{"id":6688,"date":"2013-05-31T07:01:37","date_gmt":"2013-05-31T11:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=6688"},"modified":"2013-09-24T13:30:23","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T17:30:23","slug":"a-forkball-after-my-own-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=6688","title":{"rendered":"A forkball after my own heart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Robert Coello throws a very “old school” pitch. Photo wiki\/flickr via james_in_to account.<\/p><\/div>\n

Thanks to Rob Neyer<\/strong> for this article, posted 5\/16\/13<\/a> (and subsequently Jeff Passan<\/strong> in this 5\/28\/13 article<\/a> and this Ted Berg<\/strong> USAToday\u00a0article on 5\/29\/13<\/a>)\u00a0about Robert Coello<\/strong>, a journeyman hurler currently with the Los Angeles Angels who throws what one executive calls a “Knuckle-Forkball” but what in reality is an “Original Forkball.” \u00a0Not a “Split Fingered Fastball” mind you, but a true-on Forkball. \u00a0Neyer then goes into some research he did with Bill James<\/strong> on the pitch and has a pretty interesting history on this very rare pitch.<\/p>\n

Neyer’s post has video of the pitch as it comes out of his hand (as does the Usatoday article) and indeed the ball knuckles and dives like a knuckler. \u00a0He only threw one forkball in his 5\/15\/13 outing but has thrown more than a few since and is getting some national media notice.<\/p>\n

Here’s Pitch F\/X data<\/a> for Coello’s 5\/15\/13 outing. \u00a0They classified this pitch as a “FS,” pitch f\/x lingo for “Fastball-Split” or a splitter. \u00a0He threw it at 79.5mph. \u00a0Since then, he’s thrown (I guess) 11 more Forkballs<\/a> (now classified in Pitch F\/X as a “FO”) at an average of 79.2mph. \u00a0By way of comparison, R.A. Dickey<\/strong>‘s average knuckleball velocity in 2013<\/a> has been 75.3mph. \u00a0And Dickey’s knuckleball is considered so effective because he throws it with such pace (Tim Wakefield<\/strong> only threw his 65-66mph<\/a> for the last few years of his career). \u00a0Imagine if Coello can command this pitch and throw it consistently and frequently; he’d have a chance of combining a Dickey-esque fast knuckleball with his 91mph fastball. \u00a0That could be quite a combination.<\/p>\n

So, why is this guy so interesting to me? \u00a0Because in my own abbreviated amateur baseball pitching career, I threw the same pitch! \u00a0Somehow over the years screwing around while warming up as a middle infielder I discovered this pitch; you jam the baseball between your index and middle fingers and then throw the ball such that it “pops” out of your hand (it will even make a popping noise, not unlike a soft snapping fingers noise) and begins knuckling towards its target. \u00a0It definitely is not a diving\/sinking split fingered fastball motion; it knuckles in. \u00a0You can throw it with some pace; you throw it with the same motion and intensity as a fastball, except that it gets hung up in the webbing of your fingers and knuckles out. \u00a0It is relatively easy to control, especially if you throw over the top and just “aim” the ball at the middle of the plate. \u00a0I used it as a 3rd pitch but one outing in particular it was moving so much that my catcher called nothing but forkballs.<\/p>\n

I always called it a forkball, but figured it knuckled instead of diving down like a typical split-fingered fastball because I wasn’t throwing it at the pace of a professional pitcher. \u00a0Now as it turns out, it looks like I was just throwing a “throw back” pitch rarely seen in the professional ranks. \u00a0Cool.<\/p>\n

This world needs more Forkball pitchers!<\/p>\n

Post-post update<\/strong>: Fangraphs\u00a0Eno Sarris<\/strong> had a great article on him 9\/23\/13<\/a>, showing multiple gifs of the pitch, as well as noting that Coello now has a top-30 wFB pitch thanks to the uniqueness of the forkball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Rob Neyer for this article, posted 5\/16\/13 (and subsequently Jeff Passan in this 5\/28\/13 article and this Ted Berg USAToday\u00a0article on 5\/29\/13)\u00a0about Robert Coello, a journeyman hurler currently with the Los Angeles Angels who throws what one executive calls a “Knuckle-Forkball” but what in reality is an “Original Forkball.” \u00a0Not a “Split Fingered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[635,2007,442,781,364,1777,1804,226,1016],"class_list":["post-6688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlbpitching","tag-bill-james","tag-eno-sarris","tag-jeff-passan","tag-ra-dickey","tag-rob-neyer","tag-robert-coello","tag-ted-berg","tag-tim-wakefield","tag-todd-boss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6688"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7737,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6688\/revisions\/7737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}