward brake to it therefore that's why we're not sure if it's a curveball slider he calls it a breaking ball but look at this set high release point 10-inch mound up there in Cleveland and look at the break on it and that's all as a result of your hand position and being able to pull the baseball down go ahead move it move it forward clubbers get stop right there stop all right now we're going back to Sandy Koufax go back at release point Kershaw I don't care that his says average spin get out of here he's got one of the best curveballs in the last 10 years stop right there he's coming out of a Sandy Koufax slot backed up right at release please right there good yep see on the seam here he's on the seam this is where you get all of your finger pressures to be able to pull the baseball down therefore creating more spin you create more spin you're gonna get better break this is awesome if you have the ability here he peels off a little bit the only way he could get in the high slot is the head goes off towards third-base and he's got this this is why he has a 12 to 6 go ahead and play it slow go out of his hand beautiful shot look at this fit on the baseball if you could just try to isolate on that it's got downward brake as close to a Sandy Koufax pin as I see in the modern day I really do I mean and you watch it going down and this is great he's got a great finish as you see that tabletop the ball looks like it's coming out of the sky literally you could play the little fast if you want look coming down coming down you'll stop right there alright that's a strike who's this that's Astro that's a World Series shot so that was a probably a toe or 1o getting a counter curveball keep playing it where we have next ok now look at this just keep playing it this is what I was telling you about what is it 24 in a row 24 in a row sliders look at this boom every one of those checking here's always got a tall heater it's gonna be heater gotta be heater gotta be heater and if you look real quick on this and I wanted to do it fast just for effect 87 84 85 84 86 stop right there let's go back to alright so now this is but this is the last guy McCullers today your face in this team dear Oh what are you gonna be looking for today fastball I don't think so stop right there look at this right here so he's got the dot spin that hitters talked about that you could see the red dot thing out of a hand it's not a fastball break but he throws it so hard see that it almost looks like a football spiral we talked about the cement mixer but you know you're gonna get one he's got different break to it in different speeds he'll throw at 87 to throw at 86 and throw at 83 and here is that side to spin that gives it more of a slider break with varying of speeds but he still has the depth angle to it impressive and impressive that he has so much confidence it doesn't matter the count stop right here stop stop this is spike breaking ball remember I told you about your finger pressure it's right off the seam a lot of guys they don't care to have their finger on there I'll Adam Wainwright some others I know AJ Burnett threw it that way keep this off and you go here go go go a couple clicks real quick click click click click click beautiful watch this now he gets his hand in position keep going keep going body out over front he's got good good tilt here with this with his torso keep going over right here okay so here back up so look at this 12 o'clock on Kershaw Verlander I'm going to say that's 11 Morton you were down about 10 o'clock right I know it's the opposite way so you could say it's 3 o'clock or 2 o'clock now we got Richard a little higher look at this my point I wanted to show this was these are all guys with exceptional breaking balls look at their release points they're all different they're all different and some guys have the ability to change the type of breaking ball like a club or like a Verlander like a Charlie Morton where you got move off to the side and the whole point of this is is that wherever it comes out of your hand that's going to be this start of your curve that's going to be the start of the angle of the break do we have it playing any more than that which is why I love Kershaw if that's the end there spin the baseball you guys your kids at home especially with coaches I'm gonna throw the road flow right away there Kitab Oh think about spinning the baseball don't think about curving it the problem with kids and I hear this from dads and coaches all around when should my kids start throwing a curve ball throw when they're old enough mature enough middle school but don't have them lead with the elbow and try to curve the baseball think about spinning the baseball it doesn't look as good early on because you're actually trying to be in position your hands in position set it forget it and pull down and you'll get more of that break so long as your arm is high elbows higher than your shoulder and you pull down I'm not going to say it's throwing a baseball is unnatural but there's always the element of like being careful and make sure you're strong enough and big enough here are all the differences ro flow of a variety of different breaking ball sliders apples where'd you get the pointer like a substitute teacher I'm not telling you because you're gonna take it look at this that's good stuff that'll be very specific because of the revolutions per minute

Channel: MLB Network

Views: 399,468

Rating: 4.8800392 out of 5

Keywords: mlb network, mlb, baseball, mlb tonight, curveball

Id: s2GCJdULqY4

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Sun May 06 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Shinzo32]

As a high school pitcher trying to throw a power curve, thank you for sharing this OP

[u/jraharris89]

Best content I’ve seen on this sub so far.

[u/Naheka]

Ughh...wish vids like these were around when I was teaching myself how to throw breaking balls from watching hours of ESPN Baseball Tonight games.

[u/MeanMaSheen3]

This is so cool. I love this sort of breakdown, great video

[u/[deleted]]

Well didn't expect to watch all 12 minutes, but God damn that was pretty awesome.

[u/bluesox]

Good Lord, Al. Did you drink your lunch before filming this? He’s fucking hammered.

[u/Xanny_Tanner]

No idea why, but I love Morton’s release point and how the ball spins out of his hand. It just look, smooth I guess?

But I wish they’d do more of this with some of the leagues stranger pitches. Like everything Luis Castillo throws, or what Jordan Hicks throws and why it does what it does. It’d be cool to see how much is natural arm angle, finger pressing, and wrist action.