Baseball dumb question d' jure--what's a "change up?"

[mistertrickster]

Fast ball -- check
Breaking ball = curve ball
Slider = ball that curves down

But what the heck is a "change up?"

****

P.S. GO CUBS!!

[Cush]

1. here ya go

http://www.cyberslugger.com/pitching.html

The concept then of the changeup is to let the ball come off your fingers. Your wrist then should be in the lead (remember high-five with fingers pointing up and not at the batter) when you begin to release the baseball. As your hand comes through behind your wrist, the ball is forced away from your body by your fingers. The key here is to make sure you have a down and away motion with your arm. This causes the ball to have a heavy backspin as well as to break away from a right-handed batter assuming the pitcher is right-handed.

This backspin on the ball creates negative force and slows it down as it cuts through the air. Key: Remember to keep your arm speed the same as your fastball. You DO NOT want to slow your arm speed down to slow the ball down. The grip can be tricky and is important for accuracy and effectiveness. Whether you use a circle change, a three finger change or a palm grip, the ball must lie or rest on the balls of your fingers (meaning where your fingers are attached to your palm). You dont want to have the ball jammed up in your hand because that makes the pitch harder to control. Keeping your pinky finger on the side of the ball helps immensely. Always concentrate on letting and feeling the ball come off the fingers in a down and away motion. Use a two seam grip for more downward movement.

[Fight_n_back]

6. This is incorrect

backspin does not slow the ball, friction does. The backspin works depending on how many seams are cutting through the air in conjunction with the Magnus Prinicple:

The main force of lift in a wing is Newton's 3rd Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Air is forced downward, the wing is forced upward. This occurs directly, under the wing, as the angle of the wing forces the air downward.

Air is also forced downwards (with very little friction) over the top of wing. The curve of the upper wing forces air downward. This occurs due to the following principles:
Magnus Principle: The inertia of the air flowing over the curved wing creates an area of lower pressure over the top of the wing. (This low pressure is often attributed to Bernoulli, but Bernoulli is strictly air velocity.)
Coanda Principle: The Magnus effect deflects the flow of air downward along the top surface of the wing.



http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/forum/science/archive/messages/1943.html

The spin of the ball does not affect velocity but direction. Velocity comes from grip and delivery.

[soupkitchen]

2. A Change up is when

a pitcher throws a pitch using his full range of motion (So that the batter thinks it's a fast ball) but grips the ball more lightly so that the ball doesn't come to the plate as quickly as the batter antipates.

[catmandu57]

3. Change of speed

to fool the batter, make them think a fastball is coming then throw it a little slower swo that the batter is out in front with his swing.

[mistertrickster]

4. Okay . . . interesting, thanks . . .

NT

[Fight_n_back]

5. Here you go: A pitching primer

Major League hitters track the ball directly out of a pitchers hand. They rread whether the ball comes UP out of the hand or DOWN out of the hand. Breaking balls need to be thrown with a high trajectory so it can reach the plate. Fastballs need to be thrown down in order to be low enough for a strike.

That is the background. Here are the pitches.

Straight fastball: If a pithcer has an overhand delivery, holds the ball with his fingers across the seams and snaps his wrist straight down, the ball will travel relatively straight. This is good if the pitcher needs a strike. It is a rarer ability than one would think. With power pitchers this is called the "rising fastball" or "heater". Becasue the backspin causes it to fall less wuickly than other fastballs, keeping the pitch high and around the hands.

Tailing fastball: A pithcer holds the ball across the seams and turns his wrist to the outside on delivery causing the ball to fall less quickly and tail slightly in.

Sinker: A fastball held WITH the seams causing the ball to fall more rapidly than a regular fastball.

Cutter: Cutters are held in a myriad number of ways but the idea is for the pitcher to turn his wrist in to get the ball to tail inside of a batter of the opposite hand.

Split finger: This is thrown like a fastball but the finger are placed on the OUTSIDE of the seams causing the ball to have very little backspin to keep it afloat. This is why it drops so quickly.

Change up: There are many types of change up. The classic change is thrown as a four seam fastball without a wrist snap which will lower the speed of the pitch. this does two things, it destroys the timing of the hitter and causes more movement becuase it does nit have as much backspin. It is deceptive because it comes down out of the hand and therefore looks like a fastball.

Types of change ups:
Circle change
Straight change
Forkball
Palmball


Types of breaking balls:
Curve ball (breaks differently depending on grip and delivery of pitcher

Screwball (rare pitch, it breaks the opposite way of a curve ball)

Slider:The slider is thrown like a fastball so it comes down out of the hand but because of various grips and severe wrist rotation, the ball either dives away (or inrto) the hitter or drops sharply. The only way to read a slider from a fastball is by judging rotation.


This is from a combination of Dr Adair's book "The Physics of Baseball" Mike schmidts book on hitting and Tom Seaver's book on pitching.


In case you ever wonder why Greg Maddux is so good he throws:

Straight fastball
Tailing fastball
Sinker
Straight change
Circle change
Curveball
Slider

and throws them all for strikes.

by contrast, Felix Rodriguez of the Giants throws:
Tailing fastball
Tailing fastball
Tailing fastball

[Fight_n_back]

7. A PS for you

broadcasters say "breaking ball" when they aren't sure whter it was a slider or curve.