by Nic Larson

Created on: December 10, 2008

In 2007, Daisuke Matsuzaka brought with him to the United States not only the ability to be a dominant number one pitcher, but also a secret Japanese weapon, the gyroball. Developed by Japanese scientist Ryutaro Himeno, the gyroball was intended to reduce stress on the
pitcher's arm. The specific throwing technique was later developed by Japanese baseball instructor, Kazushi Tezuka, who through work with computer simulations, created a new style of delivery a pitch. Together, they published their work in a book, available only in Japan, entitled, The Secret of the Miracle Pitch.

The key to throwing a successful
gyroball is not in the grip, but rather in the motion of the arm. The gyroball
is held like a fastball and can either be thrown with two-seams or four-seams. The two-seam gyro ball drops like a forkball, while the four-seam gyroball
drops too, but not as drastically. The gyroball is thrown with the release of a football, putting a sideways, bullet like spin on it. At the point of release, the pitcher rotates his arm so that it moves away from his body, instead of the more common motion of moving inwards towards the body. When you let go, you must pronate your wrist, turning it so the palm faces third base. The ball should be released so that it lastly spins off the index finger. Unlike most other pitches, the wrist is not snapped when throwing the gyroball.

This unique delivery and ball rotation makes it hard for the batter to recognize the type of pitch that is being thrown. It is very important when throwing the gyroball to use the same arm speed as if you were throwing a fastball, as batters use arm speed and rotation to determine pitches. By having the same motion as a fastball and the ball spinning like a curveball, it is very confusing to hitters. The illusion that the gyroball creates is that it is traveling much faster then it actual is. When thrown correctly, the gyroball will fly straight much like a fastball and then bite down and away from a right-handed batter, much like a modern day slider. When the pitch is mastered, its break can be measured in feet rather than inches.

"A good gyro is impossible to hit. Even if you did hit it, you can't do anything with it. If you're lucky you're going to aim the sweet spot of the bat on it and hit it off the end." These were words of astonishment from Will Carroll, column writer for Baseball Prospectus analyzing injuries.

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