[Translation] Yu Darvish of the Cubs and Kenta Maeda of the Twins are close friends. This video was supposed to be private video from Yu to Kenta explaining how Yu delivers his cutter and two-seam fastball. But Yu thought that it’s interesting to make this video public to the fans. 00:11 - 00:29 Hello, Maeda. I am going to talk about how I pitch my cutter and two-seam fastball. Can you see it? I should come closer to the camera. 00:30 - 01:00 Well, first of all, let me talk about my cutter. I grip like this. Like I told you before, it’s like this. My average cutter is like 85 or 86/mph. I grip like this when I deliver the average cutter. 01:01- 01:26 When I release it, unlike my four-seam fastball, I don’t stretch both my index finger and middle finger fully, keeping them a little loose. It’s like as if you are hanging off the cliff. 01:27 - 01:45 When you release it, it’s like pushing it back, or how should I say this, it’s like pulling it back by using two fingers. 01:46 - 02:02 Usually, a cutter moves like horizontally like this. But my cutter moves like this. It’s like a little vertical slider. Again, when I pitch an 85/mph cutter, I grip a ball like this. 02:03 - 02:27 When you try to increase the speed up to 91/mph, I move my thumb a little outside like this, and when I release it, I pull it back vertically by using two fingers. The 85/mph cutter and the 91/mph cutter both move almost the same, but the speed is different. 02:28 - 02:55 When I move my thumb a little inside like this, the speed gets down to 81/mph or 82/mph. Again, when you release it, if you pull it back vertically, your cutter drops accordingly. So, in order to summarize my cutter, the position of your index and middle fingers decide how your cutter moves. The position of your thumb decides how fast it gets. So you can adjust the movement and the speed. 02:56 - 03:36 However, it may be tough for you to do the same because we are different person with different feelings. When you need a strike with a cutter against a right-handed hitter, you need to hit the high inside corner of the strike zone. So, the cutter moves in the middle of the strike zone. It’s easy to get a strike. On the other hand, against a left-handed hitter, you hit the high middle of the strike zone to get a strike, not high outside corner of the zone. So your cutter naturally hits the inside lower corner of the zone. 03:37 - 03:54 During this season, I started to pitch a back-door cutter against lefties. When I do that I just try to hit outside of the zone, so the ball naturally goes to where you want to pitch. 03:55 - 04:23 Again, as for my cutter, you can adjust the movement by using two fingers. Also you can adjust the speed by using thumb. So by doing this, you can have a lot of options of your cutter with different speed and different movement. There is also another option whether your cutter hits through the pitch tunnel or not. Let’s talk about that when I see you face to face next time. I can show you how to do that by playing catch with you. 04:24 - 05:33 Let’s move on to my two-seam fastball. I pitch it with my arm fully stretched. I also build an imaginary thin wall from the mound to a left-handed hitter. Never open your left shoulder. I grip my two-seamer like this at 05:05. The inside tip of my index finger is really important. I move like this at 05:23 to 05:30, and at the last moment at 05:31, this is exactly when you cut the ball very hard. 05:34 - 06:17 Before I go to bed last night, I’ve been thinking about this. I think Maeda grips his changeup like this. He told me that he cuts the ball with his index finger. That’s what I do when I deliver a two-seamer. Maybe the same method. Of course I am not Maeda. I cannot feel what he feels. During this season, I noticed that lefties seemed like they are struggling on how they deal with my two-seamer. However, when I faced the Twins and the Indians, my two-seamer was the worst condition. 06:18 - 06:56 That’s because my left shoulder did not close enough during my pitching mechanics. Sometimes you forget what you should do. I remember I should stretch my arm fully, but I was not able to pay attention to my left shoulder. During that time, lefties did not seem like they are having difficulties against my two-seamer. It means my two-seamer was less effective. 06:57 - 07:44 But I remembered that I should never open my left shoulder. Since then my two-seamer got effective again against the White Sox and the Marlins. Maeda has a good changeup and slider. You know Steven Souza Jr.? I think Maeda has faced him before. One day, Souza and I were chatting, and he talked about Maeda. He told me that he has no idea what’s coming when he faces Maeda. 07:45 - 08:19 I felt the same way when I faced someone like Marcus Stroman. I had no idea what that pitch was. Was that a cutter? Or a two-seamer? He was hard to hit. Souza told me that Maeda and Masahiro Tanaka of the Yankees were really tough pitchers. So I guess your changeup, slider and even a four-seamer seemed the same pitch for Souza. 08:20 - 09:34 I think Maeda’s changeup is quite unique. Nobody can pitch like him. But I really want to pitch like him. In my opinion, throwing a breaking ball is like programming. I can throw a slider because I understand every physical action I should take in my mind when I pitch a slider. That’s my own program. But when you teach someone else how to throw a slider, you have to make it verbal. What’s inside my mind is not exactly the same as what I make it verbal. Maeda’s feeling and my feeling would never be the same even if we make it verbal. That’s why I cannot pitch a changeup like him. So it’s really important to fill in the gaps between the two slight different programs. 09:35 - 10:28 If I can master Maeda’s method on his changeup and if I can adjust it to my two-seam fastball, I may be able to develop a brand new two-seamer. I have been thinking about this invention last night. I really want Maeda to show his changeup or two-seamer to me when I see him next time. I am really interested in it. I have been thinking about that, and I could not sleep last night. My changeup is somewhere between 84/mph to 86/mph. If I can pitch like him, the speed may increase to 88/mph or 89/mph, and also if it seems like a fastball until it gets really close to the hitters, I can have a variety of options only on my changeup. I was really excited about that last night. 10:29 - 11:13 Once again, about a cutter, you can adjust the movement with your two fingers, and you can adjust the speed with your thumb. About a two-seamer, never open your left shoulder, you make the ball as close as possible against the wall from the mound all the way to a hitter, and the very last moment you cut the ball with inside tip of your index finger, as if left-handed pitcher throws a slider. 11:14 - 11:54 I hope my video helps you in a way. Thanks for showing your changeup before. I am going to try that. See you.
@juwaajun4 жыл бұрын
@Aces of the Staff Nice video. I like his roar when he pitches.