Talk:Gyroball

Fastball grip

According to the Yahoo article I cited, the pitch usesijhiuggy a variation of the fastball grip, and in many of the videos of the Matsuzaka throwing his supposed gyroball he is using a much different grip. --Xenod 03:04, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, Matsuzaka reckons his so-called gyroball is just a cut fastball or a slider, but Himeno 's opinion is different.Lesoleiletlalune 23:16, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Gryoball and shuuto

There seems to be major confusion in this article between the gyroball and the "shuuto" which actually have opposite breaks. The first half describes the gyroball correctly, and then the second half is talking about the shuuto. - Nick Kapur

Okay, I have email confirmation from Will Carroll himself that he erred when calling it a shuuto, so I am going to go ahead and split this into two separate articles. - Nick Kapur

Office fun

For what it's worth, I actually noticed a splitter-like sharp downward break when throwing a soft minature (slightly bigger than a baseball) football around the office a few years ago, and could consistently reproduce it when throwing tight spirals with good velocity. Guess I was throwing gyros :) Thedangerouskitchen 06:44, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

similarity to leg spin in cricket

The delivery method out of the hand appears to be wrist spin, and the movement in the air sounds like the drift you get before a leg break hits the pitch. If thats true then theoretically you should be able to get the opposite air movement with finger spin. Sounds like baseball pitching coaches might want to seek out their cricket counterparts. --60.229.228.221 01:50, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

If it's similar in movement (if not delivery) to any spin in cricket, it's offspin. The gyro moves down and away from a same-sided hitter, legspinners drift in and drop before bouncing, gripping and turning. But even then, the curveball is more similar to the offspinner, the delivery is virtually identical and the movement similar. If you're looking at the Matsuzaka video, that pitch is more a shuuto than anything else.

Baseball and cricket have long exchanged ideas, the forkball Glenn McGrath bowls is from baseball, and I myself bowl a pretty effective knuckleball. Likewise, the two-seam fastball as thrown by many pitchers is very similar in principle to the inswinger, and the cricketer's offcutter is somewhere between the relatively recent slider (1920s, though not widely adopted until a few decades later, I believe) and cut fastball (currently in vogue but possibly thrown earlier under other names like the "sailing fastball"). Thedangerouskitchen 12:40, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

left hand pitcher

The article describes what happens when a right-handed pitcher throws it. Am I correct in assuming when thrown by a left-handed pitcher the movement of the ball is completely opposite (in terms of left/right)? -67.172.181.206 18:01, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, precisely.Lesoleiletlalune 23:16, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Velocity of the Gyroball

The article claims that the the gyroball is thrown with the arm speed of a fastball but goes much slower (like a changeup). This is questionable on two counts. 1.) There is no confirmation that anyone has ever truly thrown a gyroball. 2.) Most articles about the gyroball seem to say that there is potential for the gyroball to be thrown at fastball speeds which is the main reason people believe it to be a "miracle" pitch. One such article can be found here (http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1792187).

Cut Fastball?

Former New York Yankees pitcher Al Leiter was interviewed regarding the Gyroball, and said:

"They can call it what they want, but it's a cut fastball."

Mstyne 11:57, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

• The late, sudden, and downward nature of the break (purportedly, anyway) would differentiate the gyroball from the cutter. The movement on a cutter is continuous and (again, purportedly) less exaggerated. Al's, what, 68? He probably scoffed at the creation of the splitter, too. -JC

Screwball?

This sounds like a screwball to me? --Awiseman 20:33, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

• The gyroball supposedly has a more exaggerated break laterally than the screwball. -JC
  • It also breaks in the opposite direction to the screwball. The shuuto is more like a screwball than a gyro. Thedangerouskitchen 06:37, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

NOT a real pitch

While the story behind the gyroball is certainly cool to read about - it being 'developed' by two Japanese scientists - it simply isn't a real pitch. Matsuzaka doesn't throw it; no one does. He throws a couple different breaking balls, for sure, and a slider, change and a fastball, but no gyro. It's the stuff of urban legend. Vter4life 02:54, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Note that Gordon Edes (the author of the linked article) is an opinion writer; the article shouldn't be cited as definitive proof either way. That said, it does seem appropriate to note in the article that the gyroball, while undoubtedly invented by the Japanese scientists and the subject of their book, may never (yet?) have been successfully thrown at the professional level.

Along the same lines, "admissions" about the gyroball from a currently-playing professional pitchers are likely to be suspect; pitchers have competitive reasons to both claim that they throw an unusual pitch which they do not, as well as to deny throwing pitches that they do. The same goes for players, managers, agents, etc. There are also translation and cultural differences that may come into play.

Regardless, I think a brief note about the controversy is appropriate, and by the end of the 2007 season there should be hard objective proof one way or another about Matsuzaka's pitch (which may still may not settle the "is the gyroball professionally throwable" question). I've added a paragraph to the article discussing the controversy. C. Scott Ananian 16:21, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Kawajiri, Nobuyuki Hoshino, Tomoki Hoshino, Watanabe, they are the real gyroballers. Tezuka believes it will be understood correctly by everyone in the future, because even curveball was supposed to be fancy and illusion in the past.Lesoleiletlalune 23:16, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

New Facts?

After reading a recent article on yahoo where the the actual creator of the gyroball is interveiwed, it appears that alot of the "knowledge" of the pitch is wrong. Including alot of the facts of this article.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Ah5LwrrFQ9RPhGeb62eSXA4RvLYF?slug=jp-mlb_07_gyroball022107&prov=yhoo&type=lgns —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.72.134.29 (talk) 01:46, 23 February 2007 (UTC).

i agree with the guy above. Also you can see what Tom Verducci of cnnsi wrote and what Daisuke Matsuka said about it here "Matsuzaka throws his changeup with a screwball action to it, including a bigger break than most such offspeed pitches. He also throws a harder two-seamer pitch with some sinking action and a slight left-to-right break -- the shuuto, which essentially is Japan's improved version of that two-seam fastball Greg Maddux starts at the hip of left-handed hitters and runs back over the inside corner." full article http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/tom_verducci/03/27/matsuzaka.gyroball/index.html

Actually the article is not perfect, because it ignores Himeno's opinion. Besides, Japanese article says even Tezuka doesn't think he explained it to him so much enough. I don't think the gyro mystery is solved.Lesoleiletlalune 23:16, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

semi-protected?

There are too many mischief and irresponsible edits recently...don't you think semi-protection is necessary?Lesoleiletlalune 23:16, 1 May 2007 (UTC)