Articles
… related to The Neyer/James
Guide to Pitchers.
All the Pitchers Who Wouldn’t Fit: A-D
There were a lot of things that wouldn’t fit in the book, and a lot of things that I’ve found since the book, and these pages are designed to hold some of those things. If you see a pitcher’s name without any years or information on the same line, that means he’s in the book, and the information supplements his entry in the book. If you see his years in the majors or minors, or a Negro League identifier, that means he’s not in the book at all. Which means you’re looking at some new stuff!
123 pitchers listed below; updated 12/3/2013 Ted Abernathy Gordy Coleman: “Nobody in the league throws like he does. His fast ball comes up and then falls down. His breaking ball climbs up and in to left-handers and he’s got a knuckle ball, too. It reacts just like any other pitcher’s knuckler, but it’s coming at a lower angle.” Source: Baseball Digest (Jim Ferguson, Jan. 1966) Jeremy Accardo (2006 2007) Report: “RHP Jeremy Accardo has been sharp with his mid-90s fastball and split-finger pitch, but in tight situations he relies strictly on his fastball and focuses on location. Accardo is a fast worker, and the Giants like his aggressive style and quick motion.” Source: The Sporting News (6/16/2006, Rich Draper) Report: “RHP Jeremy Accardo struggled leading up to the All-Star break. He has a good fastball, but his split-finger is temperamental and his slider is a work in progress.” Source: The Sporting News (7/21/2006, Rich Draper) Ben Adams (Negro Leagues) Key Pitch: Fastball Source: Black Baseball in Kansas City (Larry Lester and Sammy J. Miller, 2000) Hank Aguirre Pitches: 1. Screwball 2. Fastball 3. Curve 4. Change (occasional) Source: Bill Freehan (sort of) quoted in The Tall Mexican: The Life of Hank Aguirre (Robert E. Copley, 1998) Neil Allen Davey Johnson: “To me, Neil Allen is not a pitcher. To me, a pitcher is someone who can spot a fastball for a strike and throw a curveball over when he’s behind. Neil Allen can’t do either of those things. He’s a thrower who relies on outstanding speed to get by. I still can’t figure out why Whitey Herzog would have traded us Keith Hernandez for Allen.” Source: Bats (Johnson & Peter Golenbock, 1986) Larry Andersen Report: “The righthanded Andersen threw a traditional slider. Against a righthanded hitter, he would throw the pitch toward the outer third of the plate. When well thrown, the pitch would have a tight spin, looking almost like a fastball until it broke laterally, away from the hitter, painting the black of the plate, and, in a perfect situation, creating a swing and miss.” Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (Jim Salisbury, 7/27/2008) John Anderson (1958 1962) Key Pitch: Sidearm Knuckleball Source: The Sporting News (9/3/1958) Ivy Andrews Note from 1937: Andrews “suddenly seems to have revived himself as a potential top-flight pitcher with the perfection of what he calls a right-handed screwball.” Source: John Drebinger in The New York Times (5/9/1937) Johnny Antonelli Report: “Antonelli had everything, curve, speed, slider and a near-perfect change-up. The last-named delivery, which reacts like a screwball for Antonelli, set up Gil Hodges for three strikeouts.” Source: New York Times (Louis Effrat, 8/16/1956) Jim Archer Pitches: 1. Curve 2. Screwball 3. Fastball Archer: “I don’t know whether it” — a new pitch Archer was working on in the spring of 1962 — “will work. If it doesn’t I’ll discard it. I still can rely on the curve, the screw ball and the fast one. . . Most of the strikeouts I got were with the fast ball. I threw it when they weren’t looking for it…” Source: The Kansas City Star (3/4/1962, Ernie Mehl column); in another Mehl column a few weeks later, Archer said “the curve is my best pitch.” (Above information essentially replaces Archer’s entry in book.) Orie Arntzen (1943) Pitch Selection: 1. Fastball 2. Curve 3. Change of Pace Source: The Sporting News (4/15/1943, Stan Baumgartner) Bronson Arroyo (2000 2013) Arroyo: “I’m throwing a fastball, and then I’m throwing a two-seam fastball that’s a sinker. I’m throwing a changeup. I’m throwing a curveball at the high slot, and then I’m dropping down a little and making it really sweepy, which looks more like a slider, and then I’m throwing a cutter, a cut fastball in on lefties. Like Mariano Rivera, what he throws.” Source: The Starting Pitcher (Rob Trucks, 2005) Bob Babcock (1979 1981) Note: “The righthander with the submarine delivery worked 17 spring innings without allowing a run, so he won out over Dennis Lewallyn.” Source: The Sporting News (Randy Galloway, 4/25/1981) Jack Baldschun Comment: “Baldschun, the Phils’ ace reliever, throws his [screwball] nearly sidearm, and turns his hand and wrist over while the arm is extended toward third base. Jack throws the pitch about eight out of ten deliveries, and has mastered it.” Source: The Making of a Big League Pitcher (Ed Richter, 1963) Brian Bannister (2006 2010) Report: “Bannister says he has ditched the pitch that got him to the majors — his cut fastball — and become so confident with a changeup he developed in April that the change has become his second-best pitch after his four-seamer. Bannister says there wasn’t enough of a difference in the velocity of his cutter and four-seamer for the cutter to be effective against big league hitters.” Source: The Sporting News (7/2/2007) Comment: Bannister, the son of longtime major-league pitcher Floyd Bannister, for a while was modestly famous as baseball’s most sabermetrically aware pitcher. Len Barker Whitey Herzog: “Well, they won’t be able to pitch him if they have to catch a commercial airline. He’s the slowest I’ve ever seen. He must take 20 seconds between each pitch.” Source: The Sporting News (9/12/1983) Rex Barney Ralph Kiner: “The greatest fastball I ever faced was thrown by Hall of Famer Robin Roberts. It wasn’t the fastest. Rex Barney of the Dodgers owned that. He threw in the vicinity of 100 miles per hour, but it was straight. However, Roberts, like Sandy Koufax, had great movement on the ball. It would literally hop over your bat. Source: Kiner’s Korner (Ralph Kiner with Joe Gergen, 1987) Dave Barnhill (Negro Leagues) Key Pitch: Fastball Memory: “What they didn’t know was that despite his size, Barnhill could throw as hard as Satchel.” Source: Catching Dreams: My Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues (Frazier “Slow” Robinson with Paul Bauer, 1999) Buck Leonard: “He was a humdinger. He was one of the best we had in our leagues. He threw just as hard as anybody. He was right up there with Slim Jones and Satchel Paige, right next to them.” Source: Of Monarchs and Black Barons (James A. Riley, 2012) Red Barrett Johnny Mize: “Those so-called control pitchers can drive a hitter nuts. A guy like Red Barrett, for example. He gives you that dipsy-do stuff and you break your back swinging at it, yet he’s tough. He throws off your timing and, with his slow stuff, makes you supply the power.” Source: Baseball Magazine (Ed Rumill, July 1948) Les Bartholomew (1928 1932) Report: “He showed a varied assortment of curves and besides a good fast ball, mixed up a slow heave that caught the Bruin clubbers off balance.” Source: Unidentified clipping from Hall of Fame files, dated March 30, 1928 Dick Bass (1939) Pitches: 1. Fastball 2. Curveball 3. Knuckleball Source: Walter Johnson in 9/21/1939 radio broadcast of Indians-Senators game Frank Baumann Comment: “A sore arm that had plagued Frank through much of his Red Sox career had robbed him of his once-blazing fast ball, but now he learned to compensate for it by throwing his fast ball with a sinker motion. It dipped low across the plate and was a tough pitch to hit. The sinker became his big pitch and Frank also made effective use of a sharp curve ball.” Source: Baseball 1961 (1961, no author credited) Charlie Beamon (1956 1958) Pitches: 1. Fastball 2. Sinker 3. Change 4. Curve Source: Beamon quoted in From 33rd Street to Camden Yards (John Eisenberg, 2001) Description: “If there was ever a prospect, this kid is one… Beamon has a really good sinker that really takes off, and a live fast ball, the kind they’re looking for in the majors. He has all the poise in the world out there on the rubber and has learned to get the ball over the plate.” Source: Oakland Oaks manager Lefty O’Doul in The Sporting News (7/20/1955, Jack McDonald); Beamon had just won his 19th straight decision in the minors, including two wins at the end of the ’54 season. Trivia: Beamon made his first major-league start near the end of the 1956 season, and shut out Whitey Ford and the Yankees, 1-0. Colter Bean (2005 2007) Key Pitch: Sidearm Slider Report: “His is not your ordinary sidearm slider. There’s a big speed change, but there’s also quite a bit of break, which you don’t see a lot from a guy who throws sidearm. He’s able to cover a lot of territory with it, from side to side, and he’s able to locate it really well.” Source: teammate Andy Phillips in The New York Times (Tyler Kepner, 2/25/2007) Erik Bedard (2002 2013) Report: “LHP Erik Bedard is throwing a circle change taught to him by pitching coach Leo Mazzone. The pitch complements his low-90s fastball and late-breaking curve, and Bedard is not afraid to throw it in the strike zone.” Source: The Sporting News (8/11/2006, Spencer Fordin) Report: “Over the past season and a half, in particular, Bedard has demonstrated that he’s in command of one of the most versatile arsenals of any pitcher in baseball. Crowd the plate and he’ll bust you inside; step in the bucket and he’ll nibble outside. He throws three types of fastballs — a four-seamer that touhches 95 mph, a two-seam sinker and a cutter — as well as a sharp curve and a changeup that Mazzone says is only 60% developed. The pitch that raised Bedard to elite status, though, might be the one that Mazzone refers to as “the comebacker,” a sinker that appears to a righthanded hitter to be headed inside before it drifts back over the plate.” Source: Sports Illustrated (Ben Reiter, 2/11/2008) Clarence Beers (1948) Key Pitch: Knuckleball Source: The Sporting News (5/14/1952, Page 28) Alan Benes (1995 2003) Pitches: 1. Fastball (mid-90s) 2. Curveball 3. Cutter Source: The Scouting Notebook 1998 Note: This refers to the early part of Benes’s career, before he suffered a series of debilitating arm injuries. Kris Benson (1999 2006) Pitches: 1. Fastball (mid-90s) 2. Curve 3. Slider 4. Change Source: The Scouting Notebook 2004 Report: “He hits 90-92 mph with his fastball. Also throws a slider and changeup. Benson has good sinking action on his fastball, but he isn’t throwing as hard as he used to. Has a loose arm and a good delivery. Has a quick-breaking slider and can turn his changeup over and sink it. Throws strikes.” Source: The Baseball Register & Fantasy Handbook (2006) Bruce Berenyi Gary Carter: “Bruce Berenyi . . . was difficult to catch. You never quite knew where his pitches were going. I didn’t know, and neither did Bruce. His pitches — curve, slider, even his fastball — never behaved the same. I couldn’t relax back there, couldn’t slide to the ball. I was always lunging.” Source: A Dream Season (Gary Carter & John Hough, Jr., 1987) Heinie Berger (1907 1910) Key Pitch: Spitball Source: Umpire Billy Evans in Baseball Digest (Ed Bang, February 1950) Dwight Bernard (1978 1982) Pitch Selection: 1. Fastball 2. Slider 3. Spitball Actually, Bernard’s foreign substance of choice was mineral oil. Source: Interview with Bernard (8/12/2006, Rob Neyer) Adam Bernero (2006) Report: “RHP Adam Bernero uses a full complement of pitches. He once relied heavily on his changeup but has broadened his repertoire to include a fastball, cutter, slider and split-finger pitch.” Source: The Sporting News (9/1/2006, Dick Kaegel) Jittery Joe Berry Berry: “When I was younger out on the coast, seemed like my arm was more limber, sort of. I had a swell knuckler then. I ain’t throwed it much up here. Every time I got in a game we’d be either tied up or maybe a run ahead, and I don’t like to try the knuckler for fear it might not be buckin’ for me that day.” Source: Baseball Digest (Red Smith, March 1945) Emil Bildilli (1937 1941) Report: “Emil’s qualifications as a pitcher are fair speed, control, a sharp-breaking curve and courage. He fields his position like a shortstop and can hit.” Source: Unidentified clipping, dated 10/19/1939, from Hall of Fame’s files Don Black (1943 1948) Note: In a game against the Yankees on May 23, 1948, Black faced Joe DiMaggio twice—after DiMaggio had already homered three times against other pitchers—and retired DiMaggio first on a slider, and later on a slow curve. Source: The Sporting News (6/2/1948, Herman Goldstein) Vida Blue Scout Hugh Alexander, 1978: “Vida Blue was born to pitch in the National League. I saw him throw 90 percent fastballs, whereas he used to throw more curves. The only problem Vida has is that if you can stay close to him, he’ll give up the home run.” Source: Sport (October 1978, Mark Ribowsky) Blue: “I’m a fastball pitcher and I know that eighty-five percent of the time they’re going to be calling the fastball, and I’ve already got my grip on the ball anticipating the fastball.” Source: SF Giants: An Oral History (Mike Mandel, 1979) Pete Rose: “He throws as hard as anybody I’ve seen.” Ted Simmons: “Vida is still the same pitcher he was when I faced him in the minors amost nine years ago. He just comes at you; and when he gets in trouble he comes at you the same way — with heat.” Dave Winfield: “Sure he needs a good off-speed breaking pitch, but right now Vida’s a pitcher who’s not on that mound to be cute.” Source: SPORT Magazine (May 1979, Stephen Hanks) Wade Boggs (1997 1999) Key Pitch: Knuckleball Note: According to one source, while pitching a shutout inning for the Yankees in 1997, Boggs threw sixteen knuckleballs and one fastball. Eddie Bonine (2008) Pitches: 1. Sinker 2. Slider 3. Change 4. Hard Knuckleball Report: “He used the knuckler for a strikeout for his first out in the big leagues, against leadoff man Juan Pierre in the first. He said he threw about 10 or 12 knucklers in the course of his 77 pitches.” Source: Detroit Free Press (John Lowe, 6/15/2008) Pitches: 1. Fastball 2. Change 3. Slurve 4. Knuckleball Bonine: “I’d thrown some good [knuckleballs] before, but I won’t be afraid to go with it in the regular season. I’ve finally got that release point down, and I’m gauging how hard to throw it.” Source: The Detroit News (Lynn Henning, 4/2/2010) Ila Borders (Northern League) Report: “She says her best pitch is the screwball, which she uses against righthanded batters, along with the curve ball and the fastball (both cut and sinking). Lefthanded hitters can expect to see her slider, changeup, and the fastball (both cut and straight).” Source: The National Pastime: Number 20 (SABR, 2000, article by Jean Hastings Ardell) Dick Bosman Description: “Dick’s fastbal topped out at about 85 mph, so he worked hard at fine-tuning his two best pitches, a sinker and a ‘slurve.’ Whoever named that pitch got it just right — it was a combination of a slider that broke too much and a curve that didn’t break enough. Bosman was managing to win despite everything, and it wasn’t long before Washington called.” Source: Minor-league manager Wayne Terwilliger in Terwilliger Bunts One (Terwilliger w/Nancy Peterson and Peter Boehm, 2006) Roger Bowman (1949 1955) Dick Schofield: “I remember a pitcher named Bowman. He threw a bunch of slop curveballs up to home plate. I was just learning how to hit, and I never saw anybody pitch like that. He always stuck in mind … I could not hit him with a handful of bats.” Source: Memories of Winter Ball (Lou Hernández, 2013) Ray Boyd (1910 1911) Key Pitch: Spitball Source: Chicago Tribune (7/16/1910) Herb “Doc” Bracken (Negro Leagues) Pitch Selection: 1. “Stealth Fastball” (?) 2. Roundhouse Curve Source: Black Baseball in Chicago (Larry Lester, et al, 2000) Darrell “Bucky” Brandon (1966 1973) Pitches: 1. Sinker/Sinking Fastball 2. Curve 3. Slider 4. Slip Pitch Source: Baseball Digest (Dec.-Jan. 1967) Harry Brecheen Umpire Babe Pinelli: “Brecheen is a spot pitcher, which is to say in a way, a low ball pitcher. He has a terrific screwball which may be his best pitch. But he also has a sneaking fast ball and a good curve. And he can slow up his curve. He has real good control.” Source: San Francisco Call-Bulletin (10/19/1946, Jack McDonald column) Craig Breslow (2005 2013) Pitches: 1. Curveball 2. Fastball (85-88) 3. Change Sources: Baseball HQ; Portland Beavers broadcaster Rich Burk Jim Brosnan Note: In a 1961 magazine article, Brosnan attributed his 2.36 ERA in 1960 to a greatly improved curveball, taught to him by Reds pitching coach Cot Deal. Source: Baseball 1961 (Jim Brosnan, 1961) Barney Brown (Negro Leagues) Key Pitch: Screwball Source: The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (James A. Riley, 1994) Dave Brown (Negro Leagues) Report: “Mixing outstanding speed, a good curve, a hard drop, and excellent control in a relatively short but sterling career, the smart left-hander was the ace of Rube Foster’s dominating Chicago American Giants clubs of the early ’20s.” Source: The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues (James A. Riley, 1994) Negro Leagues pitcher Willie Powell: “But the best black pitcher was Dave Brown. He had one of the best curveballs you want to look at and a good drop ball. After Brown left, Bullet Joe Rogan of Kansas City was the king of the colored pitchers. I played on the same club with Satchel in 1928; we barnstormed in Memphis, Birmingham, Kansas City, St. Louis. I’d still take Rogan over Satchel.” Source: Black Diamonds (John Holway, 1989) Jackie Brown (1970 1977) Brown, 1974: “I used to throw 80 percent fast balls. Now it’s 50-50 or perhaps 60 percent curves. That’s the way Billy wants it and that’s what I’ve concentrated on throwing all year. I always figured my fast ball was my best pitch, but he didn’t think it was fast enough. I can control the curve, throw it for strikes, and he’s proved another point.” Source: The Sporting News (Merle Heryford, 6/8/1974) James Brown (Negro Leagues) Pitch Selection: 1. Fastball 2. Curve Source: Black Baseball in Chicago (Larry Lester, et al, 2000) Bob Bruce Report: “Bob Bruce came to the Colt .45s a pitcher with a smooth, stylish delivery–perhaps too much so. Houston general manager Paul Richards, the Thomas Edison of baseball, took one look at him and decided that Bob gave the hitters too good a view. ” ‘Richards said my delivery was too smooth,’ said Bruce. ‘He changed it to give me more motion, to upset the batter. I raise my left shoulder higher and bring my leg back more. It took me a while to get the hang of it but I think I’ve got it now. At least I feel more comfortable.’ And the batters are feeling more uncomfortable.” Source: Pitcher Coming into his Own (1962, Bruce entry in Here Come the Colts pamphlet series) Trivia: In the last game at Houston’s Colt Stadium, Bruce beat Don Drysdale with a 12-inning shutout, 1-0. Fred Bruckbauer (1961) Pitch Selection: 1. Curve 2. Fastball Source: Bruckbauer in Cup of Coffee (Rob Trucks, 2002) Bob Buhl Bud Selig: “He was a wonderful pitcher … You could … know that the game started at eight o’clock and you were gone by a quarter to 10. Hour and 45 minutes. Bang, bang, bang.” Source: Selig interview with Charlie Steiner, 5/23/2008 (XM Radio) Cy Buker (1945) Pitch Selection: 1. Overhand Curve 2. Fastball 3. Dry Spitter (occasional) Buker: “Dixie Walker told me he’d never seen a better curveball — the ‘downer,’ straight from the top. Started at about the waist and ended at about the shoe tops. He said it looked just like Tommy Bridges’. I had a fastball that moved all the time. . . It wasn’t any 95 m.p.h. job, but that’s why you don’t see too many home runs hit against me. When the weather was hot, I’d hold the ball off the seams. I’d throw what they call a ‘dry spitter.’ It’d come up like a knuckleball, only I’d throw it just as hard as a fastball. I had tons of guys who would reach around and want to take a look at the ball. They swore I was doping it up!” Source: Hardball on the Home Front (Craig Allen Cleve, 2004) Wally Bunker Report: “Wally Bunker’s good fast ball would be a lot less effective if he did not have that amazing sinker to go along with it.” Source: Hank Bauer in Championship Baseball (1968) Jim Bunning Story: “Dressen got rid of Jim Bunning because he didn’t like the fact that Jim threw sidearm. He criticized Bunning because Bunning didn’t have a curveball. Bunning defended himself by saying he didn’t need a curveball: ‘I throw fastball sliders, and I’ve won a hundred games with it.’ Dressen was immovable. ‘You don’t throw a curveball, you’re out of here.'” Source: Mickey Lolich quoted in The Tall Mexican: The Life of Hank Aguirre (Robert E. Copley, 1998) Report: “There are a few good fast ball pitchers who land flat-footed and stiff-kneed. Jim Bunning does. But he also topples off the mound frequently on his follow-throuh and winds up on all fours. Hitters just don’t hit him often enough for it to matter.” Source: Hank Bauer in Championship Baseball (1968) Bill Burbach (1969 1971) Key Pitch: Fastball Source: Dog Days (Philip Bashe, 1994) Trivia: Burbach was the Yankees’ first-ever amateur draft pick. Lew Burdette Scouting Report: “Pitching more careful than in the past, not challenging the hitter like previously. Always around the plate. So far around 6th and 6th inning he started to lose his stuff.” Source: Eddie Stanky (report for Cardinals, April 1962) Burdette in 1963: “I’ve thrown a knuckler off and on the last couple of years.” Source: The Sporting News (Bob Wolf, 4/6/1963) (Above information supplements Burdette’s entry in book.) Ambiorix Burgos (2005 2007) Pitches: 1. Splitter 2. Fastball (98-103) 3. Slider (occasional) Report: “According to Minaya, team scouts have clocked Burgos’s fastball at 103 miles an hour, and last season he threw five pitches at 100 or faster, which was fifth among American League pitchers. And yet, the fastball may not even be his best pitch. It certainly is not his favorite one. That distinction belongs to a diving splitter that, when right, could be as good as John Smoltz’s. The difference is, Smoltz can pretty much throw it wherever he wants at any point in the count. Burgos? Not yet. He loves it so much, though, that he tends to favor throwing it more than his fastball, and that led to trouble last season.” Source: The New York Times (Ben Shpigel, 2/19/2007) A.J. Burnett (1999 2013) Report: Marlins pitching coach “Mark Wiley rates all his pitches (fastball, curve, changeup) as elite-level. Burnett’s explosive heater is augmented by a ‘spiked curve’ his grandfather taught him as a teen.” Source: ESPN The Magazine (9/26/2005, Jerry Crasnick) Sheldon Burnside (1978 1980) Pitch Selection: 1. Fastball (90) 2. Curve Note: Burnside generally threw three-quarters, but would drop down and throw a sidearm curve to a left-handed batter. Source: Burnside in Cup of Coffee (Rob Trucks, 2002) Steve Busby Report: “Busby is a power pitcher with one of the game’s better fastballs. It isn’t of the pure, blinding variety such as Nolan Ryan’s, but it’s right up there with anybody else’s. Furthermore, according to opposing batters, it moves better than most others.” Source: Baseball Digest (Larry Eldridge, Nov. 1974) Guy Bush Comment: “Several years ago he began losing games along in the seventh and eighth. He figured it out that the teams began getting used to his overhand delivery along about that time, so he worked up his sidearm and underhand deliveries to mix it up, break up the rhythm of his delivery. Then, only the last couple of years he developed his great screw ball. “He knows every hitter perfectly and can throw a ball a few inches of where he wants to. By keeping the ball down and using a lot of sinkers, he has forced the hitters to hit into the ground mostly and has avoided the long home run from the new lively ball.” Source: Baseball Magazine (Ralph Cannon, Sept. 1934) (Above supplements, in a particularly useful way, Bush’s entry in book.) Cecil Butler (1962 1964) Pitch Selection: 1. Fastball 2. Slider 3. Curve (ineffective) 4. Change (ineffective) 5. Forkball (occasional) 6. Knuckleball (occasional) Note: Butler threw straight overhand. Source: Butler in Cup of Coffee (Rob Trucks, 2002) Bill Byrd Byrd: “I threw most everything–knuckler, slow knuckler, fast knuckler, curve, slider. I had good control. [My best pitch was] a good fastball overhand. I’d get a guy set up and then throw it.” Source: The Baseball Research Journal, Volume 19 (SABR, 1990) Paul Byrd Report: In mid-May 2005, Byrd began featuring a “one-fingered change-up” and used that pitch frequently over the rest of the season. According to Tim McCarver, this was the first time he’d seen, or heard of, such a pitch. Source: Fox broadcast of ALCS Game 1, 10/11/2005. Byrd: “I picked up the split-finger playing catch with John Smoltz last off-season, and it’s been a big pitch for me this year with the Indians. Obviously, it’s not 90 mph like Smoltzy’s, but it’s my version and it’s worked.” Source: ESPN The Magazine (7/16/2007, as told to Jeff Bradley) Fernando Cabrera Pitches: 1. Fastball (97) 2. Slider 3. Splitter Source: The Sporting News (9/15/2006, Anthony Castrovince) Kiko Calero (2003 2007) Report: “RHP Kiko Calero relies heavily on a slider he throws at two different speeds, which gives it two kinds of breaks — one hard and one sharp and the other more looping. Calero, a reliever, throws one of his sliders on more than half of his pitches overall and on about three-fourths of them when he has two strikes on a hitter. If he gets ahead in the count, the at-bat is all but over.” Source: The Sporting News (8/11/2006, Mychael Urban) Fred Caligiuri (1941 1942) Best Pitch: Fastball Source: Caligiuri in The National Pastime (Number 11, 1992; article by Harrington “Kit” Crissey) Paul Calvert (1942 1951) Key Pitch: Sinker Calvert: “My best pitch is a sinker ball. It’s a pitch you have to grip very tightly to make it work. The best sinker ball pitchers are ones with long fingers. Mine aren’t. I have to grip the ball differently and if I have to work a long time, I get blisters on my fingers.” Source: The View from the Dugout (ed. William M. Anderson, 2006) Chris Capuano (2003 2013) Catcher Chad Moeller: “He and Andy Pettitte had the best pickoff moves. But with Andy, everybody just stayed so close to the bag that he didn’t even have to worry about it, because of his reputation. Capuano would try to pick every guy off.” Source: The New York Times (Tyler Kepner, 2/28/2010) John Carden (1946) Pitches: 1. Fastball 2. Curve Source: The National Pastime: Number 23 (2003, article by Bill Hickman) Note: Carden pitched only two innings in the majors, and was accidentally electrocuted shortly before he turned twenty-eight. Fausto Carmona (2006 2013) Key Pitch: Sinker Report: “He’s got electric stuff, but Cleveland put him in a tough position. He shouldn’t be a closer — he relies on his plus sinker and doesn’t strike out too many.” Source: Anonymous “AL scout” in Sports Illustrated (8/14/2006, Albert Chen) Pitch Selection, 2007: 1. Sinker 2. Changeup 3. Slider Report: “He embraced winter ball and enhanced his repertoire, adding a superb changeup and a fine slider to go with his calling card, a two-seam sinker.” Source: Sports Illustrated (8/20/2007) Lew Carpenter (1943) Key Pitch: Knuckleball Source: The Sporting News (3/27/1941, Page 9; and 8/3/1944, Page 25) Santiago Casilla (2004 2013) Key Pitch: Slider Source: The Sporting News (Mychael Urban, 6/18/2007) Hardin Cathey (1942) Key Pitch: Fastball Note: Cathey threw with a “herky-jerky delivery.” Source: The Sporting News (4/2/1942, Shirley Povich) Bill Chamberlain (1932) Chamberlain: “As I look back at it, there was no reason that I couldn’t of made it. I had good control. Some guys were faster, but I had good control. Ted Lyons gave me the best advice, ‘Don’t let them hit the ball they want to hit. Make them hit your pitch.’ I should have listened closer.” Source: The National Pastime, Number 15 (1995, article by Dick Thompson) Joba Chamberlain (2013) Pitches: 1. Fastball (94-100) 2. Slider (86-88) 3. Curve (78) Sources: YES broadcast, 9/23/2007; The Sporting News (Stan McNeal, 9/3/2007) Billy Champion (1969 1976) Key Pitch, 1969: Sidearm Sinker Sources: Reading Eagle (Ralph Bernstein, 4/19/1972) Pitches, 1973: 1. Fastball 2. Curve 3. Slider 4. Screwball Source: 1974 Pitcher Performance Handbook (Ronald H. Lewis, 1976) Pitches, 1974: 1. Fastball 2. Slider 3. Screwball 4. Sinker 5. Forkball 6. Changeup Source: Milwaukee Journal (Kevin Lamb, 8/16/1974) Tiny Chaplin (1928 1936) Pitch Selection: 1. Fastball 2. Curve Source: Unidentified clipping from Hall of Fame files (dated 4/16/1936) Tom Cheney Note: on September 12, 1962, Cheney, in the course of pitching a sixteen-inning complete game, set the MLB record with twenty-one strikeouts (and threw 238 pitches). Cheney’s best pitch was his fastball, but after the game his catcher said, “That curve ball of his looked like it was falling off the table. Tom was getting a lot of the hitters out with screwballs, too, and he came in with his knuckler now and then and was getting it over.” This is the only reference we’ve found to Cheney throwing a screwball, but it seems authoritative. Source: The Sporting News (9/22/1962, Bob Addie) Bob Chesnes Report: “But that’s his trouble. He has so much on the ball that the hitters are afraid to swing. This doesn’t sound bad, but what’s the result? He can’t make a bad pitch. They’re afraid to swing at anything he throws for fear of being fooled. The result is that pitches wide of the plate, or bad pitches at which they’d swing if thrown by another pitcher with less on the ball, go by unchallenged.” Source: MISSING Rickey Clark (1967 1972) Scouting Report: “He had a fine arm, threw a natural sinker, and his curve was good enough. If he threw the ball in the dirt on one pitch, it didn’t shake him up. He’d just rear back and throw the next one for a strike. With the Tigers he might have been trying to be too fine with his control.” Source: Angels coach Mike Roarke, describing Clark in the minors, and quoted in Baseball Digest (August 1968, Ed Rumill) Roger Clemens Report: “Pitchers’ repertoires change over time. Roger Clemens used a slider at the start of his career and learned his splitter on a golf outing with the former Cy Young award winner Mike Scott. Clemens taught the pitch to Pettitte in the winter of before the 2002 season, when the two were teammates with the Yankees. Pettitte threw it that spring with great success. But three starts into the regular season, he injured his elbow and missed two months. Although the injury occurred on a fastball, Pettitte never threw a splitter again.” Source: The New York Times (Tyler Kepner, 3/4/2007) Report, 2007: “Not once in the 216 pitches that Clemens threw in his first two starts back with the Yankees did the Rocket’s heat exceed 92 mph. His four-seam fastball sits in the 89-to-91 range, his two-seamer a tick or two below that. Armed, however, with a vicious split-fingered fastball that’s as good as ever and athe aforementioned hardheadedness — Clemens is a staunch power pitcher the way Strom Thurmond remained a staunch conservative to the grave — Clemens concedes nothing. Whatever velocity he may have lost since his prime years is compensated for with conviction and command.” Source: Sports Illustrated (Tom Verducci, 6/25/2007) Jim Cohen (Negro Leagues) Pitch Selection: 1. Changeup 2. Screwball Source: Bob Scott in The Negro Leagues Revisited (Brent Kelley, 2000) Jim Colborn Colborn: “I have an assortment of mediocre pitches. A mediocre fastball, curve, slider and changeup — but I combine them with knowledge and control.” Source: Baseball Digest (Irwin Cohen, May 1974) Gene Collins (Negro Leagues) Key Pitch: Fastball Source: Black Baseball in Kansas City (Larry Lester and Sammy J. Miller, 2000) Jackie Collum (1951 1962) Key Pitch: Screwball Ed Mickelson: “Little Jackie Collum proved that a small guy with guts and a good specialty pitch (for him it was the screwball) could make it in baseball. Jackie was sturdily built at 5’6″ and was a real fighter. He had good control and a sneaky fastball, but it was his ‘scroogie’ — screwball — and competitiveness that got this diminutive pitcher to the big leagues.” Source: Out of the Park (Mickelson, 2007) Jesus Colome (2001 2010) Report: “The Nationals have found a reliever in Jesus Colome, who threw 100 mph with the Rays but couldn’t get anyone out. He finally realized he doesn’t have to hurl it so hard, and has since developed a nasty changeup.” Source: ESPN The Magazine (Tim Kurkjian, 7/2/2007) Sandy Consuegra Pitch Selection: 1. Slider 2. Fastball Source: Red Rolfe in The View from the Dugout (ed. William M. Anderson, 2006) Aaron Cook (2002 2012) Key Pitch: Sinking Fastball Report: “Out pitch is a sinker that tops out at 92 mph and has late life. Also throws a four-seam fastball at 90 mph, a cut fastball at 91, a changeup at 83 and a slider.” Source: Lewis Shaw in The Sporting News (5/12/2006) Report: “Cook has a great sinker — absolutely great. He is kind of at the stage where Webb was a couple of years ago. He’s just finding enough consistency and command with it, but he can really just pound you with that sinker.” Source: anonymous scout in The Sporting News (6/2/2006) Joe Corbett (1895 1904) Report: “Corbett’s best pitch was a hard curveball which in the vernacular of the time was described as ‘a speedy out drop.’ ” Source: A Page from Baseball’s Past (Craig Wright, 3/22/2010) Note: Corbett was the younger brother of heavyweight boxing champion Jim Corbett. Chad Cordero (2003 2007) Pitches: 1. Fastball (low-90s) 2. Slider Source: ESPN The Magazine (7/4/2005, Tim Kurkjian) Chet Covington (1944) Key Pitch: Fastball (80%) Source: The Sporting News (6/4/1952) Glenn Cox (1955 1958) Key Pitch: Knuckleball Source: The Sporting News (10/6/1954, Page 24) Roy Crabb (1912) Key Pitch: Spitball Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (8/28/1912) Roger Craig Commentary: Early in his career, Craig was a power pitcher. But on the last day of the 1957 season, he “felt a snap” in his shoulder and never really threw hard again. A few years later, when asked which pitches he relied on, Craig responded, “Sliders and sinkers, thrown low. That’s why my infield’s so busy.” He also said that his slider broke “eight inches or so,” while Koufax’s curve broke more than two feet. Source: Craig entry in “The 1961 Dodger Family” series of booklets, published by Union Oil. Comment: “Spahn had . . . one of the quickest, most deceiving moves toward first base with a man on, of any pitcher of any time. Roger Craig was also tops with this type of move.” Source: Kill the Ump! (Dusty Boggess as told to Ernie Helm, 1966) Sam Crawford (Negro Leagues) Pitch Selection: 1. Fastball 2. Knuckleball Source: Black Baseball in Chicago (Larry Lester, et al, 2000) Ray Crone Minor-league manager George Selkirk: “He is not a fellow a hitter would hate to hit against. His fast ball isn’t the fastest in the world and he doesn’t worry you with wild pitches or dusters. But when you get up there against him you don’t get anything good to hit at. He pitches to spots and usually hits them.” Note: Crone learned his slider from minor-league coach Whit Wyatt. Source: Baseball Digest (Bob Wolf, May 1956) (Above supplements, and perhaps should replace, Crone’s entry in book.) Jack Cronin (1895 1904) Report: “The biggest improvement is in Cronin, whose underhand delivery will make left handers his victims.” Source: Tigers captain Jimmy Casey in Sporting Life (4/19/1902) Bruce Dal Canton (1967 1977) Pitches: 1. Knuckleball 2. Fastball 3. Curve Source: 1975 Pitcher Performance Handbook (ed. Ronald H. Lewis, 1975) Peanuts Davis (Negro Leagues) Key Pitch: Knuckleball Description: “We had a pitcher named Peanuts Nyasses Davis, a knuckleball pitcher, and you couldn’t even play catch with him unless you had a mask on. The ball’d hit you in the mouth. He could throw it with control and throw it hard!” Source: Raydell Maddix in The Negro Leagues Revisited (Brent Kelley, 2000) Joe Dawson (1924 1929) Report: Dawson is inclined to be wild, but he has a good hop on his fast ball.” Source: Kansas City Star (1922, upon Dawson’s debut with minor-league Kansas City Blues) Trivia: Dawson gained a great deal of experience flying with the U.S. Navy during World War I, and quit baseball in 1929 to start up his own flying service. He was reinstated by Commissioner Landis in 1932 but didn’t reach the majors, pitching instead for Kansas City again. Dizzy Dean Story: “There’s not enough big fellows like I was that can stand out there and blare a fast ball across with a hop on it. A good fast ball is all a pitcher needs, if he can control it the way I could. I pitched a whole game once without throwin’ a single curve.” Source: Dean in The Sporting News (5/21/1947) Phil Cavaretta: “Diz couldn’t throw hard. We said, ‘He’ll just dazzle you with his motion.’ Once in a while he could zip one in there. But his control was so good, the command of his pitches outstanding, even though he couldn’t throw hard. He actually came up with a little bit better curve ball, because with his fastball he hadn’t needed a curve ball, but after his injury he would throw that curve at you, then sneak in a fastball and throw one slow and another one slower. But the key with Diz in the seven games he won for us in ’38 was the command of his pitches and what we call intestinal fortitude.” Source: Wrigleyville: A Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs (Peter Golenbock, 1996); here Cavaretta is describing Dean’s style after he hurt his arm in 1937. Story: “It is a fact that Dean often told the hitters what he was about to deliver, whether fast ball or curve. A characteristic remark of his was, ‘Brother, I’m going to throw you a curve now and I’m going to have something on it!’ He would throw the curve, and few could hit it for all they knew it was coming.” Source: Mr. Ump (Babe Pinelli, as told to Joe King, 1953) Don DeMola (1974 1975) Pitches: 1. Fastball 2. Palm Ball 3. Sinker 4. Curve (occasional) Source: The Sporting News (3/13/1976, Bob Dunn) Jim Derrington (1957 1958) Derrington: “I could throw hard, real hard. There were no radar guns in those days, but I wish there were. It would have been interesting.” Source: The Los Angeles Times (Tom Birschbach, 6/29/91) Trivia: Derrington is the youngest pitcher to start a game in modern major-league history. R.A. Dickey (2001 2013) Pitch Selection, 2003: 1. “The Thing” 2. Fastball (low-90s) Source: The Scouting Notebook 2004 Note: According to source, “The Thing” is “a hybrid knuckle-curve/splitter that he can make move like a slider. According to Brent Strom, Dickey’s “Thing” is the same knuckle-curve that Burt Hooton used to throw. Pitch Selection: 2005: 1. Knuckleball 2. Fastball Note: Dickey unveiled his knuckleball in the major leagues on September 13, after relying on the pitch in his previous ten minor-league starts. Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram (9/14/2005, T.R. Sullivan) Murry Dickson Joe Garagiola: “He has enough pitches to make a catcher want to take off his shoes and use his toes to help flash the signs. He used to say he had only six pitches, but I’ve caught a fast ball, a slider, a sinker, a screwball, a knuckle ball, a curve ball, and a change of pace — plus the two extras he got by slowing up on his fastball and his curve ball. His assortment was varied still more by the angle from which he threw his pitches — overhand, three quarters, side arm and even submarine. This last one was a new one that he showed me when I was with the Giants and he was with the Phillies. With two strikes, he threw me a curve ball with an underhand motion that seemed to come up and in to me. I swung and missed, striking out. When I came into the bench, Leo Durocher asked me what it was. I told him ‘A roundhouse American Legion submarine curve ball.'” Source: Baseball is a Funny Game (Joe Garagiola, 1960) Mel Didier (minor leagues) Memory: “Didier estimates that he threw over 90 miles per hour with a curve ball that they now call a slider.” Source: Podnuh Let Me Tell You a Story: A Baseball Life (Mel Didier and T. R. Sullivan, 2007) Bill Dillman (1967 1970) Pitches: 1. Curveball 2. Sinking Fastball 3. Rising Fastball Coach Billy Hunter: “Dillman reminds me a lot of Wally Bunker, but has a better curve ball. Bill has an easy delivery and shouldn’t ever have arm trouble.” Source: Baseball Digest (Ed Rumill, August 1967) Dizzy Dismukes (Negro Leagues) Webster McDonald: “He was an underhand pitcher, and he’s the man I learned it from. Who’s the boy with the Yankees hit that boy and killed him? Carl Mays. Dismukes taught him how to pitch in World War I overseas.” Source: Voices From the Great Black Baseball Leagues (John Holway, 1975) Bill Doak Oscar Roettger: “I roomed with Bill Doak at Brooklyn. He threw a spitball frequently and he admitted that he moistened it more than most pitchers do. But a spot no bigger than a quarter was all he moistened.” Source: The Sporting News (Bob Burnes, 11/22/1961) Pete Donohue Babe Pinelli: “Donohue was a great pitcher when we were teammates on the Reds … and to this day I believe Pete had the most effective natural change of pace ball I ever saw.” Source: Mr. Ump (Pinelli as told to Joe King, 1953) Bill Drake (Negro Leagues) Key Pitch: Curveball Source: interview with Drake (12/8/1971, Western Historical Manuscript Collection) Don Drysdale Report: “Today, the true side-arm pitcher has almost disappeared. Having started his career as an infielder, Drysdale uncoils his 6 feet 6 in a baseman’s throw — a wide, sweeping crossfire delivery in which arms and legs convolute and he reminds you of a man falling out of a tree. In ever poll, he is named the ‘most feared’ pitcher around. His murderous fastball crackles and jumps in a good eight inches on right-handed batters. His curve is freakish due to the slant of two fingers on his right hand. Drysdale broke the hand in 1955, the bones didn’t set properly and the malformation allows him to throw an exaggerated slider which has been known to break as much as two feet.” Source: Baseball 1961 (Al Stump, 1961) Scouting Report: “Still cannot understand how this fellow loses with the stuff he has. Gets wild in one inning and generally costs him the game.” Source: Eddie Stanky (report filed for Cardinals, April 1962) Monk Dubiel (1944 1952) Pitches: 1. Curve 2. Fastball 3. Change Report: “There is nothing freakish about Dubiel. He features a curve, a fast ball, a letup, control. No sinker, no slider, no knuckler, no screwball. Just the old-fashioned, orthodox, regulation pitching curriculum, administered with plenty of what the players call moxie, and dished out with determination and spirit.” Source: The Sporting News (6/29/1944, Dan Daniel) Ken Dudrey (Minors 1947-1949) Ed Mickelson: “He didn’t throw hard but had a fairly good sinker ball, some would say from lack of speed. . . Ken could throw strikes, which is what a relief pitcher has to do.” Source: Out of the Park (Mickelson, 2007) Zach Duke (2005 2013) Report: “He uses a sneaky 88-92 fastball, a curveball and a circle changeup. Duke is extremely advanced for his age. Has a good delivery and deceptive arm speed. Can pitch inside to righthanded hitters or tail his fastball away from them. Has a tight, looping curveball and an effective, fading changeup that he can throw to both sides of the plate. Duke probably will never be a No. 1 starter because he doesn’t have a dominant pitch, but he should be an effective frontline starter.” Source: The Baseball Register & Fantasy Handbook (2006 Edition) Note: One source has Duke throwing his curveball 75 m.p.h., and various sources list his fastball as traveling anywhere from 87 to 94. Tom Dukes (1967 1972) Pitches: 1. Fastball 2. Slider 3. Curveball (occasional) Source: Baseball Digest (Joe Heiling, March 1968)
