Scouting Dean Anna as a Pitcher
Saturday was not the best day for the Yankees. Ivan Nova was shaky throughout his first three starts. The Yankees really needed him to eat his share of innings in preparation for a Vidal Nuno-led bullpen day on Sunday. Instead, Nova got spanked. He lasted just four innings, allowed eight runs, four home runs, and partially tore his UCL. The latter item is the worst of an ugly list. Dellin Betances stretched out to 1.2 innings, burning him for Sunday. Matt Daley threw 1.1 innings and allowed six runs. Rather than burn another reliever, the Yankees turned to Dean Anna.
If you aren’t a close follower of Carson Cistulli’s love affairs, you might be asking yourself “Who is Dean Anna?” He is a 27-year-old former Padres farm hand who posted solid numbers in the minors despite a lack of exciting tools. He primarily splits his time between shortstop and second base. The injury to Mark Teixeira along with the frequent rest required by Derek Jeter and Brian Roberts have pressed Anna into pseudo-regular duty. He’s started five games in the last ten days.
The job of garbage inning pitcher often falls to backups – in this case Anna. Such outings inevitably produce excellent moments in sports history – the kind that should be recorded for posterity. Usually, GIFs are the best medium for such recordings. Shall we?
Let’s begin by examining Anna’s repertoire. Brooksbaseball calls his lone pitch a fastball. His velocity suggests that the term “fastball” is probably incorrectly applied. He ranged from about 56 to 74 mph with an average of 62.51 mph. So we’re actually looking at a four-seam slowball. What does that look like?
And with a whiff.
Ugly whiff by Loney there. Are we sure those are fastballs?
We can plainly see a standard four-seam grip. Here’s another screenshot of his grip.
I’m nearly positive that’s a two-seam grip. I can’t get a cleaner shot, but notice the MLB logo to the left of Anna’s fingers. An MLB baseball has two such logos (one says Rawlings) which bracket the area where a two-seamer is gripped. What I can say with unbending certainty – he isn’t throwing knuckleballs.
Now we know Anna threw more than one grip of fastball even though only one type was classified. Of course, anyone who knows anything about pitch movement can probably point out how hard it is to get movement on a “fastball” below 65 mph. One pitch did move quite a bit. Maybe he can replicate it in future outings.
All told, Anna threw 17 pitches, 14 of which were strikes. The pitches were scattered all over the place. I suspect Anna aimed at the center of the plate and hoped the pitch stayed in the strike zone. Some of his pitches while ahead in the count were decidedly hitter friendly.
Given that he didn’t need to bother with pitch signals, he worked very quickly. I timed a random-ish selection of four pitches. The time it took from receiving the baseball to delivering it was about five seconds. Count with me. (Unfortunately, the Yankees broadcast is ADD, so the video options all sucked).
What should Anna learn from this outing? Generally, pitchers who succeed with one pitch – like Sean Doolittle or Matt Thornton – have excellent velocity. Anna should either acquire excellent velocity of learn secondary pitches. Kidding aside, he did exactly what was asked of him – get through an inning as quickly and painlessly as possible. And he added a little extra entertainment to a game that had otherwise ceased being entertaining an hour earlier. Kudos.
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That’s about the same velocity range of an especially lazy intentional walk.
Not quite the ace that Skip Schumaker is.
That’s a slider grip.
Which one? And the answer is neither. While technically you could grip a slider anywhere, I’ve never seen anybody throw one that didn’t load up one side of the “c.” If he was using a slider grip, we wouldn’t see the mlb logo where it is.
The first grip is too obviously a four seamer to be anything else. Plus it was his hardest, straightest pitch.
It looks like they told him, “Throw strikes, and don’t burn out your arm.” I’m sure they wanted to avoid a repeat of the Jose Canseco fiasco.
One of the Jose Canseco fiascos.
I swear I swear I never typed those extra words.
What extra words?
Somewhere out there, Doug Dascenzo is trying to remember what his agent’s telephone number is so he can try and mount a comeback.
That first picture looks more like a change up than a 4-seamer to me. The ball is ridiculously deep in his hand and there’s plenty of room for a third finger on top, making it a classic 3-finger change. Or he could just throw a ball like that.
Also, his follow through is great.
It looks like what we used to call a BP fastball. Greg Maddux used to throw them, they tend to have a little more movement and go a couple mph slower than the standard grip.
He might just have small hands.
And trust me, that was the 74 mph pitch. It was flat and straight down the pike. Definitely not a changeup.
If that’s how slow a 74 mph fastball looks, I’d hate to see my all-out 74 km/h fastball on national TV.
He’s no Chris Davis, that’s for sure.
I asked Harry Pavlidis of Brooks about why pitch f/x was calling it a knuckleball, and he thought that by gripping it very deep in his hand, the pitch was dancing much more than a typical ‘fastball’ would.
I swear a couple of those pitches danced. I was shocked when I went through and confirmed that none of them were knuckleballs.
Pitch f/x was probably fooled by the velocity. Normally only knuckleballs are thrown that slow. The classification is also not very accurate for individual pitchers without a history. I suspect they adjust the algorithm for each pitcher based on past data.
That is not a fastball grip. With the fingers tight together, it’s more like a curve grip, thrown without a bent wrist. If he lifts his index finger at all, it’s a slider. I think he was just having some fun.
The fingers don’t need to be apart for the two-seamer. Some pitchers get better movement if they’re together. That’s how I used it anyway. If I needed arm side run the fingers came together, if I didn’t I kept them a bit apart.
The “bent wrist” for a curveball is a myth/misunderstanding. A typical curveball is going to be thrown with a straight wrist with the hand on the side of the ball rather than behind it. Sort of like a football. I’m sure some pitchers bend the wrist, but that sounds all kinds of painful, plus you get excellent break and better velocity with the straight wrist.
No, the snap of the wrist is a misunderstanding, but not the bent wrist. A standard curve is what generally tips pitches to batters.
Think of what bigots do to imitate homosexuals,that wrist thing. Thats essentially is the “bent wrist” i’m referring to. I pitched Community College then D1 in Florida, so I know a little. I’m not an expert, but this is how every curve I have ever seen is thrown. The grip is together along the seams. The wrist is bent, so that when turned sideways, it forms a backwards “C”, and the index and middle fingers are on top. When gripping this in the glove, the batter can see that your entire wrist disappears, whereas it is visible on the fastball. So you have to get your fastball grip in the webbing, and your curveball grip in the pocket.
This grip eliminates the need to “snap” the wrist. Perhaps it’s taught differently in the Show, but I doubt Anna knows a big league curve.
I forgot to address the football comment. You are incorrect in that you want to throw it like a football. What you are describing would not produce the type of spin that would get downward break, but rather side to side break. A perfect curveball is going to break from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock with a sharp break. What you are describing for a right hander would produce 2-8 break, or perhaps 1-7. The problem with 2-8 is that it follows the plane of the bat, and is easy to hit. If you want side to side movement, you are better off throwing a slider, which produces that movement, but at a greater speed. To get 12 to 6 break, your fingers need to be on top, not on the side, like a football. A bent wrist gets those fingers on top.
The exact quote is “sort of like a football.” Hold your wrist out straight with your fingers bent along the “c” of the ball. That grip will produce a firm 12-6 whammy for anyone above the 3/4 arm slot. If you’re working at 3/4 or lower then you might need some wrist bend if you want a straight up and down break.
Technically, your hand is bent back a little to throw a football rather than completely straight like with a curve ball. Hence the “sort of.”
If you’re still playing, try throwing your curveball this way. You’re probably going to see a massive improvement in performance with a tighter, cleaner spin. Depending on your arm slot, it might come out more 1-7. That said, I’m sure it’s not for everyone.
Specifically to your point, the fingers are directly on top of the ball, not on the side even thought the wrist is roughly similar to a football grip. That’s why you still get the 12-6 action.
Also, I went back and watched the specific pitch and pulled up the PITCHf/x data comparing release point, speed, trajectory, and movement to his other pitches. It wasn’t any kind of breaking ball.
I want to see a post about Jeff Francoeur retiring the 5-6-7 hitters of the Las Vegas 51s.
Looks like he has a repeatable motion. So he’s got that going for him, which is nice.
Just some more appearances and he can dual qualify as a hitter and pitcher! Behold as you get a base hit from your RP!
He got squeezed by the umpire after getting 2 quick outs. His demise came from the stretch as a result of that walk.
Still did better than some pitchers the Yankees used.
He can throw harder but was warned not to since he could be injured
Mixed up with a a game from another position player I think.
Ichiro pitching {4th outfielder) would have made my dreams come true.
Most definitely not a slider or curve. Not a fastball either. Yeah the seams are being gripped like 2 and 4 seamers but he has way more of his thumb on the ball than any fastball I’ve ever seen. He’s almost pushing the ball like a knuckler with an old school palm ball grip. Pushing the ball while holding it deep in the palm can stop enough spin to make the ball dance a bit. I think that was all we really saw. Cool nonetheless.