Pitching’s Outsiders: ‘No One Wants to Play Catch With Us’

“They’re just weird,” Davis said at the Mets’ spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla. “They are hard to pick up. They look like they are coming at you, then they go sideways.”

As for the presumptions of injury risk, Raffaele Escamilla, a professor of physical therapy at Sacramento State University who has done studies comparing overhand and sidearm pitching, said all pitchers were vulnerable. A sidearm thrower may have a greater risk of labrum injuries, he said, but less risk of rotator cuff problems.

“It’s kind of picking your poison,” Escamilla said.

It may become increasingly difficult to drop down successfully, because in recent years batters have been taking more pronounced uppercut swings that allow them to better drive sinking pitches. But much like throwing a knuckleball, another freakish style that is often a last-ditch attempt to carve out a career, dropping down will surely remain an option for the rare characters who can master the skill.

Things are about to get tougher for these specialists, though. This season, in an effort to speed up games, M.L.B. will require relievers to face at least three batters before they are removed. Managers will surely think twice about calling on an offbeat pitcher to escape a jam, because the reliever cannot be promptly pulled from the game when a theoretically ideal matchup yields, say, a line drive into the gap instead of the desired double play.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/sports/baseball/pitchers-spring-training.html