Sarris: Let’s invent a new pitch
From SABR member Eno Sarris at FanGraphs on March 29, 2016:
It’s been a while since we’ve had a new pitch. Zack Greinke wasn’t sure if that new hard change he learned from Felix Hernandez was a completely new pitch, so we may have to wait and see on that one. Before that, you’ll just have to wade into arguments about the cutter, the palmball, and the splitter. Someone invented them, but there is no consensus about who it was, exactly.
So let’s invent a pitch. It’ll be all ours if it catches on. We’ll get to name it. Or we won’t, as will become abundantly clear by the end of this endeavor.
The first step in inventing a pitch is looking for a movement and velocity that are not well represented in baseball right now. Whatever your definition of a pitch, it’ll include movement and velocity. So a new pitch has to be different there.
Read the full article here: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/lets-invent-a-new-pitch/
Originally published: March 30, 2016. Last Updated: March 30, 2016.