I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

[Yaoza11]

what are they.. I know rhw Jyro ball and fastball but 8 pitches? thats crazy

[chippered]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

I've heard he throws 6 pitches, but he has 3 arm angles for some of them, making them nearly impossible to pick up. He should be fun to watch this year. He pitches thursday at KC, but i'm not sure if ESPN will carry it. Hope so.

[snepp]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

There is no gyro ball.

[bravosfan]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

There's so much mythology surrounding this guy and what he throws... I half-expect him to go out there and be like Bugs Bunny and strike guys out with one pitch.

[chippered]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

Yeah, I wanna see him throw a curly-cue pitch up there and have the guy swing at it three times and then drill himself into the ground.

[mjb2124]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

From what I've read, these are the pitches he throws:

1. 4 seam FB
2. 2 seam FB with sinking action (shuuto)
3. Changeup with a little screwball action
4. Curveball
5. Slider
6. Splitter

Of course there is so much speculation at this point that who knows what is true and what isn't.

[GBrushTWood]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

3. Changeup with a little screwball action

This is the pitch that a couple of major leaguers (the Marlins I think) thought was gyroball. His changeup is just extremely filthy with tons of movement, but he supposedly does not throw a gyroball.

He does, however, enjoy f'ing with people's minds and keeps the issue intentionally vague to keep people guessing. This is all according to published reports, so who really knows for sure. I'm betting he doesn't throw it.

[SPTO]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

I've heard that from some scouts Dice-K has very good stuff and all but that he'll be tagged with a lot of HRs given up especially at Fenway. I speculate he'll have a ton of success in the first half of the year tho.

BTW as for the number of pitches, it's not the amount but the quality of said pitches. I forget but there was a Jays starter from a few years back who had 6 pitches in his repetoire but he only had full command of about 3 of them.

[Beantown]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

He has seven, last I heard.

The other was a changeup without a lot of movement. Don't know if that counts as a seventh, but I remember he throws two different change-ups (one with movement, one without)

[ubernoob]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

Whether or not the gyroball is ever going to be possible to throw (or if it will have the stated effect), Matsuzaka doesn't throw one. The videos look like a breaking ball with imperfections in it.

I hope he turns out to be a good pitcher though, because I enjoy watching him throw.

[mjb2124]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

He does, however, enjoy f'ing with people's minds and keeps the issue intentionally vague to keep people guessing.

Bingo and he's smart to do it.

Adam Laroche was quoted in the paper around here as asking Varitek how many pitches Dice-K threw. Varitek's response - "I don't know. I have to use 2 hands to signal all of them though". Obviously Varitek knows how many pitches so it seems they're all adding to the mystique of Dice-K. I don't blame them.

[Dispatch]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

Yea it's pretty awesome when he hear some of the quotes that come from the people he's pitched to. I remember hearing on Jim Rome that someone on the Pirates didn't even know what kind of pitches Dice-K was throwing to him.

Should be a very exciting first half of the year at least. I think all of Dice-K's starts against teams for the first time should be fun to watch, seeing people go up against him for the first time.

[ILLCHILL]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

My new SI article says he has 8.

4-seamer, 2-seamer, cut, shutto (a japanese pitch, don't know about the spelling but it is a hard sinker with a left to right cut), nasty changeup, slider, curve, splitter.

[mjb2124]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

My new SI article says he has 8.

4-seamer, 2-seamer, cut, shutto (a japanese pitch, don't know about the spelling but it is a hard sinker with a left to right cut), nasty changeup, slider, curve, splitter.

This is exactly where it gets confusing as CNNSI online said his 2 seamer is the shuuto pitch. Same organization with 2 different lists.

It seems no one outside of the Red Sox really know and the Red Sox aren't telling.

[Misfit]

Re: I heard Dice-K throws 8 pitches

The shuuto is your typical hard two-seamer without much sink, it breaks in on righties and away from lefties from a right-handed pitcher. He'll also change his arm angle a little or take some off to make the ball sink more. A two-seamer and a shuuto are basically the same pitch (same grip, same arm action) but if it doesn't sink and breaks more the japanese have another name for it. Just like how over here if a guy has a two-seamer that drops a lot we start calling it a sinker. So basicaly, think of Daisuke's two-seamer as a sinker, and his shuuto as a traditional two-seam fastball.