The Athletics have thrown curves on just 2.5% of pitches this season. The overall big league figure dropped from 10.7% in 2019 to 8.1% last year, the lowest since MLB starting tracking in 2008, before rising slightly to 8.5% this season.<\/p>\n
There were 22,962 fewer curveballs in 2024 than five years earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t really see a lot of people throwing 12-6 curveballs anymore,\u201d Tampa Bay pitcher Shane Baz said. \u201cThey\u2019d rather have a hard cutter\/slider. It\u2019s a lot easier for guys to throw a sweeper<\/a> than it is a 12-6 curveball.\u201d<\/p>\n Baz\u2019s 28.1% is seventh in curveball use among those who have thrown at least 1,000 pitches this season.<\/p>\n Baltimore\u2019s Charlie Morton, first at 39%, learned to throw a hook from his dad.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was reading some article or maybe he was reading some pitching book,\u201d Baltimore\u2019s 41-year-old right-hander said. \u201cYou basically throw it like you\u2019re re-throwing a knife.\u201d<\/p>\n Curveballs have been around for a century and a half<\/p>\n Hall of Famer Candy Cummings, a 145-game winner, is credited with inventing the curveball in 1863 when he was 14, discovering the movement when he threw sea shells into the Atlantic Ocean. Some attribute the curve to amateur pitcher Fred Goldsmith in 1870.<\/p>\n With an average velocity of 80.2 mph, curves are the slowest and loopiest of breaking pitches, often disrupting the timing of batters set for smoke. The phrase \u201cthrown a curveball\u201d has become part of the English language, much like \u201cscrewball,\u201d more a phrase than a pitch these days.<\/p>\n Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan and Clayton Kershaw were among the consummate curveballers, bamboozling batters as balls they gave up on dropped like hang gliders into the strike zone.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s become an industry of throwing over pitching,\u201d New York Yankees senior adviser Omar Minaya said. \u201cWhen you pitch, you use different pitches. What we\u2019re seeing in the industry as a whole, especially with showcases, is people are looking more at velocity than pitchability \u2014 as a scout, I said that unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n Former pitcher Dallas Braden, now a broadcaster, longs for those days of deception.<\/p>\n \u201cYou almost sympathize with the hitter in the moment because you\u2019re like: Damn, I couldn\u2019t have hit that. He couldn\u2019t hit that. Nobody could have hit that,\u201d Braden said. \u201cThe eephus is now almost like as close as we get, when a position player is on the mound, to an aesthetically pleasing pitch like that, just the visual presentation of the pitch starting in the clouds and ending up at the ankles.\u201d<\/p>\n Nike\u2019s \u201cChicks Dig the Long Ball\u201d commercial defined baseball in the Steroids Era. These days the slogan might as well be: \u201cVelo Rules!\u201d There were just 214 pitches of 100 mph or more in 2008. There were a record 3,880 two years ago and this year is on track for 3,252.<\/p>\n In tandem, starting pitcher use has dropped. Starters have averaged just under 5 1\/3 innings this season, down from 6 1\/3 innings in the 1980s. Their pitch count averages 85.7, down from 97 in 2010.<\/p>\n Throw as hard as you can for as long as you can is the mantra<\/p>\n Average four-seam fastball velocity is a record 94.4 mph this season, up from 91.9 mph when MLB started tracking in 2008. But fastballs \u2014 four-seam, two-seam and cutters, have dropped from 62.1% to 55%.<\/p>\n Those missing hooks and heaters have been replaced by sliders, sweepers and slurves. They are 22.6% of pitches this year, up from 13.9% in 2008, and their average velocity has risen to 84.8 mph from 83.4 mph.<\/p>\n Colorado throws curves the most often at 15.6%, not that it has brought any success to a team that entered the break at 22-74, on track for a 37-125 finish and the post-1900 record for losses.<\/p>\n The Athletics haven\u2019t thrown 10% curveballs since 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look around the game, swing and miss has taken more of a priority, so guys are trying to throw more sweepers with more horizontal movement, or they\u2019re trying to throw the slider really hard at the bottom of the zone,\u201d Athletics pitching coach Scott Emerson said. \u201cThey\u2019re worried about contact with the curveball.\u201d<\/p>\n Generational change in the 2020s<\/p>\n Veteran pitchers note the curve\u2019s decline as youngsters integrate into staffs.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you\u2019re an amateur going to the big leagues guys are looking at velo. Guys are just looking at stuff,\u201d Yankees ace Gerrit Cole said. \u201cVelo is important and it pays.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe because the pitchers who throw curves are committed, batters have a .225 average this season on curves, down from .263 on fastballs and up slightly from .222 on sliders, sweepers and slurves.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just how the game is trending: to throw it as hard as you can, spin it the best you can and hope the hitter doesn\u2019t hit it,\u201d Emerson said. \u201cThe hitters are up there trying to swing as hard they can. If they hit it with hard contact, make 27 swings that are really hard, you got a chance to hit a homer here and there. And it\u2019s taken away from the contact-type pitchers.\u201d<\/p>\n AP Baseball Writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.<\/p>\n Salk: Michael Arroyo is best story in Mariners\u2019 farm system<\/a><\/p>\n
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