The Changeup - The Deadliest Pitch In Baseball

By Dan Gazaway

love it when a pitcher has a great changeup. The Circle Change just happens to be one of the deadliest changeups out there. The reason: It not only slows down it has wicked movement.

The Circle Change has a screwball type movement and it breaks down and away. It appears to look like a fastball and is very deceiving to a batters eyes.

To throw this pitch pronate your wrist and forearm slightly inwards. Your arm slot and arms speed is the same as your fastball. Place your fingers in the same position as you do with your fastball (thumb and middle finger split the baseball in half). Next, make a circle with your thumb and index finger. The tighter the circle the more drop you will have. However, your wrist and forearm angle is more important than the grip with this pitch. The most difficult part of this pitch is the forearm angle.

Gripping The Circle Change

The smaller the circle, the more downward movement you will have on the pitch. The slight wrist and forearm pronation is important when throwing the circle change. I recommend starting to throw this pitch making a C-shape instead of a circle when you first try this pitch. You will not find success with this pitch unless you throw the circle (or okay sign) toward home plate; that is what truly slows the pitch down. Most pitcher's think they are throwing a circle or a c-change just by gripping the pitch correctly. The C or Circle is thrown at the cather. Again, Keep your arm speed the same so that the pitch will be deceivingly slow to the hitter.

Arguably the most challenging pitch to learn is the circle change because of how the pitch is released. While the pitch can be tricky to learn, do not alter your body movement or motion in any way while attempting to throw it. Instead, work hard on the wrist and forearm angle.

I recommend just playing catch with it practicing the release.

Releasing The Pitch:

Throw the circle change early in the count and try to get a ground ball out of it. Remember, it is best to throw fewer pitches in an inning than to try and strike everyone out. The best change-up counts are the same as the split-finger fastball counts 3-1, 2-1, and 2-0. Also, whenever a fastball is in order a changeup can be thrown in its place. Becoming a successful pitcher simply means you mess with and throw off a hitter's timing. When you are successful at doing that you will get any hitter out.

Here is what Nate Barnett from The Pitching Academy has to say about this nasty pitch.

Besides the slider, a good change-up is terribly frustrating for most hitters. Because of its resemblance to a fastball initially, it can be particularly deceiving in fastball counts. I'm not sure why I don't see more good change-ups in youth baseball today, but it's a very much underutilized pitch.

Hitters hate facing pitchers who change speeds well, it's tough to get good timing on anything. For a great example of this, you have to look no further than Jamie Moyer, who at age 45, helped his Phillies win a World Series championship in 2008. His signature pitch throughout his entire career has been his outstanding change-up. With a fastball that rarely ever reached 85 mph, Moyer's ability to keep hitters off balance has paid off big time.

Circle change-ups with movement are deceiving and I would argue are nearly unhittable if thrown in the right location and in the right count. Being a pitcher also throughout my collegiate career, I relied on the change-up a lot to keep hitters off balance. Early in my pitching career I was leery of developing it because the thought of throwing a pitch slower to hitters seemed backwards. Wow, was I mistaken as it became my best pitch!

Dan Gazaway is owner of The Pitching Academy in Utah. He teaches pitchers how to throw different baseball pitches.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Gazaway