In baseball today, fickle fans have a fascination with speed when it comes to pitching. Unless a pitcher can throw a fastball upwards of 94 miles per hour, it seems that he is not worth one’s total attention. While the fastball is certainly a fine pitch, I would prefer today to talk about a horse of a different color: the changeup.
All in all, the changeup is the same as the fastball in terms of movement. It moves straight, but a special grip required to throw it makes it a different pitch entirely. Rather than overwhelm an opposing batter with high velocity, a changeup moves much slower than a typical fastball and most batters swing at it too early.
While many of today’s pitchers do have great fastballs, many of those same pitchers rely heavily on a changeup in order to be effective. One pitcher who uses this pitch very well is Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Halladay (pictured at left), whose changeup just seems to improve season after season.
Here are 10 pitchers in baseball today, Halladay included, whose changeups are extremely stifling.