Akinori Otsuka, the Rangers and the gyroball, whatever the hell that is

by Blair Lovern

Interesting stories making the rounds about the gyroball, whatever the hell that is, but one of my favorites is on Yahoo Sports by Jeff Passan. He reports that Japanese scientist/trainer Kazushi Tezuka arrived in Arizona from Japan recently, to work with Rangers 8th inning specialist/maybe/maybe not closer Akinori Otsuka. Otsuka apparently is not going to throw the gyroball, whatever the hell that is, but allows his nine-year-old son to throw it, reports Lee Jenkins in the NYT. Jenkins isn't as skeptical about this pitch as he should be, but that's just my opinion. He did report this, however, when Tezuka arrived at the Rangers camp:

Tezuka visited the Rangers' spring training complex Tuesday, mainly to see Otsuka, but he was approached by several other pitchers. They had the same questions everybody else does. First, they wanted to know if the gyroball is for real.

Then, they wanted to know how to throw it.

To my eyes, it has always looked like a very fast slider, which is how it was described in Jeff Passan's story. Here's a video of it, if you haven't seen it. I'm guessing if you're a baseball fan you've seen it. But apparently, this is not a gyroball after all. It's just a mis-thrown slider, Daisuke Matsuzaka says.

Gyroball, whatever the hell that is

I haven't been wowed by this pitch ever since first hearing about it last year. I wanted to be wowed by it, but it's just seemed like a Sidd Finch thing. And guess what? That's basically what it is.

So when Boston and Matsuzaka come to town this season (April 6, 7, 8) don't freak out over this fancy pants stuff. I am giving you fair warning.

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Blair Lovern, says:

C.J. Wilson <a href="http://cjwilson.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/">has a blog now</a>, and comments on the gyrowhateverthehellitis:

"Today was bullpen day- and not by accident dr. tezuka (the scientist behind the gyro) was back in surprise to watch me throw. What he also did was give me an actual baseball with the gyro grip outlined in red pen on the various parts of the ball.

"drum roll...

"the ball does some mysterious stuff. Ron Mahay and I were playing catch before my mound session and he said the ball actually took off just like it's supposed to. he said he can see the spin is much different than a normal fastball. it rises first, and then tails a bit into a lefty (with the 2 seam style grip) and then does the same but cuts if I throw it the other way. I successfully threw 10 of them in a row. Never the guy to completely rush into things, I didn't throw any off the mound- much to the coaches delight- they're pretty pissed at me already for deciding to unveil my new windup 2 months ago.

"I don't know about you guys, but being a lefty throwing in the mid 90's and having a 4.06 era last year wasn't very happy for me...I'm always looking for ways to improve. The better I perform the better the team will do- having productive relief pitching in those close games is definitely a key to winning the AL west this year"