PSL: Johan taught me his Change-Up

…as i mentioned earlier, i did not travel with the team to Jupiter to watch today’s game…instead, i stayed back at Tradition Field to watch the rest of the team work out…

…the locker room was quiet…a tired Carlos Beltran sat at his locker…Duaner Sanchez and a few other relief pitchers were privately talking in a group…every one was being quiet, except Pedro Martinez, who after being interviewed by a reporter, started talking about his love for ice cream, and other types of food…he is very entertaining…and he talks a lot…

…also, sitting quietly at his locker, very unassuming, just messing with his cell phone, was Johan Santana…i had a baseball in my hand, so i introduced myself and asked him how he holds his circle change-up, which is a pitch i used to try and throw when i played baseball in high school…so, i sat on the stool next to him, and he spent the next 10 minutes explaining it to me, positioning my fingers on the ball and essentially breaking it all down for me…

…i love the art of pitching, so this was very exciting to me…especially since he has the best change-up in baseball…

…duaner left, beltran left and pedro left, as did others…but johan stayed, and continued to talk with me about the circle change…he didn’t have to do it, either…he could have easily just gotten up and gone home, which was clearly his next step in the day…but, he didn’t…instead, he sat there with me and walked me through the whole process…

…basically, you make an okay sign with your hands and grip the ball with your middle finger, ring finger and pinky, leaving your thumb and pointer just off to the side…the ball is thrown like a fastball, but because of the deep yet delicate grip, the ball puffs out of the hand at a lesser speed…however, the key, he explained, is to hold it just like the four-seam fastball, which i was not doing…according to santana, most pitchers just focus on the grip, and are not concerned with the seams…in fact, some prefer to not be touching any seams… unlike the standard two-seam change-up, which he used to throw, in this case, most all of his fingers are on a seam…he made me try to pull the ball from his hand while he was holding it, to demonstrate how strong of a grip he can get…so, the way he does it, the seams rotate in the same direction as his fastball, deceiving the batters even more, because, as he put, “These hitters are not stupid.”…the funny thing is, i think that grip is fairly standard…it’s just, he is so disciplined in his delivery, that when coupled with the consistent rotation, it’s just impossible to pick up which pitch he is throwing because initially they all look exactly the same…

“This is why I focus so much on my release point, because that’s what makes my change-up better,” he explained to me.  “I want to make sure all of my pitches look the same, and so I get the same release point and same arm speed every pitch.  And that takes time.  That’s what I work on.  Not just the grip, but everything from head to toe so that everything can look the same.  We worked on all of that until we got it right.  That’s how I approach my games, my batting practices, my bullpen sessions.  I am very serious when I throw my bullpen.  I’m not just throwing.  I want to make sure that everything is in place, from location to mechanics to delivery to release point.  Everything.  It’s not just the grip.  There are a lot of things involved in throwing a change-up.”

…also, i was under the impression he pulled his hand inward upon releasing the ball, to give it that diving action…he said no…he just throws it like a fastball…

…in fact, the reason he likes the pitch so much is because it does not involve any twisting of his elbow, saying, “It does not put any pressure on the elbow, and it keeps it loose.”…

…lastly, i asked if Rick Peterson has brought anything new to his attention…he said peterson told him to just be himself…be comfortable…and i agree…

…by the way, after i shook johan’s hand and said ‘Thank you for the lesson,’ i was sure to take the ball back from him…i wanted to keep it…it has no autograph on it…it looks like any other ball…except, i will always be able to point to it and say, “This is the ball Johan Santana used to teach me his circle change-up,” which i am pretty excited about…