After going back and reading some of the comments left for me, I realized that while most of them them were people’s opinions, one or two of them were requests for more posts on a specific topic.  The article I wrote dubbed “Pitching” received a few of these requests, and seeing as it is my favorite topic and one I know the most about I decided to oblige.  Last time we visited this subject i spoke about the nuts and bolts, the core, the keystone of pitching, the four-seam fastball.  Nothing is as pure, simple, and important to baseball as the four-seam fastball.  The fastball sets up all other pitches, and pitching begins and end with the fastball.  Before scouts look for anything in a pitcher they look for a great fastball, one with velocity, command, and purpose.  But, I digress, the purpose of this post is to talk about the next piece of pitching.  Let’s talk changeup.

All pitchers throw a fastball, it is a fact.  As is fairly obvious, only throwing one pitch proves a bad strategy for winning.  In order to keep batters on their toes a pitcher must pack more than just one caliber bullet in his arsenal.  Let’s hypothetically say that you are a young pitcher with a plus fastball that blows away weak hitters, challenges but succeeds against good hitters, but cannot compete against the best hitters who have consistently made you cry for your mother while you watched their home run fly over the fence.  This is probably a good time to develop another pitch, something to keep those great hitters off balance.  The fastball is designed to blow away hitters, intimidate them with speed and power.  The changeup is meant to make hitters looks silly, fool them with trickery and guile.

A changeup does exactly what the title implies, it changes everything up.  You throw a fastball, the hitter sees the arm speed of your fastball and then matches that exact motion to the speed of the ball.  A pitcher can deceive the hitter two different ways, either make the pitch move or change the speed of the pitch.  The overall idea of the changeup is to change the speed.  The fastball comes at speed x while a good changeup comes in at x-10.  This change in velocity causes the hitter to think fastball but when the pitch arrives, it is far slower than the anticipated heater and the batter swings early and misses the pitch.

The changeup can be used in different ways, but for the young pitcher, it is best used as a strikeout pitch, or used only in counts in favor of the pitcher.  I remember first throwing a changeup.  It seems nearly impossible to control, but the more you throw it the better control you get.  Use the fastball to set up the changeup.  If it works properly batters will flail at the pitch.  As a young pitcher, being able to throw a changeup for strikes isn’t a necessity.  As young pitchers develop the changeup will become more useful and prominent in their game plan.

Two types of changeup grips exist, but a changeup is really any pitch that looks like a fastball but is slower than the fastball.  Greg Maddux made the circle changeup popular, while many other pitchers, like Curt Schilling, utilized the straight changeup.  The Circle changeup grip looks like this:

The straight changeup grip looks like this:

The circle changeup does have some movement.  If thrown by a right-handed pitcher, it moves slightly down and away from a left-handed hitter.  The opposite is true for a left-handed pitcher.  Either grip is acceptable and effective, it all comes down to which is more comfortable.  If you have long fingers, a circle changeup should come very easily, because the more you can wrap your fingers around the ball the more it will slow up.  Throw the changeup with the same arm speed and arm motion as a fastball, the grip will do the rest.  Because you hold a changeup so close to your palm, the extra friction between palm and ball slows the pitch down.

The changeup is a miraculous pitch.  It doesn’t hurt your arm, like throwing certain breaking pitches can, and it can be devastatingly effective.  Pitchers like Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Cole Hamels, Johan Santana, and many others have used this pitch with great success.  Changeups are simple pitches, they don’t require funky arm angles, or twists of the wrist.  Changeups require only attention, practice it a lot because it can be difficult to command early on.  In my opinion, all pitchers should have the fastball and changeup in their arsenal, they are effective and do not harm the arm.  Just remember, it is always a good idea to change things up.