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What happened to the screwball?
DerekJohnson
Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 63,538 
DerekJohnson
Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 63,538
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5HAN94cr4A
Comments
Nowadays, it's all about velocity. The traditional curveball that I threw is a dinosaur, because it comes UP out of the hand, and good hitters can see it early. It matched up well with the circle change. It's a four-seam (straight) fastball world, at the top of the zone, and sliders/cutters on to off the plate, with velocity differential of 5-8 mph from the FB. In the day it was a 12-14 mph difference between the FB and curve/changeup.
Guys are throwing power breaking balls at 85-92, keeping their hand more behind the ball than on the side of it, short and sharp as opposed to big and loopy. The slider that I threw, which was pretty damn good (self-gloss POTD), had 4-6" of horizontal break, and about the same tilt...that's a cutter now. It matched up well with a 2-seam, sinking FB, that had the same break/tilt, in the opposite direction.
The plan is to "Tunnel", where you throw sequences of pitches dictated by the location of the previous pitch...EX: FB away for a strike, slider/cutter/ change up to the same spot, with movement and FB arm speed. Felix really had this going in the mid-teens, and at times had only 2-3 mph separation between his FB and change up...
Sorry to nerd-out, but I love this shit...
It is now power vs power, max effort every pitch, combined with ridiculous late horizontal and vertical movement of secondary pitches. Everything looks like a FB out of the hand, and off speed pitches are a lot closer velocity-wise to fastballs than they were 10 years ago. Get to two strikes, and elevate the FB...
The "Art" of pitching is becoming extinct...if you can throw it 95+ with spin rate and have a reasonable facsimile of a breaking pitch, you are in the big leagues. If a guy goes 6 innings, gives up 6 hits and a walk, that used to be pretty good...today, it could mean 5 runs on the board, with three or four jacks. Kids don't learn to pitch today (nor do they want to), they train to throw hard. The hitting side of it is another story...
In the 60’s, baseball players were at the mercy of the owners. I remember in mid-60’s when Koufax and Drysdale held out to make $100,000 apiece.
Earlier, Jackie Robinson retired after the 1956 season when the Brooklyn Dodgers traded him to the to cross-town rival, the New York Giants.
Yes I was born the year after Flood's free agency ruling