Wil Crowe and Nick Martinez on Learning and Developing Their Changeups

The Learning and Developing a Pitch series is back for another season, and we’re once again hearing from pitchers on a notable weapon in their arsenal. Today’s installment features Wil Crowe on his circle changeup and Nick Martinez on his made-in-Japan Vulcan changeup.

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Wil Crowe, Pittsburgh Pirates

“I learned a changeup when I was about eight or 10 years old. Ex-big leaguer Steve Searcy lived in Knoxville, and my dad wanted to find me lessons — he’d played college ball, but wasn’t a pitcher — and that’s who he found. Steve was always big with fastball/changeup. I didn’t throw a curveball or slider until I was a senior in high school. Growing up, it was fastball/change. Locate the fastball, and the changeup comes off of it.

“The grip is a circle change. Now it’s a little modified; it’s out in my fingers a little more than it used to be. Middle finger and ring finger hold onto the laces, and the thumb is underneath. So it started out more of a traditional circle ball, and now it’s more on the end of the fingers. I did that in college, after I grew into my body. My hand was bigger and I was able to grip the ball better. But I think that starting at such a young age helped, because it’s a comfort thing.

“I got away from it for a couple of years in college, and even in pro ball. I didn’t throw it as much, and that kind of led into last year too. But I’ve always known it’s a good pitch for me. It’s always been something that I’ve been comfortable throwing for strikes. The way my arm works, and the way I know how to control that pitch… that’s the reason I’m throwing it a lot.

“How much I’m pronating kind of depends. If I’m throwing it glove side, or away to a righty, I kind of just rip it through with my hand speed. That creates more of a downer action, almost like a splitter. If I go glove side, or it’s a lefty, and I want to have more run to it, I’ll more manipulate the baseball.

“My first full season, sometimes I would cut it by accident. I figured out that if I just stay through it, instead of trying to force it to that other side, it’s a more effective pitch than when I’m cutting it off that side of the plate to righties. Being aggressive with it, and letting it be a downer pitch when it’s on the glove side, and then having a little manipulation on the arm side, creates two different movements. And I want to be in that bottom quadrant. If it’s in that bottom quadrant, the damage on it isn’t going to be much.”

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Nick Martinez, San Diego Padres

“I didn’t actually pitch until pro ball — I played infield in college — and learning a changeup was crucial for me. It started out as a circle change — a very basic circle change — that I held light in my fingers. I would kind of flick it. I’ve had different cues. One coach told me to imagine a spider on the back of my hand, and flick it off with that hand. I had some good results with it in High-A, but as I got older, I lost some feel for it.

“After that, I felt like I had to be perfect with my changeup. I felt like it had to be down-and-away, and if not, it would just be a bad fastball — a BP fastball. If I had guys cheating, I’d have good results. If I had guys not cheating, it would get punished pretty bad.

“I carried that same circle change deal my first two years in Japan, with the same feeling that I had to be perfect with it. Then, in 2020, I got my certification in pitch design at Driveline. I did that for the purpose of teaching myself how I could better my repertoire. I did it with the intention of trying to better my curveball — to make sure that it was spinning right — and the same for my fastball. In doing that, I noticed that my changeup was too similar to my fastball. There wasn’t enough separation, either with velocity — it was only 6-7 mph — or movement profile. Basically, it was just a bad fastball.

“I started messing around with some grips. I wanted to throw a split-finger. I felt like, ‘Hey, I’m playing in Japan. This is the splitter capital, right?’ I figured these guys are learning splitters at a very young age, so if I’m going to learn one, this is the best place to learn. But for some reason, I couldn’t do it.

“My fingers aren’t flexible, and I kept cutting the ball. I already have a cutter, so that isn’t at all what I wanted; I wanted something soft, going away from a lefty. So I thought, ‘What if I just moved [the ball] to my middle finger and my ring finger?’ I started throwing it, playing catch, and was like, ‘Man, I can command this, and it’s got good movement.’ So, I threw a bullpen and the movement profile, the spin direction… the velocity difference was phenomenal. This was in the middle of the 2020 season. That offseason, I worked on making it more consistent, and started trusting it more.

“The spin has changed big time. My fastball spins at 12:45-ish, and my best changeups are spinning at like 2:45, almost three o’clock. I’m getting some really good side movement now. And then the velocity has gone from a 6-7 [mph] difference to where it’s up to 15. [On Thursday], I threw some fastballs at 93, and I had a couple of changeups at 78.

“Is it a Vulcan? I guess so. I’m throwing a split with those fingers.”